Fall Break Day 4 - Dublin

15 October

Monday morning I went off to explore Trinity College and it's magnificent library.

The library houses many treasured manuscripts, one being the Book of Kells - an illustrated copy of the Gospels from the 800s. It also boasts of having the oldest (Gaelic) harp.
The library itself is just magical - for nerdy types like me. They're quite proud of it, so much so that they don't allow pictures inside - thus I'm stealing this one off the internet.

On my way back I took some pictures of the Dublin spire... 

...and James Joyce. 

Braeden, Kelsey, and I picked up some sandwiches and went for a picnic in St. Stephen's Green to take in the beautiful day.

That night we went to a production called the Irish House Party, which was a delicious traditional Irish meal followed by a concert by an Irish band featuring the Uilliann Pipes, Harp, Accordion, Fiddle, Guitar, and a dancer. 

Fall Break - Days 3 & 5 - Wicklow National Park

Wicklow is a beautiful, mountainous national park of Ireland located about 45 minutes south of Dublin. We ended up visiting twice. The first just to sight-see, the second to ride horses as well. We ended up seeing similar sights, but Sunday was dreary and freezing, and Tuesday was gorgeous. So here are both days' pictures of Wicklow.

The stops were so blustery and cold that our driver passed around a bottle of Jameson Whiskey and disposable shot glasses to warm us up. Only in Ireland... 

Both days we went to a spot in Wicklow called Glendalough or "glen of two lakes," with a 6th century monastic settlement. 

Day 2: 

On our ride. So beautiful!