May 22-29, 2009
We had planned this vacation for quite some time. Scott's parents came to visit during the kids Summer mid-term break and we planned to see the southern half of Ireland on a driving tour.
So after Lawrence and Saralee acclimated to our time zone we drove over to the northern tip of Wales for a ferry over to Ireland. Scott flew over after work on Friday and actually
beat us there to Limerick (close to the western coast of Ireland). He rented a car (because we already had a full van of 7 people). It was a long day of driving that didn't stop there!
LimerickThe first day in Ireland we took it easy. We just drove into Limerick to see King John's castle and then out to Bunratty Castle
.King John's Castle
King John's castle was interesting if you follow the Robin Hood story...King John was the unpopular king whose brother Richard was well liked. Not much was left of the castle but there were several exhibits that were interesting...especially the one about the foundations!
Bunratty Castle
As we walked around the grounds toward the castle we were SHOCKED to see two EXTREMELY large dogs (on a leash thankfully) walking towards us. They were authentic Irish Wolfhounds. And they were huge!...almost the height of Christina!
Bunratty Castle was interesting and TALL!
The narrow stairs seemed to go up and up. The first main hall feels like it is the main hall of the castle, but if you continue up there is yet another even larger hall. The furniture had to be brought in via the windows as the stairs were too narrow to bring the long planks used for the kings tables!
Lawrence knows when he's out- numbered!
The grounds also held sample buildings of what village life would be like in Ireland long ago. At first it seemed like it was just a few homes they relocated to give the impression of what a village would have been...but then it kept going! There actually was an entire village! It included just about everything you could think... a church, a wealthy landowners mansion, a mill, a farmers house (with stable INSIDE the house), doctors, store...just everything you could imagine.
Here is Madison's favorite house. It was the home of a well-to-do farmer in the area.
Since we were traveling on a super tight budget (and there were eight of us traveling) we We however, opted for the Shaffer Super Supper... pizza sandwiches cooked on our convenient portable grill!
Our dinners quickly became a long night of cooking with just one grill...but the demand was great! And everyone seemed to love the pizza sandwiches. Other nights we grilled burgers and hot dogs. Jeanne would grill while we watched an hour of Britain's got Talent. By the end of the show everyone was fed and full.
The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren
Another famous landmark of Ireland is the dramatic coastline of the
Cliffs of Moher. Although a bit windy, we did enjoy the views!
They had an interesting museum that was built
into the hillside. So after we went out to see the cliffs and the lighthouse we were able to warm up in underground.
Next we headed off to the
Burren area. It was an EXTREMELY rocky area where there seemed to be no topsoil and only rocks. It was really interesting and different from anything else we have seen on our travels.
Unfortunately Madison's foot found a crevice in the rock (they were everywhere) and really hurt her ankle. She eventually did recover but it did put a damper on the day a bit.
The Ring of Kerry
We drove around a famous circular drive. It is known for it's fantastic views of ocean and mountains. It unfortunately was a bit cold and rainy, but thankfully it cleared up a bit when we came to a beautiful beach.
We were due to make sandwiches for lunch so it was perfect! A front seat view over the ocean!
Cobh, IRELAND
Scott's nephew is a Titanic history guru. From a very young age Ethan has been almost obsessed with any and all information about the Titanic. When his grandparents were planning a trip over here and he found out that they were visiting Ireland Ethan strongly requested that they visit Queenstown, Ireland since it was the last port of the doomed Titanic before it sank. So we dutifully typed into google maps "Queenstown, Ireland" to find out where it was and if it was possible. But the town of Cobh is what kept appearing. We researched and found out that the name had changed (Irish-English conflict...).
There was an immigration and transportation museum by the harbor that was interesting too. So, Thanks Ethan for your suggestion! We enjoyed the stop!
Blarney Castle
It seems that if you visit Ireland that you just can't miss kissing the Blarney stone... well at least
seeing the Blarney stone for the germ-a-phobes (smile). So we went.
The downside to Ireland is the cost of everything. Everywhere you went (except the gas stations) the costs were much higher than expected. And the Blarney castle was no exception. Everything adds up so fast!
But we were quite pleased with our stop at Blarney. The castle ruins were interesting and the climb up was broken up with various rooms and views.
We finally made it to the top and didn't know what to expect... where was the stone? It was in the MOST obscure place! You go up the stairs, shimmy along the edge of the castle wall to the far side, get on your back and slide out and arch backwards with your head down an outside hole (you are held onto by a helper man)... THEN you pucker up and smooch the farthest stone down!
I really wanted to know WHO came up with this creative legend... Well, whoever it was they made Blarney castle a lot of money!
Above a video of Bryce earning "the gift of gab"
The views were great from the top though. It is amazing how things in Ireland really do seem a little bit greener than anywhere else!
Kilkenny Castle
Kilkenny is a town that Jeanne's distant family originates. So it was interesting just to see the beautiful town. We stopped by the castle, ate lunch in the car and then walked to the castle. It is a square shaped castle with one side missing. It overlooks the river that flows through the city and has a massive front garden.
We walked through the various rooms on the tour but were most impressed and surprised by the extra long hall. It had incredible paintings and carved woodwork. It was kind of an elegant folk art style. Hard to describe, but beautiful.
Jordan just stared at the ceiling.
Bryce looks surprisingly similar to one of the former owners...
Then the girls checked out the new playground. They had so much fun we had a hard time getting them to leave!
