27 June 2012 LONDON Wednesday

I have the best boys on the entire planet!

What a great start to a special day. 

After a frustrating drive to our hotel near Heathrow with Samantha GPS-lady-person leading us repeatedly astray, we finally got sorted and had to promptly hand the hire car back, which we did successfully, totally unscathed - well done to our two proficient drivers Allan and Keith.

To end Mum and Keith's holiday off on a high note we had booked, with Kit and Dal too, to see a show, Dreamboats and Petticoats, at Playhouse Theatre in London's West End and what a fun show it was! 

Old songs sung by upbeat youngsters with little innuendo's now and then, hand clapping and singing along by all.

26 June 2012 STRATFORD-UPON-AVON Tuesday

We started our day with a visit at Anne Hathaways cottage for a stroll in the woodland nearby and a quick chat in the conversation chair.

Halfway through the woodland walk, we came across this moss-covered mask just hanging non-chalantly on a tree hook - you can come to your own conclusions ; )

Al and Keith were having a blast....

Next was Anne Hathaways cottage and garden...

The garden was all ablaze and a-bloom in a riot of colourful spires, pom poms and blossoms.
A quick visit inside the cottage and on our way to William Shakespeare's childhood home.  Set back in time and built like a rabbits warren made us all grateful that we live in modern times, especially seeing the taut-rope sprung mattress base and washing tub facilities.

Lunch at Pen and Parchment then a little wander through what used to be the site of William Shakespeare's adult home and is now an archeological site which was a little disappointing.  The adjoining Knot gardens were interesting with the 4 symmetrical garden squares and intricate sculptures.
Mum and I finished our afternoon off with a little retail therapy, and our stay in Stratford-upon-Avon ended with the four of us having a nice dinner out.

Forgot to say my most exciting thing was to sleep in the attic!!

25 June 2012 WALES TO ENGLAND Monday

Left Llandudno, stopping for a walk along the city wall which still entirely surrounds the town of Chester, giving the area a decidedly Romanesque feel. 

We stopped our wall-top sentry at Eastgate, which remains totally intact and beautifully restored, to walk where Romans walked and horses trotted along the cobbled lanes, only to be brought thoroughly back to reality by the gnarly M6.

Enter Stratford-upon-Avon in mid-heatwave all of 21.5 degrees celsius!  Seriously everyone was in sleeveless tops and short shorts like it was 40 degrees instead.

I had a stroll (and a little shopping spree) down the High Street while the others rested, then we all went for drinks at the Riverbank, on the...well...riverbank, watching families picnic while dogs played ball and big hot air balloons floated serenely by, way above us.

Dinner across the River Avon at Pen and Parchment and so to slumber on a 'mid-summer nights dream'.

24 June 2012 SNOWDONIA Sunday

Gosh, well before breakfast we were ready to start our day up the mountain of the Great Orme giving beautiful views across the Irish Sea for 360 degree and as far as the eye could see - what better way to start the day.

Nice road too!

Back for brekky, then off for a fun jaunt up the Snowdon Mountain Railway.  The Snowdon is the highest peak in Wales at +- 3000ft, therefore, the top of the mountain had disappeared in mist when we went up, but nonetheless, it added to the wonderment as we passed hikers shrouded in mist trudging heavily up the steep rocky slope.

What better name than Yeti to take you up into the misty mountains!

After warming up with a VERY quick coffee before being threatened with being left behind, if not on time, on that freezing inhospitable mountain top, we were dismayed to find that we had to travel all 3000ft down the mountain BACKWARDS! 

The views across the valley were still beautiful though

Surviving our backward trundle, next on our itinerary was Caernofen Castle for a guided tour.  Interestingly enough, both Prince Charles and his Uncle Edward were Crowned Prince of Wales at Caernofen Castle and similarly, BOTH men married divorcees.  Unlike Edward, though, Charles will not be abdicating.

Our drive home was via Conwy Castle near to Llandudno and dinner was, unexpectedly, amongst a group of passionate locals, vociferously supporting the English football team in an exciting game ending in a penalty shootout against Italy (who won, unfortunately).

23 June 2012 IRELAND TO WALES Saturday

We left Dublin this morning across turbulent seas, making walking while onboard, a tricky experience.

From Holyhead in Anglesey, we drove through to the village with the longest name of 58 letters, beginning with Llanfair...and ending with...gogoch. 

Here's the name at the train station, with the pronunciation below the name.

This photo shows the name with the meaning below the name

As "luck" would have it, the village was having it's first ever Parade in honour of the Jubilee celebrations and we happened to be there at the time : /
It was very sweet with little Princesses and Queens in every float.

Continuing on, we crossed over to Snowdonia on the Brittania Bridge with clear views of the formidable Menai suspension bridge over the Menai Strait.

Our arrival in Llandudno was met by a triathlon underway, thereby, closing off access to our B & B.  No matter, we had lunch on the beachfront and even got to watch the running segment of the triathlon, giving encouragement to the weary ones as they trudged their way up the hill past us.

As soon as the road was open again, we checked-in and made for the closest pub, Club 147, showing the Springbok rugby game.  Dinner was delish at Pars followed by a gentle stroll home.

