IRELAND : The Wild Wicklow Tour

OK, so Irish music, Irish whiskey, and Irish pubs are really nice, but there is another side to Ireland as well.

The lovely nature.

So, if you go to Ireland, I would REALLY recommend that you take a tour of the country side.

You could of course rent a car, but I don't recommend that option.
First of all, THEY DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE RODE!
On top of that, the roads are very narrow and curvy at times.

So, I recommend that you take one of many bus tours.
Going by bus is really relaxing and you get to see the stuff you went out to see.
(You get straight to the destination without getting lost and without "close encounters" with ditches and the "all popular" low walls and similar nasty things.)

I went with one tour called "Wild Wicklow Tour" (click on the name for more info).

This trip took us out to the "Sally Gap", where you will find mountain lakes, wild heather and barren bog lands.

This is actually the location where they filmed the major part of the movie "Braveheart".

I would not mind to have this "small ranch" as my summer place ;-)

Look at the colors!
It's really amazing.

After this we arrived at Glendalough - a enchanting 6th Century Monastic Settlement.
Walking around in this place really made me feel like I could stretch out and touch history.

I found the many "Celtic crosses" specially interesting.

In Ireland, it is a popular myth that the Celtic Christian cross was introduced by Saint Patrick or possibly Saint Declan during his time converting the pagan Irish. It is believed that Saint Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross, to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun.

Glendalough

Celtic Cross, where you can see the characteristic circle merged with the classical cross.

Pretty view trough one of the hedges

After spending some time at Glendalough, we continued on foot to the "Upper Lake".
This was a one hour hike trough some seriously beautiful scenery.

A nice little creek.

I was just waiting for the "old troll" to take a peek at me around the corner of this rock.

And here I have finally reached the "Upper Lake".