We finally enticed them to leave with a moving game of "tig" (or tag).
Waterford
We arrived at the Waterford Crystal Factory for a factory tour...only to find out that Waterford went into bankruptcy and was sold to an British company who was going to relocate the factory to the York area. Wow! We were disappointed but at least we were able to walk around the factory store (selling their inventories) and watch a historical video of the Waterford company.
This chandelier cost about $50,000. Yikes!
We drove up the coast on the way to Dublin and found a beautiful small beach to rest and play. As typical for our family, we thoroughly enjoyed playing in the surf, climbing rocks and skipping stones.
Dublin
The highlight of Dublin was easily the Trinity college library. In it is located several priceless books. The book of Kells and several other early christian books. The book of Kells was created around 800 A.D. by Celtic Monks.
It is a beautiful piece of artwork primarily but textually it contains the four gospels. In the museum it was interesting because the book of Kells was housed at a location that caught on fire more than 10 times in 14 years (going by memory)...and THEN they decided to move it to Trinity college for security reasons. I laughed and laughed when I read that.
Lawrence was thrilled to see that the college had a physics department and really wanted to take a peek. So while he popped in for a tour the rest of us went to their exhibit titled Infected...
Quite honestly, it was scary to enter. They made the hall appear like a danger zone with plastic vapor barriers and yellow warning streamers. When we finally gathered up enough courage to enter they gave us each a computer chip that we wore on a lanyard. It was an interesting concept... you were not infected when you began your journey in through the exhibit, but if you came into close proximity with someone who was infected you could and would (after a period of time) become infected. When you became infected a very small light would blip on the back of your computer chip so you would then know that you were "sick".
There also were computer monitors on each floor where you could see small shapes with identifying numbers beside them. Red meant infected and green meant clean. It was interesting because at one point the only person who was red in the entire building was Bryce. Then a group of school children came in and Bryce had a bunch of unknowing victims! Jeanne and the girls stood in front of the computer and watched the epidemic unfold before our eyes. Then the school children started to squeel and run around. Bryce was having so much fun (sounds like him, huh?)
At first Christina was a bit traumatized by the whole ordeal. She really didn't want to be infected and would wail that quite loudly throughout the exhibit. Consequently she spent most of her time standing in front of the "healing" computer.
They also had a really cool table that you strapped a wrap around your head and if you put off Theta brain waves. If you were relaxed you sent more of them. So the goal is to relax so you win...it's a hard combination!
Madison and Christina battled it out "relaxing" for about 15 minutes when finally laughter cause Christina to loose it. What a great job competing though!
It was a fun exhibit. And Lawrence had a great time meeting a fellow physicist who worked in a surprisingly similar field as Lawrence did! But the kids were tired of traveling and were in a complaining mood so all we heard was...
I'm hungry
I'm thirsty
I'm B O R E D
I'm tired
I'm cold
I'm
hotIt's amazing how persistent kids can be! Scott had to leave that evening for his flight back home. So we left the Trinity college in the hopes of finding a castle and eating a picnic lunch. But Irish roadsigns are TERRIBLE and our Tom Tom wasn't any help either...it took us to a golf course! (we live by our Tom tom and when it fails we are so lost!) We drove around for an hour and finally gave up. Lunch ended up being at a gas station. Sigh.
Scott had to leave to fly back for work the next day while we had planned to drive back. But the kids were really tired of traveling and driving so he almost had two stow-a-ways for the flight home.
Early the next morning we woke up to catch the ferry back. It was a LONG drive back and we made it about the same time Scott did from work on Friday.
Next time I think we'll fly.
We took the weekend to drive up to the North Yorkshire area. We had heard that it was beautiful and want to go see the beautiful coastlines. Jeanne also has an interesting dvd set (the indestructible book) that talks about the history of the Bible. One of the events it speaks on is the miracle at the Whitby abbey. Caedmon was a stable boy who always avoided singing at the nearly mandatory singing evenings at the abbey. But one night when he conveniently excused himself from the singing to care for the animals it is said that an angel appeared to him and told him to sing. He denied but then finally obeyed. He was shocked to hear a glorious singing voice. And not only that he was able to turn the latin scripture into songs that the everyday person could understand. Caedmon was one of the first translators of the scripture!
Next we headed off to Robin Hoods bay. Jeanne had heard of a charming tiny village that boasts rocks with fossils "in nearly every rock". Jeanne was eagerly looking forward to breaking rocks open with hammers and seeing all sorts of fossils. But unfortunately we didn't realize that the rocky coastline that we were wanting to explore was only accessible during low tide and we arrived at high tide.
So as an alternative we headed on to Castle Howard and squeeked in before their closing time (a minute to spare!)
The next day we were able to hit the Robin Hoods Bay at LOW tide! The village was beautiful but the rock splitting was not what Jeanne thought it would crack up to be (pun intended). Fossils were hard to find if at all.
Next came the highlight of our trip (another one)... Eden Camp! It is an ex-prisoner of war camp. The barracks were turned into a museum of all the modern wars.
It of course spends most of the barracks concentrating on WW2 but there were quite a few that dealt with WW1 and various wars.
The amount of information on all of the signs could take a week to read. And there were plenty of visual and audio displays to give you a feel of the time. It also was interesting because it was from a UK perspective! It truly is a must-see for any war-history buffs!
The girls also enjoyed their playground and playing soldier...it's not just for boys!
