Ireland 2016

Ireland, the home of my ancestors, sure turned the beautiful weather on for our arrival - a sunny 20 C greeted our 5.30pm arrival to Dublin. Sadly the car rental companies don't seem to operate as efficiently as we have experienced in America and France, but eventually we were on our way, and headed for the West coast. 

Our main first stop was Dingle in County Kerry. It really is a beautiful area, and this was our third visit here. The BnB we booked here was built in 1909, and was right on the water. Best of all it was only a short walk into Dingle's hub (small as it is) and the numerous pubs. We enjoyed our meanderings along the Slea Head Drive where we passed the beehive cottages (date back to the 12th Century) and re-visited the beautiful scenery made famous in the 1970 movie Ryan's Daughter with Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles. 

L-R: Murray, Meg's partner, me, Meg and Lorna

We also met Meg, a friend of our Ballina friend Celia. Lorna, the owner of the cafe where we met Meg happened to be the daughter of our BnB's landlady, and is also known to Celia, so we got a group photo to immortalise the occasion, but mainly for Celia to see her Dingle friends.

Colourful Dingle - photo courtesy Wikipedia

Dingle B and B

Dingle Harbour

Lured by pretty seaside villages, we also spent 2 nights in Kinsale, County Cork. Chef Keith Floyd once lived here, and many local restaurants are highly renowned. We ate at a few different places, but ended up on both nights at Kitty O Se's to enjoy the lively Irish music. Our last night was a Saturday night, and two hens parties wandered in and livened the place up - the music got faster and louder, and before we knew it, most of us were up dancing, including yours truly. It was a lot of fun. 

The next day we made our way to Tramore in County Waterford - home to the longest beach in Ireland (5 kms/3 mi) and also home to my cousin Ellen and her daughter Clodagh. Not far away lives another cousin Bríd and her daughter Shona, and we were treated to a lovely lunch at Ellen's home where we all caught up. Bríd and Shona have been to Ballina several times, and have stayed in our home twice - sadly we were in the USA at the time, so it was great to visit them on their home turf.

During our stay at Waterford we took a drive to the seaside town of Dunmore East. As luck would have it, they were filming an upcoming BBC series called Redwater - due to be aired in 2017. It is an off-shoot of the long running Eastenders, and Kat and Alfie Moon from that series will be in the new one. We stood and watched while they did a few rehearsals, trying to get the lighting right with the cameras…I wonder why they didn't ask Murray to be an extra - perhaps wearing shorts to church didn't fit their dress code! If you google 'Redwater BBC' you can read all about it.

We couldn't visit Dublin without another visit to Taylors Three Rock - 'Ireland's Best Loved Pub and Entertainment Venue' that boasts it has the largest thatched roof in Ireland. It is also home to the 80 plus year old Irish comedian Noel V Ginnity (who was the main draw card for our repeat visit) and Irish Tenor Rob Vickers who has played the lead role of Jean Valjean in West End's musical Les Miserables. We recognised the lead male Irish dancer from our visit 2 years ago - his looks and cheeky antics and interaction with the other musicians and dancers on stage throughout the night reminded me of my eldest son Benn. At the end of the evening Murray took a photo of me with him. It is in the collage below.

Although I have two cousins in Dublin, unfortunately Mary was away in Spain, but Joanne took time out of her busy schedule to meet up with us after the show above. We met her for the first time 2 years ago, so it was so nice to catch up with her again. 

After 10 weeks of travel where we visited 13 countries, we are now ready to get back home and enjoy NOT living out of a suitcase. I'll leave you with these scenes from around Ireland.

Scenes around Ireland

Britain 2016

Our 12 days in London and surrounding areas kicked off with a fabulous and unexpected opportunity to experience space-age transport technology. To get from our hotel to Heathrow airport to connect with trains and the underground (tube) we had the choice of taking a regular shuttle bus (£5) which comes every 30 mins, or take a POD (!!) (£4.50) which comes every 20 seconds. Unbelievable. Each pod holds 4 people and 4 suitcases. It was such a smooth, hassle free ride - like a monorail- so it does not get caught up in traffic like the shuttle bus. Modern technology - love it. 

Our friends Ken and Ros live in the delightful village of Padbury in Buckinghamshire which is about 130 km (80 miles) NW of London, where Ros is the resident Vicar. Not letting the grass grown under our feet, Ken took us out to Bletchley Park - if you saw either the movie 'The Imitation Game' or 'Enigma', you would recall that the Park was known as Station X and was the hidden hub of code-breaking during WW11. A most interesting place to visit - I have since bought two books on the place - one called 'The Bletchley Girls' and the other 'Alan Turin' written by his mother - he was the British mathematician who was pivotal in the code deciphering process.

