Adventures of a Girl

Today we boarded a little white coach and headed to County Wicklow - a 1 and a half hour drive from Dublin. The tour is called "Valley, Lakes and Mountains" tour, and believe it or not, there were a lot of valleys, lakes and mountains to be seen. The first lakes we reached are in a gorgeous little village called Blessington - not much more than a handful of shops, a church and a pub. Luckily the weather held out and we had a gorgeous view of the lakes, and the tour guide (another Irish man dying to tell a tale) had a lot to say about reservoirs, dams and the like - unfortunately, most of which I was not listening to. We stopped at Wicklow Gap, though I'm not sure why. This is a spot in the middle of nowhere, with views to a glum landscape, while the wind whips at your face, and generally freezes your fingers off. Nevertheless, I took a million photos as is expected. The next stop was Glendalough, a 6th century monastic settlement, where we took a walk to the lakes, and another million photos of the ruins and graveyard. This area is where most of the movie Braveheart was filmed - ironic given it is about Scottish history. Final stop for the day was Avoca, a pretty Wicklow village where the TV show Ballykissangel was filmed. We had a late lunch (I'm eating way too much), a snoop round the Handweavers shop (considered the oldest weaving mill in Ireland), and more tea (never drunk so much tea before), then back onto the little white coach for a long, rainy trip back to Dublin. All in all a fabulous day out, and a great chance to see the beautiful Irish countryside.