Ring of Kerry

We spent two nights in Killarney and used our full day to drive around the Ring of Kerry. This is a tourist route that takes you partly through towns, mountains and along coastal roads. We spent 7 and a half hours traveling around the ring and we only stopped in about half of the places you can. The scenery was amazing, we knew it was going to be a good day when this was one of the first things we saw...

Snow at the beginning of the Ring of Kerry drive

We saw a few ruins, lots of snow, went on a couple of walks to some look-outs, did a lot of driving, had scones with jam and cream, saw some more snow and had some trouble driving on the ice. It was a freezing cold but amazing day. The scenery covered in a light dusting of snow was one of the most incredible things i have seen on this trip (and i know i keep saying this but each time it's true).

Snow (technically this is probably ice) on the walk to the ruined castle you can see

A poor horse in the icy paddock

Ewen skipping stones

A lake just before sunset

We took over 200 photos on this day so it was really difficult to select only a couple to put up here.

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle - we kissed the stone - end of story.

Cork

We spent most of our time in Cork wandering around the town, it was a lot bigger than we thought it would be, but it had some nice pedestrian only shopping streets and i found my dream store of random housey stuff and pretty jewelry and lots of chandeliers so i had a bit of an internal struggle not to spent the remainder of our money in there. We went to a cathedral (i forget what it was called) that has a statue of a gold angel holding a horn. legend has it that right before the apocalypse starts this angel will blow her horn to warn everyone. It was a pretty nice cathedral but when we were there it was closed for lunch. We also went to another church (i remember the name of this one) called St. Ann's where you could pay to climb up the tower and ring the church bells. we played Watlzing Matilda, it was very cool, you got to pull on these cables (one for each bell) to make out the tunes and as you pulled the whole town could hear the church bells. It must get really annoying for the locals especially in summer when the bells must be constantly ringing. The views from the top of the tower were great but to get up there you had to literally climb around the pigeon poo covered bells which wasn't too much fun. we were pretty lucky though, on our way down two guys were in the pigeon poo area and ended up having to huddle under one of the poo bells while we passed them. glad that wasn't me! The only other thing of note that we did in Cork was go to the English Market which is a permanent food market that has been around since 1788. it had lots of butchers and cheese stores, a couple of chocolate shops and then a few other random stores thrown in, this is also the building where i found my favourite store. We had lunch one day in a restaurant up above the English Market so we could look down at all the shoppers and stores while we ate.

Me on a bridge in Cork

Curracloe & Kilkenny

We spent 3 nights in Curracloe and honestly didn't do very much. We went to a wildlife reserve (which seemed to only have geese, lots and lots of geese), to the beach (which was freezing cold), out for lunch each day (once at the pub attached to our hotel and twice we drove into Wexford), we explored the town of Wexford and that was about it for Curracloe.

Ewen with his crab sand drawing

From Curracloe we went to Kilkenny for one night. In Kilkenny we went to the Rothe House which is a 17th century merchants house that has been turned into a bit of a museum. We walked around the town and had a look around the gardens and the outside of the Kilkenny Castle. We went to a couple of cathedrals but didn't go inside any of them, just looked around the outside. We had a delicious dinner in a pub sitting by the fire (which was very welcome after our freezing day walking around the town) and Ewen discovered a beer which is now one of his favourites, i think it was called Smithwick. The next day we left for Cork.

Just a heads up Dad, this is what the door on my house is going to look like...

Dublin

We only spent one full day in Dublin this time but after our road trip around Ireland we are coming back to Dublin for a couple of days. We flew in from London and arrived at about 1pm we spent our first day going to see the Book of Kells at Trinity college and then walking around the town.

 The next day we went to the Guinness factory (which i think is the real reason Ewen wanted to come to Ireland in the first place). The factory was really good and a lot more interesting than i thought it was going to be. It was more of a gallery/museum than a factory, you didn't actually get to see the machinery going and the bottles been filled etc it consisted more of different displays. their were about four floors of displays, they had a room full of barley, it was basically a room sized sandpit full of barley that you could touch and pick up if you wanted to. Then they had a couple of short movies you could watch, a display of the lease that Arthur Guinness signed for use of the brewery. Ewen tried a Guinness muffin but he wasn't very impressed, i suppose Guinness should stick with what they're good at. My favourite display was of all of the advertising posters and merchandise and the adds you could watch dating back from the 1950s. They had posters dating back even earlier than this, the best poster was of a lobster that was holding a pint of Guinness and the slogan read 'Lobsters love Guinness'. In one of the bars Ewen learnt how to pour his own pint and got a certificate stating he had mastered the art of pouring the perfect Guinness pint.

