Various in Dublin

Today was buy my kayaking stuff day. We started of at the Grand Canal Dock to buy a wet suit. We then decided to go to the pier that shields the harbor at the Liffey river. It is very long with great views from Howth down to Dalkey and some beautiful lighthouses. (I am always a sucker for those) Then we had a nice Thai lunch outside in Dun Laoghaire. We picked up the rest of the gear including a sit on top kayak. Then quickly to Loughshinny for a quick paddle before darkness. The best first trip ever……..I found a group of about twenty seals lounging on the rocks with the low water. 

Skerries

Skerries is just a short drive north of Malahide where we live. It is one of our favorite places to go to while away a few hours in the weekend. There is a large sandy beach in the south with great views over the various little islands and Rockabil lighthouse. In the north there is a more rocky beach with a little harbor that has some restaurants with great views.

Glenmacnass

Today J and I took a drive through the Wicklow mountains to go and see the Glenmacnass waterfall. It started out quite foggy but the views soon opened up. The Glenmacnass waterfall and valley were beautiful.

Then we had a quick bite to eat in Laragh in the ‘Glendalough Green’ which is a mix between coffeehouse and grocery shop and one of J’s favorites. As it has been raining quite hard for the last week we also decided to revisit Powerscourt waterfall on the assumption that it would be quite large now.

Ended the day with two visits to the Wicklow Avoca stores where J bought a Dutch teatowel.

Loughshinny

Today was quite rainy but it cleared up in the afternoon so we did a quick trip to Loughshinny. It lays just to the north of Dublin between Rush and Skerries. It is a tiny little harbor next to a Martello Tower, these are dotted around the Irish coast and were build during the Napoleonic wars to detect French invaders.

J saw a couple of seals while I was off hiking the coastline, unfortunately no pictures of that.

Howth Dublin Bay Prawn Festival

Today we wanted to go to the Dublin Bay Festival in Howth. Unfortunately we hit a traffic jam into Howth so we went by train for the last bit. It’s been quite some tiime since I was in a train.

The festival was basically one tent with varieties of prawns prepared in different ways and a carnival. We had some great barbecued prawns in bisque. 

Then we walked around a bit and took a ride in the ferris wheel. I had a slight bout of vertigo and didn’t enjoy it much. (although she denies it I think J was laughing at me).

Dun Laoghaire (pronounce Dun Leary)

We went to Dun Laghoire today which is in between Dalkey and Dublin. Unfortunately it was quite rainy but a lovely day none the less.

We started off with a nice walk along the promenade ending in the freshly painted but abandoned outdoor pool on the seaside, There is a artisan food market in the People’s park there every Sunday. Some lovely food there, I had a sausage sandwich in honor of our time in Berlin.

Then a very wet and rainy walk along the pier to the lighthouse where we had an icecream.

Dalkey

Lovely springlike day with the trees already blossoming. We went to south Dublin today, first to Bullock Harbor which is always nice. Unfortunately the seals weren’t there. Then we went to the little harbor across from Dalkey Island which was lovely.

Then a lovely stroll through Dalkey village with a nice lunch in The Club pub. One of the most beautiful pubs I have ever seen, nice food too.

To top the day off we went to Killiney beach. There are supposed to be dolphins there but we didn’t see any. 

Mountain next to Glenasmore Reservoir

A very wet day with poring rain which turned everything soggy. There were little streams everywhere and moths paths on the mountain where either extremely muddy or a stream to wade through. Low clouds again so no views.

My drive along the lake was very beautiful and I will definitely return on a clearer day. I walked for approx 3 hrs and found that my waterproof gear wasn’t as waterproof as I thought.

Powerscourt Mountain

Short and easy hike up Powerscourt mountain today. It has a huge areal on top so there is a asphalted road leading to the top making the normal muddy experience of going up a Wicklow mountain a lot easier. Some great views of Dublin, Bray and Sally Gap with the mountains behind. You could see almost all my previous hikes.

It’s about 740 meters high but it took me only about 1,5 hrs up and down again because you can park quite high up. Unfortunately you couldn’t hike to the cliffs with the two lakes below due to the amount of very wet peat/bog in between. Very worthwhile walk quite near Dublin very good if you’re a beginner and want to test whether you like it.

Dublin center & The Coombe

Today J and I went to Francis street in the Coombe and had a walk through the city center. Nice day with beautiful old buildings. 

Dublin around Powerscourt shopping center

Just behind Grafton street there is a set of small streets with great shops. There is much less of the high street names that you see everywhere in the world and more unique shops there. I really like the area, the Powerscourt center is lovely with some good shops, St Georges Arcade, which is often hyped on the internet, was a huge disappointment. Another good day in Dublin with some good buys for J. (I am not allowed to call her wifey anymore).

Sorry about the misaligned pictures, somehow Tumblr ignores the edits I do on the pics and uses the original alignment from the camera :-(

Little Sugarloaf Mountain

Yeah, I have my new camera so I hope the pictures are better now. I still can’t be bothered to photoshop them. After having enjoyed the Sugarloaf Mountain so much I did the little version of it today. It is in between Bray and the Big one. Short but lovely walk with a bit of searching for the way up. Pretty cold today so I got to field test the gloves and woolly hat my wife bought for me.

Howth

Unfortunately wifey wasn’t feeling well today so I went on a hike in Howth on my own. Howth is one of my favorite places as it is near to where I live (Malahide) and it has some great stuff to see and do. You have a nice harbor (both fishing and yachting) and there are some great fish shops and restaurants on the docks. There are also some seals to see in the fishing harbor.

Besides the harbor you can also take a hike around the island. It has some great views and if you are lucky you can spot dolphins or seals in the water beneath the cliffs. (you’ll have to pay attention though as they are usually quite far away). You can also walk inland a bit where there are two large hills which give great views of everything between the Wicklow Mountains and Rush.

Shopping in Dublin

Believe it or not but it took us two months before our first trip into Dublin city center. We parked at Merrion park where apparently there is a large art market every sunday (something for next time) From there we went to St Stephen’s Park and Grafton street. Grafton street is a pretty average shopping street as you can find anywhere. The only difference are the street artists that you find every few hundred meters. Some of them are quite good and they cleaned out our change at a rapid pace. My rule is: if you stop to look you pay.

From there we went to the Temple Bar where wifey went wild in Urban Outfitters and I bought some stuff for our hiking trips at North Face. After that through Trinity college where we watched some rugby back to the car.