The Last, But Certainly Not the Least of One Wonderful Vacation

I haven't written on this part of my trip, because it was the end of our time in Ireland, and who would want to let go of those kind of memories?  But we all know that my finishing a story it doesn't mean that the story is over.  For me it seems with each picture I get images of days and that makes for great times that can be relived as often as I want to re-explore Ireland!  So here's another chapter.  

The most beautiful and the most inspirational part of the journey was our visit to the Rock of Cashel.  Often known as St. Patrick's Rock, this was originally the residence for the Kings of Munster.  Found in County Tipperary it was an absolutely beautiful day when we visited.  The Rock was given to the church in 1101.  While we were there much of the site was being restored, but the tour still got us in much of the Cathedral anyway.  The most awe inspiring part was the view from the Rock which was really fabulous.

This is a copy of the Cross
of St. Patrick on the Rock.
The original is inside the
main building to keep it
from weathering any more.

While we were here there was quite
a bit of restoration going on!

This is the west side
where the bishop lived.

The wall of the cathedral
has no stained glass
windows, but the wholes
remaining are the home for
many nesting birds.

I loved the arches!  That
and the gravel floor gave
a real echo of the past.

The cemetery just outside
the cathedral goes back
centuries.  What made this
part of the tour extra special
was the view of the
surrounding fields - we
could see for miles!

The round tower, typical
of many found in Ireland
was really beautiful.

The out side view of the cathedral.

The side chapel in the
side of the cathedral
had many murals that
because of the damp climate
are fading or mildewing.

This is one of a few of the murals
and carvings that still exist in
the chapel.

I could not get enough of the views
from the Rock.

After a tour of the Rock
we headed into the
village below.  Good food
and shopping here!

More of the views from the
cemetery.

A shot of the village.

This was one of the many fields
that graced the hillsides of
Ireland.  I was blown away by
the many colors of green that
the spring holds here.

The Rock has a sheer face on the
East side.  There were two small
boys climbing like monkeys on the
face and it made me VERY
nervous!

Another view.

                                             

We boarded the bus and headed
out to Kinsale and the ocean.  I
really love the signposts in
Ireland! (Take time to click on
the picture to see the various
places we could have gone!)

                                                      

                        

On the bus we were finally heading further West and away from the large cities of the East and into the rural  farm communities and fishing villages of West Ireland.

Ireland and England (The Second Half!)

One of the barrels
used for fermentation.

We spent time visiting a few places in and around Dublin City.  One of the first places we got to see was the Guinness  Storehouse which was a lot of fun.  Arthur Guiness was a wise man. ;-)  He got the City of Dublin to give him a 9,000 year lease on the Storehouse property at an initial price of 100 Irish pounds after which he only paid 45 pounds a month for the rest of the lease.  While there we discovered the history of how the brew is made, and got to enjoy a free Guinness on the top floor of the building after the tour in the Gravity Bar.  The Gravity Bar is a round room with a 360 view of the city of Dublin.  We had a great view, and a great drink at the same time!

This is the lease that started it all.

The Guinnes Harp.

The last day in Dublin was spent traveling by our bus all around and one of the sites we saw was St. Patrick's Cathedral.  The cathedral was in the center of a park where families were enjoying the day and it was surrounded with plaques that honored the writers of Ireland.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The park was beautiful.

This is just one of the plaques that
were within the church park around
St. Patrick's.

Usually the plots between the hedgerows were
filled with sheep - after all it was lambing
season! 

So after those first days we left the city of Dublin and headed out into the countryside for the first time.  We got to see some of the mountains and the patchwork quilt like hillsides that are divided by hedgerows.

The drive by itself was lovely, but the destination took my breath away.  Glendalough is an example of Celtic Monasticism.  The graveyards were very holy and so were placed within the walls of the encampment near the church.  In this lovely area there is a church and a cathedral!  The buildings are all of stone - even the roofs were made of stone.  Glendalough means "The valley of the two lakes" in Irish.  St. Kevin established this monastic settlement in the sixth century.

The entrance to the Glendalough
community was through a stone gate
which led to one of the most intriguing
historical sites we saw in Ireland.

The site had a small museum that held
many stone crosses and a layout of
what the monastic village look like in
its early days as well.

One of the first sites was St. Kevin's
Church .

The cemetery was huge and is
still used today.  In the background
is another view of St. Kevin's Church.

This is the outside of the cathedral on the site
which though it had no roof  was still a beautiful
edifice.

St. Kevin's Church

St. Kevin's Cross

I think Glendalough was one of my favorite spots in Ireland.  The natural beauty was everywhere I looked!  It also was such a peaceful place both in the sense that it was so quiet, and that it held such spiritual peace for me while I was there.  I could go back there tomorrow because while there I felt like I had truly come home.

More to come later!  (I really didn't realize I had taken so MANY pictures!)

     

An Irish Holiday

March 31^st, 2011

1:35 P.M.

We left the sunshine of West Michigan and landed in dark and dreary Newark, New Jersey for our layover before our flight to Ireland, our own land of adventure.  The weather CANNOT dampen my excitement about this trip I’ve begun, though.  This is a beginning, a first step toward my exploration of the Emerald Isle. Life is definitely good! 

We left on an express flight (i.e. a small jet) and after an almost a two-hour flight we are here in Newark waiting for our connecting flight to Ireland.  We ate at a nasty Chinese place for lunch in the terminal and now have a LONG lay over, but that’s okay since I’m doing some catch up on my journal and will do some knitting as well.  I am off to read my book, or rather listen to it.  I will add more later.

