Today was my last day eating the continental breakfast here, so I ate a pretty big one. I had to be at the bus station before 10:00, so I was up pretty early. I did make sure to have some warm clothes packed.
At the bus station, I bought my ticket for the Glendalough tour. I figured that the tour would fill up quick, so I got my ticket an hour before departure. I managed to take a short nap prior to departure.
As we boarded, I learned that only three of us were going on the tour. The other two were from Hong Kong and were interesting to talk to.
The first part of the tour was in Dublin. As we made our way out of town, the guide gave us the history of certain areas of the city. However, our first stop was at Powerscourt Garden this was a garden owned by a wealthy landlord back in the 1700's. At first, it didn't look like much, but after walking through, it was impressive. The Japanese garden was particularly cool.
After there, we headed for the Wicklow Mountains. The route went through heavy farmland where we saw lots of sheep. As we got closer, the mountains became visible.
Our first stop was near the visitor center. We geared up because of the light rain and headed off. The bus driver, named John, led us to the ruins of a monastery. The ruins were unique. There's a gate that we entered through that was used in protecting the monastery. Inside the gate and to the right is a tall bell tower. Tall bell towers were common at monasteries, not only for the bell but also for defense. We saw the catherdal that was used there as well as the St. Kevin's chapel. St. Kevin was the monk who founded this particular monastery.
Next to the cathedral is St. Kevin's cross. Finally, littering the whole grounds were thousands of grave stones, many of them Celtic crosses.
The guide left us here to go exploring where I took many pictures of the site. I followed the path to the smaller lake which is more like a swamp. But walking farther, I came to the big lake which was awesome. The lake is in between two mountains which creates a valley. It rained most of the time and because of the geographics, was very windy. Though it was not uncomfortable. The path we took to get to the lakes goes by several unique forests, one of which was used to film the wedding scene in Braveheart.
I made my way back towards the bus (as we had to be there at 3:30). Along the way, I came across a Scotsman who was dressed in an 1800's British uniform with a black kilt. He was portraying a Scottish British soldier and was telling stories. When England got involved with Ireland, they recruited Scottish soldiers because the Scottish were already used to the hills. At the end of his storytelling, he played his bagpipes. Actually they were smallpipes, which are smaller and quieter bagpipes. It was cool watching him tune it and started taking song requests, including Amazing Grace.
We took off from there and headed up the mountains. The driver pulled over on the top of one of the mountains so we could take pictures of the valley. We didn't stay there long because it was windy and cold. The thermometer said it was near 0 degrees Celsius, which is 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
As we made our way back, we went through the mountains so we could see it from different angles.
We got back, close to the bus station and I made my way to the hostel where I took a quick shower and did a load of laundry. As I waited for laundry to finish, I hung out in one of the common areas and talked to someone from Minnesota. After that, I went out for dinner and finished up souvenir shopping.
On returning to the hostel, I finished my packing for the trip home, to include my backpack and pannier. I spent about 20 minutes disassembling my bike and packed it up. This must occur here often because no one was phased by it. After this, I was set for the flight home. My flight goes out at 8:30 so I need to be there at 5:30. I will probably get up at 5 to make it to the bus station for my ride to the airport.
It has been an awesome trip and I will definitely do it again. I think the only two things I would do differently are spend more time here than a week, and take someone else. I would love for other people to enjoy this. I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have.
