Getting Monumental

For one price of admission one gets a slew of tickets - the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, Hadrian's Library, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Keramikos, Dionisos Ancient Theater, Hadrian's Arch, and more. We started with the Acropolis...

the back way up to the Acropolis

Gorgeous views from the summit of the path

 There were, of course, hordes of tour groups swarming the site. However, not so many that it diminished our experience. We were in complete awe pretty much the whole time.  In awe of the little things like the marbling in felled columns, to the grand such as the theatre of Herod Atticus built by the Romans and is still used today for ballet and classical music performances.

The Propylaea, or entrance.

Donica in the upper, upper balcony section of the theatre of Herod Atticus.

The Acropolis, or Upper City, is the word to denote the entire hilltop and surrounding areas within which are the Propyleae, Parthenon, temple of Nike Athena, Erecthion, the rock of Areopagos, etc.  But enough with the archeology lesson.

After taking this self-portrait in front of the Parthenon an older couple approached us to take a picture of them. They were celebrating their 40th anniversary in the same spot where they spent their honeymoon. Literally, they slept IN the Parthenon on their honeymoon. Cool!

The Caryatids

Bust of a Satyr from the Theater of Dionysis

One thing that was fascinating at all of these monuments was the ongoing archaeology and restoration being done. As we were strolling through these incredible structures we were never far from the "chink-chink" of delicate chisels, or "swish" of a brush.

Arriving in Athens

What a looooooong day.  We woke up in Dublin at a quarter to four and didn't check into our hotel in Athens until almost nine at night. It didn't seem real until we saw this:

Walking from the metro to our hotel, we suddenly notice...The Acropolis!

Next morning, the view of an adjacent building from our balcony. (Every place has a balcony in Athens. Love it!)

 We are absolutely loving Athens. It is a city of many juxtapositions - archaeological sites next door to new construction, tavernas, graffiti everywhere, marble sidewalks, and this thing whatever it is:

Hadrian's Library

 For Day 2 we moved to a pension - much nicer lodgings with a homier and more authentic feel.

 Needless to say, the food in Greece does not disappoint. This was our lunch - a simple Greek salad. In fact it was a bowl bursting with tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, olives, a huge hunk of Feta cheese, drenched in olive oil. We could get used to this. You can't see it, but our table overlooked an active archaeological dig. Wow!

While checking out the Parliament building for demonstrations (there were none), Donica noticed these strangely clad soldiers.  Turns out these are the Presidential Guard (called "evzones") and one of their duties is to stand watch at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The guard changes every hour and we were on hand to watch.

Ceremonial high-stepping

Tomorrow we tackle the real touristing - monuments. Stay tuned.

Glendalough, Wicklow Mountains, Ireland

After leaving Burtown House we took a bus to Glendalough, in the Wicklow Mountains. The weather was crisp, and the scenery was stunning.

Taking in the view from a rock overhang.

St. Kevin's Cave. Many things in this area were named for St. Kevin, founder of the monastic city.

A magical mushroom in a magical place.

On our second day in Glendalough, after a good night's sleep and a nice breakfast, we headed out for a day-long exploration of the park. Right off the bat we were mesmerized by the beautiful fall colors, and the abundance of mosses and ferns.

Donica: Wow!
Mike: Yeah.
Donica: Wow. Seriously.
Mike: It's so...yeah.



 The Orange Loop boasted many scenic overlooks of the valley. The overlook pictured below was by far the best. We hovered until some other tourists gave up the spot, and then we stopped there for a photo op and a picnic lunch.

Mike does a test shot

In addition to the natural beauty (or perhaps because of it), there is also the ruins of an old monastic city.  A fella named Kevin settled there in the 600s to find the answers to life (see pictures of remote cave above).  It's quite neat to see the ancient round tower and churches along side tombstones that were erected in the last five years, if you like that sort of thing (which we do). 

A newly erected cross (1974) in the old celtic high cross style.

Note to my executor: This is how I want to be interred. No grass or pretty flowers, put me in the middle of a foot path.

The sun was setting and our toes were extremely cold, but with the mists rolling in, an orange and pink hued sky, and a moon rising in the east the monastic city became even more appealing to our inner photographer.  Knowing that the hotel bar (and warmth) was only a short walk away we stuck around and took many a picture.

Week Three, Burtown House, Athy, County Kildare, Ireland

The home stretch of our time in the veg garden started with some torrential rain on Monday morning which made it nearly impossible to weed the grass in between the rows of cabbage and lettuce.  Yay!  Instead we applied ourselves to a series of odd jobs in neglected corners of the garden.

The castle/tool shed and a future greenhouse, recently reclaimed from several years of weeds (by us).  All that remains is a magnificent old fig tree.

Before

After

Another task was picking up stones in a field. Any stones big enough to damage the lawn mower blade went in the wheelbarrow.

Seriously? Picking up stones, in Ireland where there is such an abundance of rock that everything is built out of it and soil is scarce. This is what I imagine Hell might be like - the endless task of picking up rocks from one pile and moving them to another pile. I'm not even kidding.

Another task, that seemed sort of ridiculous but turned into an alright time was forking cut grass into a trailer.  A few days before a neighbor showed up with his tractor and a strange attachment that looked like a bunch of combs which spun around and kind of whipped the grass out of the ground.  It left long piles of grass, which sat in the rain. On this particular day, we waited until after a massive downpour before going out and forking the soggy piles into the back of this tractor-trailer.

Somehow Donica ended up with a supervisory role.  "Not really," she says right now with a hint of indignation in her voice.

Donica couldn't resist jumping and flopping in the huge pile!

Soon the girls joined to play in the grass clippings.

And took a ride to the dump spot.

On our last night we had a big curry dinner with the whole crew: four generations of Fennells, two au pairs and us.  This group shot was right before the dance party started and before great grandma dozed off in her chair by the fire.

From left: Wendy, Bella, Jo, William, Yara, James, Michael, Mimi, Donica, Lesley and Lindsay