Dublin - horsing around

The Dublin International Horse Show has been on for the last few days and it's just around the corner from where we are staying. So today we headed off to check it out.

It was kind of like the Royal Easter Show at home....only on a smaller scale and without the cows, chickens and show bags!

The horses do look beautiful and we got to see some of the early show-jumping competitions...

Action shot.....

The main arena.












It was a big day for Neve. She faced her fears and actually had a pony ride today. I am SO proud of her and she actually really loved it. The look on her face and she rode around in little circles was priceless! Eloise was actually scared for Neve before she got on the horse but was then so happy for her big sister. Eloise wasn't quite brave enough to have a turn herself...

My little champion!!!!!!

She even got a ribbon for her 'riding skills'















The show was great fun - we watched a Punch and Judy show and some Irish dancing (although Neve and Eloise were too busy rumbling on the grass to watch) and were going to watch the 'grand parade' in the main arena but it was too crowded. Even the president of Ireland was at the show today!!

Besides the main arena there were a few other judging rings where different horses were being judged for different things (including a mare and foal category) so we got to see some of that as well.

Neve was judged 'best in show'.....
























Another busy day.

Something I have noticed in Ireland - there are SO many redhead kids...it's ridiculous! They must outnumber other hair colours two to one. Neve certainly blends into the crowd. I think she feels quite at home here.....

Dublin - the luck of the Irish

So - adventure day take 2

This time - the weather was on our side...so the girls and I headed out on another adventure day while Shane was at Trinity College working.

We made it to the double-decker tourist bus (again) and this time we managed to get a seat on the 'top deck' which thrilled the kids no end. We got the seat right at the front of the top deck so the view of Dublin as we drove around was fantastic.

Eloise was in charge of the camera, so while we got hundreds of photos - most of them are of the back of Neve's head or up her nose...

Eloise - before she got hold of the camera....

Dublinia - a wax museum type thing looking at the history of Dublin

The LUAS light rail transport system

Hmm....could be St Patrick's church...?

Most of the other photos were similar to this....











We got off the bus at Phoenix Park (a huge park - one of the largest in Europe where they even have herds of deer roaming around) and walked through the park to Dublin Zoo.

Dublin Zoo is a great zoo. I must admit it is much better than Central Park zoo (which is much smaller). It is well laid out and easy to get around, with no less than 3 playgrounds inside for those moments when you want to just sit and let the kids go crazy. It has all the animals that kids love (lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes...) and plenty of toilets scattered all around the park (obviously a parent of with young children designed this zoo!!!) We spent most of the day in there before catching the bus back into the city and then the catching the dart home.

Neve outside the zoo looking very relieved that we didn't see any 'wild deer' in the park....

Everyones favourites - the sea lions

 Neve realising that orang-utans actually have very large hands.

One of Neve's 'ranga' friends

Penguin Neve

 Orang-utan Eloise

You could actually get really close to the animals (which always helps when you are small)


















All up it was a fantastic adventure day and we were VERY happy that the rain managed to stay away. It literally started raining when we were about 50 metres from home........must be the "luck of the Irish"...

Dublin - washed away

My gorgeous husband gave me the 'day off' yesterday. We all went into town to look for new sneakers for Neve, whose toes are almost poking out the end of her old pair - all that walking must be making her grow faster than usual. After lunch he took the kids to the playground and back home while I spent a few glorious (child-free) hours wandering the streets of Dublin.....the sun was shining and all was good with the world.

This morning, the plan was for me to take the kids out for the day while Shane caught up on some work.....




Eloise practising her 'pole dancing' on the dart...
















Of course it turns into 'hurricane Wednesday' with driving rain and howling winds!

We managed to get into town and remain relatively dry enough to get on board the double-decker tourist bus that I had been promising the girls we would go on since the moment they laid eyes on it. I will be honest and admit that I was pretty annoyed at my fellow passengers on the bus....sure it was wet and and crowded (since half of the seats upstairs were soaked from the rain) - but I would have thought that SOMEONE would give up a seat for a single woman (metaphorically) with 2 small kids.....but NO...NO ONE even looked like standing for us! TOURISTS....honestly people....just because you don't live in the city doesn't mean you aren't part of the community!!!!!!

OK - vent over.

So we stood on the bus until enough people had gotten off that we could get a seat - actually - one final vent here - we were standing inside the bus and a young couple got on at the next stop.....and then one stop later some people got off....so they actually PUSHED PAST US to get the seats!!!!!!

So - we eventually got seats. But after about 20 minutes on the bus the girls got bored, which is fair enough since they couldn't really understand the Irish-accented commentary and it was hard to see out the windows since they were fogged up. So off we got and switched over to the LUAS, which is the light rail/tram system that runs through Dublin. We caught the LUAS back into town (because by this stage we were way out of the city) and managed to find a shopping centre and a new pair of sneakers for Neve (which we didn't find yesterday)....

 Eloise contemplating the historical perspectives of Dublin (once she finally got a seat on the bus)

Waiting for the Luas (tram)....

Dry but dripping on the Luas - Eloise practising more pole dancing!























We got soaked on the walk back to the dart station...but made it home - soggy - but actually having had quite an adventure day!!!

Neve's new shoes (and ice cream  to fuel up for the run in the rain back to the station!)

Dublin - being a local

Monday...another week begins.

Am I the only one or does everyone call the place they are staying on holiday 'home'? I must admit that it was kind of nice to get back to our 'home' after being on the road for a couple of days the other day. Even though we are travelling light (42kg in only 2 bags for 4 people for 3 months), I am wondering if it's because we only took a few 'essentials' on our road trip...and it was nice to get back to the luxury of more than 1 option of shirt to wear.

