Ireland Trip Day 1

I think I'll put each day of the trip with my family in a different post in order to avoid an extremely long post! Thanks to Diann for sending e-mails to refresh my memory!
I met my parents, my Aunt Mikey and Uncle Terry, and others at the Dublin airport at 7:00am on Tuesday 25 May. We met our tour guide, David, at the airport. He said he was waiting for Mom and I to hug so he would know the right group to meet! David is English, which threw us a little at first, but he was a wonderful tour guide. We waited in the Dublin airport until around 11:30. Four more from Concordia got in around 9:30, Ashley's flight came in at 10:30, and My Aunt Diann, Uncle Pat, and cousins Katelyn and Aidan arrived at around 11:30. We then left the airport and headed to the small monastic settlement of Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock). This settlement was started by St. Kevin and is famous for it's round tower. These round towers were built for the monks to take refuge in during Viking invasions. Each floor was accessible by ladders that could be pulled up, thus preventing intruders from reaching the monks at the top. Some were built with round stone staircases that always rotated clockwise so as to give the advantage to the victims at the top.
One of the buildings at this site was entitled "St. Kevin's Kitchen." This building was actually a church, but after the monastery was closed, the surrounding townspeople thought that only a kitchen could have a tower as high as the church's. Thus, the building came to be known as St. Kevin's Kitchen.
The cemetery here is absolutely massive! There are only seven more people who are allowed to be buried in the cemetery before the grounds are closed to future buriels. It has been open for buriel for the longest time in Ireland - about 1600 years!
We stayed at the Abberly Court Hotel, which wasn't as close to the city centre as was desired, but it was nice. Since everyone but me had jet lag, bed time immediately followed dinner. I think that's the earliest I've gone to bed since arriving in Ireland!

P.S. I changed my last post so Oh Beautiful Sunshine actually links to Oh Beautiful Sunshine rather than the Money Song!