the countryside

Another cold and cloudy day here in Dublin. On our way down to the hotel breakfast this morning, we noticed the contents of the vending machine in the hallway... how do you think this would go over in the states?

Lastnight we went out to dinner with some new friends on the trip. I had my first Irish Beef Guinness stew with steamed potatoes - YUM! On the way out of the restaurant, this is what we watched on the street for a little bit.

Today we took a bus tour around the countryside of Dublin. We visited monastery ruins and burial grounds, as well as a quaint little Irish town. Here are some highlights:

This is our tour guide Liam Sinnot (he gave us the lowdown on "not sinning"). He's a very nice and humorous man.

We visited the Hills of Tara this afternoon. There are layers of history regarding this area of land, but this stone started as a pagan fertility symbol and later (when Christianity came to Ireland) was a spot for inaugurations of royalty.

Kenyon initially said he wasn't getting out of the bus for fear of what the stone might do to us.

But, after a few laughs, we decided to dare the stone:

We took some nodding dozes on our way back into town (jetlag is brutal) and finished the day off dodging traffic and touring Christ Church Cathedral, which we mistakenly thought was a Catholic church - nope, Protestant. It was beautiful and we got to hear a children's choir practicing while we walked through.