IRELAND-Day1

In September we spent two weeks in Ireland.  I posted pictures on facebook, but I have had several people ask me to put them on my blog.  Considering I haven't posted anything on my blog for over a year and a half this may be a challenge.  Blogger has changed a lot since I used it last.  But here goes........

Our friends from Georgia, Johnny and Hannah were planning their 17th trip to the Emerald Isle and asked us to go with them. In all honesty, Ireland was never a place we had even thought about visiting, but we decided what the heck, let's do it. When I plan on travelling anywhere new I read as much as I can about the area, I study guidebooks and try to find out as much as I can about where I will be visiting. Ken doesn't want to know anything about where we are going, he wants everything to be a big surprise. We were both happy when we started touring around Ireland, I was seeing things I had read about and everything was new to him.

We drove to Denver on 9/11 and spent the night with my brother. The next day we flew to Chicago where we met up with Johnny and Hannah and left on Aer Lingus that night for Dublin. After an 8 hour flight we arrived at 8:30 in the morning. After picking up our rental car we began a busy day of sight-seeing.

Ken and I loved seeing the vivid greens of the countryside. After a summer of no rain in Montana we were sick of seeing brown and ready for some color. Ireland didn't let us down. Not only was it green, there were flowers, bushes and beautiful trees everywhere. It is a beautiful country.

Our first stop was at Powerscourt located at the foot of the Sugar Loaf Mountains.  Their gardens are the finest in Ireland.  Powerscourt was built in 1730 by the Viscount Powerscourt. 

The house was gutted by an accidental fire in 1974, but the ground floor has been renovated and now houses a shopping center and restaurant.

 

As we were driving to our next destination we noticed these bushes growing like a hedge along the roadways.  It is wild fuschia that grows everywhere and anywhere in Ireland.  The red and hot pink contrasted beautifully with the vivid greens.  It was an amazing sight.

 

The roads, except for the motorways around the larger cities, were very narrow.  I was a little scared the first few days, but I got used to them......eventually.  They're not only narrow there are a lot of twists and curves too.

 

 (notice the road sign)

 

Our next stop was the round tower and monastic settlement at Glendalough.  The settlement was founded in the 6th century and was attacked many times by the Vikings, but managed to flourish for 600 years.  It functioned as a monastery until 1539.  Most of the buildings date from the 10th to 12th centuries.



 

View of the settlement 

 

Inside the ruins of the church

 



 

A cross in the cemetery

 

 

This round tower is one of the finest in Ireland. Round towers were built as bell towers for the monastery. They were also used as places of refuge when they were being attacked and for storage of valuables. The door is about 13 feet off the ground and a ladder was used to enter and then pulled up from the inside.

 

 

 

Jerpoint Abbey

 

Don't have a clue why there are two of the same pictures here.  It is coming back to me as to why I quit blogging.  Blogger seems to have a mind of its own.  Anyway, I will continue with my tour.  Jerpoint Abbey was one of my favorite stops.  It was founded in 1160.  The church is in pretty good condition and the carvings and sculptures are amazing. 

 

 



 There were several of these tombs, all highly decorated with carvings of bishops.

 

 Bed and Breakfast's are everywhere in Ireland and are the best places to stay.  We spent our first night in Cashel and Joy's Rockside House.  After being up for about 36 hours we were ready for a good nights sleep.  After a dinner of delicious potato-leek soup and a toasted sandwich we settled in for the night.  After our first day in Ireland we knew we were going to love this trip.

These gorgeous dahlias were growing in front of the B&B and I do love to take pictures of flowers!

 

(to be continued)