🍂 Pictiúirí Póca 🍂

Glendalough ( Gleann Dá Loch - Valley between 2 lakes ) is a Valley in County Wicklow.  It's the site of a medieval monastic settlement. Glenndalough was also a sacred place in pre-history, with farmers driving their cattle through the waters of the lakes at Bealtaine to keep them healthy for the rest of the year.   When it was in use, Glendalough was like a mini-village, with the community comprising of both ecclesiastical and lay people. There was a hospital and a farm. Manuscripts were written and copied here. Although the settlement was destroyed by english troops in 1398, it continued to be an important place of worship and pilgrimage. St. Kevin's Church Round Tower

Newgrange is located in  the Boyne Valley in County Meath. It's one of the most famous ancient monuments in Ireland, and is the largest and one of the most important in Europe. The very beautiful Boyne River Newgrange is a large passage tomb located in the Boyne Valley in County Meath. It dates from the Neolithic period, pre-dates the Pyramids in Egypt. It's just one of the monuments in the Brú na Bóinne complex. Brú na Bóinne (or the Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne) has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. Newgrange was restored to its current state in the 1970s. It should be noted that this is an interpretation of how it may have appeared in the Neolithic period, and not necessarily how it actually looked.  The purpose of Newgrange is still a mystery, but it's believed to have had some religious significance. The opening of the tomb is aligned with the rising sun of the winter solstice. The light of the rising sun enters the tomb via...

The Piraeus Lion can be found at the Venetian Arsenal in Venice. It's a large marble lion that was once located in Piraeus in Greece. There is some evidence that it had been a fountain at one time. It was plundered by the Italians during the Turkish War and relocated to Venice sometime in the 17th century. If you look closely at the following photos, you'll see something interesting. Carved into the flanks and shoulders of the lion, there are Scandinavian runes. It's very difficult to make them out because the marble is heavily eroded (the inscriptions date from around the 11th century), but they are in the Lindworm (i.e dragon-headed scroll) form. Close up of the runic inscriptions. "Sven woz 'ere and I pillaged your village, ha ha" (or something like that) This isn't the only incident of ancient vandalism I have ever seen. Inside the chamber at Newgrange, some bright sparks have carved their names into the stones lining the chamber. Many of the ...

This place is so easy to walk past if you're not paying attention - it's like a secret garden tucked away at the end of a little alley. The guy who owns the place, Randy, is totally cool and wouldn't look out of place as the lead singer of a rock band. He is also very knowledgeable and even blends his own incenses (which are amazing). There is a large selection of incenses, candles, crystals, cards, jewelry - you can get all your metaphysical needs taken care of in the Sword and Rose. Oh, and the courtyard is pretty cool too

I've been quite lucky - every time I've visited the Golden Gate Bridge the weather has been great! On this particular day in September, the sky was clear and blue as we were walking around Macondry Lane. Then all of a sudden, a huge bank of fog came out of nowhere (not an unusual occurrence, apparently) and completely enveloped the bridge and the bay.  We rushed off to the Marin Headlands to get a view of the bridge in the fog. Unfortunately, the traffic was a little heavy so most of the fog has disappeared by the time we got to our vantage point. Oh well, we still managed to get some very nice pics. San Francisco, from the Marin Headlands.

The Hill of Tara is the former seat of the High King of Ireland, located in the Boyne Valley in Country Meath. It's an archaeological complex comprising of several ancient monuments. There is an Iron Age hilltop enclosure on the summit of the hill, and a small neolithic passage tomb can be found to the north of the ring forts. Not only has it served as the seat of the Irish high kings, but it appears to have place of prayer and worship as well. The Hill is home to numerous Fairy Trees as well. These can be found all over Ireland, and are usually gnarled old Hawthorn trees. Otherworld being were once believed in live in them, and it seems that some vestiges of this belief persists to this day. It's still considered back luck to destroy or cut down a fairy tree in some places.         Several of the trees at Tara have pieces of paper, plastic, string, strands of christmas decorations decorations and cloth (clooties) hanging from the branches. Other trees...

This is the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It was opened in 1997 and houses Modern and Contemporary Art. It's covered in Titanium, and is meant to look like a ship or waves. It houses mainly 20th century art, with installations and electronic forms making up the majority of the forms. They also house themed exhibitions and I saw an exhibition of Russian Art (a bit depressing) and of South American archaeological relics (fantastic!)  Jeff Koons' "Puppy". It's cute, and I like it a lot more than his other work (which ranges from the sickeningly kitsch to outright pornographic), but to me it's a flower arrangement! "Maman", Louise Bourgeois. This is one of the 7 bronze casts in existence.

An ancient Egyptian temple is that last thing thing you'd expect to find right smack in the center of a European city, but it's exactly what you'll find in Madrid's Parque Del Oeste (The West Park). How did it end up there? Well, when the Great Aswan Dam was built in 1960, several archaeoligal sites and monuments were threatened. Abu Simbel was one of these sites. UNESCO made an international appeal to save these sites. Spain was one of those that answered the call, and the Temple of Debod was presented in 1968 to Spain as a little thank you for their assistance with saving the temples at Abu Simbel. The Temple was open to the public in 1972. Oh, and just to let you know - not all archaeological sites impacted by the damming of the Nile at Aswan were so fortunate. Some were deemed to be of little importance and they were not moved, and are now inundated by the waters of the Nile.  (I'll be adding a post about Abu Simbel sometime in the future)