Top of the Morning to Ya

Tuesday 17th November

Top of the Morning to Ya!

Ireland (Republic of ) – Wow, from beautiful scenery to learning another language again – yes Irish! We absolutely love the accent but find it very hard to understand at times!!

We spent a couple of nights in Dublin where we had a great day sightseeing on a beautiful clear Sunday. We had lunch at the Temple Bar – one of Ireland’s oldest pubs, watched numerous street artists perform before heading off to the Guinness Factory – this factory is shaped like a giant pint glass. After learning all the history and how to make Guinness we were treated to the best tasting glass of Guinness we have had, at the top of the factory is a bar with 360 degree views over Dublin. We also had a glass of Guinness Foreign Export – it is the oldest of the Guinness range and is mainly imported to Cuba – fair to say we have tried but won’t be trying again – not for us!

From Dublin we headed south to the Blarney Stone – you will all be pleased to know that we both now have the ‘gift of the gab’ after kissing the stone. We were both surprised how far back you have to lean to kiss the stone – Rae reckons that the old fellow at the top that was helping everyone to lean back thoroughly enjoyed his job!!

We then stayed the night in Tipperary (not a long way for us) before driving through to Limerick which is where Angela’s Ashes was set. We then carried on driving through to Doolin on the West Coast which had the most amazing huge seas crashing over the waves. We then drove to see the Cliffs of Moher which are a massive 203metres high. We went for a bit of a walk along the top of the cliffs as the day was just perfect. Had a great look around the villages in the area but unfortunately most of Ireland closes down for the winter so many of the restaurants and shops were closed. We ended up staying in a carpark in a tiny place called Tracht Beach – we were the only people there and had great views over the water to Galway.

We also had a fantastic night in Cong. Cong was the setting for the old movie The Quiet Man which John Wayne features in. We had a great night in a wee pub here – sitting by a fire talking to the locals and listening to three men who had later came into the pub for a spontaneous get together with their piano accordions and guitar – great night.

We spent the weekend in Castlefinn at Joanne and Winston’s house with their children Robert and Allanah. We had a great weekend with them – went to the local pub on Friday night where there was a X factor competition then karaoke - wow, the Irish can really sing. The kiwi’s Joanne, Brent and Rae were very quiet listening to those that could sing. At the end of the night we headed upstairs to the Church Dance and finished off the night about 4.15am. Saturday saw us having a quiet day although Joanne, Allanah and Rae did head out for shopping in the afternoon. Winston was trying to persuade Brent to dig up a paddock of potatoes – he wasn’t quite persuasive enough. Robert 8 and Allanah 6 are great children with lots of personality and lovely Irish accents. Joanne used to live in Dunedin and Winston after travelling with Joanne is now settled back on the family farm.

From Castlefinn we went through to Northern Ireland and stayed the night in Ballintoy before going to Giant’s Causeway yesterday. Giant’s Causeway is an area that has approx 38,000 columns of rocks – legend has it that Finn McCool the giant built this causeway over to his rival in Scotland, Benandonner or the other story or reason is the rocks are formed due to ancient volcanic activity in the area 60 million years ago. Anyway the rain stopped long enough for us to walk down to them.
We also visited the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge – which is a bridge built over to the island that the salmon fisherman use to use – thank goodness we also stopped raining whilst we were there and also that it wasn’t windy when we were on the bridge.

We are today staying in a place called Newcastle – we have spent the day today having a look around the area and went across from Strangford Lough to Portaferry on a ferry and had some lunch. The weather today whilst it hasn’t rained it has been bitterly cold – I guess that being by the sea the winds are always cooler.

We are heading through to Belfast tomorrow for a couple of days and then heading back over the Channel to Scotland.

We have also confirmed our flights home and will be arriving back on Sunday 13th December – only just over three weeks left of our trip………..

Until next (Guinness) time…