Day Five: Driving through the Wicklow Mountains and more...

We are free today to go wherever the road takes us. That is, as long as we are headed to Waterford and take the route I planned out in great detail. Today Jen and I picked up our rental car from the Dublin airport. Getting there was a little tricky but we managed. We road DART (Dublin area rapid transit) to the bus station and then took a shuttle to the airport. Here's another plug for packing light when traveling in Europe, especially if you are using multiple means of transportation, the less stuff you have the easier it is to get on and off the bus, subway, train, etc. Unfortunately, we had my wheel chair; which, even though it was light and compact when I wasn't using it, made it a little more difficult to get from one place to the next.

When we got to the airport we picked up our rental car. Thankfully, Jen is both an expert at driving a stick and driving on the other side of the road (from living in Australia), so she did all the driving, and she did great! We reserved the cheapest, compact car, but ended up getting a pretty nice car. A Nissan Micra, still compact, but it had 4 doors. It did not have much of a boot (trunk), but since it had a back seat the wheel chair and suitcase fit great. We left Dublin Airport and put in our first destination into Jen's phone GPS.

Enniskerry, Ireland

The idea to visit several places on this five week journey came from seeing them in movies. I would see a place in, usually, a romantic comedy and then do research on where it was filmed, or where the story took place, and if it fit into our plan for the day we would visit it. Enniskerry was one of those places. If you have seen the movie "Leap Year," with Amy Adams, you have seen Enniskerry. Although in the story that is not necessarily where they are (the movie's geographical accuracy is horrible) but it is where a scene is filmed. That is not the only reason we stopped though, this quite town was a great place to grab some coffee and breakfast as we started our drive through the Wicklow Mountains National Park. Many guidebooks and internet posts confirmed that it would be a great place to see.

While in Enniskerry we stopped at Poppies for breakfast. We had a yummy Vegetable Quiche and some coffee. This is the same little cafe Amy Adams gets her coffee from in the movie. They have a lot of different food offerings and everything is homemade and looked wonderful. The little town has a few shops around the town square (actually it's a circle), and we walked around for a few minutes before heading to our next destination.

Powerscourt House and Gardens

The next stop on our drive was Powerscourt House and Gardens. The gardens are pretty fabulous but as for the house, you can only go into the bottom area which has been converted into a gift shop and cafe. It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to pay the 8.50 euro each to walk out to the garden area and take some pictures. We also stopped in the cafe and got a piece of chocolate cake and some pink lemonade. The garden and grounds were pretty big, and if you have time, and the ablity to walk a lot there seemed to be some pretty nice areas to take a stroll. We stuck to the first part of the gardens, but that was a beautiful view. There are quite a few steps as well, so if you have trouble doing steps or you are in a wheel chair it might not be worth the 8.50. The terrace for the cafe has a pretty good view, if you don't want to pay, but you can't see the beautiful fountain pictured below. After we had our cake and walked around we got on our way driving through the Wicklow Mountains National Park.

Wicklow Mountains National Park

Here is another example of a movie that help educate me on the beauty of Ireland. When I saw it in the movie I knew we had to see it in real life. To the right is a clip from the movie "P.S. I love you," it is the scene where Holly and Gerry meet on the road. She tells him she is lost and looking for the Wicklow Mountain National Park. He explains that the whole area they are in is the park. The scenery as they are walking along the road is beautiful and in real life it just, if not more, beautiful. To drive through the park you take the "Old Military Road." The road is windy and narrow but we just took our time and enjoyed the views, stopping often along side the road to take pictures.

Vale of Avoca - Meeting of the Waters

"There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet. As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet; Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart, Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart...Sweet vale of Avoca! How calm could I rest. In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best. Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease, and our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace." Thomas Moore, 1808

This was another stop along our drive to Waterford. A spot called Meeting of the Waters, or the Vale of Avoca. It is where the River Avonmore (in Irish, big river) meets with the River Avonbeg (small river) to form the River Avoca. It is beautiful, and when we were there a bunch of wild horses came down to the water for a drink, it was almost magical. (http://grandtour.ie/driving-routes/vale-of-avoca/)

Click Here for more info

Avoca Handweavers

Our last stop of the day, before our final destination of Waterford, was the oldest weaving mill in Ireland. Avoca Handweavers was established in 1723 and is still a working mill, which you can tour (self guided). There is also a cute store on site with all of their handwoven goods as well as other products. I loved this place and probably could have spent way more time and money there. I got a woven scarf and a couple other things. It was the perfect souvenir, I can use over and over, and I even used it while we were on the trip especially Scotland and England (it was cold).

Cool video on Avoca

We finished up and headed on the road to Waterford. We got to our B&B that evening, got checked in by the funny old irish lady that owned, lived and managed the B&B. For dinner we found a fish and chip place randomly while driving around, and took it back to our room. Lots of locals getting dinner at this place and I crossed Fish and Chips off the list of things I wanted to eat in Ireland. Would get to cross off another traditional Irish food tomorrow at breakfast. Can anyone guess what it was? Stay tuned to find out.

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