 We had lunch in the Guinness restaurant (they serve you Guinness bread) and then headed upstairs to the Gravity Bar where you get a free pint and can enjoy 360 degree views of the city of Dublin. By the time we got up there it was pretty packed and quite overcast outside but we still got some nice photos. It ended up taking us pretty much all day to do the Guinness factory so by the time we left it was nearly dark. We walked back to our hostel through the city centre and had a relaxing night watching movies and eating pizza.

4 days in London

We were back in London for 4 days before flying to Dublin.
Day # 1
We went back to Camden Market. We walked along the canal to get there which is a really nice walk, trying to see into all the houseboats (they are annoyingly persistent with keeping their curtains closed) and watching all the other fishermen (one who had caught a shoe and when we walked past it was still attached to his fishing rod). We spent a couple of hours wandering around the market but eventually the cold and rain got to us. I dont think Ewen got anything but i got a tshirt with pictures of those paper-dolls on it (Riki will know what I'm talking about). That night me and Ewen cooked up massive plates of vegies for our dinner feeling a little unhealthy after our couple of weeks of take away/pub food every night.
Day # 2
Me and Ewen got the tube to Oxford street in the morning to get a suitcase, i chose a beautiful zebra print one. We are going to fill the suitcase with all the presents and souvenirs we have gotten and Ewen's uncle Andrew is going to look after it while we are in Ireland. We were running short of time (we had to meet James at 12pm in Trafalgar square) so Ewen went to meet James while i took the suitcase back to Simon & Nell's, luckily at that time the tube was nice and quiet and i didn't have any problems. I met up with James and Ewen an hour or so later in Trafalgar square and we went out for lunch at a nearby pub. I tried some mulled wine (trying to get into the British festive spirit) which was weird and lets face it kind of disgusting. After lunch we went for a walk towards Westminster stopping to have a look at the horse-guards and snap some photos in red phone boxes. We spent a while having a look outside Westminster Abbey at all of the memorials laid out for Armistices day (called Remembrance Day in Australia). After a while i got frustrated with all the tourists smiling in front of the memorials to get photos taken like it was some kind of tourist attraction so we left. We kept walking down towards the London Eye and while James went on me and Ewen sat around in the cold, spending as much time as we could in a nice warm souvenir shop. we had some snacks in Leicester Square and then i went off to go and see the Legally Blonde musical while Ewen and James went to see Bill Bailey. Legally Blonde was pretty good, i was impressed that they used real dogs to play Bruiser and the hairdressers dog (cant remember her name or her dogs name) but the costumes and songs were no where near as good as Priscilla! I was spoiled seeing Priscilla at the start of my West End experience. We have booked tickets to see War Horse when we get back from Ireland so hopefully that is good!
Day # 3
We met James at Millennium Bridge for lunch and then we were supposed to be going to St Pauls Cathedral. Sadly at lunch i managed to pour an entire cup of orange tea (which was red?!) onto my myself soaking the bottom of my jumper and the top of my jeans. I decided to go home and change and get my clothes in the wash so they would have time to dry before we leave for Ireland. The boys decided to wait until the next day to see St Pauls so i could go with them. Instead they went to the Tate Modern to see the sunflower seed display and then to the Bank of England museum. We met up at Harrods later that afternoon and did way too much shopping. We had dinner at a Chinese cafe (more of a cafe than a restaurant) and then found an incredible bookshop. I got three brand new books for 6 pounds.
Day # 4
Finally we got to go to St Pauls Cathedral! We spent probably two hours looking around the cathedral and spending time climbing the 350 or so steps to the lookout at the top of the dome. After St Pauls we went back to Simon and Nells to get our suitcase (we had packed it the night before and it weighed 30kilos to begin with, we managed to get it down to 24 kilos so wish us lots of luck when we have to pack it and our backpacks to come home) and then took it on the tube to meet Andrew at his work.  We had lunch with Andrew and then while James went to do some more sightseeing me and Ewen went back to Simon and Nell's to pack up our stuff and organised last minute things for our Ireland trip.

Wales

We spent an afternoon in Chester walking along the walls that surround the city centre and then having lunch in town.

