We awoke to the sound of unmilked cows mooing outside the window and went down to breakfast. The electricity was still out, but there was a lovely fire burning in an itty bitty stove in the dining room, so it was nice and toasty. The phone lines were also down, so we couldn't call to reserve a B&B for the night. Fortunately, we had planned a day of hiking, so lack of electricity didn't interfere with our day.

After breakfast, we drove into the town of Glendalough and parked in the nearly empty Visitor Centre parking lot. From there we could see the tall round tower of St. Kevin's Monastery, so we meandered toward it. The monastery, built in the 6th century, is very tiny. It has a very tall round tower. The only entrance to the tower is about 15 feet up, and the only windows were way up at the tippy-top. The walls were really thick. These little towers, which are pretty common in Ireland, were built to be bell-towers, but more importantly to be hiding places from Viking marauders.

Then we followed a large path along a river. The path is the Wicklow Way, which is a big 46-mile-long gravel trail through the Wicklow Mountains. On our right was the river, and on our left was a mountain with lots of pretty waterfalls and mossy trees and ferns. We soon arrived at a National Park Information Centre, a little house next to the path, only marginally functional due to lack of power. We went in and told the lady working there that were wanted to go for a 3-4 hour hike, and she sold us a map and showed us a good route. So we set off for our adventure, sortof wishing we had been smart enough to bring water with us.

We stayed on the Wicklow Way for a while, and for the most part, we had the trail to ourselves. We passed a really neat waterfall--two glaciers came through the mountains long ago, and each carved a valley. One of the valleys is deeper than the other, so the water falls from the higher valley into the lower one.

Then we turned onto a less-travelled path that took us pretty much straight up the mountain. It wasn't a difficult path, but it do go right up, so it was pretty exhausting. At the peak of the mountain, we were rewarded with a panoramic view of Wicklow County.

Our trail followed the ridgeline of the mountain. The path was pretty muddy, so where the mud was deep we just walked in the heather instead. Heather is really springy to walk on, and does a great job of wiping the mud off boots.

Our route eventually took us off the trail, which was tricky because the ground is so wet--the moss is really spongy, and the grass grows in big tufts. When you step on grass, you can't tell if you're stepping on or between tufts. We managed to navigate it without twisting our ankles. We passed lots of neat mosses and lichens, and lots of little streams. The soil was pitch black. We didn't pass many people, but none of the people we passed were Americans, which was a refreshing change.

Since we were getting hungry and thirsty, we decided to take some shortcuts. One of them took us to the Wicklow Way, and then we cut across country again to get back down to the waterfall. From there, we went back the way we had come to the parking lot. We were really thankful we had gotten an early start--the Wicklow Way by now was absolutely jam-packed with tourists. It was a zoo getting back to the car park, which was completely full.

We drove to a pub to find some food in the nearby town of Laragh. The pub in Laragh is nifty--lots of Celtic knots stencilled on the walls. They still didn't have electricity, so all the tables had candles. Only bottled beer was available, and the staff was running around like crazy to keep the customers happy.

Feeling refreshed after a bowl of yummy Irish soup and brown bread and tea, we set off for the town of Kilkenny. For some reason, we had lots of trouble finding our way around in Kilkenny, but we finally managed to find the town centre and (after being followed around by a dog for a while) a good place to eat.

Kilkenny is a neat little town, with lots of Medieval buildings right alongside later ones. After dinner, we wandered through the triangle of streets that form the town centre. We walked past Kilkenny Castle. I'm glad we didn't go out of our way to have time to tour the castle--crenellations are about the only castle feature it has. The castle has two large towers on the front corners, and between them is a ridiculously Neo-Classical entrance. So after poo-pooing that (it didn't even have any arrow loops!), we returned to our car and set off for our B&B, which was about a half-hour's drive away.

We found the B&B with no trouble, and were showed to our room by a wiry little middle-aged woman with dirt ground into her hands from a day of digging potatoes. She showed us to our room, which was absolutely charming--tall sloping ceiling, full-length wooden mirror, and a huge sleigh bed. Then our hostess, Eileen, talked to us for a long time about our trip and how few tourists are around this time of year compared to the summer.

Before we went to bed, we wanted some tea, so we asked Eileen for some. She served us in the sitting room. As we were waiting for our tea, her husband Michael walked through, exhausted from a day of digging potatoes. Despite his exhaustion, he stopped to have a long conversation with us (in which he talked in a long uninterruptible stream while we listened and nodded) about the fact that his sons are not going to continue the family tradition of potato farming, the state of the world, the corruption of politicians, terrorism, religion, and finally, his entire life philosophy.

Eileen brought us our tea, and an English couple that had just arrived joined us. They had had a difficult time getting to Ireland because of the storms. They were very nice, and the five of us sat and talked and drank tea for a long time before retiring for the night--it was quite nice.