Two Day Memorable Days in County Galway

"Oh, grey and bleak, by shore and creek,

the rugged rocks abound,

But sweet and green the grass between,

as grows on Irish ground,

So friendship fond, all wealth beyond,

and love that lives alway,

Bless each poor home beside your foam,

my dear old Galway Bay" - F A Fahy

The drive from Dublin to Galway does not rate much of a mention, in fact it is fairly much pushed from your mind once you arrive in beautiful Galway (which is why I am only showing you Connemara photos, and I have a lot so will pop them in throughout). We did of course take a major motorway, not a scenic back route, and it served its purpose of getting us to the complete opposite side of the country in a couple of hours, when the same trip used to take four.

We arrived in lovely Salthill, a beach town very close to Galway City, and found our holiday apartment. Lucky we didn't have far to walk as the wind was very strong and nearly lifted the kids off their feet. The Jameson Apartments are just perfect, it's so much nicer to have room to spread out in, and to be able to cook for ourselves when we feel like it. We arrived just in time for lunch, a hearty, but ridiculously pricy, roast dinner at the Galleon Restaurant, and after this we were no good for anything for the rest of the afternoon.

Salthill, Galway

This was just what the doctor ordered for the kids, time to play at the playground, time to draw pictures and play board games and time for mum and day to put their feet up. After three months on constant "holiday" mode we are all a little tired and looking forward to some down time.

I had never felt so unprepared as being faced with two full days here with no idea what I had planned to see. Back in October last year I made our plans for this April holiday and it was just too long ago and unusually I couldn't find my notes. Luckily I was able to pull up past discussions on my favourite travel website, Slowtrav, and this jogged the memory. I then put out an SOS on this forum and had some brilliant replies. It was then time for a family meeting.

An important rule of family travel that I am rapidly learning is just because no one else makes suggestions or get involved with the planning don't become responsible for make the final decisions about what you are going to see or do. I end up spending too much time worrying that everyone is enjoying themselves. So I laid all the plans on the table and told them these are the options, now what would you like to do? The result was such a surprise, what I thought they would like they didn't want to do, what I thought they would turn their noses up at what exactly what sounded the most fun to them. So out went the idea of visiting Aillwee Caves ("we've seen caves at home") in went the Connemara Heritage Centre ("cool we can see how people used to live in huts"), out went boat trips ('it's too windy here") but the Kylemore Abbey brochure looked great ('oooo there's one swan on the lake"..somehow just one swan seemed intriguing to them?).

In the end the decision was made for one day involving a long drive through Connemara with two stops with the second day to see Galway City. At this stage  mentioned that the following drive would involve a long drive to Bunratty via the Burren and the Cliff of Moher (both not negotiable in my plans) so I threw in the surprise bonus of a Mediaeval banquet at Bunratty Castle on Wednesday night and everyone was very excited.

 Heading off  to Connemara we found kids music and stories to play rather than expecting the kids to be excited by scenery. How wrong could we be? Quite soon after leaving suburban Galway, especially after passing through Oughterard, we started seeing beautiful glimpses of lakes and the flat countryside of yesterdays drive was quickly replaced by majestic rocky hills. The kids were ooooing and ahhhing just as much as we were. It doesn't hurt that a little rain here and there creates glorious rainbows and clouds sitting right down on top of the mountains makes them look so much more magical. I couldn't compare the Connemara countryside to anywhere else I've seen before so its best to let the photos speak for themselves.

Singing along with Peter Combe music (if you have kids and don't know who I'm talking about find out because he's very entertaining even for adults) the time flew by. Before we knew it we were passing over a bridge and catching our first glimpse of iconic Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey

When I told the children that Kylemore was a Victorian Castle that had become an Abbey when it was purchased by an order of sisters from Ypres in 1920, they became obsessive about seeing the Nuns. Have you ever tried to tell a four year old to keep to himself the very thing he is most excited about? I'm not sure whether Emma or I was more embarrassed about him yelling "where's the Nun's" at the top of his voice. Luckily April is the perfect quiet time to visit Ireland so there were few people to hear him and after explaining that the Sisters where people and not zoo animals to be paraded for the visitors they managed to keep their comments to themselves, mostly.

