July 17-23 2012 Ireland 1

Due to the fact that I don't have internet that often I will try and post once a week.I'll give my best shot.We arrived in Ireland on the 17th July.The next day I needed a Sim card for my phone so we went and got one that would work in Ireland.Then we needed to find someone that would fill one of our propane bottles.Ireland is the only one that we have found that will service other countries bottles.Every country has a different bottle and when you use the propane up you take that bottle back and they give you another already filled.This has posed a problem for us as we have one from Netherland,one from Germany and one from Italy.But at least they filled one of our German bottles. Here's some of the things we have done since we arrived in Ireland.The first place we visited was Glendalough Monolith site.This site was founded in the 6th century by St.Kevins. The best ruins are of a 10ft. round tower that has a high door.They had a ladder to climb into the tower in case of attack.Our next stop was Powerscourt Gardens and Mansion.The mansion had a fire in 1974 so they didn't have it open but you could go through the gardens.Sam decided to stay in RV so went without him.The gardens were beautifully done and they call them The Grand Finale of Europe's gardening tradition.Next we drove the Military road to Sally Gap.We saw some nice waterfalls,beautiful scenery,and bogs.The people still use the peat from the bogs to heat their homes.

 The next day we went into to Dublin ad the first place we went was to Trinity College.The students give you about a 30 minute tour of the college and a little bit of history.We also got to go into the old library that holds the Book of Kells. These are manuscripts made before the Dark Ages. Next we took the hop on hop off bus and stopped at Guiness Brewery.Guiness began in 1759 by Arthur Guiness and by1868 it was the biggest brewery in the world.It brews 10 million pints a day.On the top floor they have a gravity bar that has a 360 degree view.The tour is overpriced and we don't even like Guiness.Our next stop was at the Kilmainham Gaol.This jail opened in 1796 as a model prison.They incarcerated men women and children .It was frequently used by the British as a political prison and for the Irish who were fighting for Independence.Many were held here and executed during the civil war.The next day we went back into Dublin and went to the Temple Bar area.This place came on hard times in the 19th century and with the Government's help it has become a cultural hot spot with pubs and music.We loved the area and went to a few of the pubs and had a few drinks and listened to the good ole Irish music.