I last wrote on the 28th of March. On the 31st we flew out to Ireland for four nights, bringing along with us a travelling companion for Kaitlyn - (another!) Elizabeth. We spent two nights with a friend of Trevor's family, Paul, who lives in Enniscouly. We stayed the night there on Friday night (giving me time to have either drastic food poisoning or some sort of thankfully-short-lived stomach bug).
Saturday we travelled down to Gory, passing on
the way _____, the former seat of Irish
government, complete with tumbled-down abbey and castle (which is now in somebody's back garden!) From Gory we carried on to Wexford, and had a nice meal out together, followed by fancy helium balloons for the girls, which they thought were wonderful all the while they weren't fighting over them!
Sunday morning we got up and packed ourselves back in the car for the ride back up to Dublin. We had seen numerous rainbows on Friday and Saturday (and more after), but it was during this drive that I discovered why the Irish stories talk about looking for gold at the end of the rainbow - its because the rainbows actually appear to be touching the ground!!! Its quite astonishing!
We checked into our hotel in Dublin, said good-bye to Paul, had lunch and then took the bus from the hotel into Dublin city-centre. (Having a 6:10 check-in on Tuesday morning we didn't fancy being any further from the airport than necessary). We took the girls to Dublinia, a kids museum about Dublin during the medieval period, as well as some information about the Vikings and their impact on Ireland. All very interesting, with lots of touchy-feely hands-on interaction. I bought a book of Irish Legends to read to the girls at the gift shop. As we came out we realised that the museum was in the old Chapter House of the Irish Catholic Church. We descended the stairs and tried to look into the Church, which was just about ready for 15:30 Sunday Evensong, but were blocked at the door by the 'voluntary' payment police. Not unusual in England, but don't get Trevor started on it unless you want a long rant!
After that it was a long walk back to find our bus, but on the way we did discover a Tim Horton's in a Spar (a corner-store popular in the UK and Ireland). The sign outside (which we completely failed to see) read "A taste so big it could only have come from Canada!" Well, we were very pleased to get our donuts and coffee (no hot chocolate) even if they were slightly stale and overpriced! Then it was back to the hotel, dinner at the on-site restaurant and to bed for the kids, while we kept guard in the hallway and did the Sudoku.
Monday we were up at typical young children times, and figured we might as well get going. We had breakfast at the restaurant, then got ready and got out, heading for Malahide - about twenty minutes away, but that didn't account for just missing a 50 minute bus service. Ah well, it was another experience! (I think by this point Kaitlyn's friend Elizabeth was definitely wishing that she hadn't come with us!)
The bus driver dropped us very close to the footpath entrance, but what we didn't realise was that the castle was still another twenty minute walk away! Along the way we found a children's playground, much to everyone's pleasure. We had been planning on taking the girls to the Children's Museum (complete with very elaborate dolls' house) next to Malahide castle, but it unfortunately didn't open until April 16th. Not wishing to lay in wait in the courtyard, we carried on to the castle.
Unlike almost all of the other castles we've visited, Malahide castle was inhabited from 1185 - 1975, and all by the same family, except for a couple of years during Cromwell's time. We went through the castle, which is obviously still in quite exceptional nick, and I think the girls found it relatively interesting. I know Trevor and I liked it.
After a cream tea for lunch we headed back to the bus stop and took the bus back into Dublin, where we spent a happy afternoon 'culture-snooping' in the bookstore and department store. We always find it interesting to go round and see how fashions differ, what books are in the 'popular reads' sections, etc. We met up with Paul and Liz in front of the Spike (a fallic symbol, I'm sure my OAC English teacher would say!) and headed back towards the airport for a late but extremely good Indian meal. We then headed back to the motel, tucked the girls in bed, set the alarms for 5:30 and went to bed.
Tuesday we were up at 5:30 and five people dressed, all bags packed and waiting for the cabby at 6:00. Checked in at the airport by an extremely nervous woman (I think it might have been her first day on her own, poor girl!) and managed to get a bit of breakfast into us before we got onto the plane. Trevor's father met us at the other end, despite being down with quite a nasty bug, and drove Trevor directly to work (stopping for Elizabeth to be sick on the side of the road, poor girl) and then took the rest of us home. All in all we were really pleased to get to go to Ireland. It is an absolutely gorgeous country, and we really enjoyed how relaxed and friendly the Irish were.
Having gotten us home, Robin went back to bed to nurse his bug and I sorted laundry, got the girls lunch, went and got groceries and library books, got dinner and got the girls to bed.
