More Wicklow tales

Well we moved along to the next lot of Fred's family (the smiths) For a few days on the farm.
Turns out not a lot has changed in the 13 years that Fred has been away, except that the cow muck is a bit deeper!
Really good to catch up with all the cousins who now have kids as well, and see all the old places that Fred worked around etc.

Had a great day in wicklow town, went to the gaol (jail) which was in use from 1790-1960, rounding up all the bad lads in the area who had stolen a cabbage, a loaf of bread or someones lace hankie, then sent them off to new south Wales for a new life.
This is billy and his grand kids after we were released with certificates following our visit.



This is Fred's cousin Daphne's children, Ben and Josh, having a bit of fun in the stocks.







Then a quick trip to the beach, yes they do have lovely sandy beachs, but it's a good idea to bring a good warm jacket to keep the goosebumps away. We kept warm by jumping off the sand dunes





Next stop dublin to see more relatives, drop some off at the airport etc.

Had some free time in the afternoon, so we went north to a place called drogheda where the locals here built some big stone tomb things about 6000 years ago, and they are still standing now, place called Newgrange.
They set them up so the sun shines right in during the equinox and the solstice and cool things like that








We got to go inside the 30m tunnel right to the centre of the dome thingy. It also meant we got out of the rain showers for a few minutes too, so all good!





Thursday we get on a big bird to take us back to Paris

Slanté


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Location:Ireland

The garden of Ireland (County Wicklow)

So we have moved on from the midlands of Ireland to Dublin. On the way through we stopped at Guinness storehouse to see how they make the stuff, have a go at pouring it, and also try a wee bit ourselves. Turns out its still not that nice even when it is this fresh, but was a fun thing to do.








Lovely views from the seventh floor with a glass walled bar room. Then we had a fire alarm go off up there as well, so was a nice stumble back down to street level again.




Onto the most beautiful part of Ireland, known as the "garden of Ireland" - county wicklow. We stayed with Fred's aunt and uncle (winstone and alison). The rain managed to ease up next day, so we visited Glendalough for a walk and look at the ruins of old stone buildings etc.




Lovely old grave yards with dates going back hundreds of years, and the headstones have gone a bit on the lean in the meantime



Then lunch with more relatives of freds (Harry and rosalie). Fred went for a big walk with Harry around the farm, while Julia kept rosalie company in front of the fire.
Then a quick trip into wicklow town and back to see what's to be seen, and have a look at the irish sea.

Sunday is living up to its name of being nice and sunny, so we are enjoying it while it lasts!
Went for a quick look around the Avoca woollen mills after the meeting. They were weaving by hand up until 1988 when they got an automatic machine in, so that's progress!



Then stopped in the vale of avoca to look at the meeting of the waters, where the avonbeg river meets the avonsomethingelse river, and a famous poet sat under a tree there and wrote lovely poetry. They still have the tree, the poet is gone, the poetry lives on, and the two rivers are flowing well this summer!





Had a lovely roast lamb for lunch then Fred and Alison took a quick walk around Avondale house and forest park. On the way there we met a few others out for a Sunday afternoon drive, they didn't seem to be in a big hurry at all.




Few more days to go in Ireland before we head back to paris.



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Location:Ireland

Belfast and Northern Ireland, and a wee bit of the south

So after a lovely weekend in the south of england where we managed to meet up with David and Dorothy Davies and Dorothy Bray, we hopped on a budget flight to Dublin.

Fred took ages getting a rental car, but when he arrived back Julia was pleased to see that he had got keys for an Audi! Fred said it was an R8, but turns out it's only a nice new A1.




Straight up to Belfast where we did a black cab tour starting about 9pm. It was your mans first time at doing a tour so late, so he was a wee bit spooked. So it started in the shankill area (English) and drove by the peace wall and through the gates into the falls area(Irish). Our driver was catholic, so he was notably more relaxed for the second half of the tour and was definitely a little one sided about who did what to who during the "troubles"
Here's a few pics of the murals on the houses, starting with the English side




Then the peace wall between the two sides, to "stop dem trowing tings at each udda."




Then the Irish side




This is the old court house from where a lot of the lads got sent to Australia from.




Had a quick look around the titanic quarter of the docks etc, and at the huge cranes they still have there. No boring picture for you sorry.

Then we headed off north west for a drive through the country to get to omagh. Stopped at a lovely house for tea and scones, but then lucky for Julia the rain came in so we couldn't do a walk around the gardens and out to the tower.



Had a great time with John and Carol Doak, and melvin (6) and ryan (3). Had a look at the farm and yards etc, they were busy trying to cut silage in between rain showers.



Then on again back to the south of Ireland, to a place in the middle called Athlone, where Fred's cousin Nicola and Mervyn Auchmuty live. So the afternoons activity involved using the JCB to take the boat across the fields down to the lake, and a bit of waterskiing, in between rain showers. Great fun. This is their view out over the lake.



Mervyn and their daughter Abby




Today we went to a high ropes course place in a forest near lough kee. Was great fun zooming around in the tree tops, and climbing about like monkeys.
Fred with his cousin Clinton.




Julia with Fred's cousin Nicola.




Julia trying not to look petrified!




Then a quick trip out to Galway to have tea with Fred's cousin cindy, and also her mum eunice was visiting her




Off to Dublin tomorrow, on our way to Wicklow for the weekend, and visit more of Fred's family.




