Dublin, Ireland

 On Thursday, May 12th, our ship took us to Dublin, Ireland.  We, along with Don and Ada, took a ship -sponsored excursion that first did a tour of Dublin, then took us to Glendalough- an ancient monastery in the mountains.  We really enjoyed this beautiful day.

First are pictures of our Dublin tour:

Christ Church Cathedral

Beautiful Clayton Hotel

Christchurch Arts Center

A statue of Oscar Wilde, a famous author and native son lying on a rock, is a geological wonder- made from many different kinds of rock and minerals.

I think this was part of a university

All of the road signs in Dublin are written in English and Gaelic.

After leaving Dublin, we traveled through beautiful Irish countryside:

Look at the number of sheep

We arrived at Glendalough and had a nice, long time to explore there:

There was a visitor's center where we watched a movie about the monastery.  Then we went out to explore the ruins and take a million pictures.

We crossed this stream on a bridge and then it was a bit of a walk up a hill.

It was an ancient, crumbling monastery and graveyard.

The Tower.  Our guide explained the importance of the defensive tower.

The very old monastery is crumbling away

The Irish cross or Celtic Cross

The Celtic Cross was prominent in the cemetery

The Chapel

Behind us is the chapel

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.  Frameable.

Down by the lake

After visiting the monastery, the bus took us back to the port where we water  shuttled back to the ship.

Lighthouse and fort

We sat on the top deck on the shuttle back to the ship.  The captain poked out his head when we got close to steer us in.

Sailaway