After Bletchley, Ken took us for a beer at a nearby pub that dates back to around 1645 - can you believe it?? Sadly their beer isn't as cold as I like it, but that is how the Brits like it, so I had a cider instead.

We then had a 3 day stopover in the heart of London - we got our steps up by wandering around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The red double decker bus/boat tour gave us a great view of London and refreshed our Monopoly Board locations! It was great to see Piccadilly, Mayfair, Park Lane etc. 

We wandered through famous Borough Market, one of the largest and oldest markets in London, it claims to have been active since the year 1014. Staggering to think of it being over 1000 years old!! 

Saying our goodbyes to London, we picked up a hire car and drove to stay with Jen, Charlie and Ollie in the Cotswolds. Their home is the restored Train Station house at Adlestrop. Despite the train line running directly beside the house, the trains were small and fast, and were a novelty rather than a nuisance. I daresay that Jen et al don't even notice them going past anymore. The red arrow in both photos below show where our bedroom was. Jen is the daughter of our friend Anne who lives in Ballina. Jen showed us around her beautiful part of the world, including a visit to the Rollright Stones (like a mini Stonehenge) dating back to 3,500 BC, as well as taking us for High Tea - she started a trend for us trying variations of Cream Teas (we call them devonshire teas back home) after that, but no more High Teas, so nowhere near as grand as our experience with her!

High Tea - thanks Jen

Plymouth, Cornwall was next on our agenda - it was a central location for us to do day trips from. We enjoyed walking along the Plymouth Hoe (waterfront) and on our last evening we bought back memories of our recent visit to Spain by dining at a tapas bar overlooking the English Channel. It was a glorious evening, and a fitting end to our stay.











However, the highlight of the stay was a visit to Port Isaac - the location where they film the series 'Doc Martin'. The fishing village of Portwenn always looks so beautiful in the series, and it has been high on my bucket list, along with Cinque Terre in Italy. So now I can die happy …I've seen them both and am content! Oh wait, I still have yet to visit Medjugorje, but that special place will have to wait.

Port Isaac - Cornwall

Have you heard of a little village called Salcombe, on the English Channel in Devon? It has the highest property prices in the UK. We thought we should take a drive and see what it looked like - the population soars from 1900 in the winter to almost 25,000 during peak summer periods. Sadly the day we visited it was drizzling rain, but we could appreciate why it is such a popular holiday and retirement location for Londoners. 

For our final night in the UK we booked into a unique AirBnB property that was less than 30 minutes from Heathrow airport where we were to fly out of the next day. The owner lived in a houseboat on the canal, and we stayed in a cabin a few steps from the houseboat. Breakfast in the morning was in the houseboat. To access the property you had to walk about .5 km (.3 mile) along the canal tow path to the cabin. It sure rates as the most unusual BnB we have stayed in! It was fun to walk about 1 km to the locks on the canal, and watch them raise and lower the level of water to allow the barges to get access along the canal.  

Our final hurrah for the UK was a Mexican dinner out with our friend Nick. I worked with him many years ago when I was still in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and he was in the British Army. It was wonderful to spend a few hours having a meal with him and catching up on family news. Next stop Dublin...

Cruise Baltic Sea 2016

Cruising is so much more enjoyable when shared with family or friends. This time we cruised the Baltic Sea with 4 of our American friends - 2 couples. I used to work with 3 of these friends during my 2 year US military posting in 2002-2003. The 6 of us did a Caribbean  cruise together 4 years ago, and at that time, we planned this cruise! We just needed the 4 years to save up our dollars!

At Kim's welcome 

Kim with her chicks waiting for the bus!

Jenny and Peter flew with us to Copenhagen where we were met by my daughter Kim, accompanied by stunning weather. How wonderful to see a familiar face so far from home. A few hours later our American friends Jan, Dick, Rainie and Tom joined us at Kim's home for welcome drinks and nibbles. Thanks Kim. After our welcome refreshments, we were shepherded to the bus like chicks by Mother hen (Kim) to have dinner at the fabulous Torvehallerne Markets - a tempting array of food and drinks to suit all palates.

