Our adventure began on a grey, dim Wednesday morning. We boarded the tram a little before 7 a.m., headed toward Dublin City Centre and our date with the Wild Rover tour bus that would take us a couple hours south to County Wicklow.
The pick-up point for the tour bus was in front of a hotel that was right across from our tram stop. We only had to stand for a few minutes, and then the bus pulled up to receive us.
The tour guide, Murphy (who said his full name is Joe Murphy, but anyone with the surname Murphy usually goes by Murphy, Murph, or Spud), checked off our name on his clipboard and asked from where we came. We explained that we lived in Ireland, but arrived from Minnesota. I wasn't sure why he was asking for that information, but it became clear throughout the day.
The bus seated 37, but we only had 27 so it wasn't packed which was nice. There was an older couple seated across the aisle from us, and they were from Texas. I asked which part of Texas, and the man said they were about 100 miles from Dallas. I said that I'd lived in Tyler - they live in Sulphur Springs, which is about an hour north of Tyler, so they were familiar with it. We said we had come from Minnesota, and he asked if we were Vikings' fans. We talked a bit about the Vikings, and he mentioned he'd been to some Washington Senators games (this team became the Minnesota Twins) and that he saw a young Harmon Killebrew play.
While the bus was being piloted by the capable Darren, Murphy regaled us with information about our surroundings, throwing in some Irish history and sprinkling his commentary with jokes and humorous asides. He took delight in poking fun at the nationalities of the tour participants. At one point in the tour, we were visiting a monastery with a tall stone tower, and he said something along the lines of "Hey, people from Italy. THIS is how you build a proper tower" (referring, of course, to the leaning tower of Pisa).
Our first stop was at Richard Cullen's Sheep Farm in Laragh, County Wicklow. As we stood waiting for all of the tour group to gather in front of farm owner Richie, I took an opportunity to watch a group of lambs in a small fenced area. They were so darned cute! One was making himself known with a steady stream of bleats, and a few of them were playing with each other.
After a brief introduction to the farm, Richie led us up a small slope to a covered structure that looked out onto a rocky field with four sheep. He brought out Spot, a three-year-old border collie. When I tell you that Spot was ready to herd those sheep, he was REALLY ready to herd those sheep. He was nearly vibrating as he waited for Richie to give him the command to do his thing. Richie used both verbal commands and whistled commands. "Walk On" is used when you want the dog to slow down his approach a bit, and Spot had such a tough time with that one. His instinct was to bolt after those sheep, and it was really hard for him to keep himself in check. He really didn't enjoy the "Lie Down" command which, as the phrase suggests, told him to lie down and stop.
The first photo is when he was herding four sheep into a small pen right in front of us. The second photo shows the penned sheep, along with a larger group he brought over from a pasture that was farther away.
For the second demonstration, he barely waited for Richie to raise the whistle to his lips, and he was off like a shot, darting through the pasture gate before Richie could even get it open. There was a moment when the larger group split - I'm not sure if that were by design or if the sheep just weren't having it - but Spot got them back together and drove them closer to us. In the second photo, you can see Spot lying pressed to the ground and I know everything inside him wanted to go nip at those sheep.
Farmers use different colors of paint and different markings for specific purposes. You can see that these sheep have a blue C on them. When the sheep are grazing on the mountainside with sheep from other farms, this helps keep track of whose sheep are whose.
After the demonstration, we had an opportunity to hold a week-old lamb. There were twins penned up with their mother in the shelter, and people took turns holding the little ones. I didn't participate, but here's Eli with one of these wooly twins. It's hard to describe exactly how sheep wool feels. I touched this little spud's head, and it was like pressing your fingers into a firm, nubbly washcloth.
Eventually during this activity, both mama and babies began to voice their displeasure. The babies began bleating a bit more, and I could tell that mama was getting agitated. When Richie put the lambs back into the pen with her, she made a low, short sound and gave them a good sniffing.
