We enjoyed a good night’s sleep after a busy day, as today we have nothing scheduled until high tea (lunch for us) at 1:30. The Powerscourt Hotel was truly magnificent, huge, luxurious, and with beautiful extensive gardens.
Sharing a room with my brother and sister, I was struck one morning when I realized that we all started the day by doing various physical therapy exercises in bed. We’re all indeed getting older.
The breakfast buffet was similarly luxurious as the hotel. In addition to the full Irish, there were about eight kinds of fruit with yogurt and granola parfaits, many types of hot and cold cereal, scones and brown bread and pastries galore, waffles, bagels, smoked salmon and meats and cheeses, plus you could also order special things from the menu. We took our time and did a little people-watching too. There were quite a few families with very young children, so it was lively … I imagined they might go outside to the play structures or to the lovely indoor pool. We were headed to the Powerscourt Gardens, voted the third most beautiful gardens in the world in a National Geographic survey. Indeed they were wonderful, with thousands of tulips of every color and style in full bloom in one garden, a lake and a separate pool both with sculptures, a gorgeous multi-level Japanese garden, a small round tower, a collection of trees from all over the world, a rose garden pruned and ready to grow in spring, and more. We had a lovely two-hour walk around the gardens, and Claudia wanted to visit the Avoca store afterwards, which we did. I found a cute little book of common Irish says and what they mean in American English which I got for Larry. I thought he would enjoy it.
Back to the hotel, we did a final pack up and stashed our bags, and went back for our high tea, it was luxurious as well, and we had a prime table overlooking the gardens. Four types of tea sandwiches, scones with butter, jam, clotted cream, and lemon curd, and four pastries, a chocolate mousse ball, a lemon financier, a strawberry rhubarb tart, a yuzu macaron, plus the choice of about 20 teas. We took our time and enjoyed every bite, knowing that our trip was coming to an end.
Finally we headed back to Dublin, and I drove again, navigating carefully to the hotel. We dropped our bags and checked in, leaving Claudia there. Larry and I went to return the car, holding our breath as the staffer checked the car … “no damage” he said, a huge relief that the scratches on the left side were in fact there before. Whew! Over to the shuttle to get back to the hotel. Accenture was having some sort of big meeting and the hotel was packed with bright twenty and thirty-somethings talking about their clients and travel. We sat in the large lobby, I called Barney and we all had a drink and a snack, as the high tea was in fact a large lunch for us in place of dinner. Upstairs we chatted a bit, did some repacking again, and figured out our timing for the morning. Our last night in Ireland was low-key, and it was a bit nice not to be looking to pack up and drive somewhere new the next day.
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