Filed under: Clare
On Monday we all took the train to see Patrick’s Aunt Sister Eda. She lives in Ennis, County Clare. We started out by taking the DART (train) into town, changing to the LUAS (another metro train) to the Irish Train at Connelly Station. We took that train to Limerick, another train to Limerick Station and finally on to Ennis. The good new is that my mobile broadband worked the whole time so at least I was able to work.
We met up with Patrick’s aunt at a hotel for lunch. We had a nice lunch. The kids were pretty good. After lunch we went back to the convent where the kids could run around for a while. Then it was back on the trains to do the whole routine in reverse. All in all we were gone about 13 hours.
Filed under: Dublin
Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. The O’Donnell sons and one daughter in law went with their mom to a fancy restaurant in Wicklow. Julie and I brought the girls and their cousins Aidan and Rochelle to Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire.
We walked from our place to Blackrock Market. Blackrock is a fun market with lots of toys, clothes, art and other. I got a dress and boot for 11 euros. OK I probably wouldn’t have bought the boots for more than 5 euros, but I know I’ll wear them.
After Blackrock we took the train to Dun Laoghaire. The regatta was still going on so it was hopping and we saw tons of sailboats, which is fun. We went to Café Mao, our favorite Chinese restaurant in Dublin. It’s very kid-friendly so I think it was a nice change for everyone. Then we walked down to the People’s Park.
The weather was very much what we’ve learned to expect here. Sunny one minute pouring rain the next. The kids were troopers with all of the walking but it’s a pretty part of Dublin.
Filed under: Dublin
This weekend was the Temple Bar Circus Festival. We went yesterday. (Woo hoo!) But forgot the camera. (Boo!) We started out the day with lunch in Dun Laoghaire. It was a nice lunch but between nice lunches and staying with the people who own the house where we are house sitting – it was a lunch too far for the kids. I was going to hog tie Aine by the end of it. She has really perfected her burping, which makes her a less than desirable dinner guest for most of us.
After lunch we headed into town. The Festival was great. The Temple Bar Culture Council sponsored various street acts to perform throughout the day. Between yesterday and today we saw about 5 acts. My favorites were the jugglers today – although our front row seats might have edged them into first place over the guy who balanced on a very tall pole. (I’ve included some pictures of my fave act since I had the camera today.) The acts that we saw were juggler/acrobat types. We saw a lot of men in neon leotards – I’m thinking not everyone can say that about their weekend.
The other nice thing about today is that we had a leisurely lunch at the Meeting House market. The girls and I had fried dumplings, a skewer of prawns and chocolate crepes. Very easy, very tasty! We missed the Meeting House Market while we were home.
Back to yesterday – we watched the circus performers until 7:00 or so. The weather was grey but dry and pretty nice. We started to head home with a shortcut through Trinity College. We ran into a very casual game of cricket. Our Australian cousin is a big cricket fan and player. In fact all of this activity while The Ashes (big cricket tourney) have been on over the last week has probably all but killed him. We decide to watch some of the game even before we saw that there was a pub with a beautiful patio on the other side of the field.
So the end of my stressful Friday was a fun pint learning all about cricket from someone who really loves the game. I feel as if I could watch and understand a game now – though Julie (mom of the athlete) warns me that cricket is not a quick game.
The end of my not-stressful Saturday is much wetter. It started raining at 4:15 and has not stopped; it’s now 10:00. They had predicted rain all day so we consider ourselves lucky to have had it start so late in the day.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
This weekend is the Dun f us (O’Donnell’s from Cabinteely, Minnesota, Florida and Canberra) headed out to Dun Laoghaire. We walked down the pier – which I always love doing. It wasn’t sunny but it was pretty clear and fairly warm. You could easily see Howth in the background. We could see a ton of sailboats and our timing was perfect – they were all sort of heading out for a 3:00 start. Well that’s what we thought. We hung around at the end of the pier for about 20 minutes – and it was getting a little cold.
I thought a regatta was a race – but there never really was a start. At one point a navy-looking ship set off and we thought that would mean a grand beginning but not really.
But that was OK. It was a great walk, a nice day and we went for a nice Italian meal after seeing the boats.
Filed under: Dublin
Regular readers may remember that I *love* the Science Gallery. We went to see their latest exhibit – Infectious. When you go in you get a RFID necklace. When you’re healthy the RFID does nothing. If you get infected, it blinks. It’s to show how quickly people can get infected.
