United Kingdom - London

As we came into London Euston, on the train, I remember thinking that it wasn't as built up as I had imagined it to be - no Coro Street on this side of town.  We got off one and onto another train and headed to Woking, Surrey in a southwest direction.  Neil and Barbara (Matt from Hungary's parents) arrived to pick us up and take us back to their wonderful home for a few days.  We were so glad we met them, they are lovely people - just like Matt said. Matt hadn't lied about his mother's cooking ability either, lovely meals were served every night. They had two and a bit dogs - two boys; Dougal honey colored and Digby a black,  they were both spaniel x poodle, (?) really lovely.  The other 'bit' was the neighbors dog Max that they dog sat during the day.

The next day, we headed off to Hampton Court Palace, set in a mere 60 acres of beautiful gardens.  It was of course a little late in the season to see the gardens at their best, and it was raining, but the glimpses we did get looked very nice.  The whole palace was massive, we visited the Masters Carpenters Court - basically the maintenance workshop, then went to Henry VIII kitchens - amazing the stew pot was about 1m diameter and I guess maybe 800 deep.  The fire was lit underneath and it had steps to the side that got you up high enough to stir it.  There were many fire pits and many different prep rooms bakery, butchery, fishery, veggies  etc must have been a huge operation when Henry VIII and company was at home.  Next stop was Williams apartments, very nice a bit plainer but still very big rooms.  All and all a really neat Palace - that I'd love to visit again one day, especially in summer to see the garden.  We enjoyed a nice lunch together and then returned home.

Neil, Murray, Delwyn and Barbara outside
Hampton Court Palace.

This was part of the display of armoury.  the whole room had guns and swords
arranged in different patterns.  This little bit alone had 64 rifles and 80handguns.

One of the many beautiful tapestries

One of the many kitchen prep rooms, there are the five fires by the pots behind Murray,
then the bigger one to the right and then behind me there were two massive fireplaces.
 It must have made for pleasant working in winter, but unbearably hot in summer.

Corner of the bakery - you can't have one Murray!

On the Friday, we headed to Guildford to try and sort out my Tamaris boots.  I brought the in Lubeck, they are or should I say were a lovely deep red, but the dye comes off them, so now they are about four different shades of red and look terrible,  So I am not a happy chappy as they weren't cheap.  Anyway I did manage to find a shop that stocked them only to find out they would not give me the suppliers contact details as they weren't allowed, but said they would get the rep to call me - yep still waiting.  It was Judiciary day in Guildford, so we joined the the town folk in watching a parade of judges, sheriffs  police and others fumbling their way down the cobbled streets - the women in high heels haha.  Guildford seemed like a really nice place.  That afternoon we did a few jobs for Neil in his workshop - man shed to die for, in which he has every imaginable wood working tool and that helps Neil create some amazing pieces of work.  He is very talented.

The Judiciary Day

 Saturday was the best day to catch up with my niece Teri, who lives in London.  We set off early and got on the hop on/off tour bus and went the complete 2 hour tour of London. We had a really good tour guide that we almost had all to ourselves!  Piccadilly, Circus, Eros Statue, Nelsons Column in Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben clock tower, Parliament, Mayfair, Park Lane, London Eye, Convent Gardens, Fleet Street, St Pauls, London Bridge, Gerkin, Shakespeare Globe, Downing Street and all the bits in between - awesome!  It was so familiar, guess I played a lot of Monopoly when I was younger. We then joined another tour and saw Albert Memorial, Baden Powell House, before getting off to go and meet Teri.  It was great to see her and her friend Tui, whom we had met before.  Teri looked great and was excited about their big trip around Europe that's coming up.  At the end of their tour they've tacked on two weeks in Egypt  and 3 weeks in Thailand before home to NZ.  So with only five weeks before they leave, they are both happy and sad.  We found a back street pub for a nice meal and then headed to the infamous 7 storied toy shop; Hamleys on Regent Street.  Yes something for all ages there.  Would hate to visit nearer to Xmas - but an amazing store nonetheless   Nest stop or should I say shop was Harrods - yeah we thought we'd better go have a look at what all the fuss is about.  Well with marble floors, walls, ceilings, counter tops and sculptures, chandelier and fresh flowers everywhere, we did fee maybe a little 'posh' for a minute or two.  There was a nice memorial for Di and Dodi.  No shopping to report though, there was a very simple shift style top I dared to put my fingers on, it was only 13,000 pounds  or NZ$26,000 - unfortunately it wasn't really my colour!  That night we were supposed to meet Shema (from Greece) but the trains, were all delayed and her one cancelled, so it was just too hard for her to get into the city.  so we missed out on a catch-up.  We found some dinner and then headed out to see the city by night before heading back to Woking around 11pm.