Wednesday I had a chiropractor's appointment at 9:10 which I just about got to on time, despite walking to it (a 45 minute walk). We then went to the library so Kaitlyn could get her school work done, and discovered they were going to have Rhyme-Time, which we stayed for. Kaitlyn thought it was baby-ish, but I think Hannah liked it - she actually sat still! We then ran several errands, and had lunch in Woking and a play at the park before returning home. Trevor came home to tell me that he had prematurely worked himself out of a job. Although unfortunate, the timing couldn't have been better, as he has spent the last three days in bed with his parents' bug. I am still trying to fight it off, but spent most of yesterday in bed myself with the effort. For now the girls haven't got it!
Please pray for health for us for these last few weeks. We have many people we'd like to see, a few places locally we'd still like to go to, tickets for Kaitlyn, Helen and I to see Mary Poppins in the West End on Monday, and of course Easter next weekend, and I'd really love to be able to enjoy all of that without the stress of people being sick any longer! We are counting down the days till we go home, and are looking forward to seeing so many of you soon!
I didn't take all of my camera-kit with me to Ireland - just my 50mm lens, so please excuse the photo composition.
The girls - all taken in Helen and Robin's back garden. Note Kaitlyn's two missing front teeth!
The girls have become very sweet and loving with one another this year - they are growing into "sister-friends".
Kaitlyn doing her monkey impression!
Hannah, copying Kaitlyn "My do it, my do it!"
I last wrote on the 28th of March. On the 31st we flew out to Ireland for four nights, bringing along with us a travelling companion for Kaitlyn - (another!) Elizabeth. We spent two nights with a friend of Trevor's family, Paul, who lives in Enniscouly. We stayed the night there on Friday night (giving me time to have either drastic food poisoning or some sort of thankfully-short-lived stomach bug).
the way _____, the former seat of Irish 
government, complete with tumbled-down abbey and castle (which is now in somebody's back garden!) From Gory we carried on to Wexford, and had a nice meal out together, followed by fancy helium balloons for the girls, which they thought were wonderful all the while they weren't fighting over them!
Sunday morning we got up and packed ourselves back in the car for the ride back up to Dublin. We had seen numerous rainbows on Friday and Saturday (and more after), but it was during this drive that I discovered why the Irish stories talk about looking for gold at the end of the rainbow - its because the rainbows actually appear to be touching the ground!!! Its quite astonishing!
We checked into our hotel in Dublin, said good-bye to Paul, had lunch and then took the bus from the hotel into Dublin city-centre. (Having a 6:10 check-in on Tuesday morning we didn't fancy being any further from the airport than necessary). We took the girls to Dublinia, a kids museum about Dublin during the medieval period, as well as some information about the Vikings and their impact on Ireland. All very interesting, with lots of touchy-feely hands-on interaction. I bought a book of Irish Legends to read to the girls at the gift shop. As we came out we realised that the museum was in the old Chapter House of the Irish Catholic Church. We descended the stairs and tried to look into the Church, which was just about ready for 15:30 Sunday Evensong, but were blocked at the door by the 'voluntary' payment police. Not unusual in England, but don't get Trevor started on it unless you want a long rant!
After that it was a long walk back to find our bus, but on the way we did discover a Tim Horton's in a Spar (a corner-store popular in the UK and Ireland). The sign outside (which we completely failed to see) read "A taste so big it could only have come from Canada!" Well, we were very pleased to get our donuts and coffee (no hot chocolate) even if they were slightly stale and overpriced! Then it was back to the hotel, dinner at the on-site restaurant and to bed for the kids, while we kept guard in the hallway and did the Sudoku.
The bus driver dropped us very close to the footpath entrance, but what we didn't realise was that the castle was still another twenty minute walk away! Along the way we found a children's playground, much to everyone's pleasure. We had been planning on taking the girls to the Children's Museum (complete with very elaborate dolls' house) next to Malahide castle, but it unfortunately didn't open until April 16th. Not wishing to lay in wait in the courtyard, we carried on to the castle.
Unlike almost all of the other castles we've visited, Malahide castle was inhabited from 1185 - 1975, and all by the same family, except for a couple of years during Cromwell's time. We went through the castle, which is obviously still in quite exceptional nick, and I think the girls found it relatively interesting. I know Trevor and I liked it.
After a cream tea for lunch we headed back to the bus stop and took the bus back into Dublin, where we spent a happy afternoon 'culture-snooping' in the bookstore and department store. We always find it interesting to go round and see how fashions differ, what books are in the 'popular reads' sections, etc. We met up with Paul and Liz in front of the Spike (a fallic symbol, I'm sure my OAC English teacher would say!) and headed back towards the airport for a late but extremely good Indian meal. We then headed back to the motel, tucked the girls in bed, set the alarms for 5:30 and went to bed.