Ireland trip, April 2010I

(Disclaimer: Cos Phil mucked up downloading half the pix and lost them, the following blog is without pix of the eagles, owls, cave or bunratty castle. If you want your money back, tough (works for Ryanair).)

PS the much more entertaining stuff from the kids starts halfway down - I still can't lay this thing out worth a damn.

Gidday Gaels: Below, Lough Corrib, Ireland's first or 2nd largest lake - 365 islands they say, one for every day of the year - outside Oughterard where we house-swapped in County Galway. Note: It's NOT raining.
Not a bad wee mansion - underfloor heating, 5 bathrooms (we think), a gazillion toys, and lots of hastily cleaned up mess (5 kids after all) just like the home we'd left in London. Note: Still not raining.

Above, a class of 10 year olds at Roscahill School get to poke us and in return we get to see some down-home line dancing.

Swimming, directly above, off Tracht Beach near Kinvara (temp, just-standable) and glass-clear water; and, above that, Ellie in front of the coolio diving tower at Salthill (temp, not-standable at all). Petone needs one of these. PS: The wee B&B sign at Kinvara says "Ellie's".

Yeh, we'll have a go. Galwegians appreciate a bit of ritual, so why not join in?; this in the city centre square. That's Lara under the hat.

Playing at pirates and statues. The grey guy was rather good, didn't move a muscle till euros required it.

Kylemore Abbey's walled Victorian garden, oddly placed beside Ireland's only fjord and among the 12 Ben mountains (one of which you can see behind). 14 euro to get in + it has a cool chapel called (a bit optimistically) "Ireland's Taj Mahal" (the abbey was a castle and the castle owner built the chapel as a memorial to his wife who died of a disease contracted in Egypt).

Speaking of odd, at right, a native of the Bens.

Jac and Patches. The bond between rider and horse is a mysterious and wonderful thing.

PS I've attached some video of the horse riding to this blog. Has anyone found it yet?

Leaning Castle of Aughnanure, redoubt of the ferocious O'Flaherty clan who terrorised Anglo-Norman settlers (invaders) in downstream Galway for years. The real estate's not what it was - blame the neighbours.

8 euro for a family to get in.

"I smell the blood of an Englishman".

The fireplace at Aughnanure and, below, the staircase. For pictures of the latrine follow the link to our website.

From Rosa:
I liked bunratty castle. i went in the cottaggea. we went horse riding.

We went inside the prison in Dublin.

We went to lots of places. We swam in the Atlantic. we had lots of icecreams.




From Lara:

I liked the horse riding because we went a long way. My horse was called harry .
We stayed in a house with lots of toys.
I held jess the barn owl on my hand. It was fun.
The prison in Dublin was very sad because lots of people died.
Swimming in the Atlantic Ocean was fun, I put my head under two times.
We went on the bus for 5 hours. It was boring.


FROM SAM

MY FAV THINGS IN IRLAND WERE THE BIRD OF PREY PARK ,BUNRATTY CASTLE AND THE HOUSE . I LIKED THE BIRD OF PREY PARK BECAUSE THE BIRDS wERE MAGNIFICENT MY FAV BIRD WAS THE HUGE SEA EAGLE . I LIKED BUNRATTY CASTLE BECAUSE IT HAD ITS OWN VILLAGE AND DUNGON . I LIKED THE HOUSE BECAUSE IT WAS HUGE AND HADLOTS OF TOYS EVEN A GAMES ROOM .

FROM ELLIE,

WE WENT TO IRELAND FOR TWO WEEKS.FIRST WE WENT ON A LONG BUS RIDE WAS FIVE HOURS FROM DUBLIN TO SHANNON.THEN WE PICKED UP THE CAR AND DROVE TO THE HOUSE WE WERE STAYING IN.IT WAS A VEARY BIG HOUSEWITH LOTS OF TOYS.THE NEXT DAY WE WENT TO THE BIRDS OF PREY PARK.IT WAS REALLY COOL.THERE WAS LOTS OF BIRDS.SOME OF THEM WERE MY FAVROUITE ONES LIKE JESSIE THE BARN OWL. AFTER WE WENT UP TO A CAVE. THE NEXT DAY WE WENT HORSE RIDING. MY HORSE WAS CALLED BROWNIE. WE WENT TO THE CLIFFS OF MOHER. THERE WAS A LITTLE ISLAND CALLED GOAT ISLAND. IT HAD PUFFINS.

Kilmanhaim Gaol in Dublin, disused since the 1920s except as a film location for likes of "The Name of the Father". Below, the names of 14 leaders of the 1916 Easter uprising the British executed in the yard at Kalmainham -a few years later the leaders of the new Republic were executing some of their own at the jail after civil war broke out. Some grim old stories on a very good tour (14 euro a family) and certainly what's made the most historical impression on the kids (apart from It's a Small World at Disney).

For our final evening in Ireland, all 5 hours we got in Dublin, we check out the Easter Uprising bullet holes left at the Main Post Office in O'Connell Street (getting to put your finger in: cost, zero euros. Only free thing in the whole 2 weeks. Nah. Almost, but nah).