Before we had reached the farm, Murphy said "You can take photos of the lambs, you can pet the lambs, you can hold the lambs - just don't steal the lambs." I told Eli we had 10 empty seats on the bus so it stood to reason we'd have room to take 10 lambs, right?
Then it was back aboard the bus and off to Glendalough. The Irish name is Gleann Dá Loch, meaning 'The Valley of the Two Lakes,' and there were indeed two lakes nestled into a valley. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.
We first visited St. Kevin's monastery. This is the gateway to the grounds, and they estimate that it was built in the early 12th century. (Guy in the blue jacket is our tour guide, Murphy.) Just inside the arch, there's a large stone inscribed with a cross which marked a point of sanctuary - violence could happen outside the arches but once you hit that stone with the cross, you were supposed to be safe.
The round tower was built around 1100, and it stands nearly 100 feet tall. The cap of the tower was reconstructed in the 1800s but otherwise, the tower is original to the year it was built. As you can see in the photo, this ground is also home to a cemetery. It's an active gravesite, and there are present-day burials. We didn't spend time looking at the markers (which I think would've been fascinating), but Murphy mentioned that many people lived into their 60s or 70s.
The Cathedral was built in phases between the 10th and 13th centuries. There are numerous holes in the walls. These are called "putlog holes," and they held pieces of timber that were used as scaffolding or as part of the structure. Those pieces of lumber, as well as the wooden roof, deteriorated many years ago, leaving only the stone parts of the building. Murphy said the Cathedral is still used for weddings.
During a good portion of our tour, there was a helicopter making close passes along the treed mountainside and hovering around the area. Murphy looked up and said, "Wonder if that's Elon Musk." I can't remember for sure, but I think he may've called him President Musk.
Aside from the guided part of the tour, we didn't spend a lot of time in the monastery. The trek to Upper Lake was going to take about about 20 minutes (40 minutes roundtrip), and we didn't have a lot of time before the bus would depart, so we headed for the lakes.
As you can surmise, we encountered Lower Lake first. The slope down to the lakeside was a bit steep so I stayed on higher ground while Eli went down to touch the water.
We continued our walk, stopping every now and again to snap a photo. I really wish I had a better camera because these photos pale in comparison to reality. We may need to revisit during the spring/summer because I bet this place is even more breath-taking when everything is lush and green.
I was very excited because we saw some wild goats grazing up the hillside. Eli took this photo, and I enlarged a section to show the goats more clearly. In the upper left corner, there's a mama goat with a tiny baby! None of them seemed particularly perturbed by our presence. I'm sure they're probably used to humans rambling through their environment.
I took a couple of videos of smallish waterfalls we encountered, but this is my favorite. Sound up to hear the water.
We finally reached Upper Lake. This photo doesn't do justice to the immense sense of grandiosity of a placid lake with views of mountains all around.
On the return trip, we didn't stop to take any more photos as we were pressed for time and afraid we'd be late for the bus. As it turns out, we made it back just fine - but our departure was still delayed as one of the passengers had gotten lost somehow and was about 10 minutes late in returning.
Then it was off through the Wicklow Gap toward Kilkenny. Our roads during the trip through the mountains were quite curvy and very, very narrow. Our tour bus wasn't huge, by any means, but there were still times when we'd meet a larger vehicle coming from the opposite direction and need to slow down and veer to the left so we could pass without incident. On the way down to County Wicklow, it wasn't as bad because we were in the lane closer to the hillside. On the way back, however, we were in the lane closer to the edge of the hill/mountain, and there are no guardrails to speak of on these roads. During both legs of the trip, my ears were popping as we either gained or lost elevation.
We passed through a small village called Hollywood and there, up on the hill, was a huge wooden HOLLYWOOD sign that mimicked the one in California. Unfortunately, Ireland has had some bad windstorms recently, so the only letters still standing were H-O-L-L-W.