We enjoyed a long beautiful, but very chilly, walk along the waterfront to the chapel and back up to the Victorian formal gardens. Along the way the children looked for stops along the children's trail. These were artworks and instruments created by a local furniture school. Sadly a number need some fixing up, which will probably happen before the summer season no doubt. The kids were still able to find lots of fun things along the way including waterfalls to play in and try there hardest not to get wet.

The walled garden was great for hide and seek but seemed out of place in the midst of the wilderness of it surrounds. The formal hedges to separate the kitchen garden from the flower gardens has been cut much shorter than it originally intended, so you are able to stand at the top of the gardens and see the whole beautiful garden.



Driving along Irish country roads is definitely an experience. When the Tom-Tom is telling you the speed limit is 100kmh but you are facing a narrow winding road, with sheep on the side of the road, or wandering right down the middle, stone walls close to the curb and little stone bridges and then you are suddenly faced by a car or truck coming in the other direction, we were more than happy to go a little slower.

Perfect place to stop for a chat with a mate

Being stuck behind a tour bus going even slower still can get a little frustrating though. I am glad that they drive on the left hand side of the road here, but in April the roads were very quite and were more fun than nerve racking.

We planned our route after Kylemore to take in the Sky Road and while it was an adventure it was not difficult and the views were nothing short of spectacular. Choosing the "high road" option, at some places an exhilarating 150 metres high, we had views for miles over the land at out to the Atlantic Ocean.

 We only stopped once on the eleven kilometre drive, but who could resist that face:

With more time I would have loved to have parked and walked down to Clifden Castle to explore the beautiful ruin and also spent some time in Clifden. The kids put their foot down and wanted to head straight to the Heritage Centre so I had to settle for a quick glimpse on the way past.

The Connemara Heritage Centre is a small museum at a family run B&B not far from Clifden. While Rob and I were admittedly dubious about paying 24euro for the visit the kids loved it. Unfortunately none of the tours and demonstrations promised on their website eventuated and we were sent off to fend for ourselves however in retrospect we had a lovely afternoon. The kids loved exploring the Crannog and the Ringfort and played at defending them against us.

 This year at school Emma is investigating the development of housing so this was the perfect opportunity to have a hands on view and let mum get prepared for later home school lessons. The Crannog is a reconstruction of a 3000 year old lake dwelling, where a, sometimes, artificial island is used to create a defendable home. It would not have had a bridge and would need to be accessed using a canoe. The 1500BC homeowner would have been a hunter, and the Crannog would not have had a chimney as the meat would be hung up to cure inside the house. The Ringfort was from the early Christian Period (5th-12th Century AD) and whilst very similar to two thousand year predecessor, with simple construction and food cooked over fires in pits, they were originally constructed during the Golden Age in Ireland when treasures such as the Book of Kells were created. Food for thought.

At the back of the farm is a reconstruction of a famine era cottage on the sight of a farm once inhabited by Dan O'Hara made famous in song. Okay at this point I will admit that I had never heard of Dan O'Hara as it was to New York that Dan was forced to make a new life after being evicted from his farm for none payment of rent. Still his cottage gave a good insight into life in the years before the famine.

Sadly I managed to delete all the other photos I took of the cottage, a good lesson to double check all the photos really copy to the computer before you start deleting. What I most enjoyed about visiting the cottage was that it reminded Rob strongly of the family homes that he had visited in Croatia where his parents had grown up before migrating to Australia. It was wonderful to be able to share with the children the similarity between their father's family heritage experienced in Croatia so recently and their mother experienced in Ireland one hundred years earlier. My mothers family came from counties Donegal, Meath and Tyrone and our little orphan Annie great great etc grandmother came out to Australia from the Oldcastle Workhouse when Australia needed more women to "populate or perish".

