Well today I got my beach town fix. I did my version of the Hop on Hop off trip but did it via train. I pretty much road the DART Train (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) up and down the east coast. And thanks to my good friend Rick Steves, it was all paid for since I bought the all week transit pass he recommends that allows me travel on all trains, buses and trams. I’ve definitely got my money’s worth. And I felt like I was back riding the London Tube (subway) because at each stop they’d say, “Mind the Gap”! (That’s the little space between the train and the platform when getting on and off.)
So I hit 6 different beach towns but the nice thing was most of them were only like a 15-20 minute train ride apart. They were Howth, Malahide, Bray, Killeney, Greystones, and Dun Langhaire.
I got up really early and headed straight to Howth. It ended up being my favorite since I was able to do this scenic 3 hour hike. It was so early there were no other people on the trail other than this cute old couple from Sydney, Australia. So we walked together part of the way and took each other’s pictures. It was a beautiful trail along the eastern cliffs of the peninsula so you were right on the edge looking straight down at the water. Just breath taking!
I then went to Malahide and saw their castle. It’s from the 12th century and owned by the Talbot family (not sure if that’s the American clothing store family but I think not).
Then hit the rest of them checking out their cute little towns and walking along their beach promenades. Each was unique in it’s own way.
Well I’ll just let the pictures do the talking since I know this is Friday and you’ll be busy drinking your Guinness’s tonight. Oh wait, that’s here! Lol. TGIF!
The pics are as follows: 1-5 is Howth (and look closely at the first picture and you’ll see people swimming! The high today was only 67 and it rarely gets over 70 so that water had to be FREEZING!)
6-7 is Malahide, 8 is Bray, 9 is Killeney, 10 is Greystones ( I guess because of the grey colored stones??!!), and 11-12 are Dun Laoghaire with the last pic being some of the best seafood chowder I’ve ever had. It was stuffed with all different seafood. Yummy!
The Wandering Italian 