If the sheep decide to form an uprising, we're in trouble

Thursday, May 28th
County Wicklow, Ireland

Today was nuts! We had a traditional Irish breakfast buffet for breakfast here at the hotel… And it was MASSIVE. SO MUCH FOOD. We died, it was so awesome. And the hot chocolate was the best I have ever had in my entire life. We are here at the Ashling for one more night, so we are jazzed to have that again. We’ll see what else I can get tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I had almost everything today…

The most amazing hot chocolate to ever pass these lips. Hunting for it to keep on hand.

Then we got picked up by a bus to take us down to O’Connell street for our bus tour. We got on the bus for County Wicklow and the Wicklow Gap tour and that started a whole lot of fun. 

Ready for a crazy day of fun in the country!

Apparently county Wicklow is considered the Garden of Ireland, so it was bound to be stunning! Our tour guide was Trevor and the driver was Eagars, and it was a riot. I took lots of notes and Trevor quotes today so here we go.

The Spire of Dublin or the Monument of Light, which was put up for the millennium….two years late. “It’s the tallest sculpture in the world. 5 million Euros, 200 entries, and they chose that.... A spike. We call it the spire in the mire, the stiletto in the ghetto, the rod to God, the pole in the hole. It is apparently a 21st century interpretation of a Celtic standing stone, he was certainly stoned on something when he thought of that.”

Long shot of the spire

A little bit closer. Not much better, right?

We passed a statue on O’Connell street of Daniel O’Connell, who is an Irish national hero, aka the Liberator, and there were 4 angels on it, representing four virtues he possessed: fidelity, patriotism, courage, eloquence. One has a bullet hole in her left breast from the Uprising in 1916. "If she were alive today, she'd be dead...” 

Daniel and the angels. Can't see the bullet hole from here, but it's there.

In speaking about the war between King William of Orange and King James II, he said: "A Dutchman defeated a Scotsman for the British throne in Ireland. If you are confused by that, so were we.”

The garden of Ireland is right! So many pictures from the bus windows.

Interesting details of the Irish flag, also called the “Tri-Color": green is for nationalists, traditionalism and Catholic heritage, orange is for unionists, Protestantism and supporters of William of Orange, white is for peace, in the hopes that they would eventually become one.

"We have an international crew today, your tourguide is from Ireland, your driver is from Latvia, and the bus is from Germany, so welcome to the European Union."

"Eagars is a very capable driver, he only had 3 pints of Guinness for breaky."

Eagars NEEDED to be a good driver for these roads!

Wellington hated that he was Irish. He was once asked how proud he was to be Irish. "Just because one is born in a stable doesn't make it a horse." Daniel O'Connell shouted across the Parliament floor "It might not make you a horse, sir, but it certainly makes you an ass.” Touché, Mr. O'Connell.

Our first stop was to this gorgeous little place called Glencree. It was established by Wellington as a reformatory school in 1801. It was used during the Irish famine in 1850's as a reformatory school for children, used during trouble in Belfast in 1910's for children from the north and the south to promote peace and unity, used during the 2nd world war for children. Still used today to promote peace. 

The gates of Glencree

St. Kevin's church at Glencree, just inside the gates

The barracks! They aren't used now, but they leave the building up.

Also at Glencree was a German war burial site for the German pilots who crashed over Ireland during the second world war, who were buried in Ireland where they died, and most were not identified. They have now been reintured all together here and a memorial is there. That was really cool.

Deutsch in Ireland? Go figure.

Loved seeing this in German. So touching.

Here's the English version. They had it in Irish on the 3rd side.

The quiet little German cemetery with almost no names.

Most of the stones just had this written on them, as identities have been lost.

Truly a special place.

We drove to the bridge from PS I Love You, and took pictures there. So gorgeous! One of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

No heather on the hills, but Trevor said he's never seen heather look like it did in the movie in 15 years as a tour guide. Movie magic LIES.

Waiting for Gerrard Butler, and he's late...

Fun fact: 6 million people live in Ireland. There are 8 million sheep. As Trevor says, "If the sheep decide to form an uprising, we are in trouble."

Wicklow was used for the movie Braveheart. "Those weren't Scotsman, they were members of the Irish national reserves running amok wearing kilts.” 

See why people film in this area? My goodness...

When Trevor was talking about the movie Far and Away, which was also filmed in Wicklow: "Tom Cruise sounded like a demented leprechaun.”

Our next step was to Guinness Lake. That was gorgeous and up high and the views were amazing. They do the filming for the show Vikings and the set was there, so that was cool.

Guinness Lake! If you look closely, you can see the Viking village down on the sand!

We saw the little village of Annamoe where Daniel Day-Lewis lives. We saw the driveway up to his house, which we did not see, which was sad. Steph and I have plans to come back and find him.

Then we went to my favorite Irish place: Glendalough. It means the glen of two lakes. It’s a Monastic city founded by St. Kevin, and anyone can claim sanctuary for 90 days. We were tempted. 

The inestimable Trevor by the Celtic cross at Glendalough!

The day was so pretty, and then suddenly we saw rain coming in when we were walking to Lower Lake, and it was coming in fast. “What do we do?” “Nothing, there’s no time!” So we all threw our hoods up and stood there, waiting. It was hysterical, we just got hit with this wall of water that we saw coming in. Then in 5 minutes, it was over and the sun came back out. So classic. I walked barefoot in the waters of the Upper Lake, so I felt super Irish.

Upper Lake! Have you ever seen such colors?

Upper Lake was so gorgeous.

I took my shoes off right after this...

I match the countryside! It's a sign, I should stay.

There is an old tradition at Glendalough that hopping around the tall Round Tower on 1 foot ante-clockwise 7 times means you get married within 90 days. Steph and I didn’t want to take any chances, but 90 days was fast, so we didn’t do the whole 7. Still, we’ll see.

The Round Tower! Hopping took place after some people left. Didn't want to be obvious.

After that, we got back on the bus. We were trapped on the bus forever after a horrible crash on the motorway, so took a detour to the restaurant, and it took ages, so Trevor started PS I Love You movie on the bus.

We FINALLY got to the pub. Johnnie Fox's is the highest pub in Ireland, established in 1798. The table we sat at had drawers filled with notes and drawings from other people all over the world who had eaten there. So we spent a bit of time coming up with what to say before the food arrived. I had traditional Irish lamb stew served with a puff pastry. It was AMAZING….

Johnny Fox's! Coolest pub ever. We had the whole back of the place reserved for our bus.

The drawer of letters.

Yummmmmmm........

Then we headed back to Dublin. Thursday nights in Dublin are dubbed "late night shopping" nights because all of the stores are open until 9:00. Then we took the public transit system, called the Luas, back to our hotel.

One last Trevor line for the day: "800 pubs in Dublin. 650 churches. We have our priorities straight.”

It was a fantastic day. I have lots of pictures to show when I get back! Tomorrow we take the ferry to Wales, go to Lyme Park [PEMBERLEY!!!], and then up to Manchester. Fun and busy again!