"This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning."
~~Winston Churchill

We were up early for our last day in Ireland . Dayna wanted to see a place called Glendalough Monastic City. Very early Irish history. It was a long drive (by Irish standards), but just across town by Dakota standards and, of course, it was the opposite direction from our evening destination, Rosslare Europort.  

A couple of the buildings dated from c.a. 900s, and the monastic city plays a prominent place in local lore and Irish history. We got there just as they were unlocking the doors to the visitor's center. We elbowed through the early bus crowd, grabbed a guidebook and headed off while the bus bugs sat through a brief movie. We had the place almost to ourselves for about an hour because the bus people never caught up! As we finished up our walking tour back from the far end of the "park", the bus crowd was just heading "up river." We are so good! Great stop! We were done by noon and off to our next adventure.  

We decided to stop for a bowl of soup at a the Avoca Woolen Mill . Turned out it was a real working woolen mill and not just a showroom. It was open to the public so we walked through the whole mill seeing anything we wanted! Today, they were making wool lap blankets. It only took about twenty minutes to see the whole mill but another check on the, "What we would have missed by taking a bus tour," list. The blankets were a little pricy for Yeager to sleep on, which he would do first chance he got, so we passed on adding one to our haul. Fun little lunch stop and we had a two hour drive ahead of us. So, with me in the navigator's seat and Dayna in the cockpit, off we went.

Here is another entry on the above mentioned check list! As we were passing through a little town, we got held up by a funeral procession going from the church to the cemetery. The funeral director was walking out in front of the hearse and all of the family was trailing along behind. Fortunately, we were going the other direction because traffic was backed up for a mile behind the procession . There is only one road through town, you know. Anyway, trailing behind the family were the loving friends and neighbors, all dressed up, and behind them came about thirty people that looked like they came out of the pubs just to see where the wake was going to be, in case there was a free keg. Another check mark!

One thing I wanted to do before the afternoon got too old was to go to the ferry port to see where we would turn in the car. Not normally a concern for a traveler, but this is Ireland. The ferry port is not even listed on the Budget website, but is on other sites that act as car brokers.   Why, I don't know, but this is . . . . But, it was there -- phew! Budget was just a counter in the ferry building manned by a trustworthy phone. The other end said to just drop the keys in the box and go away -- sort of. Good for me! Our extensive extra insurance coverage will certainly cover all of the chrome scraped off of the passenger side wheels by my pilot. Curbs are such a pain in the ass to avoid! (The curbs were on the WRONG side of the car!!)

After taking care of the car concerns, we still had a few hours before we needed to be back . We passed a sign to Johnstown Castle about 15 minutes up the road from the port. So, back we went. The castle of ancient history is gone (mostly), but there is a beautiful estate mansion that was built in the 1800s and lived in by the family until 1942, when Lady Whatever croaked. In 1945, her son realized that the family fortune wasn't going to support an estate and he donated it to the government. The whole estate is now in the possession of the Irish version of our Department of Agriculture. They have opened the grounds up as a park with an agricultural museum, and quite a bit of Agra research on the estate. A nice diversion for a few hours.

Then we headed down to a little fishing village called Kilmore Quay. Very cute place. It is recommended by Trip Advisor. We had dinner in a little seafood place and then headed to the ferry port. We have now returned and dropped off the car in the lot and the keys in the box at the counter. We were about 90 minutes early but we didn't want to drive in the dark . It's hard enough in the daylight.

Another great day!! And it ain't over yet.

We will cover the ferry in the next entry.