Saturday we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day, with white, puffy clouds in the sky! We had a leisurely morning, and then Mark and Alisha took us to Glendalough, via Hollywood!
It was a beautiful drive through the Wicklow mountains to Glendalough, the remains of Saint Stephen's Monastery, that was built in the 6th century, if you can imagine that! The ruins were just amazing and the setting was just incredible. And between the two of us, we took 2.5 million pictures! We had a lovely walk around the nearby lake, and then went to lunch at Wicklow Heather restaurant, which was just wonderful!
After lunch we stopped at a local craft shop, which had lovely hand knitted items.
On the way home we made a stop in Kilcullen and had a nice little wander around. We visited the new yarn shop, and St Vincents, a thrift shop where Alisha volunteers two days a week. The proceeds from this shop are used to help the homeless in the local area. We visited the local butcher and picked up meat for dinner, the local veg shop to get fresh fruits and vegetables, and most important, the Carry Out, for wine!
When we got home, Alisha and Mark fixed a lovely beef burgundy for dinner. We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine (or maybe two!), and even though we had decided to make it an early night, we managed to stay up talking and visiting till after 11:00!!
What a lovely day! We're looking forward to tomorrow and hearing Mark preach the sermon in the morning and evening, and meeting all of the people we've heard so much about.
Here we are on the way to Hollywood in County Wicklow! Note the sunglasses, which were not only necessary, but seemed appropriate for the sign!
This is the tower remaining at the monastery - you can see it from the road, as you're driving in. Totally amazing!
Notice the door to the tower - it's a long way off the ground! A ladder would have been used to access it, and then pulled inside to prevent intruders.
The inside of the cathedral of the monastery.
Looking through the openings at the back. Those are gravestones on the ground, and also against the wall at the right.
Some of the VERY old crosses, some of them at very extreme angles. Note the Celtic cross in the middle.
A close up of the Celtic cross.
This is another church located on the monastery grounds. Originally there were 7 churches.
Here is the tower from the church. You can see the wall in the foreground and some of the crosses in the graveyard.
I love this shot of Mark and Alisha with the Celtic cross and tower behind them.
This is the entrance to the monastery.
Another picture of the tower and Celtic cross.
We had a guided tour of the site and this was our tour guide. She was explaining that this particular cross is unique in that the circle hadn't been completed - there were no cut-outs.
Mark and Alisha in front of the tower. Can you tell that we LOVED the tower?
And one of us, as well.
This was a great view of the tower from a little stream, as we took our walk. It was absolutely beautiful!
And a close-up.
And from another angle.
Good grief! We've sure put up a lot of these pictures! But we loved the church and church tower in front of the big tower.
Upper lake.
One of the many old stone bridges that we've seen here.
The gorse is in full blooms all over the area! It's just beautiful, and has a light, citrusy fragrance.
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