It's cold... and being tired of Dublin City Centre!

I'm not sure that I've been in to town so often in such a short period of time as I have been in the last few days (except of course when I'm working!). In a sense it's been interesting observing the crowds... and trying to decipher how people can shop in those crowds. I guess if I'd been in shopping mode I might have actually got some bargains but I'm afraid that I don't do crowds and post Christmas sale shopping is not me!

So, yesterday we decided that enough's enough with regards to town and we headed out to Glendalough for a short stroll and to see the old monastic ruins in the Monastic City there. It's been bitterly cold the last few days (I thought that I'd never warm up on Monday... not even in The Market Bar on Mon evening did I remove any additional outer layers other than my coat!) and Tuesday was freezing again (actually it was about 5 degrees). I've been out to Glendalough many times in the past but it's always been to park in the upper car park before heading off on a hike (that's a one day tramp to any kiwi readers) but I've never really taken the time to stroll up from the lower car park to the upper and to just just look at what's in between. There were plenty of photo opportunities but my hands got colder and colder each time I had to take my gloves off so by the end I was being very choosy on what I photographed :)

Below is a photo of the Monastic City from a distance...

The food plan didn't work quite as expected. We headed to Avoca in Kilmacanogue for lunch at around 3pm following Glendalough. Yup this place is always busy but at 3pm I reckoned we'd just be hitting the tea/coffee and dessert group. Actually if anything, what I was wondering about was whether or not there'd be much left in the way of tasty salads and scones! Instead we walked in and were hit by a huge queue... which didn't move. Turned out there were no tables and so they'd stopped serving at the counters! These two hungry people definitely couldn't wait so we headed to Bray (Cafe Bar Deli have opened there). Admittedly a bit of a hassle on the parking front but we got there in the end :) And below is a photo of Bray, or at least Bray Head (it's not necessarily that scenic when you're in Bray itself :) )
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