The Last Day

I really don't know what to say. We've come to the end of a wonderful trip filled with beauty, adventure, discovery, and joy!  Truly!  It really is so!

We left Killarney this morning and headed a little South and East to Cork where we took a break.  Then on to Kilkenny for lunch, a castle, and some old churches.  Back on the bus for our final destination to Dublin.

By this point in the trip we are all a bit silly or willing to laugh with each other as others present their awesome talents.  So we had a Talent show on the bus as we ended our day.  Singing, poetry, church camp songs and stories!

Once in Dublin, we stopped at Phoenix Park for closing Holy Communion, singing, and sharing the

"thin places" of the last 10 days.

When we reached our last hotel stop most all of us had "hit the wall" and were ready to stop.  Some didn't even venture out on the streets of Dublin, but stayed in for a quiet last night.

Tomorrow 34 of the 42 in our group will be on their way back to Denver.  4 will travel on to Scotland and 4 will stay for a few more days in Dublin.

Perhaps the greatest thanksgiving and blessing of the day was saying "thank you" to Paul and Padraig for being such wonderful local hosts as tour guide and driver.  We have truly been blessed by them.

A big thanks to all who shared the last 10 days with us in Ireland!  Thanks to friends and family that have followed the blog.  We were blessed with a trip without travail! And we were especially blessed with an experience filled with the sacred!

Carolyn Waters
Cindy Bates

Random moments of joy part 2!

Random moments of joy!

Day 9

Incredible day!  This is how we started!

The Dingle Peninsula was breathtaking! We thought there might be rain............but ......... NO..........it started misting when we turned the corner!




What can we say?  We saved the best day for the last!


Or at least that's what the planners think!

It just doesn't get any better than this!









Just in case you wondered.........this is where blue sweaters come from!!!!!!
We also did the Bee Hive Huts and Gallarus Oratory.

Lunch in Dingle.........

And then a group "happy hour" with tea and things!!!!!  at a great pub!

Into Killarney.  Some went on a pony cart ride!  Others chilled.  Some walked into town.  Other waited for the bus ride!  But all was grand!

This was a fabulous day!  And it was our last day of "sight seeing!"  Tomorrow we head to Dublin and all will be grand!

Have we told you how wonderful Paul and Pardrigh are??????

C&C

Day 8!

We are in the late afternoon of day 8, it's Thursday at 4:10.  Today was a travel day, but an enjoyable one.

We crossed the River Shannon on a ferry!  Big ferrys take big busses!


A little later was a great stop in Tralee!  Home of the Rose Queen!

And home of good pub food and bakery!














A quick stop at an overlook in Killarney for a group picture!

                                                                            
And then a early arrival at the Victorian Hotel in Killarney! Tonight about 30 of our group are going to an Irish song and dance event!  The others of our group are going downtown for a local experience.  I'm sure some of you will hear about the night at another time!

But for now, we're just relaxing and feeling very blessed.

C&C

Random moments of joy!

This is it for tonight!!!!!!!!

It takes a L........O.............N...............G................ time to upload in Ireland!~

It it really Day 7?

We've covered a lot of countryside today!  Woke up in Inismor, had a fabulous lecture from a local authority on all things Celtic and all things Spiritual and all things Aran Island!  She was amazing.  The funny part is that we have been trying to find this woman for the last 2 years and could not get in touch! Marcus Borg had suggested her leadership to us, but we didn't connect until this trip. She just happened to be the National official at Dun Angus yesterday and found us because of our Celtic Cross on our name tags!  How small can one world get?

Her name is Padraigin Clancy.  She has a PhD in Irish Folk Lore, speaks fluent Gaelic, is working on certification as a Spiritual Director, and would like to go to seminary!  A good Catholic that thinks her grandmother would die if she were a priest or if she left the Catholic church, but has a deep sense of call to ministry.  It was fantastic!  Check out her work at www.clancyireland.com

We crossed back over on the ferry, found our bus, and took off for the Burren!  Wow!  Wow!  Wow! It was absolutely beautiful! Padraigh was awesome at the wheel of the bus on the most narrow of lanes in Ireland.  The view was just amazing.  Topped off with Paul's singing and bizaar sense of humor.........it all totaled up to a day!

