{"id":15044,"date":"2013-10-14T17:20:04","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T15:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tasteaway.pl\/en\/?p=15044"},"modified":"2018-06-06T10:22:17","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T08:22:17","slug":"ireland-mysterious-wicklow-mountains-picturesque-glendalough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteaway.pl\/en\/2013\/10\/14\/ireland-mysterious-wicklow-mountains-picturesque-glendalough\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland: the mysterious Wicklow Mountains and the picturesque Glendalough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phew, another weekend behind us! Now we have to start working our arses off and to forget about the pleasures of free time\u2026 We\u2019ve spent our last weekend in Ireland and we advise you to do the same! It\u2019s a great choice, especially that you can buy a ticket to Dublin from Warsaw Modlin airport for a chicken feed! A return ticket from Ryanair costs approx. PLN 250-300 per person! That\u2019s very decent! If you manage to fit your stuff into a hand luggage, it\u2019ll cost you almost the same as a train ticket from Warsaw do Cracow.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t manage to fit into a hand luggage \u2013 and not only because we were travelling with a child, but also because we\u2019re bloggers \ud83d\ude42 After all, that\u2019s the main reason why we\u2019re usually carrying 2 laptops, a camera, 3 lenses, a flash lamp, and lately also one more gadget that I hope to make our blogging even more interesting \ud83d\ude42 we\u2019ll introduce it to you soon! \ud83d\ude42 So, we had to pay PLN 190 for a 15-kg-luggage \u2013 moreover, we had to rearrange our stuff in Modlin because the luggage was 18 kg and in Ryanair every single extra kilo costs PLN 90! (that just pure robbery!) However, we managed to rearrange our stuff and take off without any delays, land, rent a car and get to our base in Bray on a Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Bray is located in the Wicklow county, approx. 20 km from Dublin. It\u2019s rather small (26 thousand townsmen) and quite charming. There\u2019s a sea esplanade, restaurants, it\u2019s a former tourist site, nowadays primarily a place for Dubliners to relax. We\u2019ve treated Bray as our starting point and it turned out to be a quite good solution.<\/p>\n

Our 3-day plan in Ireland included:<\/p>\n

– driving to the Wicklow Mountains<\/strong> and taking a walk by the Glendalough lake<\/strong><\/p>\n

– sightseeing Dublin, including the Jameson whisky distillery and the Guinness brewery<\/strong><\/p>\n

– a MANDATORY visit to Howth in order to recall the last Easter and to have one of the best seafood in the region!<\/a><\/p>\n

LEAVING THE CIVILISATION BEHIND\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tired of the haste and hurriedness of the entire week, we decided to spend our first day away from the bustling Dublin. We set off for the Wicklow Mountains and the picturesque Glendalough valley. It\u2019s a perfect spot for a film\u2026 It reminds me of the atmosphere in the \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d and the views are breath-taking \u2013 after all, we\u2019re some several dozen kilometres away from Dublin!<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Dublin,<\/a><\/dt>\n
in the wild, quite close to Dublin<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

\u0141ukasz has been dreaming of Wicklow Mountains (www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.i<\/a>) for quite some time now.\u00a0He was \u201cniggling\u201d me to go there during our April visit, when we were spending the night in Howth, but we were travelling by suburban trains then (by the way, it\u2019s a great way to travel \u2013 I highly recommend it!) and it seemed quite complicated to get to the mountains. Additionally, the weather in Ireland during Easter offered acute winds, freezing coldness and pouring rain. A tough choice: what\u2019s better, the Irish wind or the Polish Easter snow? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

This time, we made the Wicklow Mountains, located south of Dublin our no. 1 destination. We started our trip in Glendalough \u2013 a marvellous valley with great walking space, Upper Lake and Lower Lake, and mysterious remnants of a former settlement and monastery. It was impressive!<\/p>\n

