On 3 April, we headed off over the seas to visit many places we always dreamed of seeing, as well as a number of places we first saw together in 1980... before the internet... when we had to collect our mail from the main post office in each city. How times have changed... this is a record of our wonderful adventure!
From stormy Dublin via London to Copenhagen and sunshine at last : ) Our friend Ole welcomed us at the airport and showed us the best of wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen and surrounding cities including beautiful Koge. The Tivoli, round tower, royal palaces, canals, the Little Mermaid, beautiful churches, old buildings, colorful houses, stone streets, music, beer and great food. AND sunshine at last - superb! Plus we rode on automatic metro trains without a guard or driver! Lyn sat in the front seat.
Ole's family and friends showed us such hospitality. His family treated us to a absolute feast of traditional Danish food and drinks until we were ready to burst! We got to meet most of his delightful family. Thanks Mette and Eric and family and friends for the wonderful hospitality,food and fun. Tak :) Mon 30 Apr. Goodbye Denmark and thanks so much Ole. We'll see you in Oz when we get back :) To Bruges via Brussels.
Music to accompany this post: The Cranberries - Ode To My Family (formed in Limerick!)
….So Anne that runs the Coffy b&b as we are leaving Tuesday morning, asks us where we are off to. When we tell her Limerick she is horrified. Strongly advises us to avoid it at all costs as its a soulless commercial and industrial centre. Nothing poetical about it at all. We instead on her advice set off to do another peninsula. This one is called Dingle. It is stunning. Rugged barren islands off shore, spectacular scenery and not many people around. Lots of picture moments but if you were a serious photographer you would be here for an eternity. The weather changed every 5 minutes. Dark clouds would roll over us, then rain gentle or heavy and then blue skies and sunshine. Each time we stopped it was fine. Amazing really and at first we were saying what a hard job to be a weather forecaster but then really it's just saying everything today as usual. We took a few hours to do the peninsula and when we were at Slie this was probably as far west as you can get in the country. We stopped for tea and sones and sat in warm sunshine at an outdoor table looking at the Atlantic!
One story I have to tell and apologies to Al but I warned him it will come up in later conversations. There are ancient ruins of early settlements from 2000BC. Some of the best preserved are able to be viewed. They look like igloos sort of but made from incredibly neatly piled small stone slabs. One small doorway entrance but big enough to stand up inside. Anyway they call them beehive huts. Lyn chose to have a quick car nap and Al and I paid the 2€ each to trek an ancient rocky path to see them. I asked Al to pose next to the little doorway of one and I'll take a photo. He remarks that it's a lot of trouble they went to, to be able to look after their bees. I laugh at his joke and no he is serious he thought they had built these huts for protection for their bees. Now I am still laughing.
We left the wild windswept shores of this peninsula and head inland for a complete west to east crossing of the country. It takes about 4 to 5 hours and after the Limerick bypass fortunately we soon end up on a huge freeway. Generally crappy weather and not such luscious scenery. Our poor gps still thinks we are driving in paddocks and she is most anxious for us to get on the highlighted route. We mute her again but do appreciate having "the bitch" along when we reach Dublin. We get to our hotel on the River Liffey right in the centre of the city. It's raining and Dublin looks grey and drab. I need o see it in sunshine to not judge the place too harshly but the next day it's raining more. We spent our evening at an Irish music and dancing show which was fun and they were all excellent. It's just me but I kept getting the giggles at their stiff body dancing with their long legs flying around. So that's how I got drunk because I had to keep trying to behave! We ended up sharing our wine with the people at the table next to us and sitting talking after the show about traveling. Finally to bed after a late night and what a long fun day to end my first trip to Ireland. Yes I think I will have to return. Though I can't imagine coming without Lyn and Al now. We have had a great time and they are spending their last day touristing in the city. Al is interested in seeing Trinity College but Lyn has the brochure on the Guiness factory tour! They drop me at the airport and we say our farewells. Love and hugs xxxxx
Music to accompany this read (yep, Northern Irish, but still... lovely): Van Morrison - Days Like This
Another beauty of an entry from the lovely Sue.
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Well yesterday started off a bit poorly. Al left at 7 to go back to Dooleys to get his hat. Lyn and I wandered down to breakfast and grazed for a couple of hours, read the paper etc. When at 10:30 when Al hadn't made it back in time for breakfast, we debated at what time we would start worrying. Lyn has a point of view that Al is a really smart man... but is hopeless at personal admin and we really shouldn't have let him go. I say look he's got the GPS bitch in the car to tell him where to go, there is only one way really, it will be fine. So we pack up. Decide 11:15 is the official worry time. At 11:30 lyn rings the Dooley to be told Al only came 40 minutes ago! Stop worrying as we realise he must have got lost going. We check out and sit waiting in the foyer. The receptionist tells us never more than 3 hours return to Waterford but Al takes 5 and walks in after 12.
He had trouble getting out of the underground car park with his parking ticket not validated, wasted 30 minutes back and forth to reception, had to find a petrol station and got caught in road works. 5 hours.
