Yesterday was spent mostly in the car.
We drove back to our 'home' in Dublin after leaving having one more quick explore in Galway. We tried to make our way to the castle we had seen the day before - but a local told us that "it isn't really a castle...just a ruin". Obviously the Irish have so many 'ruins' around that they don't consider them tourist attractions.
The castle that isn't a castle - just a 'ruin'
Nearby we found a deserted playground in the middle of the woods. The girls were excited that there was one of their favourite baskety-swing things....plus it had one of the longest slippery slides I have ever seen in a playground!
Even I couldn't resist having a go down the slide once I had seen the kids have a go!
Once we left Galway we took off back across the country to Dublin. It took just over 2 hours to drive (on the main road this time) so it wasn't too bad. Once we got 'home' to Dublin we went for a walk to Sandymount beach. The tide was (once again) WAY out...you could barely see the water at all,
You just 'just' see the water way out the back of the 'beach'.
The girls built a sandcastle (with no fear of it getting washed away!) and then we walked through the village and got fish and chips for dinner.
Today was much gloomier than the last few days - so we took the car out for a drive down the coast to Wicklow (which is a town as well as the name of a county in Ireland).
The coast off Wicklow was very beautiful, and very green.
Being a Sunday most of the shops were closed in a small town - so we headed to Druids Glen golf club for lunch. Druids Glen is where Shane stayed to play some golf on his Irish golfing holiday last year. It is a different looking course to Australia (I am told).
After lunch we drove back towards Dublin, stopping at Bray for a quick look (in the rain). Might come back to this seaside town next weekend if the weather is better. Thankfully the kids didn't see the hundreds of ice-cream shops lining the seashore or it could have been a far less peaceful drive back to Dublin!
A few more things I have noticed while being away:
- not sure if any of the parents reading this blog know of the kids show "Yo Gabba Gabba"? Well I have just discovered that there are actually 2 versions of this - one with British voices and one with American voices. We get the American version in Australia but I think the original version is actually the British one (which is the one we see here in Ireland). You wouldn't think that they would need to 'dub' English words OVER English words...that's ridiculous.
- Those huge flying daddy-longlegs things (or world's biggest mosquitoes) are disgusting
Anyway- time to watch the Olympic closing ceremony....at least its on at a reasonable time for us!!