Once we reached Kilkenny, we had a chance to go with Murphy on a short tour. However, it was 2 p.m. and breakfast had been 8-9 hours earlier, so Eli and I went in search of lunch. Murphy had given some recommendations (based on passenger reviews) for places to eat, and we settled on The Fig Tree. I didn't get a photo of the outside, but I grabbed this off the internet so you could see how hole-in-the-wall this place is. The shops and stores in Kilkenny all were very narrow but tall - this restaurant had three stories.
Eli had the full Irish breakfast (vegetarian style) with tea; I had chicken goujons (tenders) with chips (fries) and Coke. Because nothing says "Jill is in an unfamiliar restaurant" more than her getting chicken tenders and fries.
The food was served very quickly, and it was really good. While we were eating, I could tell a couple of regulars came in because the servers didn't offer a menu, just mentioned a food item in the form of a question to ensure the person wanted their usual order. After a trek up some steep stairs to the bathrooms on the third floor, we were fueled up and ready to explore.
Murphy had pointed out a stone tower as we got into town. He said people could go up inside it and look out over Kilkenny. Eli wanted to do that, whereas that wasn't my cup of tea (and my feet were bothering me), so I checked out a couple shops instead. One sold a ton of Irish gifts - there were some really beautiful coffee mugs, prints, and shirts, along with some fun items (I should've gotten the magnet that said "Feckin' eedjit"). A sales clerk asked me if I needed help, and I said I was just browsing and that I was completely overwhelmed because there was so much to look at.
My main objective, however, was to visit this bookstore that we had passed on the way to lunch. ("What did you do in Kilkenny, Jill? Did you see some cool sites?" "I went to the bookstore.")
I walked inside and just marveled at the wonderful sight of so many books and magazines. There were signs inviting patrons to sit down and browse/read, and there was a stone tranquility fountain in the middle of the store. I grabbed a couple of books (one is a book explaining/translating Irish place names so I'm excited to read that one), and as I was paying for my purchases, I told the clerk that I loved their store and she beamed.
Eli met up with me in the bookstore and before we headed back toward the bus, we went to Oh! Donuts to get a snack. Eli got a cake donut that was covered in various forms of chocolate; I got a cinnamon-sugar donut.
I was tired and my feet were acting up, so I went back to the bus and sat on a bench while Eli took a detour up another side street. We were parked right by Kilkenny Castle so I took a few photos. There's a free tour, but we didn't have enough time to participate.
During the drive down, Murphy sang a song called "Molly Malone" and asked us to participate by singing the chorus. On the way back, he sang a song called "The Wild Rover." There's a place where we were supposed to give four claps but none of us did a very good job of it, and Murphy told us so.
Since we had folks from various places, he pulled up some songs from our home countries on his phone and played them over the bus speaker system, in case we were feeling homesick. For the US, he played part of Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" and The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There for You" (aka the "Friends" theme song). Eli and I both clapped loudly in the appropriate place during this song. Murphy looked back at us and said something like, "Oh sure, NOW you clap in the right place." For France, he played "Frere Jacques." He played a song for Italy, but I didn't recognize it. For Australia, he played Kylie Minogue's "I Should Be So Lucky" - I love that song, and it made me smile a bit because Lissa and I used to sing along together when we heard it.
Murphy and our driver Darren had a running joke with each other. There was a drawing posted above the driver's seat showing them as stick figures. Each time we got back on the bus, something had been added to the drawing. By the time we got on the bus for our trip back to Dublin, Darren's stick figure was wearing a crown, a pink dress, and there was a word bubble that read "I'm a princess!"
We pulled back into Dublin around 6:30 p.m., truly worn out and ready to be home. After a 40-minute tram ride, we walked back into the apartment. Patrick was eager to tell us about his day - or he was cussing us out for being gone 12 hours, I'm not sure. Norris was eager to get petted, because he saw we were petting Patrick. And I was eager to take my shoes off and melt into the couch.
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