22 June 2012 DUBLIN Friday

Mum and I shopped up a storm in Dublin city centre, at Arnotts Shopping Centre, Jervis Shopping Centre and Pernall Mall.  To revive ourselves, we lunched at Cafe Carlo with the men joining us for their lunch too, a little later.

Keith and Al had spent the morning at the Guinness Storehouse, learning how to pour (and drink) the perfect Guinness.  Al is now even certified to do so!

The Storehouse is a 7 storey building with 5000 people passing through each day. That's a lot of certified people to pull beer.
Al, Keith and Kit decided to create their own brand and pass it through the peat bogs we drove past all over Ireland.  The name they decided on was P(h)isky.....mmm I wonder how many clients they'd have.

21 June 2012 NEWGRANGE Thursday

An hour's drive in the rain and through a seemingly never-ending 2.8km tunnel transported us to the Neolithic site of Newgrange ancient burial grounds at Bru na Boine (on the River Boyne).

Newgrange is the biggest of 40 tombs and on the Winter Solstice the first sunray penetrates the sun door, illuminating the furthest chamber, providing a portal for the ashes to be reincarnated for the new life.  It is an incredible piece of architecture and the mind boggles at the amount of research needed for the chambers and direction of sun, plus the roof inside is domed and built with no cement!!
No photo's allowed inside, but the decorative stones outside were fascinating too - the meanings of which are simply being guessed at by researchers of today.

You can see the sun door above the mantle with quartz above it which creates a golden glowing effect as the sun rises, illuminating the entrie dome in a halo of shimmering sunlight. A remarkable work of ingenuity.

If you look carefully you'll be able to compare the height of the people at the entrance to the top of the dome. 
Walking around and touching symbols that depict rituals of burial and afterlife which are 5000 years old was quite surreal.

Nevertheless, shaking the eerieness off of us, we made for good old modern day enjoyment at the Arlington Hotel Temple Bar where we were entertained by The Legends singing table-banging sing-along roudy Irish music. 
Halfway through the evening, a group of 4 Irish dancers provided us with beautifully choreographed dances all perfectly performed.

Yeah yeah you can only see two dancers, but I wasn't the photographer so, not my problem!

There was also this fascinating gentleman living inside a picture frame?

Taxi home with the driver informing us that it never stops raining in Dublin, it just becomes warm rain in the summer. We can vouch for that, to be sure, to be sure!

20 June 2012 CORK TO DUBLIN Wednesday

Leaving Cork this morning, we drove through Tipperary - it's a long, long way to go.... also through Kilkenny County to the rather unimpressive Rock of Cashel.  It was undergoing renovations with scaffolding around it and in fact the ruined castle below it's grounds was more impressive.

Rock of Cashel

 Castle ruin

On to Dublin where the trams run inbetween the two lanes of traffic without so much as a barrier for protection - gee would that be a safety issue in Australia!

Once settled into yet another new abode we caught a taxi to Temple Bar, only to be ever so kindly escorted by an excessively drunk youngster whose greatest task in life, at that point, was to show us around the Temple Bar area. Such a pleasant introduction!  Fortunately we were rescued by a clanging of metal bar by a council worker, telling us to keep walking and the youngster to disappear - mmm how enchanting.

The vibe in Temple Bar was both mellow and electric all at the same time, with every pub playing it's own variation of life music which can't help but spill out onto the street and into the ears of strollers and passers-by, adding to the atmosphere, creating a pretty jovial street party!

We made our way to the actual Temple Bar itself for a drink and what should the first live song be, but Molly Malone - in Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty.........singing cockles and mussels alive alive oh!

 Off to the next pub, The Banker for dinner and taxi to bed.





19 June 2012 RING OF KERRRY Tuesday

Our starting point to drive the Ring of Kerry was at Killarney and nearby Ross Castle which is largely populated with the working horse-drawn carts called jarvis.  Although we didn't go for a ride on one, we did enjoy the horses.

 See the pretty red flower in the one above and the moustache on the one below!

Through thickly forested Killarney National Park where gnomes and faerie folk frolic in the dappled sunlight and water sprays - with trolls spying from under the bridge.

To pretty Torc Waterfall

Up, up, up the hill we went, to Ladies View, so called after Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting were taken there whilst she was on tour.

The Ladies at Ladies View

After a quick picnic lunch we drove on through such quaint villages like Kenmare and Bantry with a mountain top view overlooking Bantry Bay.  The mountains held a sparkling lake right up at the top in one of many shallow vale's.  One of our stops was at Druids View with the Druid (carved from a single solid piece of wood) overlooking the exquisite valley.

Our next stop was at sneaky Gollums corner with all sorts of sculptured creatures hiding in nooks and crannies.

Onwards through three rock carved tunnels just hewn over the road...

...and so to home for drinks at An Brog, and yes it sounds as bad as it looks, with dilapidated chairs, tables and even church pews for furniture.  To match the shabby look of An Brog, we continued in the same frame and got Hillbilly's Chicken for dinner!!