April 1, 2011

Dublin Airport.  We got our luggage and went through customs and are now sitting and waiting.  For any of you who have traveled with a tour you know it is much like the armed forces – you hurry up…and wait.  We are waiting for the rest of our group to come in as we’ve all I have to admit it is good to be able to actually stretch out aver an almost 6 hour flight from Newark, New Jersey. 

The skies are gray and dark, but it isn’t raining.  Ah, but the trees are green!!   After leaving the browns of Michigan where there is still an abundance of dirty snow it is good to see some spring colors abounding.  We were shuttled to the Calaghan Davenport Hotel near Merian Square and got a chance to freshen up after being “on the way here,” from 10:05 AM on the 31^st.  

We’re resting and having a bit of recouping.  We will tour a bit of Dublin this afternoon visiting Trinity College, St. Steven’s Green, the Famine Memorial, and O’Connell Street.  We’ve really hit the ground running!

April 2, 2011

We started this day with a ride around the city with a fascinating bit of history thrown into the mix.  Dublin Castle was a fabulous place and the history lesson we had was done extremely well and was really interesting.  The one thing I have discovered the wonderful wit and friendliness of the people of Dublin.  We learned some of the sad history of the very resilient Irish people.  We’ve also of past visits by the British monarchy and that of some important visits to come this month as well.  They will be entertaining the Queen of England first, and then our own president, Barak Obama. 

One of the many favorite lines from our guide that kept us laughing was, “We don’t dislike the English – we hate them!”  But it was said in fun, as was almost everything our guide told us.  He enjoyed joking with us and was terribly irreverent toward almost everyone from history!

  Does this building look familiar?  

 It should! The man who designed 

it also designed the White House!  

This is the Irish President's residence 

in Phoenix Park in Dublin.

We continued on through a very small section of Phoenix Park, which is a HUGE park within the city.  This fabulous recreational area is larger by far than Central Park in New York and Hyde Park in London!  And besides being a park that many local people use it houses the homes of The President of Ireland, the home for the ambassador of the United States, and Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  It also is home to the Dublin Zoo!  There are soccer fields and lovely green lawn areas with small-forested areas within its borders, too. 

                                                        

This statue of justice is at the gate to 

the castle's inner court.  It faces 

toward the castle and the British 

government's representative and not 

the outside and the people who he had 

represented. It was said because of 

the that that justice had turned her 

back on the Irish people.

 Many of the rooms in the Dublin 

Castle were similar to those you 

would find in any castle.

 But unlike in times past they are 

used to welcome visitors both royal 

and presidential to the Irish 

government and it's people. 

The symbol of Ireland is of course the 
Irish harp.What was interesting for 
me to learn was that the 

color for the country was not 
green, but deep blue.

 The Waterford chandeliers

were fabulous!  This one illuminated 

one of the fabulous paintings found 

on the ceilings throughout the 

building.

This is St. Patrick's cathedral in 
downtown Dublin.  It has the 
most beautiful park all around 
it and along the brick wall on 
one side there are relief 
sculptures of all the literary 
men who put the Irish on the
map.  Men like George 
Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde 
and so many more.

   

We also were given an historical
background on the Irish potato
famine and those who suffered
the horrific while visiting the
Famine Memorial.  This part of
Ireland’s history still touches many
Irish families who lost members
so long ago either because of death
from starvation, or from immigration.

The staues for the memorial are all gaunt and

really emphasize the worst that happened to the

Irish people during this most difficukt time in their

history.  The sister memorial found in New York

shows the poor that came to our country in less

dire straights and with smiles on their faces.

FitzWilliam Street is a real piece of the past near the heart of this grand city that is lined with many of the original gas lights as well as early Georgian row houses with their multitude of chimneys on each and every roof (One for every room in the house).  The colorful doors often with brass knockers and knobs that truly adds to the beauty of this area of Dublin.  From there we passed the Shelborne Hotel a very old and historical, Trinity College where the book of Kells is and more than a few pubs as well.  We ate dinner at O’Neil’s Pub that evening and had some of the very best fish n’ chips I have ever eaten!  This small pub with it’s dark wood interior was a real find for dinner with a wonderful feel of touching Dublin’s past.

These two Georgian Mansions were fabulous and there were at least 15 to 20 on each block.  There were many with red and roayal blue doors that added to the elegance.  This is the really saught after parts of town to live in for the wealthy and was even in the 1800s.  Writers like Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw use to live here! 

Note those chimneys.  Each single one in the large 

chimneys were for individual rooms in each house.

April 2^nd was a jam-packed day filled with all sorts of places to enjoy.  We started off the morning early with a trip outside of Dublin to Glendalough Monastery a monastic settlement that dates back centuries to the very beginnings of Christianity in Ireland. The Solid stone church (Roof and all!) and cathedral were awe-inspiring and the huge cemetery continues to add new graves for the Irish up to today.

From there it was back to Dublin and a free afternoon which many of us filled with visits to the Guinness Storehouse, Jameson Distillery, and the Trinity College Library to view the ancient Book of Kells.  The evening was a huge part of the tour with a trip to a thatched dinning establishment called Taylor’s.  Here we had a fabulous meal and such a treat after that included a group if Irish singers who treated us to rousing songs of Ireland both old and new as well as some extremely talented Irish step dancers.  Tomorrow will hold many more excursions and a change of hotel too, but for now we are off to bed.