The long and winding road - day 1

Mary outside Riverlodge B & B

Saturday morning up for breakfast at 8.00 am as we were instructed by our host, Rosie, that breakfast is served between 8 and 9 am and not a minute later.  B'fast was a bit ordinary to be quite honest. However the Riverlodge B &B was very well situated and much spacious than our hotel room in Dublin, with a huge ensuite, including a nice deep bath. I would probably rate it 7/10 as there was a jug in room but no glasses, cups, tea etc. so not sure why the jug was there. No hairdryer - but as this is our first Irish B & B, maybe this is normal. This a couple of pics before we left - as you can see, the weather is glorious!

View from B & B bedroom 

After a walk in the rain in the main street and a coffee at a quaint cafe, we hit the road bound, on John Hickey's recommendation (a friend from Ireland) to Glendalough. 

Well, he said it was worth going via Glendalough on our way to Kilkenny and it was, except we didn't reach Kilkenny - only made it half way and stopped at Carlow. 

It was founded by St Kevin 14 centuries ago and there is 'Kevin' everywhere - it could have been Duke Street (as Peter commented). If you're interested, you can have a read about the lake and monastry site: http://www.glendalough.connect.ie/pages/monastic/monastic.html  Although it was raining lightly the whole time we were there, we still managed to walk for a couple of hours. The lady at the visitor's centre suggested that we might have trouble getting accommodation in Kilkenny on a Saturday night. She also mentioned it was a very popular spot on Sat nights for hens nights and suggested Carlow as an alternative. 

St Kevin's Church 

Little Glendalough waterfall

Glenalough Lake 

Kevin's way (valley looking back to Glendalough)

We reached Carlow around 5pm and although it is quite small, the traffic was horrendous. We assumed there was some festival was on. We found a bed at Greenlane House and our host, Noelenne, is lovely. The room, with ensuite, has a jug and tea cups & glasses, tea, coffee & milk, & chocolate and hairdryer. Also, as there is no laundramat open tomorrow, Noelenne agreed to do a load of washing for us - already returned folded. We were pretty impressed with that, I have to say. I'll report later on the breakfast and reserve my rating til then. 

We had dinner at a lovely little pub called Reddy's which was established in  1768. Peter had a burger (the real deal) and I had chicken vol au vents with salad and vegetables and potato balls which, although not healthy, were homemade and yummy. 

I asked about live must and was advised that "yes, we have live music and tonight it's traditional Irish". Good, I thought, until she said it started at 10 pm. This was at 6.30pm so no Irish music for Peter and Mary that night! 

If anyone wants to contact us, the best way is to email me at maryrose.mcclenaghan@gmail.com and Peter at pmcclena@gmail.com. We also have local sim cards (while we're in Ireland and the UK) which allow us to check our email on our phones and to skype - at no extra cost. If you need to contact us urgently - my number is 0831254886 and Peter's is 0831217464.

Time for sleeps.