Ireland, Day 3

On day 3, we took another tour. The first pictures are from Kilkenny city and castle. This is where I captured my Irish rainbow (without a pot of gold, but oh well!) Kilkenny was a fun city and we stopped there for lunch and I found my Irish plate there in an antique shop.

Next you'll see pictures from Glendalough, or Glen of two lakes. This is one of the most important sites of monastic ruins in Ireland. St Kevin was the founder around 600 A.D. Those ruins were OLD! I enjoyed the graveyard as well (is that creepy?)

The following pictures are pictures taken on our drive through Wicklow Mountains and county. Our tour guide told us that if any movie was filmed in Ireland, it was most likely there. Some films he named were Leap Year, P.S. I Love You, and Braveheart (not filmed in Scotland, people). We did, however, confirm that Leap Year was filmed there because we watched it that night and were delighted to see the places we visited that day!

In those pictures there is a picture of a tree up on a hill far away. This tree is called a "fairy tree". The Irish are very superstitious and believe that only bad things will happen to the person who chops down this variety of tree. All along the Irish countryside, you'll see these trees right in the middle of the farms. The farmers just plow around them! The Irish believe that the fairies live under these trees and this is the portal from which they enter our world. The Lepruchaun happens to be one of many of the different varieties of fairies!

Lastly, our hotel by day. It was a great trip! Thanks for the memories, Ladies, and thanks Love for letting me go and watching the kids for 4 days!

Ireland, Day 2

So, this was our DUBLIN day! We took the bus into the city and our first stop (with some shops along the way) was St. Patrick's cathedral. It was a beautiful building and we got there in time to hear the bells. All the flowers and bulbs were in full bloom and it was lovely. Next we headed to Christ's Church. There were many tents up in that area with great food. I devoured a mango chutney wrap with yummy chicken (my mouth is watering for it now!) Then we met a "real" leprechaun! There were many folks who really embraced the green!! Then we waited and waited for the parade. Right before it began, it rained on our parade, literally (not metaphorically though...nothing could stop our fun!) This parade was the most artsy I've ever seen. The costumes were really amazing. Out of the 10 bands that played, 8 were from the U.S....too funny! I loved watching the people most of all. Everyone was getting their green on! They were also very friendly and just overall happy! It was fun to be a part of the crowd. Last, we did some shopping and I found my new favorite store, AVOCA (it's like the Irish version of Anthropology), and we hit another one of my favs, Cath Kidston. We even saw a very Irish Mickey Mouse. In the last picture I'm holding a yummy green drink of apple spritzer...yum!