County Kerry, Ireland

Craig Writes;

4/10/13. 

We went to a place called Limerick

To find a verse we could mimic

There was no rhyme to be found

Not one single sound

              Looks like limericks in Limerick's a gimmick 

  

My apologies, this was before I had had a chance to kiss the Blarney Stone.

We left Dublin for a five hour drive down through Limerick, which has absolutely nothing to do with limericks. We found a lovely little pub called the Pat Collins in Adare and stopped for a fantastic pub lunch and my first Guinness in Ireland. 

quaint with a big Q

This ebony blonde temptress was my first

And let me say for those of you that don't know, it is true what they say, Guinness in Ireland is NOTHING like the Guinness you get outside of Ireland. Irish Guinness is nectar, everything else is cats pi#*. 

And how exciting to come across this sign and realise that they're actually real. Low and behold, I actually managed to catch one of the wee little fellas.

I was so excited to discover they actually existed.

Then blow me down me, I caught one of the little buggers

After lunch we head on down through Killarney, Kenmare and finally arrived at the beautiful little town of Sneem and our amazing farm stay, The Valley of the Hare. It has the most stunning views of the Irish wilderness, it was captivating.

Pure unspoilt wilderness

Isolated, peaceful and rugged

Searchlights from above

We all agree, this is the most thoughtfully constructed and prepared family home we have stayed in.  The house is newly refurbished, from top to bottom, it has a kitchen that Gordon Ramsey would be so fucking proud to cook in and it was stocked with everything from locally smoked thick sliced bacon, farm fresh eggs, milk, juice and fresh bread. The pantry had a complete range of herbs, spices, sauces, cling wraps etc, etc, etc. All the stuff a traveller normally accepts they will go without lest they drag a bag of condiments from one place to another. It's like we just moved into Martha Stewart's place.

The fluffy white robes were Ritz Carlton quality, as was the bed linen. The tiled floors in the kitchen and the bathrooms were heated and there was a complete range of bathroom products of  L'Occitane quality, perhaps even better.

We're going to be very happy here.  There is already thoughts of how do we extend our stay.

5/10/13. A lazy day getting to know Sneem. It's a tiny town with a population of approximately 700 sitting snug in the South West of Ireland. The late French President, Charles De Gaul, so loved the place that he was a regular visitor. A sculpture in the town green commemorates this.

It's very popular with the tourist buses, there were several in town just in the couple of hours we were in for a look and a spot of lunch. The people are lovely, friendly and helpful. We stopped into a small gift shop that had boxes of cheap CD's out front and bought a driving CD of Great Irish Pub Songs.  

It was a day for walking and soaking up the atmosphere, breathing the air and buying some local lamb for a slap up home cooked meal tonight.

Christina made great use of the kitchen

and I mean GREAT use

6/10/13. Today we were going to go to Skellig Island. They are a couple of small islands stuck out in the Atlantic about 12 kms off the Iveragh Peninsula. Hundreds of years ago a small group of monks built a small monastery at the very top of Skellig Michael Island. A most desolate, bitter and forbidding lump of rock. Two hundred and fifty metres high, at the very pinnacle of the one of the most inhospitable spots on earth, surrounded by treacherous, unpredictable and hostile sea. It was here they chose to build a place of worship, complete with a small garden and a stone stairway from top to bottom. It is yet another example of mans ingenuity and resourcefulness when he is driven.  The trip out into the Atlantic can be difficult even on a clear day and the seas themselves are never calm, just different degrees of turbulent.

Unfortunately, the fine and clear day we were promised by the Irish Bureau of Meteorology didn't eventuate. We awoke at 7.30am to a dense blanket of fog that refused to budge. The accompanying drizzle and the inability to see more than fifty metres in front of us meant a day wrapped in out fluffy robes on soft leather couches in front of the massive picture windows looking down into a swirling mist of fog in the valley.    There would be no boat rides today for us or anyone else. We sat and enjoyed the friendly wildlife, who were eager to make themselves at home.

