Dublin Walk 2 is the Wicklow Walk.
We headed there on today, Sunday. But first, I'll lead up with our awesome weekend.
We kicked off Friday night with Anne Marie's girls (Abbie--7, Sophie--9, and Chloe--12) coming over to spend the evening with Johnny and Maggie so that we could head out with a group of "first class" (i.e. first grade) moms.
We headed up to "Bakers Corner" which, at home would sound like a place to order pie and have a coffee, but here, is really just another (packed) pub. Anne Marie's darling husband drove and picked us up as even a thimble full of beer is enough to get you in trouble for drunk driving. Below from left to right: Dervla, Emer, Edell, Anne Marie, Sheila, Carmel, Sarah, Laura and Me! We had a blast.
The age range of this group of women, all with seven year old girls or boys, ranged from 26 to 40 (something). At some point a few dudes celebrating the end of their semester wondered what this large group of women was doing... Irish women won't put up with B.S. from stranger dudes. You should have seen how they reacted to these young men's attention. Anyway, Anne Marie told them that what we had in common was the "number 7".
I think they were more surprised by their fellow twenty-somethings in our group when they figured out that what we had in common was HAVING seven year old's...
Saturday was lovely. Johnny and I played in the park a bit (he is LOVING his jump rope, Grandma!) and I picked up Carol Ann from her drama festival in Althone. Maggie is getting ready for her finals. She's got two weeks of regular school to go and one week of finals. Johnny's school goes through June but we are pulling him out when Maggie is done to spend our last week in Ireland traveling a bit and enjoying our friends until we have to leave.
Today we headed down to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. The area is known for an early medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin.
He could not have chosen a more gorgeous site where "two rivers form a confluence". Close by is "the meeting" where two rivers come together (we saw a group of kayakers ready for a trip) about which Thomas Moore wrote a poem and song.
The site includes a monastic city and is linked to the whole system if Wicklow Walks.
You can take a short walk to a gorgeous lake and see the cave in which St. Keven spent time as a hermit as well as his "beds".
"Temple na Skellig is a small church on the southern shore of the Upper Lake which is only accessible by boat. Dwelling huts enclosed by a stone wall are located west of the church. The church, partly rebuilt in the 12th century, has a granite doorway with inclined jambs. At the east gable is an inscribed Latin Cross together with several plain grave slabs and three small crosses."
The monastic city has a unique set of archways at its entrance and is unique in its in-tact round tower. The "gateway" to the "monastic city" is one of the most important monuments left and is unique in Ireland. It was originally a two-storied entrance with two granite. Inside and to the right is a large stone slab with an inscribed cross. The gateway denoted the sanctity of the settlement and its boundary.
The round tower was amazing.
John loved the idea that the entrance to the tower was over three meters from the ground and that the windows on the top seemed to be for warding off enemies. Too bad you couldn't climb up to the entrance to see the inside!
The largest of the buildings is the cathedral.
Just south of the cathedral an early cross of local granite, with an unpierced ring, is commonly known as St. Kevin's Cross.
It was a lovely afternoon, particularly after the kids got over themselves and realized that they actually were having a good time walking and enjoying nature and a bit of history. Of course a cup of hot chocolate doesn't hurt.
We headed there on today, Sunday. But first, I'll lead up with our awesome weekend.
We kicked off Friday night with Anne Marie's girls (Abbie--7, Sophie--9, and Chloe--12) coming over to spend the evening with Johnny and Maggie so that we could head out with a group of "first class" (i.e. first grade) moms.
We headed up to "Bakers Corner" which, at home would sound like a place to order pie and have a coffee, but here, is really just another (packed) pub. Anne Marie's darling husband drove and picked us up as even a thimble full of beer is enough to get you in trouble for drunk driving. Below from left to right: Dervla, Emer, Edell, Anne Marie, Sheila, Carmel, Sarah, Laura and Me! We had a blast.
The age range of this group of women, all with seven year old girls or boys, ranged from 26 to 40 (something). At some point a few dudes celebrating the end of their semester wondered what this large group of women was doing... Irish women won't put up with B.S. from stranger dudes. You should have seen how they reacted to these young men's attention. Anyway, Anne Marie told them that what we had in common was the "number 7".
I think they were more surprised by their fellow twenty-somethings in our group when they figured out that what we had in common was HAVING seven year old's...
Saturday was lovely. Johnny and I played in the park a bit (he is LOVING his jump rope, Grandma!) and I picked up Carol Ann from her drama festival in Althone. Maggie is getting ready for her finals. She's got two weeks of regular school to go and one week of finals. Johnny's school goes through June but we are pulling him out when Maggie is done to spend our last week in Ireland traveling a bit and enjoying our friends until we have to leave.
Today we headed down to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. The area is known for an early medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin.
He could not have chosen a more gorgeous site where "two rivers form a confluence". Close by is "the meeting" where two rivers come together (we saw a group of kayakers ready for a trip) about which Thomas Moore wrote a poem and song.
The site includes a monastic city and is linked to the whole system if Wicklow Walks.
You can take a short walk to a gorgeous lake and see the cave in which St. Keven spent time as a hermit as well as his "beds".
"Temple na Skellig is a small church on the southern shore of the Upper Lake which is only accessible by boat. Dwelling huts enclosed by a stone wall are located west of the church. The church, partly rebuilt in the 12th century, has a granite doorway with inclined jambs. At the east gable is an inscribed Latin Cross together with several plain grave slabs and three small crosses."
The monastic city has a unique set of archways at its entrance and is unique in its in-tact round tower. The "gateway" to the "monastic city" is one of the most important monuments left and is unique in Ireland. It was originally a two-storied entrance with two granite. Inside and to the right is a large stone slab with an inscribed cross. The gateway denoted the sanctity of the settlement and its boundary.
The round tower was amazing.
John loved the idea that the entrance to the tower was over three meters from the ground and that the windows on the top seemed to be for warding off enemies. Too bad you couldn't climb up to the entrance to see the inside!
The largest of the buildings is the cathedral.
Just south of the cathedral an early cross of local granite, with an unpierced ring, is commonly known as St. Kevin's Cross.
It was a lovely afternoon, particularly after the kids got over themselves and realized that they actually were having a good time walking and enjoying nature and a bit of history. Of course a cup of hot chocolate doesn't hurt.
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