Landed in Dublin on Wednesday morning after a sleepness night on the plane. But that did not deter our enthusiam upon reaching Ireland. After getting through customs, we obtain our 3 day bus pass and began wearing out the Dublin busses. The bus company threatened to take our pass away if we didn't take it easy. Now that we have figured out the bus and train routes, we have been in downtown Dublin many times. Yesteday (Wednesday) Kathy and I walked along the canal and some streets around the Aviva Stadium just to get out and about after our flight. It didn't take us long before we realized that we had to be extremely careful crossing the streets because the drivers are on the left side. Being use to the US, we naturally looked to the ... read more

Six days until our new adventure starts. I checked the weather in Ireland and it is....raining. The first 3 days will be in Dublin and then our hike through the Wicklow Nation Park starts. The weather during our hike appears to be....you guessed it...raining. K and I are up to the task though with plenty of experience in the backcountry during our AT hikes. Although the hiking will be a series of day hikes between B&Bs (just make me suffer), we will be taking our backpacks as luggage since we intend to use public transportation throughout the trip. This will involve a lot of walking as well as boarding/exiting buses and cabs so backpacks seem to be a logical option. We have started laying out our gear with the weather in mind. K and I are ... read more