Glendalough to Bray
On our seventh day we had breakfast at the Riverdale House. The meal was good, but not quite as good as Margaret’s. After breakfast we began the trek from Glendalough to Bray to Dublin and back again to Bray.
The drive from Glendalough to the Bray train station is about 40 minutes. I had been told by a native Irishwoman to avoid driving in Dublin and I took her at her word. So we decided to take the train from Bray into Dublin. We parked in the car park and chatted with the attendant while we waited for the train. Yet another very nice Irishman! He did stress to us the importance of being back to the car park prior to closing. He was worried we’d stay too long in Dublin and then be locked out of the car park upon our return. We assured him we’d keep an eye on the time.
Guinness Storehouse
The train ride is about 45 minutes to Dublin where we then got onto a tour bus and headed to the Guinness Storehouse. My friend is of Irish descent and loves Guinness, the main reason we were visiting Dublin and the Guinness Storehouse. It was an interesting tour. The tour takes you up through seven floors of information on the history of Guinness and how it is made.
One of the main ingredients for beer is water, so they have a waterfall inside the building! The other three main ingredients are: hops, yeast, and grain.
The tour ends in a bar on the seventh floor and looks like the top of a Guinness glass. There you can have a Guinness on the house or get a different soft drink or water instead. The view up there is quite impressive, but, alas, I didn’t get any pictures as the room was quite crowded with people lingering over their drinks.
Dublin
After we finished with the Storehouse we hopped back onto the tour bus and did the loop around Dublin. While listening to the tour guide, we wished we had planned to spend more than just a day trip into Dublin. The Ghost Walk sounded interesting as did some of the other sites we were going past, but we knew we need to make it back to the car park before it closed for the evening. We did wander around O’Connell Street a little bit before heading to the train station.
Bray to Glendalough
The train ride isn’t a bad way to go. We enjoyed looking out over the coastline as we headed back towards Bray. We made it back to the car park with time to spare and the Irishman was so relieved to see us. It was flattering having someone worry about us!
Then we began the drive back to Glendalough. We stopped in Roundwood at the Coach House for supper. My friend ordered a coffee with Bailey’s for dessert and let us have a sip. You know, if you pour enough Bailey’s into coffee, the coffee actually tastes halfway decent!
We made it back to Riverdale House and packed up our suitcases again to head off to Bunratty in the morning.