We arrived in Dublin at 5 a.m. It was sunny and beautiful outside! We got our luggage, exchanged some dollars for euros and headed to the rental car desk. We are driving an "Opel Astra". I did go to the left side to get in out of habit before I realized the driver's side is on the right! Took a few spins around the parking garage to get used to driving stick on the opposite side and then we were off! Thankfully the first road we took out of Dublin was a divided highway so I didn't have to concentrate on staying to the left! It was just over an hour to our first stop- Kildare. We arrived so early though that nothing was open yet! We drove around the little town and finally stopped and asked a woman who was out watering her flowers where we could get some breakfast and she recommended "Silken Thomas" so we headed there. Great strong coffee, we hung out there until the Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens opened at 9 am. The Stud was beautiful, lots of new babies running around with their moms......