Swiss Alps

Svenja took Clayton and I to a town near Interlaken, Switzerland where we rode a train up to the top of a mountain and went for hike! It was amazing!

On the train...

We hiked to the top of that rock!

Who knew this was real- the cows all have bells- which fill the air with bell sounds for miles around them- and each cow has a different shaped bell, so the farmer will know which cow is missing. My dad can usually tell a cow's eartag number long before he can read it- so I would imagine it goes the same way with bell sounds!

Dublin

Final exams were on Friday morning, then Saturday morning some of us took the train to Dublin. I left Dublin on Sunday for Zurich, Switzerland. Dublin was a big city, and there were several people doing the map reading.... Patrick Pearse was a member of the IRB, and on Easter morning 1916, he read the declaration during the staged uprising against the British. The declaration claimed independence from Britain for all Irishmen and Irishwomen. The IRB had planned this uprising, but the British had intercepted some of the weapons that were supposed to be on the way to Ireland. Pearse read the declaration anyway! It tore Dublin apart, killing more civilians than IRB members or British troops, but Pearse was set on declaring independence! (I studied this period of Irish history for a week, so it was so cool to see where all of this finally happened!)

Kilmainham Gaol, this jail has been used for movies, and is still used for concerts because of the great acoustics. It was state of the art for it's time- the first jail to let in so much light- the designers believed it would help turn the prisoners into better people. All of the historical places I toured in Ireland had great guides- most were studying history and were really passionate about what they were doing!

The classic, must see, Temple Bar area...

There was really great music all over Temple Bar area and lots of people just sitting and listening!