After a wonderful day we made our way back to Galway to recover after a quick dinner in Oughterard. We made a very slow start the next day and eventually caught a bus, very simply, into Galway for a bit of a wander around.

Galway is the perfect place when you need an easy day of wandering. We did a little necessary shopping and enjoyed a fabulous healthy vegetarian lunch and just exploring the streets. People had recommended we eat at "McDonalds" in Galway, which we thought strange until we realised, too late, that we had misheard them.

As we walked down to catch the bus home we found the Spanish Arch built in 1584. When I told Julian when it was built he proceeded to inform me that "ahh yes mum the 1580's was when Willie the Conqueror was around and they sang Mama Mia" so I am glad to see he is retaining something from our travels.



 

 A necessary pit stop led us over to the Galway City Museum and after using their facilities the kids were keen to have a look around and who were we to say no to an educational opportunity. It was a great small museum with artefacts from various periods of Galway's history.

 We were able to trace the development of tools from the stone age through the bronze and iron ages right through until today. The kids were also fascinated by the boat hanging from the ceiling that was made by local boat builders using traditional techniques.



 

As it was getting late it was time to head back to Salthill. Sadly with kids there was no opportunity to attend a trad music session as they were all in pubs in the late evening you cant have everything and we have been blessed with seeing a lot. And now we leave Galway heading for county Clare and I will be back to tell you all about it very soon.

Enjoying the Craic: One Day in Dublin

"The Whole World's a Playground" - Julian, aged 4

We arrived in Dublin last night for the beginning of our three week school holiday trip. It was simply too easy getting here. As we approached Bournemouth Airport a little less than two hours before the flight we asked someone if we were too late to check in, as it is an international flight. With a laugh he told us we were too early..Bournemouth must be one of the smallest airports in Europe and ours was the only flight that afternoon, and our plane only fit about sixty passengers.

To flight to Dublin was so quick and so scenic, with the help of a map we were able to watch our progress over Wales and across to Wexford and up the coast to Dublin. Getting our bags and our hire car took no time and before we knew it we arrived here at the Croke Park Hotel. A terrific choice if your in Dublin with a family and don't mind sharing a room with the kids.

With only two nights in Dublin we had only one day to see the sights and I must say after moving house this week we are all pretty tired and weren't up to much. I've never been overly keen on the idea of hop-on-hop-off buses, as I love taking the local transport and walking but today we decided this would be a good way to relax, see the sights, and get to were we wanted to go.

St Patrick's in the glorious sunshine

As you will recall whilst on our adventures in Wales and Herefordshire I looked up the places our family lived centuries ago. Typical of most Aussies whose family have been in Australia for a long time we have family from a number of different places in Britain and Ireland. In Dublin our family history is quite special and I looked forward to sharing it with the kids. In the early 1900's my family was living in Geraldton, Western Australia, and as a child a great uncle of mine was approached by an Irish Catholic Nun who told him how his great, great, great, great grandmother, Kitty Witherington (Heaviside) was sister in law to the famous Irish revolutionary and father of Irish Republicanism Theobald Wolfe Tone.



Visiting "Uncle Theobold"

With the help of my mother, the family tree expert, we head out this morning armed with the addresses of the family home in Grafton Street, the location of the churches our family were married and buried at, St Anne's in Dawson Street, St Andrew's church (now the tourist information centre), and of course the Wolfe Tone memorial statue in St Stephens Green.

St Anne's were "Grandma Kitty" was buried and "Aunty Matilda" got married to TWT

We decided to do one complete circuit on the big green open top bus, which luckily picked us up after breakfast at our hotel. One complete circuit took us an hour and a half and actually covered the majority of our wish list which was brilliant. The highlight of the bus trip was Ronnie, the driver who took us on this first circuit, a born comedian who has us in stitches with his witty commentary.
With patches of sunshine this was a lovely way to see Dublin, laughing ourselves silly, sitting upstairs with the sun shining on us, the wind threatening to tear us from our seats while driving past the Dublin Zoo, and a little light rain thrown in as a bonus..well what else did we expect in Ireland.

