County Wicklow Bus Tour 2009-07-15

Hi there!  Stealing the blog again for another travel post.  I think I've been holding things up a little bit with the posts, so I apologize.

For our next-to-last full day in Ireland, we were trying to decide between two options: an all-day rail tour out west to Galway or a partial-day bus tour of County Wicklow, just south of Dublin.  We decided on Wicklow as it sounded quite interesting and pretty, and it gave us more flexibility in our travel (and not having to get up at ludicrous o'clock was a nice bonus).

We were able to both buy tickets and catch the bus at the tourism office on O'Connell Street.  There were a few hotel stops along the way, but we were soon headed out of the city.  It was my first good look at the southern suburbs.  Things quickly got more rural, but there were still a good number of commuter bus stops.

Our first major landmark was the lakes of Blessignton.  The lakes were originally glacial valleys that were filled in with water to serve as reservoirs for Dublin.  About 75 families were living in the valleys and were displaced when the time came to create the lakes, but their homes and villages remained.  They can still be seen when the water level is lower than usual.

We continued onward into the mountains, stopping at the Wicklow Gap.  It was very misty that morning, so the tops of the mountains weren't completely visible.  There's a short movie in the photo gallery that shows the mist rolling in.  Even with some obstruction, the views were very impressive.  There's lots of green rolling hills and heather.

From there we headed downwards, past areas that were used for filming various movies, including Braveheart and another one involving King Arthur and Camelot.  We descended into the valley of Glendalough, home to an almost 1500-year-old monastic site, but we'll get into more details on that in the next entry.

After touring Glendalough, we headed off to Avoca, home to the Avoca Handweavers and the site of the Ballykissangel television series.  At the Handweavers' shop, we had a nice lunch of soup and bread and tried the lemon cake that our tour guide highly recommended, then did some shopping for various family members.  We took a brief tour of some of the weaving rooms.  After that, we walked down to the village, checked out the neat little library, and had a look at the river Avon.  The river is very polluted due to runoff from copper mining.

We headed back to our bus and relaxed on the trip home.  Our tour guide told us lots of stories.  She grew up in Belfast but moved to Dublin and was quite happy with President Clinton's role in the negotiations.  She also thought President Obama was a hottie. ;)

After we got back to Dublin, we did some more walking around, but that's another future entry.

Next up: Glendalough in detail, in which we discover that Saint Kevin makes anyone look extroverted by comparison.