This one we called Dina

This persistent knocker we called Scarlet-O

She had some moves, grooving here to Moby

Getting just a little too comfortable here, and, she's on my side

It's embarrassing I know, do you tell them or not

7/10/13 The fog persisted today, although not as thick, and the drizzle had become nothing more than a slight annoyance easily brushed aside with the pop of an umbrella. Today was our final day in this most beautifully wild piece of countryside. We hung the fluffy white robes, zipped the hoodies up tight, grabbed the umbrellas and stepped out.

We headed west on the Ring of Kerry.

The Ring of Kerry

Our final destination today was the famous Skelligs Chocolate factory in St Finians Bay, Ballinskelligs. To get there we passed some of the most dazzlingly beautiful coastline we have ever seen. We were the ultimate in smitten tourists, pulling the car into every second car bay, jumping out and whirring and clicking because no matter how astounded we were by the view the one around the next corner was better.

 this is one of those very rare places on earth that touches me right at the very core

Timeless oceans smashing into ancient cliffs, it's the most beautiful sound

Past Parknasilla, Castlecove, Caherdaniel and Ballybrack finally landing in Waterville.  We found a charming little rustic cafe where we had one of the best chicken curries we have ever had.

Watervale is a small seaside town that like most of the coastal townships these days has become reliant on the big tourists buses that ride through the town dispensing a rolling tide of aged Americans and Europeans with loose wallets and big appetites for the authentic Irish experience.  I don' think anyone would leave here disappointed. From Watervale it was a short drive down to Ballinskelligs Bay and the Holy Grail of chocolate.

I was craving a rich, strong coffee to go with some smooth dark chocolate, to me there is nothing better. Unfortunately for me we're at the wrong end of the tourist season and the coffee shop is closed, but, the chocolate factory is open, in full swing and full to capacity with the most tantalising range of delicious chocolates known to man.

I pout if I don't get my coffee but Charlie's happy, he's in a chocolate factory

The place is huge and obviously used to catering for bus loads but today it was just us and a small group of three Germans. We were plied with a confusing amount of samples. Do I get the Rose and Pistachio or the Irish Whiskey, perhaps the Mint Brittle or the Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt. At the end we said stuff it, we'll take a bit of everything.

A chocolate factory to ourselves, yes we are happy

We were off The Ring of Kerry by this stage so from here we went up and over the mountain where we were completely and utterly enveloped in a thick pea soup of fog only to see it disappear just as quickly once we started to descend on the other side to reconnect and head back the way we came.

It was a fabulous end to a stay that has really resonated with both Christina and myself. For her, she has ancestral ties not only to the country but specifically to this region and for her this reveals itself in vague callings and soft whispers of home. For me, I have no idea of whether my feelings of familiarity are connected by lineage or some other more esoteric connection.  Maybe I was a potato farmer in a previous life, or more likely a marauding Viking. The wildness of this countryside speaks to me. The raw harshness and the beautiful brutality of the brackened roadsides with their pretty yellow, red and blue blossoms and their stiff pointy needles hidden below the colourful facade, ready to skewer anyone foolish enough to take their beauty for granted.

The misted mountainsides are streaked with flowing steams of clear cold water that flow over ancient rocks and through prehistoric gaps and fissures.  They eventually roll down wide and thrashing streams, passed centuries old houses collapse by the burden of time and then rejoin the ocean, billions of years old and the place from where it all began.

I am home here

This place is timeless, that's what makes it special for me. I feel a part of me is from here and that one day this is where I'll return.

Dublin

Craig Writes;

2/10/13 Today we fly Aer Lingus, "The Worlds Most Cunning Airline". A quick three hour flight and we finally arrive in a country where everyone speaks English, well the Irish equivalent anyway. We've never been to Ireland and have been looking forward to this since our Egypt section of the trip got cancelled. The weather is a complete change from what we have been used to over the last nine months.  While not frosty, it's 15C maximums 12C mins and it's going to be wet, wet, wet.

We're staying in a very funky B and B overlooking the Liffey River that runs straight through the middle of Dublin.

The beautiful Liffey River, our place was just to the right of the Ha'Penny bridge

We're five minutes from everything and staying with a very nice fella named John in a very charming area named Temple Bar.