Jen, Peter, Jan, Murray, Kim, me Dick (Rainie and Tom MIA)

No rest for the wicked, the next morning Kim showed us around her city - we visited The Little Mermaid, saw the changing of the guard at 'our' Princess Mary's Amalienborg Castle, and had a very Danish lunch in picturesque Nyhavn. See photo at right. From there we had a gentle stroll through the city, dropped in to check out a few stores including the amazing Lego store, then finally arrived at Tivoli - the second oldest amusement park in the world. Our Danish friends Sine, Adam and Sarah (they had Christmas with us in Australia) met us for dinner at a swish restaurant in the park, and then several of the group tried out some of the rides. As dusk set in, the lights came on around the park and it was so pretty. 

Murray, Trish, Jan and Dick in front of our Royal Caribbean ship 'Serenade of the Seas'

The next day Kim had arranged a very Danish buffet brunch at a restaurant not far from where we were due to board our cruise ship and before we knew it, we said our goodbyes to Jenny and Peter (who flew home to Australia 2 days later) and we were off on our 7 day cruise. Our cabins were on the 8th deck, and each had a balcony. Our bed and shower on the ship were among the best we had experienced during our 5 weeks of travel around Europe. There was a bit of a mix-up with our dinner table, and fortuitously, we ended up sharing with two delightful gals from Georgia - Susan and Gayle, and a husband, wife and her sister (Bob, Karen and Jan) from Texas. Susan has since sent me her favourite chicken enchilada recipe, and so I am keen to try it out when I get home. 

Our first port of call was Stockholm - a very pretty city and home to the Vasa Museum - we called in there to see the preserved 64-gun warship from the 17th Century that had sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628 and remained underwater for 300 years. It has been painstakingly restored and the museum was built around it.

Replica model of the Vasa

The next stop was Tallinn, Estonia. We decided to do our own thing and caught the red hop-on, hop-off bus, and ended up in the 'old town' - a quaint, medieval village where we wandered for hours amongst cobblestoned lanes and marvelled at the orthodox churches.  We came around a corner and found ourselves in the old market square where I was immediately tempted by the array of colourful scarves - I just had to buy one to take home as a souvenir.  The weather was beautiful, which made my photos more picturesque! 

Sweet Estonian lady selling me the scarf

 St Petersburg was never on my radar as a city to visit, but the 6 of us did an 8 hour tour there, and it was very memorable. The Hermitage Museum was mind boggling, but there is no way you could visit that museum without using a guide - you would walk straight past Leonardo Da Vinci's first painting - painted when he was 13 years old - Madonna and Child. Also Rueben's first painting Union of Earth and Water. We had 1.5 hours in there, but to do it justice, you probably need several visits - after all, it is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world. It was founded by Catharine the Great in 1764 - and holds over 3 million items. The chandeliers alone were stunning…

Russian couples come to St Petersburg to marry - 3,000 weddings are held EVERY day of the week during summer. Most of the churches we saw from the outside, but we did go inside the Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan, built in 1811 - my photos just could not do it justice - the mosaics inside were amazing. We heard the story of how Alexander the Great was slain by his son in 1881, who then had a church built in 1883 on the site where his father was slain  - and named Church of Saviour on Spilled Blood. The colourful tiles on the domes at the top were very eye-catching.

Church of Saviour on Spilled Blood - St Petersburg - site where Alexander the Great was slain by his own son

Our last port of call was Helsinki, Finland. Once again, we did our own thing, and caught a shuttle into town with Jan and Dick. We set off at a cracking pace to visit the Temppeliaukio or Rock Church - build into solid rock but bathed in natural light due to a skylight - my directions were a bit off skew and we found we were heading in the wrong direction. We righted our compasses, ably assisted by Dick, and eventually found our way inside, and consequently added several thousand steps to our daily step  tally.

Inside Rock Church - you may have to click on this panorama- hard to capture the view

Lutheran Cathedral Helsinki

The cruise was a lovely opportunity for us 3 girls to catch up - we had several games of rummicub together, so that I could keep up my skills for when I return to Ballina and play the weekly game with my aunt Dympna, friend Mary and not forgetting our church Deacon Vitalis! 

Jan, Trish and Rainie

Rummicubbing!

Group at final cruise dinner. 

Before we knew it, the cruise was over, and we found ourselves at the Copenhagen airport. To soften the blow, Kim came in to spend a few hours with us at the airport as we waited for our flight to London. We had fun taking silly pictures with a new app she had on her iPhone. I'll sign off with them…