Off To The Country

We enjoyed our first Irish breakfast this morning, courtesy of Eileen at the B&B... yum! After checking out, we headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, a beautifully ornate, hand-written and illustrated copy of the four Gospels... the detail was amazing. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures, so you'll just have to come see it for yourself. Just after that, we wandered into The Long Room, more than 200 ft long and filled with more than a quarter million vintage books.

After our visit to the College, we discovered that the power port in our car wasn't working (and there was only one!) This was a problem, since we're depending on our GPS to get us from one place to another. Fortunately, there was a Hertz office on our way out of town, and they provided us with another car.

We drove into the Wicklow Mountains, which aren't as high as the ones back home, but are still beautiful. They call this area "the Garden of Ireland". Tammy found a waterfall hike, which gave us a nice opportunity to stretch our legs.

While there, we also visited Glendalough, a sixth-century monastic site, with structures dating from the 11th and 12th centuries. It once had a reputation throughout Europe as a site for learning.

After our trek through the mountains, we moved on to Kilkenny. This is the area where Tammy's mother's side of the family is originally from. We ate dinner at Kyteler's Inn, a place with an interesting history. Jim ordered his first (but definitely not his last!) Irish Coffee, though he's fairly certain Tammy drank half of it!