Greystones to Bray Cliff Walk

The weather was GORGEOUS this weekend and we definitely tried to take advantage of it. We got ourselves out of bed early on Sunday, threw on some sunscreen (yes, SUNSCREEN!) and headed down to Greystones to do the cliff walk back to Bray. Neither of us had ever been to Greystones and our impression was that it was a quiet, residential area with coffee shops and posh clothing shops dotted in here and there. I loved it! Here are a few photos from the day:

Yeah, this is how it started. We had to walk through a construction site. The views weren't great, to say the least.

Ahh...we finally got out of the construction site, only to be greeted by a sign that said the walkway was closed due to landslides. A woman was coming from the other direction so I asked her if she walked from Bray. She said yes, she looked at the sign, and was like right, this is Ireland so you don't know which signs to believe. Yep, this is Ireland. We headed on our way and we could see where the cliff had recently slid down. Fortunately, they've made it safe for pedestrians, as you can see in this picture. 

This fence was floating in the air.

The views were amazing! You can see the train tunnel in the side of this cliff.

This plant is called, 'Gorse' and it's everywhere. 

Looking back towards Greystones.

The water was so clear. Wes said it was like the Mediterranean and I laughed and laughed at that crazy talk.

Look back towards the cliffs with the train tunnel. We waited and waited for a train to come through a tunnel and one never came. That would have been the money shot!

Our obligatory shot! This might be our best one yet!

Then I asked one of the one million other people on the cliff to take our picture for us. Please notice no jackets, hats, or scarves! Huzzah!!!

The end is in sight! Ahhh...the Bates Motel! No, we didn't stay in this scary place, we walked up the strand to the Porterhouse and had a few pints. Perfect end to the perfect day!

*If you're thinking about doing this walk, here are a few observations. The walk is about 3 miles long, so not too bad. It's uphill to start, flattens out with some undulating hills, then it's downhill at the end. All sorts of people were walking it in all sorts of footwear (including sparkly flats). Even though it's been dry here for a few days there are still some places where it's muddy due to springs in the side of the cliff. I wore sneakers (trainers, tennis shoes, whatever) and I was fine. I could see it being muddy and gross though. There are some crazy steps and it's very rocky, so definitely NOT stroller friendly, even though some idiots people tried. 

No shoveling for me...

I can just enjoy the pretty pictures from Mom and Dad!

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.

St Stephen's Green

It finally stopped raining on Sunday, so we went for a walk around St Stephen's Green. I haven't actually been there since I moved to Dublin. One time I suggested to Wes that we go and he took me to the Stephen's Green Shopping Centre. Smart man!

Look at the size of this leaf!

Beautiful!

Please forward all our mail to our new address in St Stephen's Green, Dublin

The sun is actually shining!

Botanic Gardens

Saturday was a beautiful day and I was anxious to get outside and enjoy the fall weather. We decided to go to the Botanic Gardens in the hopes that we'd we would see some leaves changing. There were some, not as many as I'd like, but I was able to kick through some leaves and hug some trees. Wes wouldn't take any pictures of me hugging trees. :-( The gardens were really beautiful and I look forward to going back in the spring! Here are some pictures from the day, in no particular order.

Flowers as big as Wes' head!

Little wee pine cones

Pretty foliage

Our standard shot!

Very, very tall palms!

There was a sculpture exhibition. This one was my favorite.

Tiny little orchids

One of the greenhouses

The ONLY fall display in the place. It was a little disappointing.

After the Botanic Gardens we went across the street for lunch at the pub. Then we went into town and met Mary-Liz for a coffee. I had a chai latte which was delish! I love to drink chai when the weather cools down. After coffee we headed over to the Market Bar for a pint. Neither Wes nor I had ever been there, so it was nice to go someplace new! All in all it was a really great day!