Main street in Chester

Cathedral in Chester

Walls in Chester

 We drove to Ann's house (Ann is my Nans best friend) and stayed with her for a night. Ann lives in Buckley which is just over the border in Wales. She took us out for dinner at a pub up in the hills and told us stories about her and Nan growing up in Buckley. The next day Ann showed us where my Nan used to live (two houses, one which is now a carpet store) along with other places Nan used to go to. We were also lucky enough to see one of Nans old boyfriends and even managed to take a sneaky photo! We met Ann's daughter, Tracey, who took our photo because her son wanted to see what 'real' Australians looked like. I think he would have been a bit disappointed in our lack of board-shorts, akubras and bluies.

Me & Ann out the front of Nan's old house

After leaving Ann and Tracey we drove further into Wales to Penmaenmawr (don't worry we dont know how to pronounce it either). This is where Ewens Grandad grew up before moving to Australia. It was a sleepy little town with several closed shops. we had some lunch and a walk around the town taking lots of photos.

The main street of Penmaenmawr

Ewen at Penmaenmawr beach

We walked down to the beach and then decided to drive to Conwy to have a look at the castle there. The castle was pretty amazing, it was still in relatively good condition considering how old it is (Ewen thinks it was built in the 1200s). It no longer has a roof but most of the walls were still in good condition and their were about 8 (maybe more) towers you could climb to get views out over the ocean and also to get a birds eye view of the rest of the castle.

Conwy Castle

We stayed in a B&B in Conwy which the information centre found for us. Had a delicious fish & chip dinner and then the next morning had a walk around the town and along the water looking at the boats and the seagulls. The seagulls are massive here, at least 3 times the size of Australian seagulls. they are also clever, they were flying with mussels in their mouths and then dropping them on the concrete to smash the shells before swooping down and eating the insides of the mussels.

A street in Conwy

We drove to Manchester and met James at Hatters Hostel at about 1pm and then while the boys went to the soccer i went to a Vintage Fair which was pretty good, although not as big as i had thought it would be. i only got one thing, a ginormous ring which i will probably only ever wear once but its very pretty and i couldn't resist! We couldn't find any accommodation in Manchester for that night so we decided to drive back to London a day early and dropped off the car at Luton Airport. by the time we got back to Simon & Nell's it was after midnight and we were wrecked.
The Scotland road trip was a lot of fun and we saw some amazing places, the highlights for me were definitely Oban and seeing the snow on our drive from Inverness to Spittle on Glenshee.

Glasgow & Manchester

Our last stop in Scotland was Glasgow. We had two main reasons for stopping here for the night. the first was that Ewens Nana grew up in Glasgow so he wanted to see the street she used to live on and the second reason was to go to another comedy show. The same company (The Stand) who runs the amateur comedy night in Edinburgh runs a comedy club in Glasgow so we went there for another night of entertainment. I think i preferred the comedians at Glasgow compared to Edinburgh, they weren't necessarily funnier but over all they were less offensive than the Edinburgh group... apart from the only girl comedian who gave a bad name to girls everywhere. We left early the following morning as the boys were in a hurry to get to Manchester to see the soccer.

The street Ewen's Nana lived on (maybe)

Not much to say about Manchester, we checked into our hostel and while the boys went off to get their soccer tickets i went for a walk around the main part of the city. i went to Primark and got a dress for Christmas (although now i think it might be a bit fancy so rik and darc you better bring your A-game) then we went and got some dinner and later while the boys were at the soccer i watched a lot of Greys Anatomy.

All ready for the soccer

Snow in Scotland

Once we left Inverness we stopped off at Culloden battlefields where we paid an exorbitant amount of money to look through a museum and then spent about 2 minutes out in the actual battlefield. i don't know how those soldiers did it. it was the most freezing cold i have ever experienced (and its not even technically winter yet) as soon as i opened my umbrella one of the spokey do-dads snapped off and tried to stab itself into my eye and then the entire umbrella popped out the wrong way. the wind and rain were so hard and cold it physically hurt your face and hands to be outside. we quickly ran back in with a new respect for the soldiers who fought on those battlegrounds.