Here is a map of Ireland with the ground we covered in our few short days 'away'. I know there is SO much more to see outside of Dublin - we will see whether we get a chance to get out again.

Anyway - Dublin is starting to feel like 'home'. Even Shane is driving the local street without needing to turn the GPS on. I am impressed.

Today we took the girls to the Dublin Children's Museum (called "Imaginosity'). They were pretty excited (I think mostly because they thought it would be exactly the same as the Manhattan Children's Museum we went to in New York). It was a great place and the kids really enjoyed it. I have asked which children's museum they liked best but keep getting varied responses. Eloise REALLY enjoyed the grocery shopping and 'Dublin Diner' that they had and Neve liked driving the car (it WAS an Audi...who wouldn't?).

After the children's museum we went to the local playground. I must admit that the playgrounds I have seen since being away (and I have seen a LOT) are far superior to the ones I am used to at home. They are clean, well-maintained and with a wide selection of equipment for kids - most even have a 'small kids' section and a 'bigger kids' section....
We then down to Sandymount beach. Poor Eloise is desperate to go swimming at the beach - she wears her swimmers under her clothes to the beach in the hope that she can go for a swim. The first time we went down to the 'beach' she was barely on the sand before her clothes were off and she was in her swimmers and ready to go...with no regard for the fact that it was about 18 degrees and the water was probably 500m away!!!! Maybe one day we will be there at high tide and she can at least dip her toes in before realising that swimming is nothing more than a fantasy at the moment!!!!

A lovely dinner of Italian Chianti, Irish brie and fresh tomatoes rounds off a very pleasant day.

Galway - Dublin - Wicklow

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!!

Sligo - Galway

There was lots of driving today.

We took of 'early' (at 9:30am) from Sligo and headed down the west coast towards Galway, stopping at Westport for morning tea.

Westport is a lovely town - but for some reason the traffic through the main part of the village was gridlocked! I have never seen so many cars trying to go through such small streets...

 We wanted to get to Westport Quay to see the ocean but after seeing the traffic trying to get through town we asked our faithful GPS to find us a way around the village....we ended up driving down a tiny lane. We didn't get to the Quay but we did get to the ocean! It was a beautiful view and we could see all the way out to the Isle of Clare (which I am sure is a very magical and wonderful place indeed!).

This is where we ended up....gorgeous and very peaceful.

After some more driving, we spotted what looked like a castle in the middle of a field. Stopping to investigate we found out it was the Ross-Errilly Friary, which was built in 1351by the Franciscan monks, but was abandoned in 1753, after being expelled over 7 times.

The Friary's "neighbours"

The Friary was deserted so we spent a while exploring inside the ruins. Neve and Eloise were pretending to be the 'two musketeers' finding secret passageways!! I can imagine that it's original state it must have been quite a spectacular building.

 The two musketeers!!!























 We reached Galway late in the afternoon and went down to Galway bay where across the water we could see another castle-looking building....but that will be tomorrow's adventure.

We also dipped our toes in the Atlantic ocean...it actually wasn't TOO cold but I could imagine it would be a shock to the system if you took a dive in!

We had dinner sitting outside on a balmy evening (it was actually really warm today - about 26 or 27 degrees by my guess) where Neve and Eloise broke down the language barriers and got into a good game of something with a little Russian girl!

We then ventured in Galway city, which was just gearing up for a big Friday night ahead. The sun was just starting to set at 9pm when we headed back to our B&B - a good nights' sleep and back into it tomorrow!

A few thoughts on Ireland so far....
- Cadbury chocolate tastes different. Shane says he likes it better, I think it tastes 'fatter'. I studied the ingredients but would have no idea what they are in Australia so can't tell if there are truly any differences. You know how we have the 'glass and a half in every block'? Well on their wrapper I saw that it said something like 'contains no less than 426mL of real milk in every 227g of chocolate'.....just doesn't have the same ring to it!
- The Irish love beer! Listening to a 'news' station on the radio in the car today there was literally an hour discussion with a 'beer expert' to talk about different beers...
- The speed limits in Ireland are too high. Never thought I would say that but on tiny one-lane (in TOTAL,  not each direction!) roads the speed limit can be up to 80km/hr....thankfully Shane is being very sensible!
- Irish hot chips are awesome
- Irish water pressure is rubbish! They all have 'power showers' which just means that the water has enough pressure to actually come out of the shower head as a slight spray rather than a pathetic dribble. I am missing my big shower head with water blasting out at me.

Dublin - Sligo

Today we drove across an entire country!

We picked up our hire car in the morning and set off from Dublin - bound for Sligo on the west coast of Ireland.

We decided (for safety, sanity and speed) to take the motorway out of Dublin but once we were clear of the traffic we took the 'back streets' to our destination....Castle Dargan - where we will spend the night. Actually - I embellish a little...we aren't staying IN the castle but within the castle grounds in a hotel.

The drive today was very scenic and SO VERY green! We lost count of the number of cows and sheep we saw but it was all very much like the Irish countryside I had imagined.



From country lane ways - to country motorways.....

Today was actually MUCH warmer than it has been all week...it even felt hot at times! Think it got to about 24 degrees and it was beautiful to feel the sun on our faces again.

Our hotel is lovely and (conveniently for Shane) in the middle of a golf course! After the obligatory turn at the playground - we headed into Sligo and Rosses Point, which lie right on the west coast - looking out into the Atlantic sea....

The hotel playground...and the view from our hotel room....gorgeous and a far cry from last week in New York!!

Sligo and Rosses Point have spectacular views and even a beach (although quite different from back at home and I am SURE that there are no Australians braving the chilly water on this beach!)

The girls even had to strip to their singlets to deal with the 'heat'...

Not quite Merewether - but a beach none the less!








Tomorrow we take off for places unknown yet. The adventure continues.......