Kilkenny to Limerick

Beautiful weather! We spent the morning exploring Kilkenny, Todd climbed to the top of a very tall, very thin tower, the rest of us wimped out and sat in the sunshine at the base (To be fair Rob did go half-way up but the uneven seps and lack of handrail forced him down!) After a look around the castle we drove on to the Rock of Cashel, a drive memorable as every child got travel sick on the way!!! We had an interesting tour which most people saw most of! Then as the children slept (Side effect of the travel sickness tablets) we drove to the far west of Ireland to Dingle.

Had dinner (and Guiness) at another irish pub while listening to live music - the Atlantic Gales.

After a good sleep and the best Irish breakfast, we drove in the drizzle around the Dingle Peninsula and up to the Cliffs of Moher. By the time we got to the Cliffs the rain was less drizzle, more driving!!! We all were soaked to the skin and Todd and I glad of the raincoats the children had mocked us for bringing. We tried driving further up the coast but couldn't see much through the rain so drove inland to Limerick.

Weather has turned a bit Irish!

The lovely weather of yesterday is now a thick drizzle! We spent today looking around Dublin, then we drove to Kilkenny were we are staying tonight. We visited a lovely garden,Mt Usher (Voted number 1 garden in Ireland by 'Gardener's World'!) and the ruined abbey at Glendalough.

Just returned from dinner and a pint of Guiness - so all well in to the Irish, although Sarah is not keen on cabbage!

We are in Dublin!

We spent yesterday recovering from the mammoth journey - 53 hours from getting up on Friday morning until climbing into bed on Saturday night.

We hired a car and drove north to the neolithic tombs at Newgrange. Everyone was interested as we were given guided tours of these monuments, they are centuries older than the pyramids and Stonehenge, and contained 1/3 of the prehistoric art in Western Europe and I had never heard of them until this year - how does that happen? We then went on to the site of the Battle of the Boyne, visited 2 ruined abbeys, including the wonderful Hill of Slane, and finished the day with dinner in an Irish Pub! It was a lovely day, great weather and everyone enjoying the scenery.

Tomorrow we are going to explore Dublin and move on to Kilkenny.

The Kids!

Rob 16
Kate 11, Sarah 15
Izzy 9

Us - Todd & Fee

2 weeks to go!

We leave in 2 weeks - the planned trip is a week in Ireland, then 2 weeks in England catching up with friends and family, ending up with 5 days in France for the commemeration ceremony for the cemetary at Fromelles.

So much to do before we go. So far all I have done is book flights and UK car hire. I spent far too long this morning try ing to book a return trip by Eurotunnel - once you have entered your credit card number 3 times it really is a sign you are not going to get anywhere, but I kept going! Needless to say we still have no booking!

Hard to imagine that in 14 days we will be away from the horrid winter weather ( Sad that as I am hear freezing I have just looked at the temperature in London and it is only 3 degrees warmer than Melbourne - How does that work!)