June 26

Today while you guys were in Wicklow, I saw the gay pride parade go by. Right then it started sprinkling. I laughed and thought to myself "It's raining on your parade."

Today was the best day in Ireland so far, in my opinion. When I dreamed about coming to Ireland... this is exactly the day I had pictured in my head. We spent 24 euro to take a tour today, and it was the best 24 euro I've ever spent. Take a little time to read this post, and click the photos to make them big... they're worth it. Although the pictures never do the scene justice.. the pictures are pretty cool too. And there's a lot of them :)

Here's how it went down.

We started early, 7:40am. Grabbed the bus, which was painful for most people considering the night we had last night. Took the bus into town, and still had some time before the tour began, so grabbed some Burger King! We met our guide, Martin, at 8:50am and hopped on his bus. Some people got sick on the ride... they chundered. I won't say names, but you may be able to guess.

(Bus ride into town.)

(Wake up, Jules.)

(Burger King pit stop.)

(Nice shades, Mandy.)

(On the actual tour bus!)

(Hahah.)

Our tour guide was fantastic. We stopped at tons of little villages on the way to Wicklow, and many times he would come over the PA to tell us some history and little secrets of the areas. Our first stop was only about 30 minutes away. We stopped in the town of Dun Laoghaire. (Pronounced: Done-Leary.) He told us the history of the town and the king it was named after. If you have ever seen the movie PS. I love you, this is the town it was based in and some parts were filmed in. We didn't run into Gerard Butler though. Unfortunately.

(Welcome!)

(Quick bathroom stop... all the lights in there were blue?)

(We jumped a fence to get this picture. I think it's worth it. So. many. boats. It was amazing.)

(So pretty.)


After we left Dun Laoghaire, we had about an hour till the next stop (hence the bathroom break pictured earlier.) He played Irish music on the bus and told us fun facts about all the towns we drove through.

(This was just taken from the bus window while we were driving. There were sooo many sheep everywhere!)

Our next stop was only for about a half hour, but it was absolutely amazing. My favorite stop by far. These pictures are pretty great, but will never do it justice. We were on the edge of a cliff, with other cliffs all around us. These are the lush rolling hills my dad always talked about wanting pictures of. It was so incredible. We were all gasping and smiling so excited just to see it. The lake below us in these pictures has several names. The nickname is Guinness Lake, of course, because of the black color it has, and also because the Guinness family owns some of this land and rents out the few homes around here. (Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods also lived in these houses.) The actual name of the lake is Lochte Lake.

(The group in front of the Wicklow Mountains.)

(From another angle.)

(Mandy and Julie.)

(Incredible.)

(I love you guys :) )

(Emily being anti-social over there.)

(In awe.)

(Beginning individual pictures, since we found the perfect location.)

(Julie and her orange shoes.)

(Mandy Favenport.)

(Maggs.)

(Kimmy.)

(Ol Nicole.)

(Becky hiking away from us.)

(My turn.)

(I always look awkward on this side of the lens haha.)

(Awww.)

(Bigger group.)

(I'm loving these photos.)

(Mandy lovingly gazing at the scenery.)

(Again.)

That was it for Guinness Lake. We continued on through the Wicklow Mountains, and made another stop just to see the bridge where PS I love you was filmed. It was filmed in this area, a little later in the season when the Heather plants were in bloom and pink. But all around this bridge is where they filmed, and on the bridge is where the two main characters met for the first time. So naturally, we stopped the bus. :)

(All of us on the bridge.)

(Beautiful.)

(The famous bridge again.)

(I think this is my favorite picture from the trip so far.)

(Amazing.)

(Love this picture even though we aren't looking. Props to photographer Maggie.)

(Us again.)

(Emily.)

(I kinda loved the bridge.)

(Perfection.)

(We could have stayed here forever.)

So the next stop we took on the bus tour, even further up into the Wicklow Mountains, was at some waterfall I unfortunately forgot to write down the name of. But I think it was near the "Salley Gap."

(Hard to tell, but the white streaks down the mountain to the left of the image is actually a really steep waterfall.)

(Be careful on the edge Julie. The guide actually told us someone fell and died last year.)

(Maggs.)

(Something was funny, haha. Looks like rain in the background, but we actually only got about 15 minutes of light rain today.)

(Kim has a heart- to- heart with Martin about how his driving is making her chunder in the back of the bus.)

(Manders.)


So after this waterfall, it was back to the bus for a while. Our next stop was the Glendalough Valley, where we were let out for lunch and hiking for 2 and a half hours or so. As soon as we got off the bus here, the rain began, so we decided to start with lunch. We grabbed lunch at this little hotel and scarfed it down before leaving again to walk to the lake. There were two lakes in the Valley, Lower Lake and Upper Lake. (Creative, right?) Lower lake was close, but we went for the more abitious trek to Upper Lake.

(Pretty.)

(Little bridge on the way to lunch.)

(Julie, Mandy, and Nicole.)

(Maggie, myself, and Becky.)

(Kim's feeling a little better after her bus incident..)

(Still a little hazy on this picture's significance.)

(The normal side of the lunch table.)

(Where we ate lunch.)

(Ruins of an old monastery.)

(Mandy didn't wanna stop here. I made her.)

(Jealous? You should be.)

(The ruins of the monastery from the other side.)

(Taking this picture really slowed down our power walk to the lake.)

(Mandy was like sprinting. It was hard to keep up with her.)

(This is the lower lake.)

(How bout we buy this cottage and live here?)

(We made it to the Upper Lake!)

(Mandy.)

(Just stunning. Reminds me of Eagle Lake in Bar Harbor, doesn't it Dad?)

(Miss Orange Shoes.)

(That's me.)

(Roomies.)

(Daww.)

(Oh hey girl.)

(Cute.)

(Took a quick side trip to a waterfall.)

(Waterfalllllll.)

(So pretty.)

(It looks pretty easy to climb up. It was NOT.)

(See the ruins in the background? Ahh awesome.)


So, back to the bus it was. And back down the Wicklow Mountains. Our final stop for the day was a little, teeny, tiny town called Avoca. Established in 1723, they were a weaving village, and they still hand weave everything today. We got a quick tour and demo of the looms and hand weaving process.

(The little shop in Avoca.)

(I was amused.)

(Looms.)

(That's Dennis.)

(Oh Spools.)

(They hand tie all the knots.)

(Outside the weave shed.)

(This just made me laugh in the little gift shop.)

(This picture reminds me of my sister Kathryn.)

(LOVE how this image turned out. Mom and Les, tell Granny she should paint this.)

(Pretty.)

(As the last shot of the day, figured I should show you the bus that drove us around to all these wonderful sites.)



Great, beautiful day. Special thanks to Mandy and Maggie for finding and suggesting this tour :)