Dublin is  a very tasty place

This fellas having a quick one before he gets to the office

It's got that small city charm to it

Ireland is one of those unfortunate countries that is doing it a bit tough at the moment.  If not for the presence of some major international companies injecting money and generating employment they would be in dire circumstances.

Although there'll always be a demand for some things

It was quite evident from the closed shutters adorning a number of shop fronts on the drive in from the airport that things were not entirely rosy.  But last night we walked the streets of Dublin and they seemed busy and bustling.

Like most countries going through hard times you'll see the brunt of it outside the city centres.

There were definitely no signs of hardship inside O'Neills pub.  A recommendation from our host and what a beauty.  For over 300 years O'Neills has been serving up the finest in good old fashioned Irish food, banging out original Irish tunes and serving Stout, Ales and Hot Whiskey to the patrons who come to rest in the warm atmosphere of the snugs, nooks and crannies that permeate the place.  O'Haras stout, Bulmers Cider and Fish and Chips. Outstanding.

3/10/13 Yes, it's still raining, not sure if it's going to be stopping any time soon over the next few days but fortunately our host has some descent size brolleys so we pop em open and head on out. First order of the day was breakfast at Bewley's, a place that looked the works but where the food didn't live up to the surroundings.

This place was all show and grab your dough

The cuppa tea was nice though. Then it was off to the National Museum of Archaeology. We haven't done any museums for a bit so the boys were told, "we're doing it, suck it up and let's get going".  We walked through the beautiful Saint Stephens Green gardens on our way to the Museum.

St Stephens Green, stunning anytime

even more so in the wet

The rain was a constant pattering on the brolleys but it really just added to the ambience of the place. There is something about how the rain puts a shellac on mother nature making her lush greens seem shiny and brand new.

The National Museum of Archeology was quite amazing. It has the most extraordinary display of ancient gold jewellery, much of it over 2500 years old and astoundingly intricate. 

Some of this stuff was 2500 years old

It's baffling how they did this 

There are four gruesomely well preserved bodies on display in the section called Bog People.  These fellas are over a thousand years old and have been amazingly well preserved in the deep and rich peat fields of the Irish countryside. The twisted looks on their faces, the stubble on their chins,their severed torsos and punctured chests are in clear view behind the thick glass.

We really did see dead people

He's only half the man he used to be

There are simple stone tools on display that have been carbon dated at over 400,000 years old. 

The Vikings played a major role in Ireland's past and there is a a great display of Viking culture and their influence on the Emerald Isle. Of particular interest was the skeleton of a giant Viking Warrior laid out with his sword and dagger. He would have been well over six and a half feet tall.  His sword even though well decayed now would have been between four and five feet long with a heavy handle and thick blade.  His hands were the size of my feet. The sheer size of him would have turned many battles.

From here we took a trip to the Natural History Museum. It's more a warehouse than a museum. 

Where it lacks the majestic dioramas of the Museum of Natural History in New York or the Smithsonian in Washington DC it makes up for it in sheer number of specimens and the fact you can go eye ball to eyeball with most of them. It was a lot of fun.

Known by locals as the 'Dead Zoo'

That's maybe a little too close

Cmon, smile big fella

Staring contest anyone?

Dublin was fantastic and a place that we would all gladly return. 

Roman the streets is always a lot of fun.

Craig Writes;

29/09/13. Our first time on a plane for a while.  It took us an hour to fly to Rome and we're glad to be back.  It's been over 15 years since Christina and I were here and we're looking forward to showing the boys a few of the sights. It's a whistle stop tour, only two full days so we'll have to try and make the most of it.  Tonight we had our good friends, The Metcalfs, over for drinks and some good old Italian pizza.  They head off on their big cruise tomorrow. Always great to catch up with them.

30/09/13. Oh such grand plans today. The weather forecast said a 70% chance of rain today, but what would they know. The skies looked pretty clear to me so at 10.30am we set off to walk to the Colosseum.  By 10.45 it was sprinkling with intent and we were buying cheap umbrellas from Tanzanian fellas who suddenly started appearing out of doorways with armfuls of the finest Chinese umbrellas that 5 Euro could buy. And by cheap I mean good for one, maybe two good showers before your looking for the next nearest Tanzanian to buy another.  