But wait.......there is more..........the Cliffs of Moher that is!

Tonight we are staying in a little village near the Cliffs of Moher called Liscannor.  Local pub for dinner.  An early evening to bed to prepare for an exciting venture tomorrow!
If life gets better than this, it's only because more friends and family are near.

Blessings your way...........

Carolyn & Cindy

Day 6

I really don't even know how to begin to tell you about this day.

We started out with rain and clouds.  Ended up with sun, a little wind, sun, and then a little rain.

The ferry ride to Inis Mor, Aran Island was like the worst nightmare of a plane ride! But we made it just fine because there was water holding us up!

And then we reached the island.  Horse drawn carts, diesel only fueled vehicles, Gaelic speaking locals......it takes your breath away.  So local, so small, so NOT commercial.................no vacation houses allowed.  They didn't get electricity until the late 70's!

Dun Angus was the major stop of the day.  A fort over 2500 years old!  It was quite a walk for those who could make it, but well worth the effort.

Some would say that this area is more beautiful than the Cliffs of Moher.






















We walked back down facing the ocean and feeling quite overwhelmed by the vast beauty.

I really don't know how to begin to speak of the beauty of the island and this walk.  Guess you'll just have to come with us in a couple of years.

Right now Jeri Dwyer and I are in the lobby talking to locals!  It's truly amazing.  After lunch I sat in the local pub at the hotel and listened to some locals.  Couldn't understand a thing they were saying.  Loved it!

This evening was our group meal at the hotel restaurant.  We are staying in the only hotel on this Island, and we have filled it up!  Dinner was great and festive!  No need to ship someone off home for bad behavior!

On to the pub for local music!  From the sounds of it, it might be an early night!!!!!

Blessings to you all.

C&C  tour hosts.

Pics from Day 5

Day 5

Having a little trouble getting on to post!  So guess I'll do this without photos!

It was a wonderful day!  Rain, wind, sea, bus ride......... an experience to say the least!

PE]erhaps the best part was when our guide Paul had us stop for an Irish Coffee!  Ummmmmm Good!

From that point on it was "all grand" as they say in Ireland.

The boggs, water, sheep, land............fog, rain, wind................ as they say it was all grand!

Ended up at Kylemore Abbey and then at an historic site where nothing ever happened!  Guess you had to be there.

Will post pics later...........just doesn't seem to be working now.

Tomorrow is going to be an amazing day.

The Rev!

It's Sunday Night!

Day 4 of the Ireland Pilgrimage took us to the West Coast!  But not before stopping at Clonmacnoise!  Perhaps the most popular and most visited monastery in Ireland.


It was a wonderful hour on the Shannon River..........with crosses and towers and one of the sites the Pope visited in the late 70's.


But the best part.........just walking in the sun, looking at the green and the crosses and the water.  Just sitting on a step for 15 minutes was enough to carry me for the next 6 months!  REALLY!

One of the best things I remember from Clonmacnoise is the Pilgrim.  It's a beautiful wooden statue that greets you as you enter the formal visitors center.






Hands over eyes............




Head bowed...........




staff in hand..........


It's like he is either saying:  "thank God I am here!"  or "Oh my God, I can't believe I am here!" or "Who are all these people?"

As we departed to Galway.......Paul McGlinchey, our guide "sang" to us!  Lovely!  An almost "Elvis" or better voice!  How did we luck out on this guy?

So.............on from there to Galway!  The fourth largest city in Ireland, but perhaps one of the most perfect!  It's where the locals like to go if they have a holiday.


We started our Galway Day off with the final of Ireland football.........not anything like US football!  Kerry won..............much to the dismay of the Cork fans!

So now it's time to say good night!  See ya in the morning!


C&C

Day 3 is it now?

If you were in Ireland you could hear how they would say that:  "Day 3 is it now?"  With an upper lift on "3" and a strong question voice on now!