(Mum and I had had a walk around Cork city earlier, through stinky meat and fish English Market and around impressivly high St Finnbar Cathedral).

18 June 2012 BLARNEY CASTLE Monday

An exciting drive to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone!!

Now we all have the "gift of the gab" as apposed to speaking 'baloney' - that's the difference between the two, you see!

Strolling back from our venture to the very top of the Castle, we sneaked a tentative peak inside Witches Cave and no sooner were we eyeballed by, not only an evil raven, but also a "lucky" black cat (in Ireland they really are a symbol of 'luck'). At the exit His Royal Lordship was there to bid us all a fond farewell.

A somewhat rainy drive and we arrived in Ireland's oldest village for lunch, Kinsale, which is of course a tiny fishing village whose harbour is flanked on either side by foreboding forts.  The next village we stopped at was Crosshaven for an expansive view across the bay, of Cobh (Titanic's last port of call).

Home for drinks and dinner.

17 June 2012 CORK Sunday

So I guess it's "cheerio, cheerio, cheerio" to party town Galway, with Kit and Dal leaving for home : (
and Mum, Keith, Al and I heading for Cork, past Mallow - luckily Cork means 'marsh' in Gaelic - ooh that was bad, sorry!

Our lunch stop was in Limerick at King John's Castle
on the Shannon River which was all a-sparkle.
No sooner had we eaten
than we hit the road a-fleetin
for Cork town city with all it's marvel.

Ooh, Al and Keith say manure to that! My bad.

Once settled in at Cork we walked along the River Lee on the frontage of our Lodge and went for drinks at Washington Inn and dinner at Soho Restaurant.

16 June 2012 GALWAY Saturday

Mum, Dal and I went to Galway Markets, while Keith, Kit and Al stayed home to do the washing - HA HA! 
The Market was small with mostly food stalls, so a little more shopping was required down the walking mall and then into the shopping centre for a last spree, finishing off with lunch.
The men picked us up from the town centre and dropped Dal and I off for just one more very last shopping trip, closer to home.  Once we'd shopped ourselves out, we walked the short distance up the road to join Mum, Keith, Al and Kit at the Menlo Hotel to watch the rugby and enjoy a glass of wine.

After the rugby, we wanted to end our stay in Galway with a resounding pub crawl. Our starting point was An Pucan and what a good start it was!  We were given our very own boat and before we knew it, she somehow got named Murial -

God Bless Murial and all who sail in her!!

I think perhaps the mural behind us had something to do with her naming ceremony.  If you have a closer look, you'll see the seas were quite rough so we had to abandon ship and head for dry land, but not before enjoying some roudy music and trying a sip of Guiness - ugh!

Our infamous pub crawl continued along the walking mall amidst throngs of youngsters already well on their way to enjoying a good night out.  After squashing and squeezing our way into umpteen dozen pubs, we had dinner upstairs in a quiet bar away from the madding crowd, ending our week in Galway off in style.

While walking back along the mall for a taxi we encountered a particularly jovial group of youngsters, chanting merrily to the patrolling police:  "Whose that sexy garda......" repeatedly

until the police walked calmly on, ignoring the youngsters completely,  at which point the youngsters continued with "cheerio, cheerio, cheerio...." also repeatedly.

I guess that's the norm for a party town full of uni students, hens parties, bucks parties and mid-life crises to boot!

 

15 June 2012 CLIFFS OF MOHER Friday

Gosh! Where has the week gone!?

In high spirits and determined not to let the weather dampen our mood or spoil our plans, we set off to discover the southerly coastal road, albeit in the rain and mist. 

After having been surrounded by glossy green foliage for the past few weeks in Ireland, we were quite dumbfounded when the scenery changed to stone covered mountains, so we had to stop and have a closer look at Abbey Hill.  A short while later we discovered that the stones' reputation has gone before them as the hill's name is derived from nearby Corcomroe Abbey, which translates as "fertile stone".

As ruins go, the Abbey still has many naves and walls intact, and particularly a number of tombs enclosed within it's walls.

Presently, after having a look around, we continued on our way, with the roads becoming a little treacherous as we climbed a bit further up.  Around an unsuspecting corner, we spotted Doolin Donkey Castle and scrambled up the long grassy wet path after the precious little donkey and sheepishly found a quick short way down that we could have used to go up instead.

We couldn't find the donkey (or horse) at the top of the hill and no wonder, with the noise we must have made scrambling up the hill!

Doolin Cave was our next port of call, except we all patted the tiny little kid goat instead of visiting the caves.

 And check this hen's hairdo out!

Down around the coast the drive became a bit more tame with an expansive flat rocky ledge stretching right out to the sea and only a few daredevils peeping over the edge.

Crab salad and seafood chowder for lunch in the sleepy seaside village of Liscannor where wild men from the West live in long grey beards lurking in quite corners of the pub.



The dramatic Cliffs of Moher were our next beguiling sight, adding to their sense of brooding was the rain and mist.

Harry Potter's cave 

After braving the rocky mud-slide pathway to the very top and admiring the awesome view, we made our way home past many a broken down fort and castle whose names we do not know.