Ireland, Day 4: Glendalough, Powerscourt, St. Stephen's Green

• Day 1: Adventures with Ryanair
  
• Day 2- Walking Tour of Dublin

• Day 3 - Newgrange, Tara and River Dance

• Day 4: Glendalough, Powerscourt, St. Stephen's Green

We continued on our bus day trip on this day. Glendalough, which means Glen of the Two Lakes, is one of the most important sites of monastic ruins in Ireland. St. Kevin built a retreat there in the 600's. For 500 years it was one of Irelands great ecclesiastical foundations and schools of learning. The establishment was attacked, burned and plundered by the Danes, who were based in the stronghold of Dublin, a shortish distance away, and making it an easy target..
Glendalough, despite extensive fire damage in 1163 A.D. prospered until the early 13th century. In 1163, Laurence O'Toole, Abbot of Glendalough, who later became Irelands first canonised saint, was appointed Archbishop of Dublin.
The arrival of the Normans in Ireland sealed the fate of Glendalough, as in 1214 the monastery was destroyed by the invaders and the Diocese of Glendalough was united with the Sea of Dublin. After that, Glendalough declined as a monastic establishment and gradually it became deserted.

Entering into the cemetery:

Next we walked around the two lakes.

The first lake...

The second lake.

After our hike out to the lakes, we were off to Powerscourt Gardens.

Powerscourt Garden is a 45 acre blend of formal gardens, sweeping terraces, statuary and ornamental lakes together with secret hollows, rambling walks, walled gardens and over 200 variations of trees and shrubs.

A view of the main estate building from the pond below:

The Italian Garden...

Close up of the lily-pads...

Entrance to the Japanese Gardens...

Pet Cemetery...

The Walled Garden...

Rose Garden...

Finally we drove back to Dublin and took a short walk in St. Stephen's Green.

St Stephen's green is a peaceful oasis in the heart of Dublin.Within the stone walls of this public park you will discover nine hectares of gardens/ponds/trees/lawns.

O.M.G.

O.M.G....I think the German's really do love David Hasselhof!
Spotted at the Kirwa (church fair) in Fürth today....





Wikipedia says:
"While his star rose, fell and rose again in the US, Hasselhoff's popularity remained a little longer in Europe during the end of the 80s. Hasselhoff had one number-one hit in the German pop charts in 1989 ("Looking for Freedom"), which very much resonated with the fall of the Berlin Wall at that time, and two more top-ten hits in 1989 and 1993."


or maybe they just love the 80's...this image was found on the same ride at the fair. Alf. In lights. Why? And there was the A-team too, and Kindergarten cop.







Greetings from the Kirchweih!

Also, the German's really like recycling. When you buy a ticket for a ride, you get a token instead of a paper ticket.

The Fürth Maypole.

A statue.

Seems like we go to alot of these fairs...but I was determined to get the kids outside today and this is what they would agree to! Also, German's love any excuse to go outside and drink beer, hence all of the fairs. Besides, today is German Reunification Day and nothing else was open.

Strange "health" things

Germany has some health-related things that are new to me!

You can find Sauerkraut juice at the supermarket...evidently it can be used for "cleansing" or a hangover cure.

or while hiking along the other day we ran into a "Kneip". I thought it was a kiddy pool, and I was told that is was not. It's a pool with cold water (I think this one is fed from a stream) where you march around, holding onto the railing in the middle. It is supposed to be good for circulation, which Germans are very concerned about.

Things I saw at the Supermarket

Unlike America where California or Chile is constantly churning out fruit/vegetables, Germany is much more "seasonal produce" oriented. Strawberries are pretty much gone and now it is plum season. I have also seen some other strange things:

Conical Cabbage:

Not sure what this is but I call it the "Fractal Vegetable":

and even Pumpkins! I hear that Halloween is getting bigger over her in Germany.

Things I saw on a bicycle ride

I got a bicycle path map from the Erlangen Tourist office (yes we have a tourist office) and I decided to go on one of the paths. Erlangen is extremely bicycle friendly. As I was riding along the path all of a sudden we need to go up!

This is basically stairs for a bike!

Am I in Germany or the Carribean?

Germany is having an election in a couple of days.

In the U.S., a typical election sign might look like this:

The goals seems to put the names in the largest letters possible so you will see the name and remember it.

In Germany a typical election sign looks like this:

The picture is the biggest thing, and then their name is at the bottom.

They also have their parties on the sign, in the case below, "CSU". I still think that looks like a logo for an energy company or something!

Oktoberfest: Part 2

Oktoberfest Part 1: In which we are in the beer tent

Oktoberfest Part 2: In which we are out of the beer tent

So after some beer and some sausages and another beer and some traditional music, it is time to venture forth and experience the rest of Oktoberfest.

Many people are wearing "tracht", that is, traditional Bavarian costumes. Lederhosen for the men and Dirndl's for the women...but some women wear lederhosen too, and also there are various combinations of things.

I would say half of the crowd was wearing tracht...

I loved the little kids in their lederhosen!

I suspect these horses were in the parade...

On to the rides!

Standard swings...

Same swings...but really high up!

After being a little dizzy from the swings...I skipped this one...

The hubby had gotten an iPhone application that was all about Oktoberfest...what beer tents were open, what the ratings were about, and also what rides there were. We came across a "ride" called "Teufelsrad" (Devil's Ride) that has been around for 100 years, but was rated a "not to be missed." We had to check it out!

There is a spinning circle that people sit on, and the object is to stay on as long as possible. The announcer will call out a group people (Men:18 and older, or girls: 9-13, or little kids) and then people matching the description will run out on to the wheel. The wheel starts spinning and then some people on the outside of the group go flying off into the padded wall. Faster and faster the wheel spins until there is a small group left. Then the giant padded ball on a rope comes and tries to knock people over (or just knock into them, it is hilarious). If that doesn't work, then there are two guys with lassos that try to get the rope under people to try to catch them and pull them off. The audience can stand and watch for as long as they want. It never got old!

Oh no, here comes the ball!

Usually it would end up with one person at the end who the guys were trying to get off the wheel. It is amazing how people can get those ropes off them, duck the ball and still not fly off the wheel. One kid even got on the ball, the guy raised him up, and then put him back on the wheel!

You want to be in the middle of a pack like this, or you will fly off immediately!

We bribed the girls into doing it...unfortunately they didn't move fast and got on the outside of the group and fell off fairly early. I told them I would go on if they did...I was also on the outside of my group but at least made it to the part where the ball started swinging...but managed to avoid getting smacked in the head.

I thought they were pretty cruel to the little kids...They had them wave bye bye with their left hand, then wave bye bye with their right hand, and then they started the wheel up fast and half of them went flying off! And they would still bop the little kids with the giant ball!

The adolescent boys were quite funny...all other groups were sort of every person for themselves...if you can stay on, great! With the boys it became all about pushing the other guys off!

We had a 5:15pm train back and it didn't seem like we had enough time! We didn't go on very many rides (which is good in a sense because they cost 4-6 Euros per person per ride).

Until next year!