What a day!  This is the part of our group that arrived early at Trinity College after visiting the "Book of Kells!"  WOW!  Old, really OLD hand written scriptures by the monks!  They had so much fun transcribing the holy word that they put funny little pictures in the scriptures now and then!

A quick trip the the National Museum of Treasures, coupled with almost but no rain before boarding the bus for  the "Guinness" mothership and we were off........so to speak!

Did you know that the Guinness family restored St Patrick's Cathedral and the Jameson family restored Christ Church Cathedral?  If not for their money, both would be long gone, or certainly in ruins as a memory!~  Ok.......enough about that!

Following the wonderful, but laid back day (which started with prayer and singing of course!)  we all went our own way. Evensong at Christ Church, dinner, pub music, River Dance energy, or a quite last night in Dublin.

Tomorrow we head west!  More history, more Celtic Spirituality, more adventure.......more laughter and prayers..........more friendship and memory.

So much is stored in this land and with these people!

C&C

Day 2

Once we got going (it's difficult on the first morning!)
prayed for the day and centered in..........we found Old Mellifont Abbey, Monasterboice, and Knowth passage tomb.

Just what happened today?
Oooh......Aaah....Oooh.....Aaah
That's old.......that's really old.

And then it got older........older than the pyramids!



And we felt old........but not as old as the pyramids!


Lunch was scant........because we were late.......and then we were full and everything got better with higher blood sugar.


As we left Old Mellifont..........we found Monasterboice..........home of the tallest high cross......Murdock's cross............storytelling crosses.

Making our hungry way toward The Passage Tombs..............we discovered that Hildeggard was right:  "All manner of things shall be well."


And then Patty fell, but help rallied, and Patti was ok!

Others continued on their way to tour Knowth..........with a great guide, Paul Kelly.

Finally it's time to head for our stopping ground in Dublin.  But our destination was not reached before Cindy and Carolyn were banished to the back of the bus for time out!  While our guide Paul found that other women were just as difficult to deal with as the group leaders (!!!!!!!!) Padrigh managed the bus through the streets of Dublin to Trinity Capital Hotel! ( Picture of Paul and Padrigh in the funky hotel lobby!)

A great day of amazing history, good community, and adventure.  For the evening in Dublin we were on our own for food and adventure.

At this rate, we'll never want to go home................then again, at this rate we may be counting the days!

Love to all out there reading about our adventure!

C&C

Our First Day!

Once we got in the air out of Chicago (3 hours late) we arrive with sleepy eyes and weary bodies ready to hit the road.  Greeted at the airport by 5 more of our travelers, we were finally all together........found by our guide Paul and driver Padriich! A quick buzz through the new tunnel to downtown, a snappy jag through Dublin and we were off for the Wicklow Mountains. Just how beautiful can a countryside be?

The visitors center at St Kevin's Monastery provided a good film that we couldn't stay awake for.  Our guide provided an informative jaunt through the monastery grounds and finally, finally we were given our luggage, a room, a place to shower, some food to eat........and CRASH!

Though some stayed up, walked to town, had dinner and stayed awake until Ireland's bedtime, this was the perfect place to begin our pilgrimage together.  Few distractions, a funky hotel, absolute beauty all around, and sleep.  Ahhhhhh wonderful completely underrated sleep!

Tomorrow will have much more excitement!

Carolyn

Stuck in Chicago!

So far the trip has been eventful! On our flight from Denver to Chicago  man fell in the aisle with an apparent heart attack! The attendants called for medical personnel and they could not get any vitals. Our own Bonnie Lewallen came forward and performed CPR on him. After several minutes his heart began to beat and she and another nurse kept him going until we landed about a half an hour later when the medics took over! (Thank God for Bonnie!)

Now we are waiting in Chicago because our plane had a problem.  So we are getting a different plane and leaving Chicago 2 and a half hours later than planned.  We'll arrive in Dublin at 11:07 and then finally meet up with the last 4 of our group.

And all manner of things shall be well!

Cindy & Carolyn

Travel Day!

As we depart on our journey may those we leave behind and those we go to meet be blessed with the gift of this day and the days to come.

Travel safely and with a happy heart!

C&C

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. – Julian of Norwich