Ireland
We plan on staying in Ireland from the 17 of May to the 7th of September. Both of our families are in Ireland so we wanted to take time out to catch-up with family and friends, and as the children had school holidays from June to Sept this was the perfect time. We also wanted to visit parts of Ireland we had not seen in some time.
It was lovely to spend time with everyone and to get back into day to day life in Ireland, in some ways Ireland has changed a lot and in other ways not at all.
We had numerous visits to my favourite beach “Bray” which is in county Wicklow, although the water was cold I can never resist getting in for a swim, no matter which beach I am on. Picture below to prove I got into the water in Ireland.
Having a great day in Bray with the family
We had a fun evening with Martins family at the Grey hound races at Harold’s Cross, although the wining were not great we had a great time. Paddy did have some good racing tips.
As it is summer in Ireland there is day light until 10pm so plenty of time to play golf, we played at Grange Castle a number of times as it is a great public course, we had a lovely game with my sister and her husband, my sisters putting is amazing, we also had a lovely game with some friend at Tara Golf club this is a wonderful course, my friend Nicki has just taken up golf and has taken too it like a duck to water, she is definitely one to watch.
Dublin Women Mini Marathon is a 10k run or walk. It is one of the largest Women event in the world, women come from all over the world to compete. Last year 6 million was raised for 870 charities. This year close to 40,000 competed, it takes place each year on the June long weekend. I entered with my mum and sisters, we had a great day, my mum has been doing it for the last year, she is fantastic. It was lovely to be able to do it with family.
The UEFA Euro 2016 was on when we were in Ireland the games were played in France from the 10 June to the 10 July. For the first time, the European Championship final tournament was contested by 24 teams. Portugal won the tournament for the first time, even so there was great excitement in Ireland, Germany and Poland qualified for the finals as the group winners and runners-up respectively. As third-placed Republic of Ireland weren’t the highest – ranked but they advanced to the play-offs, where they won against Bosnia and Herzegovina. There was lots of drinking and celebrations, as always any excuse for a Party.
Friends from Australia, Ross and Helen where in Ireland in June so it was lovely to catch-up with them in Dublin, UEFA Euro 2016 was on so they where able to help us celebrate. We also had a lovely evening with them in Roundstone.
The village of Roundstone lies on the western arm of Bertraghboy bay in Connemara, Co. Galway, 48 miles (77km) north-west of Galway city. This Connemara village is beautifully set on one of the most spectacular coastal drives in Ireland overlooking the Atlantic at the foot of Errisbeg Mountain. We stayed at the Eldon’s hotel on the main street it was very comfortable, the food was also good we had a great meal there that evening.
26th Wedding Anniversary
We celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary on the 30th of June and Martin booked us into the same hotel and room that we had spent out wedding night, I was surprised it was still standing but like our marriage it has stood the test of time. Martin’s joke was it takes him all night to do what he use to do all night. Shame Really !!!!
Donegal: In July Martin and I decided to visit Donegal as it had been over 25years since the last time we had been there. Donegal is a lovely town, it is about a 3 and half hour drive from Dublin. We had to stop at Donegal Castle I mean anything that has been standing since the 15th Century and built by the O’Donnell chieftain deserves a visit. They do not make house like this anymore,
Pictures of Donegal Town, we stayed at the Atlantic Guest House in town which was very comfortable.
We continued on to the Wild Atlantic Way to visit the Slieve League (Grey Mountain) cliffs, situated on the West coast of Donegal, are said to be the highest and one of the finest marine cliffs in Europe with a three hundred metre drop straight down into the wild, Atlantic waves below. Now I remember why they call it the Wild Atlantic way, because it is wild, hold onto your hats.
Even the sheep look wild, they do not look like this in Australia.
We had been told about a beach called the silver strand so that was our next stop. It is a beautiful beach but it has 170 steps to get down to it, I was fine but Martin was whinging like an old fart. Of course I could not resist getting in for a swim, invigorating so it was.
Antique Road Show: I know some of you may cringe when you hear that one of my favourite TV shows is the Antique Road Show. I thought if ever I got a chance I would go along to one of the shows. My sister is also a lover of the show so while in Ireland I checked were and when the next shows would be on. The one we decided to go to was on in Caversham House, Redding in England. So we took off for a long weekend. We brought a few items to get appraised but we had nothing of any real worth. It was great fun, and lovely to share with my sister. The grounds were beautiful it is an old stately home. See if you can recognise any of the appraisers in the photo’s below. Fiona Bruce, Steven Moore, Eric Knowles my two favourite Art experts Philip Mould and Rupert Maas were not there which was a shame, both of these guys are so passionate about what they do I just love to watch them. Next time for sure!!!
Of course this is the Antique my husband wanted to bring home.
We spend the next day at Windsor, what a beautiful village, Windsor Castle is in the middle of the village.
Very Cute Guard in training Yeoman Guard or popularly known as the Beefeaters
It was a great weekend spent with my sister and her Husband.
Belfast: Is a place I have always wanted to visit but back in the late Eighties before I left for Australia it was not safe to do so. Now that all the troubles are over (which is great). I decided to visit with my Mum and Dad. We decided to get the train from Dublin to Belfast rather than drive, it is a lovely way to travel in Ireland. We booked a lovely two bedroom Apt at 25 Ashleigh Manor, Windsor Avenue, Belfast it was very close to all public transport and only 10min from the City Centre.
