Yesterday we got up early and grabbed the DART train out to Bray, a suburb of Dublin about 10-15 miles down the coast from Dublin. Bray reached the height of its prosperity in the mid-1800's when the train line was built from Dublin and victorian hotels were built aside its boardwalk. Unfortunately the boardwalk hasn't changed much and today the coastal part of the town is a bit run-down. However, if you look to the east you see only the nice pebble beach and cliffs surrounding the town. 
The old-town off the beach is much nicer, with a quait, lively main street with coffee shops, pubs, and even a bowling alley that we scoped out for a future night out.After Bray, we took the bus to Enniskerry, a little village that is no more than a main roundabout with a few shops scattered from the circle. We saw the first Irish version of the English red phone booth as well...though not quite as cool.
Beyond the cute shops is Powerscourt, which is an old manor house dating from the 1500's that has been turned over to the public. The gardens are really beautiful and a bit like those on Isa Bella (see July 2008 post), just not quite as fancy (as you would imagine a palace in the Italian Lake district would have the upper hand). Erin and I grabbed lunch from the cafe there and sat on the terrace overlooking the gardens.
We then wandered through the gardens, checking out the japanese garden, rolling down the terraced hills and just hanging out for a couple hours before heading back on the bus to the city.
On the way back, we spotted these two nooks that were deprived of statues, so we made up for it by becoming flute players ourselves!
It was great to get out and has us excited for next weekend's trip to Bulgaria!
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