Day 2 - County Wicklow

Picture of the day

We had planned on getting up relatively early, 7:30ish, so that we could be on the road before 9am. We woke up a bit late but still got out pretty much on time. We had our first Irish breakfast experience, the sausage was a bit scary, other than that it was great! Erin did not want to drive through downtown Dublin and luckily the GPS did not take us there. Unlucky, or lucky, depending on how you look at it, it took us through these insane back roads to get to Glendalough, our destination for the day. Don't worry friends, on our way there we

1. saw unmanned sheep!!!
(yes that is Erin, all the way up that road to get some up-close shots)



2. witnessed a miracle by finding Glencree
(this is a church on the same property as the Center for Reconciliation)




Glencree is a Center for Reconciliation that Jordan had been to once before and really liked but had no idea how to find it. It just so happened that the back road we were on on our way to Glendalough was the same road said center was on!!! We were excited even though the center was not actually open, at least we got to see it!

3. ROAD SHEEP
(yes, they are starring at us)



I got some hilarious video of the sheep galloping in the road with jordan laughing so hard she can hardly breathe. The rest of the trip we talked about the infamous road sheep and how fun it was to actually have to honk at them to make them move out of the road!!

Glendalough is spectacular!!! It is an old monestary, which was founded in the 6th century. The bulidings we got to see date back to between the 10th and 12th centuries, still pretty dang old!! When you get there you walk up underneath these great arches

When you get to the top you see what remains of two old churches (below is just one of them, Erin has the other)

There is also a big celtic cross that jordan says if you can reach around it and touch fingers you will find love, or something. I had to give it a try!!

And then I saw this great break in the rock wall and thought it would be a perfect spot for a THRONE, except then I realized it had been raining (hence the parka) so I decided not to but Erin got a picture of me squatting, always entertaining!!

and probably my favorite part about Glendalough. . .

look at that view!!! isn't it amazing!!!

Our next stop was the Avondale House, the birthplace of Charles Stewart Parnell, a politcal leader in Ireland who was incarcerated at Kilmainham Gaol, though they treated him more like a guest than a prisoner. Some pictures from the house & the view from the house

I am not sure if we happened to come across our next stop or if we intended to go there but it was beautiful!! Vale of Avoca, the meeting of the water. This is where Avonmore & Avonbeg rivers come together to form the River Avoca.

After our excursion & fun photo shoot at the Vale of Avoca we continued on into Avoca where we went to the Avoca Handweavers workshop!!!! We actually got to watch men handweave material for scarves, tablecloths & blankets. It felt kind of funny to just waltz into where these people work everyday and watch them, but I was nevertheless grateful that they let us!!

Our final stops of the day included the Tesco Extra where we found many good treats and fun purchases & the gas station where we bought bread, ham, cheese, diet coke & a chocolate treat of goodness which we ate while lying on the floor of our room in the bed and breakfast because we were so hungry we could not decide where else to eat and we didn't want to spend a lot of money. We made an agreement that night that we would no longer skip lunch because we were all cranky by the time we ate!