The Thames

Double d's everywhere!

London Tower Bridge

Outside Baden Powell House

Lego display in Hamleys

Harrods

Just another couple of kiwis in London!

Trafalgar Square - Bronze Lions guarding Nelson's Column. 

Buckingham Palace at night

West Minster Abbey

The hustle and bustle doesn't stop

London Eye by night

Parliament and Big Ben clock Tower

Neil had asked Barbara to cook one of her special Sunday roasts complete with Yorkshire Pudding!  So in the morning we sorted out our train tickets for the next day and then Neil dropped us off with  the dogs to a woodland park.  We had a nice walk, with Barbara and the dogs before walking back home.  It is quite bizarre to think that they live only 25 mins train ride from London central and out their own back gate is a smallish woodland complete with wild deer, and then a short walk away there is another large woodland.  Well dinner - what can I say beautiful beef, crunchy roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts, and peas and yummy yorkshire puddings - I have the recipe now, so all I need is my kitchen!  Matt and Eleanor you missed a great Sunday dinner!

Murray and Neil with Barbara's delicious
Sunday roast meal

Thanks Neil and Barbara for your wonderful hospitality

 and to London for surprising us with your beauty - we shall return.

United Kingdom - Wales

We spotted the yellow VW transporter, as we docked at Holyhead, so we knew our ride was there - and he was, Nick with a grin from ear to ear.  It took about 45 minute to get back to Eglwysbach (igloo-is-back) to their newly shifted into home – it was a cutie.  Dee was at work so we went and picked her up, grins and gins I think all round that night!

Dee at her workplace

The next day Dee had off work so it was off to charming Chester to do some shopping and enjoy a history lesson along the way.  It was so green and looked a lot like NZ and for that matter Ireland too.  Chester was a nice place; hopeless to find a park but really good for a bit of retail therapy – warm pj bottoms – Yay bring on winter!  It was a beautiful city with cobbled pedestrian streets and old shop fronts.  We found a good place for lunch and walked around some more.  That evening we walked the narrow country lanes to the local pub to enjoy a pint or two.  Very nice pub, we can see Nick and Dee fitting in well to the country life. We met a guy who had been to NZ; it was nice to chat about familiar places. 

Dee worked the next day and after a wee sleep in, the three of us went on a sightseeing jaunt – the beautiful Snowdonia Valley.  Firstly stopping at Dee’s old village Doddlywndad, saw the church they got married in and also walked up the hill to the Doddlywndad castle.  We drove a bit further and visited a slate factory, or quarry I guess, had a walk around there for awhile, then back into the car.

St Gwyddelan's Church - where Nick and Dee got married

At Doddlywyndad Castle

View from the top of the castle looking towards Doddlywynndad.

An inside wall

From the road - look at the weather!

Slate galore !

All I can say about Snowdonia is simply stunning!  A mix of narrow roads, rock faces, steep high hills; simply beautiful contrasts.  It would have been awesome to go on one of the walks, but no time for that.  There is also a Snowdonia Castle too - of course.

Another Welsh Pub

Looking down the Snowdonia Valley

The Ugly House -
which I thought was quite cute!

Big rocks and little rocks all forming the outer shell

How bizarre is that - the front window is almost
on the double yellow line on the side of the road!

Another gorgeous Welsh Pub

Sunset at the Great Orme

Happy times, again.

We woke to a reasonable day.  I spent the morning in the front garden pulling out some weeds.  While Murray fixed the lawn mower and Nick put some more shelves up in his man shed.  The boys then went on a tiki tour of the back streets of Igloo-is-back to find me some more blackberries to go with the apple.   They were gone for ages and I thought they must have snuck to the pub - but they hadn't - good boys!  On Monday, I got stuck in and made a roman blind for the bathroom out of an old duvet cover.  And the boys continued working in the man shed.  That afternoon we went to an auction and then into Conway for a wee drive around.  Tuesday was Dee's day off so we headed off again, them to the auction and we went to Conway, to visit the castle and town.  We didn't end up by going into the castle, but instead we walked all around the walls of the city and got some great views of the harbour and neighbourhoods.  We met up again for a late lunch and then went on a hunt for some curtain string and rings.  We found the string but not the ring!  Home for a delicious meal of lambs fry and bacon - Dee's way - absolutely delicious.

View towards the bay from the wall

Conway wall

Lunchtime at Conway

Nick and Dee outside 2 Craig Terrace

 After breakfast we said our goodbyes again, to Dee,  packed our bags, loaded into the van and Nick drove us to the station, and it was off to London for us.  What a great place Wales is, and what lovely friends we have made.  Can't wait until you come and see us in NZ one day.