The GPO

Famous Bullet Hole

Driving past the huge Guinness factory the unmistakable smell of the beer was enough to have Ronnie swerving on the road. Rob tried the Guinness last night at the hotels bistro and said it was far better than any Guinness he had ever had before. Still we were able to restrain ourselves and skipped the highly priced, but very popular Guinness Storehouse tour.

After the tour we had to make a quick shopping detour, something I must admit I dislike and never do on holidays if I can avoid it. Unfortunately we managed to misplace Julian's warm winter raincoat, which we did not realise until we were making the mad dash to the airport. Apparently the department stores don't stock raincoats at this time of year.."what" I hear you cry..this is Ireland after all and even our good mate Ronnie the driver admitted you should expect four seasons in one day year round. Luckily a camping shop with an end of season sale was able to get us back on track.

 The next stop was for Julian who had been promised a playground and shown pictures of the one in Saint Stephan's Green yesterday as a way of keeping him interested this morning. We got off the bus at Trinity College and after visiting "the tart with the cart", or Molly Malone as she was better known we took a walk down Grafton Street. This was to kill two birds with one stone, allowed me to look at the old buildings our family lived in (though they may have been long ago knocked down) and keep Julian on track as St Stephan's Green lay at the end of the road.

Sweet Molly Malone

St Stephan's Green was a grand place for a walk, especially after sitting in the bus for quite a while. The spring flowers were beautiful, even displays of tulips could be seen, and the swans on the lake were picture perfect.  After a quick visit to the resident statuary for family photos Julian was first to spot the playground and away we went.

As usual the kids had a great time and Emma made friends with an American girl here on holidays with her family. The playground was very good, making St Stephan's Green the perfect place for a visit when in Dublin with kids.

 We could have stayed longer but hunger pains has us moving on to find some lunch. In cities like this I really need to remember how easy it would be to pop into the supermarket for picnic provisions, which would have been far cheaper, healthier and tastier than the lunch we ended up with. I'm usually pretty picky about what the kids eat but tired and hungry I agreed to Emma ordering sausages and chip and without a word of a lie they gave her a basket of chips with twenty chipolatas on top..Yuck and really what were they thinking!

We decided to take the second hop-on-hop-off route through the Docklands after lunch which was less scenic but quite interesting and only took half an hour. This left us just enough time to jump back on the main route and over to William Street South for Emma's stop of the day, an Irish Dance class at Jig, an Irish Dance studio and museum. The boys decided to stay and watch as we were put through our paces with a huge tour group of students from England. It was a great way to spend an hour regardless of your ability to dance, and you have to admire the skill and patience of the instructors, who were amazing dancers.

After the disaster of lunch we choose an Italian restaurant in a back street of Temple Bar for dinner and was not disappointed. Il Vicoletto in Crow Street was the perfect choice, serving authentic, delicious Italian food in a small cosy restaurant. The kids shared the homemade ravioli of the day, homemade tomato infused pasta with ricotta and basil filling and a buttery sauce, Rob had lamb rack and I had delightfully thin veal with pancetta in a white wine sauce. Our only complaint would be that both mains were served only with roast potatoes, and without the insalata mista we would not have enjoyed it as much. So with lots of passing around the food to share the joy, we all enjoyed our one night out in Dublin.

After quick walk over the Ha'Penny Bridge we jumped in a taxi and we were back at the hotel in a few minutes, tired but satisfied with our ten hours in Dublin's fair city. Our bus ticket is valid for two days, but when we asked the Hotel staff if faced with a choice of half a day in Dublin then a drive to Galway or a drive to Galway and an extra half day there, we were given a confident recommendation that Galway is "grand" and we should head there without delay. So even though we know we have barely scratched the surface of this place, with a recommendation like that how could we argue. So after breakfast tomorrow we will head off to traverse the country before lunch. I'll tell you all about just as soon as I can and of course enjoy a pint of the local for you too.