Easter, Mum, John & Abby's Arrival & Trip to Ireland

At Easter Mum and John arrived for their annual visit! It was a bit different to last year, about 20 degrees colder and snowing! We had a lovely weekend together wandering around London and going to St Paul's for the Easter service. Unfortunately John had to head home Easter Sunday night as his Aunt's husband took a turn for the worse. We managed to get him a flight home, and he made it back in time and stayed for just over a week before coming back to Europe to join back up with Mum and Abby.


Easter Sunday snow storm!

On Easter Monday, Abby arrived from South Africa and we all flew to Dublin for a weeks holiday. Ireland was lovely, mainly as it was a very enjoyable week spending time with Mum and Abby. We had typical Irish weather with it very rarely not raining, fortunately for Ben the sun did come out a few times, but the photos he managed to get were the only ones (not from a selection!!). We spent a couple of days in Dublin walking around seeing all the main sites, and to thank Ben for spending his holiday with his wife's family, we spent a couple of hours in the Guiness Brewery!

Initial good weather in Ireland! Trinity College & St Stephen's Green

Early Guiness advertising & the view of Dublin from the bar

Ben, Mum and Abby enjoying a well earned Guiness!
Ben infront of the Guiness Brewery

After Dublin we started our driving tour by heading to Gelndalough (or valley of two lakes)and it was stunning. Amazing mountains and two beautiful lakes as well as the ruins of a monastery. We thankfully had sunny spells here and managed to do some nice walks before the rain came in and we started the long drive to Cobh. On the way we stopped into the Waterford factory which was quite amazing.

Inge infront of the Monastery ruins and the larger of the two lakes with the spectacular mountains

Mum, Abby & Inge and the ruins

Cobh is where Abby's father sailed from when he left for South Africa, he never went back to Ireland. It was quite amazing to see the large numbers of people that emigrated from Ireland, some only made it to Liverpool, but the majority went to America, Australia and South Africa. The massive cathedral there was built with the donations from Irish Immigrants in the US! From Cobh we visited Blarney Castle near Cork to kiss the stone which when kissed is said to grant the gift of the gab - Ben and I kissed the stone, but I don't think we needed the help!!

The migration musuem and the view of Cobh from the Cathedral
The Cathedral at Cobh, built with donations from US Irish immigrants

Blarney Castle and the stone you need to lean backwards to kiss!!

From Blarney Castle we went up to Gugan Barra where Abby's father grew up. It was the tiniest little place, but so beautiful. Set in a valley with mountains all around and a lovely little lake which has a tiny island with a chapel on it which is dedicated to a hermit saint that lived there. Abby's last name is Cronin and there was still a pub there with the same name.

The hermit's chapel & the Cronin pub

By this time the weather was really starting to set in, so we hit the road and decided to do the Beara Peninsula as we were making very good time with Ben driving!! The Beara Peninsula was lovely and spectacular, even with the rain! We stayed in a lovely B&B and the pub up the road had wonderful food. In all of our trip we had brilliant food everywhere except for one place.

Our first impression of the Beara Peninsula - greay and wet!

Allihies - where we stayed in the Beara


Scenery along Healy Pass through the Beara Peninsula

After the Beara Peninsula we went across to the Ring of Kerry, which wasn't quite as spectacular, but I think it was because it was raining so much we couldn't really get out and do any walking, but Ben still managed to get some nice shots - even one of a rainbow!



From there we went up into Clare to The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. On the way to the Cliffs we had a brief stop at Lahinch and Ennistymon. Lahinch is a resort town with a beach - more like rocks. Despite the freezing weather there were lots of people there, and a surprisingly large amount of them were actually in the water surfing! Ennistymon was a brief stop to see The Cascades, which due to all the rain, were at full force. The cliffs were spectacular, but again we couldn't see much because of the torrential rain. We ended up heading on to a lovely spa town call Lisdoonvarna and stayed in a wonderful hotel which had a roaring fire - a mandatory requirement by this stage!!

Lahinch and the crazy people surfing!

Just to show how cold it was!! And The Cascades at Ennistymon.



The Cliffs of Moher, and Mum, Abby & Inge at Doolin in The Burren

On the way back down to Shannon where Ben and I were flying out of, we stopped to see the Showcave of Ireland, Aillwee Caves (The Burren is all limestone and there are lots of caves, tunnels and underground rivers and lakes). Ben and I were a bit disappointed with the cave as our memory of stalactites and stalacmites in the caves of Australia being about 6 foot, and this one that was 1000 years old was about 30cm! But it was drier than the outside!! We also stopped at Poulnabrone Dolmen, an ancient burial site about 5000 years old!


Despite the rain it was good to get away for the week and spend some quality time with Mum and Abby. Mum and Abby stayed in Ireland for another few days before heading to France where John joined up with them.