We managed to make it down to the Colosseum through a relentless drizzle, got some snaps and started to head towards the Roman Forum when all of a sudden things turned serious.

Not the best Colosseum shot but it'll do

I mean it pelted down. We found shelter under a cafes alfresco canopy but started to get looks from the management.  They must have been expecting a party of ducks. We didn't want to settle into a cafe on the main strip so we left and found a small cafe just around the corner. This was all about the shelter not the food, which was just as well.

We stayed as long as we could without ordering five course and left when we saw the first sign of it easing. The streets were raging torrents. It was quite incredible.  You couldn't walk from one side of the road to the other without your shoes becoming boats with laces.

We stopped trying to hail a taxi and started looking for a gondola

Eventually, finally, four limp and saturated travellers made it back to their apartment.  Ironically just as the clouds began to part and the sun started to shine through. Later in the afternoon, once we had all dried off, we decided to take a short walk to San Lorenzo, one of the older parts of Rome and just outside of the old Roman walls.  

The old Roman walls were very impressive

It was talked up by our host Guiseppe as being a place full of cheap but groovy restaurants and bars.  Maybe we didn't go far enough in but we just saw a lot of graffiti, tagging not the cool stuff, and closed shops. We didn't eat there but we did find what we looking for.  The very first Montessori school started by Maria Montessori in 1907.  It still operates as a school today.  Our boys are both Montessori schooled so it was very special for us to see where it all started.

 

I'm sure Maria would be proud

The very first Montessori classroom

1/10/13 The memories of yesterdays foul weather were bleached to oblivion in the sun soaked day that Rome put on for us today. We caught the metro to the Spanish Steps for a  quick peak. They're lovely and all, widest staircase in Europe etc etc, but unless you're stopping to have your lunch on them it's really grab the photo and keep on moving.  Which  is what we did. 

We came, we snapped, we left

We chose to avoid the main streets and instead wove our way through the back alleys heading in the general direction of the Trevi Fountain. I recall there being a crowd at the Trevi when Christina and I were last here about 15 years ago but man that was nothing compared to today, and this was off season. We all threw a coin in the fountain and made the wish about coming back.  It worked for Christina and I last time so it's worth a couple of Euro. As busy as it is Rome is still a great place to be.

Four euros says we'll be coming back

A little "all you can eat" restaurant was recommended to us by our friends Tony and Tracey so we sort it out and had a quick lunch before heading on.

PIZZZAAA

Someones been telling porkies

A fully chopped Harley

We forged on towards Piazza Navona but this was a bit of a disappointment. Crowded again but not just by tourists. Half the plaza was take up with hawkers selling paintings, doing portraits, selling bags and scarfs and general brik a brak. The main fountain wasn't working due to a shut down for maintenance.

Piazza Navona, a bit of a touristy disappointment these days

We moved towards the Panthenon. This did not fail to impress. Nearly two Thousand years old it still stands as the most complete and best preserved piece of Roman architecture in the world. And even today the massive dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.

How the hell did they do what they did back in those days?

The Panthenon

It is so beautiful, and so old

We took our time here. I didn't know but the great Raphael, the renown Renaissance painter and architect from the 15th and 16th centuries is entombed here.

From here it was onto the Vatican and Saint Peters.  The Pope must have been signing autographs.  The line into St Peters was literally hundreds of metres and not moving.  

That line across the front went right and all the way to where I was standing

While we stood there contemplating whether or not to join the queue a group of 20 - 30 Chinese tourists wearing matching bright yellow hats joined the end of the cue.  That was it for us.  We headed to the metro, a tube ride home and a stop in at Fassi. Established in 1880, it is Italy's oldest, and arguably best, gelati shop. And, it is a two minute walk from our front door.  We all had to agree, best damn gelati we've had, ever.

It's the best Jerry, the best.

Well, that's our whistle stop tour of Rome done. Must say we loved roaming the back streets. We'll be back again in the years ahead but next time no apartments just a sweet little hotel room for two smack dead in the middle of the city where you can stroll out your front door and have all in front of you.

You find all sorts of interesting alleys when you leave the main streets

This could be our front door in a few years

Now time to pack again as tomorrow morning we head to the land of the Blarney Stone.