To all my family and friends–we made it to Ireland today.  Seems like only this morning that we were getting ready to leave home.  That would probably be because even though that was yesterday, I haven’t slept yet.

So this will be a quick round up of the news and a link to the day’s few photos.

The flight went smoothly.  Marc and I were split up on the plane. He sat with an extended family from Cork, so was pressed into toddler care services.  I attempted to sleep for awhile, and then I started talking to my seat mate.  It turns out her grandson is a current Woodberry boy.

We arrived in Dublin, ate, and got hold of our car.  Marc has been gamely driving on the left, braving the brambly hedgerows on the very narrow, rutted mountain roads, while I white knuckle it over on my side.  Tomorrow I have to get behind the wheel.  I figure I’ll be up early and get a chance to practice on deserted roads.

We visited Glendalough, which is a tourist site situated in a beautiful valley in the Wicklow mountains.  It holds the ruins of an old monastery with its amazing stonework, a decaying cemetery, and two lovely lakes.  A long hiking trail runs through the area, and with only a few spritzes of rain today, it attracted crowds of tour buses, families, and outdoorsy types.  We enjoyed a nice, easy hike out to the lakes and a quick walk through the ruins.  Naturally, with all the influx of humanity, there was  plenty of tacky souvenirage and fish and chippage on offer.  We managed to resist the souvenirs and sticking our heads into the leprechaun cutout for a picture, but did succumb to the lure of chips and ice cream.

Marc and I are pretty wiped out, but we have an excellent room in Newtownmountkennedy and no set wake-up time in the morning.  We expect to wake up new people!

Here are the pictures.

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