Dublin and Kilkenny

After a weekend in Phoenix, Nick took us to the airport Monday morning at 6:30am for an 8am flight. Realized at the airport I had left my cell phone at his house. Decided it was going to be an old fashioned 20th century trip to Europe and that not having a cell phone was a first world problem that I wasn't going to worry about. The flight to Chicago was uneventful and with 2.5 hours between flights we leisurely found our new terminal and gate. We again packed light, with only carry-ons. Boarded the Are Lingus flight to Dublin at about 4pm and the plane was as empty as I have ever seen a plane that size. There were many of the 4 seat across middle rows completely empty so Cindy and I jumped over and grabbed a row. We shared one, though we each could have had our own. Again, the flight was uneventful even though the captain warned of turbulence on the approach into Dublin. No line to get through customs and have our passport checked. They never did check our bags, but maybe that was because we only had carryons. We went to pick up our rental car and realized that at 5:30 in the morning it was still very dark in Dublin. With driving in a big city on the opposite side of the road in a car with the steering wheel and stick shift on the opposite sides also, I decided the odds were already stacked up against me so we headed back into the terminal, found a coffee shop and waited an hour until the sky started to get light. Even at that, I went around the airport 3 times before finally merging correctly onto the M50 to head south. Our original plan was to go straight to Glendalough, the 11th century monastic village south of Dublin in the Wicklow mountains. We had talked about first stopping at Powerscourt, gardens listed as one of the top ten gardens in the world. In planning though, since they didn't open until 9 and they were only 15 miles outside of Dublin, we thought we would get there too early. However, with the darkness and the many trips around the airport, Powerscourt was already opened and so we went there first. It was a cold blustery day with rain every now and then. The driving took a some getting used to but I got the hang of it after awhile. Powerscourt was beautiful but admittedly since it was scheduled to close for the season 10 days later, it was much past its prime. The Japanese Gardens, the formal italian gardens and the ponds and fountains were amazing and really didn't need blooming flowers. After Powerscourt we headed to Glendalough, south and east of Dublin about an hour. From Glendalough it was small country roads for awhile until we found the correct one to take us to Kilkenny. Our place was not in Kilkenny proper and so we got very confused with the directions until we realized it was another small town 7 kilometers away. We got there by about 6pm, met our hosts, brought our luggage in and headed down the street to the nearest (only) pub for a much anticipated pint of Guiness. It did not disappoint (THEY did not disappoint.) We were back at the house by 8:30pm Since by that time we had been up 28 hours straight we went back to the room and were sleeping in about 5 minutes. Woke up the next morning at 8:30.