Ireland - Dublin, Limerick, Dublin

                                  

We were instantly greeted by the friendly Irish at the airport, the city and everywhere – certainly made us feel very welcome.  We found our way to Dame Street and started on our hereditary search.  My fathers, father was born in Dublin 1886 and Dad’s grandfather married in Dublin in 1883. I had the address of the church they married in and the address for both family homes of his grandparents.  St Werbughs church stood firmly enough on St Werbugh’s Street.  Big black wrought iron gates closed the front off.  It looked old but OK.  Across the road was “Dublins oldest chippee” Dad would have loved that!  After standing around, taking photos and greeting all the pass a buyers and getting information from a lovely old Irish gentleman who politely told us that we had better high-tail it out of there, if we wanted to get to the train station to meet the train to Limerick.  Which we did and we were picked up by Peter the eldest son.  After a delicious later supper of roast chicken we got horizontal and fell asleep instantly – another big day!

St Werbughs Church

Dublins oldest chippee

The next day we did some odd jobs around the house, talked more with the family and made some plans for the rest of the week.  Shemus and Barbara had decided to shift their office home to the back garden cottage, so one of our jobs was preparing that for the big move.  Many hands make light work was proven in those few days, there were us and family members, electricians, builders, plumbers and IT experts.  We cleaned and painted shifted and sorted – awesome work in very pleasant surrounds.

Shemus and Barbara were extremely kind and encouraged us to borrow their car and head off to explore Ireland.  Our first outing was north around the County Clare and Burren districts. Leaving Limerick heading north through Ennis, continuing north with a stop at the Burren Perfumery which makes goodies from organic ingredients – lovely!  

The Burren is a desert-like place almost lunar, a vast rocky limestone plateau extending over 1300 km, which has cracks to prove its age.  An Englishman by then name of Oliver Cromwell once said - “This is an area where, there is not enough water to drown a man, not enough to hang and not enough land to bury him in” After missing the next turn, we ended up right on the coast at Bally Vaughan, then had to head south about 8 kms to visit the Poulnabrone Dolmen.  It is amazing, perched on the side of Mt Ailwee.  According to archaeologists the tomb is around 5,800 years old and built as a funerary altar, they have found many human remains there.

Then it was back to Bally Vaughan to find the coastal road to Black head and around to Doolan.  We found a nice pub to try some local Irish food.  I tried Bacon and cabbage cooked with leek and “white curing” juice that comes out of the bacon and a big dollop of mashed potatoes.  Yummy!  Murray had local fish pie – equally as nice.  Then it was off to Doolan Pier, which was a rugged bit of coast, where the ferry goes to Aran Islands from.  It was great to be near to the sea again – there is something about the sea that makes us feel re-charged.  

We warmed up and dried off again in the car as we traveled to the Cliffs of Moher , standing tall at 214m high, 8km long and formed 320 million years ago.  We didn't see any Puffin birds as it was the afternoon so they were all out to sea.  We did see some Choughs, which are the biggish black crows. The cliffs were amazing even though it was closing in and quite misty. And it even started to rain again.  We got a really good view of the cliffs from O’Briens tower (1835), originally built so that the ladies could climb up and see five county's on a clear day.  After spending considerable time at the cliffs, we headed towards Limerick via Liscannor and Ennis, stopping at interesting crafty places along the way. 

Just out of Limerick

How do you do ?  even the Irish cows are friendly.

Close to the Burren Perfumery

Farm fencing the County Clare way.

Big hunk of Limestone

Poulnabrone Dolmen

Lunar land

Black Head Beach

Doolan Pier

A close up of some limestone, massive cracks everywhere.

Ferry going back out to Aran Islands,
this is only around 75m from the shore
and it is already big waves.

Looking towards the north

O'Briens Tower

The Cliffs of Moher, from a different perspective.

O'Briens tower and the Puffin Island
 in the foreground (finger shaped)

Kenmare

Lovely little villages all the way back.

Oh dear, the guinea pig is not well.

On Saturday morning we went to the local market with Shemus, Barbara and Maud.  It was a neat market, all set up under a huge tent like roof, it had everything you need for a weekly shop - awesome!  Our second outing was an over-nighter to south West Cork county.  Yet another, stunning part of Ireland.  Our first stop was going to be to “Kiss the Blarney” at blarney castle, but it wasn't to beat 15 euros each entry to place our delicate lips on top of thousands and thousands of other! Haha.  After a walk about in city we continued south through Clonkilty to Skibbereen.  We spent the night here as it was getting late and we had a few spots to check out in the morning.

