It's not raining - let's go sightseeing

The day started dry and ended dry and had lots of sun, a huge rainbow and a few strategically timed heavy showers.

The drive to the Irish National Heritage Park near Wexford town was uneventful. Traffic moved well and the roads were OK. No major puddles. After yesterday's road closures and scary encounters with deep water (not OUR encounters, just some on video) we had great conditions.

Braden and Sammie toured the park and were intrigued with all of the Viking displays and replicas of buildings, costumes and tools. That was to be expected. What wasn't expected was seeing a heron catch and play with a snake. I thought there were no snakes here. Do I have to re-think my visits? Anyway, this heron was standing on a gravel path that was completely flooded and we noticed he was "biting" on something that he was sort of flinging around. I hate snakes so there's no way I was going to take a video or even a photo. It looked like a garter snake but believe me, we were nowhere near close enough to be sure. 

They almost finished the walking tour when the heavens opened. Good rain jackets saved the day. Meanwhile, back in the café, I enjoyed a pot of peppermint tea and finished my book. I'd been there before and am indifferent to Vikings so there was no need to visit again. We had lunch there as it was still raining and outside the window was a huge rainbow. The problem was we could see it through the trees but a picture wouldn't have shown anything. 

The road to Hook Head Lighthouse is not exactly a motorway and yesterday was under a foot of water. Our car is not that far off the ground and I imagine Hertz would frown on us using it as an amphibious craft.

So, Johnstown Castle was the next stop. The castle restoration has been completed and we took the guided tour. Very interesting. A fully intact castle is not what Braden loves. So we sought out one in ruins. Google showed us one quite close by so I set the map app and we set out. Well, there is no Artramon Castle. We did get to the townland of Artramon. The houses are nice. The road is narrow. But no castle.

On to Curracloe Beach - well, almost. We were within sight of the parking lot when the road signs warned of flooding. The huge puddle, well minor lake, was enough to say "Hey, I think I'll just reverse up this road." So I did. We couldn't find a place that overlooked the beach. On to Courtown. There we found the harbour, took a few photos and headed back home.

We're about to visit Mary and Jim and then on to the Dying Cow. Photos next time.

We never made it to the Dying Cow. But it was a nice visit to Coolross.