Off we go to drive the Ring of Kerry. This is the Irish version of our great ocean road. Ours is more spectacular but it is very pretty and rugged and harsh as well. We were coming from the south and it is one of 3 little peninsulas on the south west corner of Ireland. The ring is the middle one. We planned to drive it in a clockwise direction to finish at the north of it and go on to stay at Limerick. That was the plan but somehow we missed another sign and we are in Killinsdale which is the north side. So we set off driving anti clockwise around the ring. It is windswept harsh and rugged. There are lush green valleys behind the hills of the coast as the road meanders in and out from the water. We see the Atlantic and a lot of little islands that are all now bird sanctuaries and marine reserves. Several little villages we drive through seem asleep with only one looking active at all. So when we get half way along the southern side I find a road on the map that cuts through the peninsula and suggest we do it to save time!
It doesn't save time but it is an adventure. We drive a trail/track. Hairpin bends sheer sides mountains with snow on them on one side. Lyn is in love with the scenes and keeps stopping to take photos and she is the driver, so we take ages to get back to the start. Thankfully it stays light until 8:30 or this road would be terrifying. We arrive back to where we started the ring and it has taken us 7 hours. We go to a pub and he tells us of a nice b&b where we are now. We walk back up the hill for dinner at another pub at 9. We then call into another pub, there are several in one block! This one is called the Canberra bar and we need to find out why. This ends up with life stories being told with the owner. More drinking. Lyn getting a lesson behind the bar on how to pour Guinness, which I video. Being taken on a tour of the owners b&b rooms so we can give him our opinion. More drinking with the locals who ask us questions and know a lot about football in Australia and especially Jim Stynes. Finally back to our rooms. I have woken up to sunshine pouring through my window and a beautiful view over the river which has a centuries old stone bridge made up of several arches. Oh no time for more food. At least there's no alcohol at breakfast.
We are going to limerick this morning and planning to end up in Dublin tonight. I will report on the limerick competition. Surely we can't miss the signs to Dublin! (Sue) xxxxxxxxx
Sue, Lynnie and Al head to Dublin and into the Irish countryside, possibly in another Big Bertha.
This is a guest blog from the lovely Sue Falkingham with whom we travelled around the Republic of Ireland - enjoy!
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Arrived in Dublin with Lyn and Al after a short flight on aer lingus. First impressions, no one does anything at speed here. We took ages to get off the plane, border control for non eu people only had 2 people working so over an hour to get through! We just chatted and planned. Then at last to our bags and to pick up our car. First sign of a problem was when the car people had the car for 5 days. Lyn said no its 6 and I said no we leave the 25th which is what she'd booked with the car but her and al were flying out on the 26th. So now we extended the car for another day. They will drop me in Dublin to get my flight and they are going to do another days roaming to the north of Dublin.
So finally after being in Ireland for 2 hours we are on the road heading south west. We decide to drive to Kildare for our first stop. Somehow we all missed it as they have great freeways built with EU money and no one noticed the sign for it. We stopped in a little town called Carlow, had a snack and drink at a great little pub. Then we decided we'd go to Kilkenny for the night. Somehow we missed that too and ended up in Waterford. The first place Al noticed as we drove in was called Dooley’s and Al said that sounds great, let’s stay there. Lyn was in the drivers seat, though, and we drive around Waterford for quite some time and end up back at Dooley’s. Had a fabulous dinner. Very comfortable place.
The reason we keep missing where we want to go is because our map is huge of the whole country and not enough little detail. Our GPS keeps showing us driving in paddocks and telling us to get back on the road. Lyn gets the shits with the woman's voice on the GPS and says ‘Al, turn that bitch off now’!
Anyhoo we left to follow the south coast road and successfully found Cork. It's pretty big so we had lots of signs to follow. Lyn’s family name is Lee and they have Irish ancestry. Cork is on the river Lee. Lyn was so excited, we booked into the river Lee hotel. We did a drive to a pretty little town called Kinsale for lunch. It was when we got to Cork that Al realised he had left his hat back at the Dooley. After phoning to confirm they had it. Al got up early to do the return trip to retrieve it.
Today we are heading to the Dingle peninsula and driving the ring of Kerry where we will end up in Limerick. We each have to present a limerick to the others tonight so I had better get started figuring one out! The countryside is exactly how I imagined it. Lush rolling very green gentle hills that are chock a block with little paddocks divided by hedges and old stone walls. The towns are a mix of very drab and dreary with riotous colours painted on walls or doors. There will be a street of attached homes with the most vibrant mix of purples, yellow, reds, orange etc in crazy combinations, then streets where there is just 4 different shades of stone grey. The seafood here is excellent and we haven't had anything but great food so far.
Hope everyone is well. Love to everyone (Sue) xxxx
Bucketing rain drenched us to the bone. Missed out on St Paul's Cathedral and some other highlights as we're off to Ireland tomorrow. A good excuse to come back...!