We woke to a rainy morning; we headed off straight away as the two shops we wanted to visit were closed on a Sunday.  So it was a drive to Mizen Head for us via Ballydehop – that still makes me laugh, Schull and then followed the coast to Mizen the most south western part of Ireland.  It was very picturesque area, very green, narrow windy roads.  The view at the heads was good even though it was pouring down and windy as.  It did clear enough for us to walk down the 99 steps, over the short suspension bridge and out to the lighthouse, keepers house and engine room.  It was really interesting and maybe even better because the weather was so rugged.

After heading back inland a bit and northbound we hit Bantry historical house www.bantryhouse.com for lunch and a quick look at gardens and the view of Bantry Bay.  We continued north to Ballyfickey, Glencarriff, Bunane and Kenmare.  We saw amazing landscape along the way and also stopped at “Ladies View” where Queen Victoria and ladies in waiting visited during 1861 to enjoy the view.  It was I must say – fantastic.  Unfortunately we did not have enough time left to drive around the Circle of Kerry (next time), so we headed on to Castieisland, Abbeyfeale and back to Limerick – An amazing trip!  Again we thank our wonderful hosts and family that we stayed with.  We truly hope they visit NZ one day so we can spoil them too.

Olives from everywhere

the amazing market roof

Cork City

Ok - gotta put it somewhere I guess

Beach around Schull

99,98,97,96......

The cool suspension bridge

Glimpses of the ocean

Great scenery even on a wet windy day

Delwyn right at the tip - the most south western point of Ireland

Looking along the south coast

Bantry House

A beauty little craft shop in the middle of nowhere

Ladies View

                                   

the new office

The family home

Barbara, Shemus and us with four of their eight children.

We arrived back in Dublin around midday and headed straight to the Guinness Storehouse and learnt all about its 250 year history.  A great display or museum if you like – one of the best we've been too.  We then went and found the hotel, got settled and then set off on our mission – it was back to St Werbughs church, then on to find High Street and St Johns Lane or was it Johns Lane or St Johns Street or St Johns Lane West, you getting the picture? A bit confusing and no one really knew except on the corner of the street we thought it was, stood a beautiful church called St Johns Lane – so we thought it had to be here.  High Street was easy enough to find, but it was number 51 and it was such a short street, that I doubt it would of had 51 houses on it.  A really helpful Irish man, did some searching on the internet at his office, while we were there and that was not that helpful either.  We really needed to go to the city map archives – but no time for that.  We were getting a bit tired by then so it was off to the chippee opposite St Werbughs for fish and chips – YUMMY.  The clever Irish take all the bones out of a sole (flounder), fold the flesh in half and batter it – I kid you not it was the most delicious fish ever.

Looking up Johns Lane (?)

Inside John's Lane Church

High Street

Kahlua and milk - Irish Style

Choosing our bikes

Dublin harbor

38 Buckingham Street

Eating our fish and chips

Dublin Palace

Dublin

The Hairy Lemon

The next day we jumped on the bikes and we got lucky; we found Buckingham Street, in fact we found 39, the actual house was still standing – amazing!  It was such a cool feeling, we chatted to the guy next door who was renovating his, and he said they were nearly 200 years old.  We stood there for ages just looking and trying to imagine what it would have been like in its day.

The next day we jumped on the bikes and we got lucky; we found Buckingham Street, in fact we found 39, the actual house was still standing – amazing!  It was such a cool feeling, we chatted to the guy next door who was renovating his, and he said they were nearly 200 years old.  We stood there for ages just looking and trying to imagine what it would have been like in its day.

The next day we jumped on the bikes and we got lucky; we found Buckingham Street, in fact we found 39, the actual house was still standing – amazing!  It was such a cool feeling, we chatted to the guy next door who was renovating his, and he said they were nearly 200 years old.  We stood there for ages just looking and trying to imagine what it would have been like in its day. 

Next was into the city for a spot of shopping, and a look around, checked out Trinity College, Dublin Palace, and other bits along the way.  Murray had a close shave with a double decker bus, a car and a scooter all at the same time – and they say a cat has nine lives!  I thought he was going to be hit for sure, he was so lucky!  It was then back to the chippee for another chat to our new Irish friend and then home again.  We had the next morning to fill so went for another ride and did some jobs and caught the ferry to Holyhead, Wales, UK.

We will miss Ireland and your quirky sayings –

 “do ya know what I meeeeeann”

 “you’re about as handy as a chocolate teapot”  

Love it!  

An amazingly friendly country and beautiful to boot.
Thank you.