Blogs from Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland, Europe

This morning we began with an Irish breakfast of eggs, heavy ham and sausage, or porridge and fruit... I had the latter. Once out the door of our hotel we walked with Father Michael through The Gateway into one of Ireland’s most important monastic sites right next to our Glendalough Hotel. This early Christian monastic settlement was founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. The round tower. A bell tower was built almost 1,000 years ago by the monks of St. Kevin’s monastery, it was also used as a place for refuge for monks and as a lookout tower. We happened upon the remains of the Cathedral, several churches and a structure known as the Priest House, the name is derived from an 18th century of bringing priests to be readied for burial and also ... read more

Our shore excursion from Dublin was again by Paddywagon Tours. The motorcoach tour would take us to the Wicklow Mountains and the Glendalough monastic site, then return to Dublin for a city tour. The Wicklow Mountains range south of Dublin. The mountain peaks lie mostly inside Wicklow National Park, but there is a considerable amount of private farming and dairy cattle and sheep raising going on in the valleys. It's a very scenic area, and in August the heather was in bloom. Our driver/guide said he regretted that few Dubliners visit this natural area so close to the city. We took the scenic drive up to Glendalough on the Eastern side of the park. Glendalough (Gleann Dá Locha or Valley of the Two Lakes) is the central attraction in the park. The two lakes are referred ... read more

Thur 24 April 2014, Wicklow Mountian's and Blackrock We decide to give Dublin a miss today and head out the country. We headed south to Glendalough, in the Wicklow mountain’s, a small historic village with twin lakes. Glendalough is home to one of the most important monastic sites in Ireland. This early Christian monastic settlement was founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century and from this developed a “Monastic City”. Within the historic ruin’s is the cemetery where some of the grave stones date back to 600AD and common grave stones from the 1600’s. We walked to the twin lakes and then headed back to the cars. Sean was then very keen to show us where he went to boarding school, Blackrock College is well known private school and as Sean was an “old boy” ... read more

Hi Everyone! I know this was a long time coming and I'm sorry :( I caught some sort of bug after my weekend adventure and I've been just trying to keep going in order to make it to work every day. So my work term ends next week and I'm actually kind of sad! It's such a nice place to work and I'm really starting to get along with my bosses and whatnot; but alas I believe this is the way of temping. You get attached to a place and then before you know it, you're moving on. However (not to get my hopes up or anything!) but I may be interviewing for a 6 month contract position at this big multinational firm and I'm super excited! I'm not sure how many people are vying for ... read more

Last part of orientation! So on our very last few days of orientation, my semester start up program took us on a trip to Glendalough and county Wicklow. Glendalough is a valley in between the Wicklow mountains known for its medieval monastic settlement. It was full of graves, crosses, and old monastery type things. Pretty much from the beginning of orientation, everyone we told that we were going told us good luck with the weather as it is always raining. Well we got extremely lucky as we got one of the very few nice days! It was really windy but still much more enjoyable without the rain. After looking around all the monastery grounds we took the bus to the county wicklow that is just a small town by the sea an hour or so south ... read more