One part of the exhibit grows bacteria from visitors. You just have to kiss the Petri dish – and they post them in the exhibit to grow. You can see a picture of Aine in front of the various dishes. In fact you could buy a coaster of your Petri dish, if you wanted.
There were several arty demonstrations of how different artist-scientists depict infection.
Lily took part in an experiment where they wanted to do something with her DNA – no cloning we were promised. Most of the experiment is happening now that they have her DNA. Lily got to help isolate her DNA – so that was cool. The student scientist did a great job describing what DNA is for Lily. We can look up how her DNA is doing online – though she said we should wait a week or so.
Filed under: Dublin
Unfortunately it rained all day for her birthday but really she just wanted cake and presents – and she got ’em.
Filed under: Meath
On the way home from Dromahair, we stopped in Trim. There was a Jonathan Swift Festival, which is always a winner with kids. Actually there was a bouncy castle – so that was fun for Aine. There is also a huge castle in Trim.
It was built around 1174 – and there were 2 major renovations. The first time they create too many sides so it was too easy for enemies to climb up the walls and/or dig under various castle walls to undermine them. (I didn’t get that etymology before.) The first iteration broadened the bases of the castle so that the sentries could see the bottom and catch the enemies. The second iteration made the castle taller.
The other kind of creepy but cool thing was the number of doors they had to protect the people in the castle. There was a moat around the castle, there was only one door and it was a floor up with only one staircase up to it. Then there was an antechamber of sorts before the real castle. It reminded me of the old Frankenstein movies where the people tried to break down the door of the castle.
The castle had 3 stories. There were cool walkways from one end to the other.
If you’ve seen Braveheart, you’ve seen the castle. Since I haven’t seen Braveheart I can’t really tell you what part – but I remember something about the siege of York.
Outside the Castle there was a big political debate. Patrick thought it was interesting. The majority of our crowd found it painful.
Filed under: Sligo
We visited Rosses Point on one of our first days in Dromahair – then we battled with rain and sickness to try to get back there. We finally made it back on the morning of our last full day. We were only there about 90 minutes but it was enough time to find, shells, get partially wet (the water, while being warmer than most places we’ve been in Ireland, was cold) and build sandcastles.
The beach would go down as a highlight for the girls I think. We left just in time – it started to pour as soon as we got into the car.
Much of our time was spent “with spots of sun amidst showers and rain” – though the spots of sun were really nice so we won’t complain!
Filed under: Sligo
After a few very strenuous days of hiking and serious illness we finally found the walk we needed. No hills. No getting lost. No rain.
We took a nice lake-forest walk in the Hazelwood Demense on Lough Gill. (The Lake Isle of Innisfree is located in Lough Gill. Patrick, the girls and the Australians took a boat cruise around the lake. Kate was sick so she and I stayed home – but we had been on the cruise last time we were here so that was OK.)
Anyways, the walk was nice. Every 100 yards or so there was a marker with info on a different tree. We saw a few cool sculptures. We saw swans, which is always fun in a Yeatsy place.
Filed under: Sligo
Carrowmore is the largest cemetery of megalithic tombs in Ireland. The tombs are 5000 years old. Can you imagine that?
The tombs would remind you of New Grange. OK I know that not everyone reading this will have been to New Grane – but it is better known.
Some of the tombs were dolmens – which is a fair simply structure similar to a slanty table.
There are 4-5 legs and a large, flat stone lain across them. It’s amazing to think of how they could get such large stone to form any kind of structure back then. Pretty much you’d want to be start your tomb as soon as you could walk!
Some tombs or structures were more just rocks placed into a position such as a circle – like a giant clock with a diameter of 15-20 feet.
One tomb, which may have been recreated was a lot more like New Grange. It looked like a huge mound of rocks from one side – but from the other you could see (and walk) into the tomb to see a huge dolmen.
So the tombs and structures were pretty cool up close. An added cool aspect was how the structures lined up with the surrounding mountains. Many of the mountain (such as Knocknarea) also have tombs on them and the tombs seemed to line up in all directions.
One of the guides noted that tombs may have been used (in a later day) as marketplace centers. Because especially when the entire countryside was covered with forests, the tombs were easily seen from a distance.
The girls were moderately impressed though I must admit visiting Carrowmore wasn’t the first thing we had done that day. What they did enjoy was the bull that seemed to protect the final dolmen. We started into a field to take a look at the dolmen that was “just a little further” and what we had written off as a cow kind of sauntered up into full height and horns and just looked at us in a “make my day” kind of way – saving the girls a walk there and back.
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