Ewen then started to drive in the general direction of South while i called hostel after guesthouse after hotel after B & B trying to find someone who had a triple room available for that night. eventually i found a place with spare rooms in Spittle on Glenshee. On the drive there we saw (and touched) snow which was very exciting! After a bit of a mishap where i realised at the last minute i had sent Ewen to Glenshee rather than Spittle on Glenshee (they were at opposite ends of the map so this called for an hours travel back in the direction we had come) we eventually made it to our hotel at about 6pm. I don't know if any of you have seen Hot Tub Time Machine but the ski lodge they stay in was very similar to this place. it was pretty much deserted but it was massive! There were as many staff as their were guests. We didn't do too much here, just had some dinner, admired the snow slush in the carpark and went to bed. The next morning we had to leave for Glasgow before getting to do any more exploring in the snow which was a big of a bugger but oh well.

INVERNESS

Inverness was different to how i thought it would be. The town was a lot more built up (even having a Primark) and the castle across the river from our guesthouse housed not royal clothes and jewels but the sherrif of Inverness. In the end we didnt get to see too much of the actual town of Inverness as there was way too much to do and see on the outskirts of the town.
Driving from Oban to Inverness we got to see lots of lochs, including the famous Loch Ness (sadly no sightings of Nessie). I didn't think Loch Ness was as pretty as some of the other lochs we stopped at along the way but oh well, each loch monster to their own i guess.
Once we had checked into our guesthouse we went for a walk around the outside of the castle and then had a look in some of the shops in the town. After that it was getting dark and was raining and we were cold so we went back to our room and had take away chinese for dinner (traditional scottish chinese food of course).
The next day we were up early to go to Urquhart castle which was a castle about 15 minutes drive from Inverness along the Loch Ness. Walking through the ruined castle you get to climb up a 5 story tower to get some views out over the loch and the rest of the castle ruins. Also around the castle you can see a kiln for cooking wheat, some toilets, a couple of bedrooms (well places to sleep on rocks), and the old kitchen and great hall among other things. they also had a very large reconstruction of a catapult. 

Here's me at Urquhart Castle with the Loch Ness behind me

Later after the castle we went to Fort George which is a bit of a military fortress surrounded by high walls decked out with canons and gun turrets. It was interesting walking around the (still working) army base because their were hardly any other tourists around, we probably saw more soldiers than tourists. They have mock rooms set up showing you what living conditions were like for the soldiers during the wars and how the living conditions altered dramatically depending on your ranking.

Fort George

The Cathedral

Next up was a drive to another town a little way out of Inverness (cant remember the name of the town) to see a ruined cathedral and also a ruined palace. Ruined places seemed to be the theme of our day. The only place not ruined was the place that houses the people who actively involve themselves in wars how ironic is that!

Another view of the ruined cathedral

It was a great but very very busy day. One of the reasons we crammed so many places into one day was that we had brought these explorer passes a few days before and you could go and see as many of the places on the list within 3 days out of 5 days so we wanted to make the most of that, i think in the end we managed to see 6 places and it would have been 7 if Doune castle had of been open in Stirling. We definitely got our moneys worth anyway, i think we saved about 20 pounds each by buying the pass.

OBAN

Ewen & a Highland Bull

Oban turned out to be a beautiful little seaside (lochside?) town on the west coast of Scotland. We had a walk through the main street and then had lunch in a pancake cafe. We couldn't check into our hostel until later in the day so we walked up to McCaigs Tower which is a monument that looks like a Roman style colosseum. Basically a rich man named McCaig noticed that their were lots of unemployed people in his town so he employed them to build this monument for the McCaig family. Being puffed out from the walk up the hill was worth it once you saw the views out over the town and water and to the mountains in the distance. Next up was a walk along the water to Dunollie castle. This wasn't much of a castle anymore but it was one of the most picturesque places i have seen on our trip. It had just one section remaining (apart from a little turret down by the road) which was nearly completely covered in Ivy. We were the only people there which was nice and we could stand with the castle behind you and watch the sun set without anyone obscuring our views or photos! Inside the castle was a dirt floor, it had three levels but only the ground and first levels were accessible.  I'm not even sure the first level was meant for tourists as the staircase was dark with no lighting. one of the greatest things about this castle was how untouched it was. Their were no signs explaining things or lights inside the castle, no hand rails, nothing new appeared to have been added. That night we had some pretty delicious fish & chips and then went back up to McCaigs Tower to watch the fireworks (it was Guy Fawkes night).

Dunolly castle

STIRLING

Originally we were only going to spend one night in Stirling but after arriving and seeing how much their was to do we decided to stay two nights (the incredible Scottish accent of our landlord helped with the decision too). 

