Trying to escape from Dublin

I haven't left Dublin since the end of August when we went to Cork with relatives and I am going NUTS! Wes gets to jet off to exciting places for work, like Helsinki and Brussels, and I sit here holding down the moldy fort. Surprisingly, if you don't have a car the options for day trips out of Dublin really aren't that great. There are the DART accessible places such as Howth - been there; Malahide - done that about 4 times; Dun Laoghaire - I meet up with friends there, so not very exotic. There are some bus companies, but they really only have two options: the Hill of Tara tour (north of Dublin) and the Wicklow tour (South of Dublin). You can go to Belfast and the Giant's Causeway if you fancy getting up at 5am to meet the bus at 5:45, but well, that wasn't really what we were looking to do on a Saturday morning. I really wanted to go to the Rock of Cashel, but it would have taken us 3 hours to get there (by bus or train) and it was too expensive for a day trip. Please note that by car it's only an hour and a half from Dublin. But I digress..... So, we kicked around the Hill of Tara, but in the end opted for the Wicklow tour. Bonus is we didn't have to leave the house until 10:15am to meet the bus.

It was really frosty and cold when we left in the morning, but the sun came out and it was a lovely day. The fog rolled back in around 2:30pm and by the time we got back to Dublin it was back to being frosty and cold again.

The driver was nice enough to make an unexpected stop in Dun Laoghaire. I'm 99.9% sure Wes and the driver were the only Irish people on the bus.

On the bus!

Dublin Bay from the bus.

Sandycove Martello Tower in the distance.

Enniskerry National School. It's the oldest national school in the country.

Views of the mountains from the bus.

View of Sugarloaf Mountain from the bus.

Front of Powerscourt Estate. Santa arrived today and they blew fake snow in his honor!

Us in Powerscourt gardens.

Sugarloaf Mountain from the terrace.

Back of the estate from the garden.

Our favorite tombstone in the pet cemetery. They had lots of dogs and a few ponies in there too!

Me in the gardens.

Back of estate and gardens.

Pretty Christmas display at the Avoca shop. Christmas puddings are so
cute to look at and so gross to eat!

An unusual church in Co. Wicklow. It looks like something that should be in the midwest of the US. The driver said there is a two year wait to get married here on a Saturday. Sorry the pictures is tilted, but I took it quick as we passed on the bus. You can also see that the fog rolled back in by the end of the trip.