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Location:Ireland

Museums, sights, shows and galleries

Time to see a bit of the finer side of this London town now, so Julia headed back to the tower of London to hear how they treated the prisoners etc.

This is a cheeky squirrel having morning tea at litter cafe.


Fred took geoffs advice and popped over to the national maritime museum at Greenwich, which was fantastic, all about boats as you can imagine! The clocks required for longtitude navigation at Greenwich were a good reminder as to how precise our lives have got. Then had to run down the hill to the cutty sark tea clipper which they have restored beautifully.





Julia had moved on to St Paul's cathedral for a look around the place, and was pleased to see that all the writing in there was in English rather than Latin!

Fred went to the Tate modern art museum on the south bank, which is built inside an old dis-used power Station. Massive space for galleries, and a crazy art exhibition by Tino Sehgal, which involves live humans for the art rather than fixed objects. The people on the left are all part of the exhibit.



That night we went to a west end show called "We will rock you" with all the music from queen hits (the band that is). Was awesome to go along to. No photos allowed sorry. :(

Next day Fred headed off to get first in the queue for the natural history museum, turns out you could spend about a week in there reading everything and looking to stuff. The exhibition they had was about Scott when he was heading for the south pole in 1912, but got beaten by a month by Amundsen. Then they almost made it back, but died within 20km of there last food depot


They have lots of stuffed animals too, so here is a pic of 3 dodo's


And a big rack


Then we met up for a quick blitz on the credit card at Harrods, but turns out we didn't have enough credit (phew), so we got a coffee and cake instead. You can see the Harrods symbol on top of the tiramisu. Julia wanted to get Tahi a new collar from the pet section until she turned it over and read the price tag.



Next up was a nice bike ride in Hyde park and we stopped dipped our feet in the Diana fountain with all the other kids there, and someone had a wee rest on the grass under a tree


Then biked about a bit more before going to a pub for tea, and off to the royal albert for bbc proms, which was bit different to what we thought but no worries.

Picking up a car tomorrow for nice wee drive down souf luv.


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Location:London - England

High Tea with the Queen

Well it turns out the queen didn't get our invitation to have cucumber sandwiches with us, and instead she has decided to take a well earned summer break in Wales, but never mind we will carry on without her.

Tuesday we did a walking tour around town past Buckingham palace, trafalgar square, westminster abbey, Big Ben etc, so was quite interesting to hear some history of the places.

Buckingham palace



Lion statue at trafalgar square with proud tourist









Then we nipped over to brick lane on the east side, for an authentic English Indian curry and rice. The young waiter we had stood and chatted to us for most of the meal (very Indian) mostly about cricket and NZ.

Jack the Ripper's haunts were on the east side of London , so we joined a walking tour to hear the story's of his grisly murders and look at the new buildings that they have put up since then, mostly parking lots and alleyways. Good fun to see the east side of London though.

Wednesday we had our fat tire bike tour of the river Thames, which was very cool to do, started at Waterloo (such a funny name) and biked along the south bank to the tower bridge. We then almost got run over crossing the bridge, before getting the river ferry back to near where we started. Then a quick dash around covent garden, trafalgar square etc. Great way to see a large chunk of the downtown city without getting sore feet and tired legs :)


Then this evening we watched the ceremony of the keys at the tower of London, which has been going on every night for over 700 years. Involves beefeaters (who have definitely eaten too many pies) in big red coats shouting orders at queens guards with big silly furry black hats, then they trot off down to the gate to throw the bolt over and turn the key in the lock, then trot back, point guns at each other, before playing the last post. All very ceremonious of course! Was great to see and experience.
Then they let us out through the man door in the locked gate so we didnt have to spend the night locked in the tower of London.



Tower bridge opening up...


Back down again...


More to come soon...


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Location:London - England

Gondola's and Ferrys - Venezia (Venice)

So after 3 hours zooming across the north of Italy on fast trains we made it to the tourist pulsing vibrant city of Venice.



We had a cool orientation tour around the city with our tour leader and found that getting lost in all the back alleys and winding canals is fairly normal and you never know what you will find when you pop out of an alleyway.
This boat looked like someone added on some tail lights off a Mk3 Zephyr






I think that it is a place that you just have to come and see for yourself to see how it all works. Basically it's a collection of islands in the middle of a harbour which have been built up with housing etc, but they have maintained all the waterway networks to link everything. Also footpaths and bridges to get about by foot, but no roads, through the centre is the grande canal with the large ferries and boats, then all the little side canals are used by motorboats, then all the tiny canals are used by the gondolas.



So enough of that, we caught the traghetto (ferry) out to the glass blowing island of Murano, so that was interesting to see, and look in one hundred shop windows at fancy bits of fragile glass that we definitely weren't going to pack home. Some very beautiful vases, some very gaudy chandeliers, and some very intricate small ornaments.



These ornaments were about 5cm tall and had the glass fish in the cats tummy


Then on our way to Burano to see where they make lace by hand. Julia had a great time, Fred struggled to see the attraction of the doilies and cloths....
The houses and canals were very cute though.



Then back to Murano for a tad more shopping and wondering about, then we caught the ferry back to the main Venice island. This time we decided to get lost and see what we could find, so that was fun.


Next day we did the obligatory boat ride in a gondola around the canals, which was very cool. Apparently some of the gondaliers sing to you, but ours said that he only sings in the shower.









So an amazing place to see how it all works.
Now we have flown to London for a few days, so will see if the queen is home for a cuppa tea and a cucumber sandwich






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Location:Italy