After visiting Howth on Sunday, we returned the next day (Monday) to hike the coastal trail around the peninsula. There are several loop hikes around Howth with the longest hike being about 8 mile along the cliffs surrounding the village. This is a very beautiful hike with some treacherous cliffs as much as 100 ft above the ocean. One slip in many area would be deadly. Kathy says "Put your big boy pants on and stop your sniveling." Needless to say we had fun. After the hike we stopped at Wright's and the Bloody Stream Restaurants for beers. I won't tell you which beers but I bet you can guess. On the way back to the B&B, we stopped at the grocery for bread, cheese and wine. I was happy.... read more

Today we head back to Dublin to a AirBnB in Castleknock northwest of Phoenix Park. Unfortunetly we are still fighting against the bus strike. We thought that we had a work around but at the last minute we had to rely on the goodness of the Irish folks. Our host, Madeline, graciously offered to drive us to Cory in order to catch the bus to Dublin. After a bus transfer in Dublin City Center, we are off to Castleknock. Phoenix Park is about 1700 acres (about twice the size of Central Pak in NYC) full of fun and sun in sunny funny Dublin. Kathy and I are staying with Evelyn and James in a nice house about 1/4 mile from the park. For the next 2 days we are touring the Irish presidents house as well ... read more

This is our last day of hiking on the Wicklow Way. We ended our hike with a stirring 10.5 miles through some very beautiful country. This is lambing season and every pasture has the cutest little lamb hovering around their mothers. I scared 2 baby lambs who ran clear across the pasture to their mother. She came over to berate me but I told her Kathy did it. Kathy must have taken about 300 pictures of these lambs. How many pictures of baby lambs does one need. I guess the answer is more than 300. The weather was cool but dry thankfully. Most of the hiking was along forestry or farm access roads but still the hiking is good. Very challenging up and down the hill sides. Good training for our AT hike in MAY. We ... read more

This is day 3 of our hike and we are starting out of Laragh and headed to Glenmalure to stay 2 days at the Coolalingo B&B downtown. After our 20mile exercise yesterday, we were hoping for a cool 8 mile stroll through the beautiful mountains of Ireland. We finally hit the trail at about 11:00AM after a short visit at the Wicklow Way Visitors Center where the pleasure of seeing their display would cost us 9 euros each. We decided to "move on down the road" so to speak. Ireland is such a beautiful place with their rolling hills and sheep dotting the countryside. Oh....did I mention that it was raining. We were making some good headway along some logging roads when the weather turned bad. Shortly afterwards we found ourselves transversing the side of one ... read more

After loading our gear into the cab, we headed to start of our hike at Marlay Park in south Dublin. Kathy told me last night that I could only have 33 lbs in my pack. I didn't tell her it weighed 46 lbs at the airport. They took it anyway....I'm glad I didn't have to carry the damn thing. After a cup of coffee and loading our pack into the transfer van, we were off. Did I mention that the forcast call for rain. Our first day was scheduled for 14 miles. We were on the trail at 9:36...exactly. About noonish it started raining and it rained and rained and rained. Apparently Lexington gets about 46 inches of rain as does Ireland. The difference is in Ireland, it rains all the time. We hiked in some ... read more