The settlement includes a St. Kevin\u2019s Church \u2013 he was the founder of Glendalough, a an uncommon for the medieval Ireland round tower, and the ruins of the 10th-12th\u00a0century monastery. This surrounding makes the remnants of the past look incredible and even the cold wind didn\u2019t spoil our sightseeing (it must be an intrinsic feature of Ireland).<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Glendalough,<\/a><\/dt>\n
Welcome to Glendalough!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Glendalough,<\/a><\/dt>\n
St. Kevin’s Church in the background<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Glendalough,<\/a><\/dt>\n
ghosts of the past<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Glendalough,<\/a><\/dt>\n
Lower Lake – one of the most often visited sites in the Glendalough valley<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Glendalough,<\/a><\/dt>\n
I wish we didn’t have to go!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

We didn\u2019t spend much time in the Glendalough valley \u2013 after all, we had a lot of sightseeing ahead of us! But there are several tourist routes around the valley and the longest one, called Wicklow Way is 129 kilometres-long! It takes approx. 5 to 7 days to complete it, and it must be worth the time, as it is one of the most popular tourist routes in Ireland. Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t have that much time \u2013 we took a short walk, ran a little with Maks, picked up acorns and colourful leaves, and got some lunch\u2026<\/p>\n

We stopped in the tiny (6,7 thousand inhabitants) Wicklow and had the representative dish of the Irish menu \u2013 the fish\u2019n\u2019chips. Do I have to add that it\u2019s best when you pour vinegar on the fish and the thick chips, wrap them in paper and eat it just like that, on the street? \ud83d\ude42 If you have any doubts \u2013 yes, it\u2019s the BEST WAY! You have to try it to enjoy the local atmosphere. We found our fish\u2019n\u2019chips in Wicklow in a local fast food \u2013 Lina\u2019s Take Away \u2013 and they were delicious! \ud83d\ude42 We regained our strengths and set off to marvel at the Wicklow Mountains\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s absolutely amazing that you can find a wasteland quite close to Dublin, without any cars but with carefree sheep walking down the roads! This landscape reminded us of Georgia and the day when we were travelling from Sighnaghi to David Gareja close to the Azerbaijan border<\/a>. Take a look at the Georgian pictures yourselves and you\u2019ll see that the landscapes are much alike! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Irlandia,<\/a><\/dt>\n
Maks’s biggest joy: sheep on the road!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Wicklow,<\/a><\/dt>\n
next to the road<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Wicklow,<\/a><\/dt>\n
breathtaking views<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Wicklow,<\/a><\/dt>\n
mysterious ruins<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Wicklow,<\/a><\/dt>\n
a little voyager<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Wicklow,<\/a><\/dt>\n
mountain brooks and sheep… Maks delighted!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Wicklow,<\/a><\/dt>\n
there’s us and the entire cuddly toy family on the stone<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

We were delighted by the Mountains \u2013 especially \u0141ukasz who was even planning to get up at 6 on the Sunday morning, in order to visit them again by himself, to admire, take pictures, search for incredible views. Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t manage to wake up at 6:00\u2026 On the first day of our journey we went straight from the mountains to Howth, 13 km from Dublin, to have one of the best seafood we\u2019ve ever had. Shrimps, calamari, mussels and the Irish fish soup called chowder. And for desert? A mandatory apple crumble\u2026 but I\u2019m not going to write about it\u2026 we\u2019ve included our impressions from Howth in our posts from April: here\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0(this one focuses on food) and here<\/a>\u00a0(this one is more general, about Howth and Dublin) and I\u2019ll soon tell you what else we\u2019ve managed to see in Dublin\u2026 and now it\u2019s time for sleep after our weekend journey\u2026 Off I go to the dreamland! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Wicklow,<\/a><\/dt>\n
wasteland<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phew, another weekend behind us! Now we have to start working our arses off and to forget about the pleasures of free time\u2026 We\u2019ve spent our last weekend in Ireland and we advise you to do the same! It\u2019s a great choice, especially that you can buy a ticket to Dublin from Warsaw Modlin airport […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2982,3005,2981],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nIreland: the mysterious Wicklow Mountains and the picturesque Glendalough<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We're travelling around Ireland. 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