Day 3

Wednesday: Today is the day we leave Dublin for Kilkenny. After a deli counter breakfast at Fresh market, we book a taxi van to take us over to Hertz Rentals cars on the south edge of town. Laura and Eric are already joking about clinging to the “oh-shit handles” and Cindy thinks this is none too funny. It is amongst this good natured fun-poking that we leave Dublin for Powerscourt gardens.

Now, driving on the left side of the road seems at first to be a colossal joke. Traffic turns in front of you at unexpected angles, and everything in your body strains to veer to the right. Large stickers inside the windshield and on the dashboard admonish you to keep left. And it gets easier as you go, but the first time you stop the car, go into a pub and come back out again to get on the road, your hands automatically point right. This is probably why American Express offers comprehensive coverage in most countries but not in, among others, Israel, Italy, and Ireland. The first two are understandable: terrorist threats and psychotic drivers respectively abound in those two countries. But Ireland? Here it is the combinations of tourists driving on the left for the first time and the NARROW winding roads that are often rain-slicked, mud-soaked, blocked by a sudden swell of cattle or sheep, or all of the above at once.

It rains intermittently on our drive to the gardens, but once we arrive at Powerscourt it stops. We choose to eat the restaurant inside Powerscourt (sticker shock anyone?) and peer out at the green-glazed view. Cindy and Bill chose to just have dessert for lunch, seeing as how their breakfast of rashers, eggs, and hash browns was so filling. Laura and Eric split a mountainous plate of a stuffed potato and three salads, Lisa and Clare split the child’s pasta and chocolate cookie, and Tom worked on his Tandoori chicken and three salads until it resembled a wreck of shreds and leftover celery.

Powerscourt is luscious. These gardens, built around an estate that abuts the Sugarloaf mountain, is acres and acres of manicured lawns, herbaceous borders, old growth trees, ponds with jetted fountains, a Japanese garden, a pet cemetery, and beautiful rose gardens. Tom and Lisa have been to Powerscourt many times, but always with students on one of their Study Abroad trips. I commented that I’d been there three times and never before seen as much ground as we covered that day. Usually time was too short as we had to move on to the waterfall and the next adventure, but we really had time to wander and explore the corners of the garden this day. Clare delighted in a gaggle of baby ducks at a pond’s edge, and spent some time feeding them crackers.

Eric, Cindy, Clare, and Laura explored the reaches of the Japanese Garden and were accompanied by the curious cat that followed them through the plants. While in the Japanese gardens there was a presence of someone, it didn’t take long before we discovered why. A beautiful red- orange dragonfly zipped around us and landed with in reach on the wooden banister. We were all sure it was Papa visiting us and letting us know he was watching out for us. Tom got lots of pictures of lollipop trees and statues. Bill and Lisa watched a moss covered grotto weep rivulets of water into the edges of the Japanese Garden. And finally, on our way out, Clare made Lisa read her all the names off the headstones in the Pet Cemetery.

From Powerscourt we had planned to cross over the very beautiful Wicklow Gap and continue on down to Kilkenny. Unfortunately, when we exited the gates at Powerscourt we ended up stuck in a one-way chute directly back onto the freeway towards Dublin. We had to go almost ¾ of the way back to Dublin before we found an exit that allowed us to cut over and head back south towards Kilkenny. Once we got there, the Wickow Gap was stunningly gorgeous, with rocky slopes, running springs, and a tight, twisty road that makes several hairpin turns. Tom lead the caravan through the Gap, and by the time we came out the other side, Cindy’s fingers were permanently curled from gripping the steering wheel.

We arrived at the Fanad House in lovely Kilkenny about 8pm. This begins our three-night B&B sampler through the south of Ireland. Fanad house was wonderful: freshly painted, clean, free Wifi, with comfy beds, rain showers, and a lovely full Irish breakfast in the morning. The proprieter, Pat, was friendly and accomodating to our large group. The walk into downtown Kilkenny was fairly easy from the B&B, and we strolled into town in a light rain to see what we could find to eat.

Pat had recommended Langton’s for dinner, and when we crossed over the bridge and found it, we thought he was joking. It had a smart black and gilt sign out front, a wood-panelled pub as you entered, a small café behind that, a “Snug” behind that (a quiet place to sit and wait), and behind THAT there was a gorgeous restaurant with crystal chandeliers and linen table clothes. The place went on forever and ever! We looked down at our jeans and Polartec jackets and thought we’d be embarrassed to eat in such a place, but hunger took over and we went in anyway. Turns out they serve the same pub-grub and main plates as the bar up front, and we were extremely pleased with our Joint of the Day (chicken and ham), Guinness Stew, and Steak with Mash and Veg.

You might think it funny that I keep bringing up the food everywhere we eat, but I know that there is a huge stereotype of awful, bland, greasy food in Ireland. This is uniformly untrue. While they still serve French fries with the most unimaginable things (including lasagna), the quality of the food has been consistently high everywhere we’ve eaten, with the one exception of the hotel breakfast room. I’ve had some of the most memorable meals of my life in Florence, Rome, and Ireland. Now THAT’s saying something.

téigh in éag (means: to end!)