As it was 25 degrees we decided a swim was in order so we went to Helens Beach which is close to the city centre. Next we did a City Bus Tour, I find these buses tours (hop on and hop off) tours very good, you get a great overview of a city. Some of the interesting places we stopped at were Custom House, Belfast Castle, Crumlin road that had the Jail, Court House, Distillery. Belfast Peace Wall, Loyalist Wall Murals and Republican Wall Murals. Falls Road which has Bobby Sands Mural, Sinn Fein Headquarters and the home of the Peace Talks. Botanical Gardens. If you do not know much about the issues in Belfast this tour will give you an insight into the troubles. There are still reminders of the troubles in Belfast but not as much as I would have thought.
Helens Beach
Customs House
Parliament Buildings
We spent half of the next day at the Titanic Museum, it is very interesting, this year it is said that the Titanic Museum in Belfast had more visitor’s than the Eiffel tower in Paris this summer. Definitely worth a visit. That evening we went to a cabaret show it was called the Swing Pack these two performers brought to life the music, class and humour of the original ‘Rat Pack’ they sang Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin,Sammy Davis Jr, along with other classic swing and jazz artists, like Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett and Nat King Cole. We had a great night.
We had a tour lined up for the next day it included, Giant Causeway, Carrick-a- Rede Rope Bridge, Bushmills Distillery, Dunluce Castle, and the Antrim Coast Road. It was a great day, my parents are amazing they had no trouble at all keeping up with the tour, if anything they passed out a lot of the younger ones. The Antrim Coast Road is a great drive.
Giant Causeway
Carrick-a- Rede Rope Bridge
My parents crossing the Bridge, very brave.
Relief after we finished the bridge.
Antrim Coast Road
Overall I was very impressed with Belfast, it is a City that has really pulled itself back together, lots of tourism, the film industry is now big there, and there is no shortage of employment, its lovely and clean and in general the place has a real vibe about it. It was great to be able to experience Belfast with Mum and Dad.
Trabolgan County Cork: I wanted to take six of my nieces and nephews away for a few days while in Ireland. They are between 7 and 13. We agreed that Trabolgan would be the place to go as it has lots of activities for the children. For the adventurist ones it has, Go-carting, Rock climbing, Quad biking, Laser Tag, Zip lining, bungy trampolining. For the not so adventurist ones it has mini golf, pottery making and painting, Archery, Tennis and a large wave pool with water slides. Everyone found something that they liked. We went for 5 days and had a blast. The children really enjoyed it and so did we. It was great to spend time with them and they were all extremely good.
My youngest niece was too young to come with us but I did have some great days out with her.
Waterford: My sister Pamela was home from the States she lives in Nashville Tennessee. We decided to take a trip to Waterford which is in the south of Ireland. We stayed at Diamond Hill House a very comfortable B&B. We stopped at Tramore Beach which is a beautiful. And it would not be a trip to Waterford if we did not visit the Waterford Crystal Studios. The Crystal is just amazing.
It was also recommended that we visit Dunmore east a very quant town that has a number of Thatched Cottages, it is very picturesque. We had a beautiful dinner at Zak restaurant in a local Hotel, the food was great, definitely worth a visit.
Tralee, Kerry, Killarney are west – south west of Ireland: We could not leave Ireland without a trip to Tralee and the ring of Kerry. Friends of ours were going down to Tralee for a few days so we decided to join them. We stayed in Tralee Holiday Lodge in the centre of town it is a comfortable but basic B&B. We had a great afternoon with friends catching up for Lunch and dinner, we had dinner in La Scala an Italian restaurant, the food was great and it was a good family restaurant.
We went to the Kerry Country Museum which was very interesting. The museum covers the history of the first settlers from 8,000 BC to modern day. There was also a special exhibition gallery of Kerry Lives 1950 to 73 which covers the life of Roger Casement he was honoured in 1905 for the Casement Report on the Congo and knighted in 1911 for his important investigations of human rights abuses in Peru. He then made efforts during World War One to gain German military aid for the 1916 Easter Rising that sought to gain Irish independence.
We went to Killarney and from there did the ring of Kerry. We stopped at the following places of interest. Muckross House, Torc Waterfalls. Lady View, Kenmare Neidin, Castle Cove, White Strand a lovely beach off the ring of Kerry (warmest water in Ireland so far) Overall the scenery was stunning
Horse Racing in Leopardstown Dublin plus the Boomtown Rats
I was keen to go to the horse racing while in Ireland so there was horse racing on one afternoon at Leopardstown in Dublin plus as a bonus the Boomtown Rats were putting on a show after the horse racing was over. The whole family went along it was a great night, none of us won big but it was a lot of fun. Bob Geldof put on a great show, seemly he had always wanted to play in Leopardstown but was not allowed in his younger days as he band was not the type of band that Leopardstown wanted.
Summary of our time in Ireland: we had a wonderful time in Ireland catching up with family and friends, visiting places we had not seen in years and getting to do the normal day to day things that all families in Ireland do. Ireland has changed in lots of ways and in other ways not at all.