Our first night we didn't arrive at our guesthouse until about 6pm because we got very lost and confused coming out of Edinburgh, it took us nearly two hours just to get to the outskirts of the city of Edinburgh with all the road works and one way streets and my terrible directions. We had dinner at a pub across the street and that was all for that night. 

The following morning we went to Stirling Castle and to Argyll's lodgings. Then we drove out to see Doune Castle which is where the some scenes from Monty Python were filmed. we didn't get to go inside this one because it was closed but we had a walk around the outside and took some photos. We drove back in to Stirling and to the Wallace Monument which is a large tower on a hill. 

We only had a few minutes until they closed the tills so we were told to get up the hill as fast as we could, this wasn't much fun, it was a pretty big hill and it was cold and raining and starting to get dark. luckily we made it up in time and then had to climb the narrow 246 steps to the top. by the time we got to the top we were wrecked and the wind was very welcome! It was so windy up there you were afraid of being blown off if you stood right at the edge. The climb was worth it (i suppose) after seeing the views out over the town. We headed back down the tower and then back down the hill and went back to our room. 

We had dinner at the same pub again and the next morning left for our drive to Oban.

Corbridge to Edinburgh and everything in between

SUNDAY
On Sunday we picked up our hire car and set off in search of Corbridge. It was a pretty long drive (for the English anyway) and we arrived in Corbridge at about 4pm after a few mishaps we found out bed & breakfast and checked in to our room. The time had changed that morning (which confused us when we got to the station to catch our train and all the clocks said 7am when we thought it was 8am) so it was dark by 4.30pm which is very hard to get used to. We had dinner at a local pub; I think it was called the Black Bull. On the walk back to our accommodation we passed a cemetery and James wanted to take some photos so somehow I ended up in a cemetery on Halloween... it turned out we started a bit of a trend by walking into the cemetery because about 10 people followed us in.

MONDAY
The next morning we went for a drive along Hadrian’s Wall, this is a 2000 year old 73 mile long wall that the Romans built to keep themselves in and the bad guys out. We stopped at Housesteads Roman fort for a look around and ended up spending about 2 hours here wandering the forts and then going for a walk through a little forest and along part of the wall. As we were driving back towards the highway we stopped at a place called Chester’s Roman fort which was a smaller version of Housesteads.  After checking out the Chester’s forts it was time to drive into Scotland. Just over the Scottish border we stopped in a town called Jedburgh for a late lunch and a wander around the Jedburgh Abbey which had similarities to Tintern Abbey but wasn’t as big. It was in much better condition though. We arrived into Edinburgh in the early evening and managed to find some parking and our hostel fairly easily which was a nice change. We checked into our tiny 6 person dorm room and then braved the cold to walk to The Stand which is a comedy club where we picked up our tickets for that nights show. We paid 2 pounds each to get in and got to see about 10 comedians (in various stages of experience) doing their thing. Some of them were quite good (although any who dropped the c-bomb were quickly crossed off my list) and some you couldn’t help but feel sorry for. At the end they had a comedian come on who was actually paid to be there because he was meant to be at least semi successful, he was possibly the worst of the lot. Since when did talking about murdering your wife and father become comedy???

TUESDAY
The next day we went on a free walking tour of Edinburgh, our tour guide was a Canadian guy who came travelling through Edinburgh 5 years ago and fell in love with the place. He was pretty good and knew a lot of random and interesting facts about Edinburgh. The thing that surprised me the most is that a few Harry Potter sites are in Edinburgh. Apparently J.K. Rowling sat in one particular cafe and wrote the first couple of books back when she was too poor to afford more than one cup of tea a day. Our tour took us past the cafe she sat in and also the school that was her inspiration for Hogwarts and a cemetery where she is meant to have gotten the idea for a lot of the names in the book. Apparently Potter, McGonagall and Riddle (among others) are all on different headstones in the cemetery. Our tour guide pointed out the Riddle headstone for us (the name is spelt different in the book but this is supposedly where the idea for the name initially came from). Other sights included on our tour were photo ops of Edinburgh castle and stories about the castles history, St Giles Cathedral which is where Sean Connery was knighted by the Queen. We also saw Greyfriars cemetery, a man by the name of Greyfriar was the night guard of Edinburgh and he had a pet dog names Bobby, when Greyfriar died Bobby stayed at the site of his grave for 14 years. The priest of the church in the cemetery wanted to have Bobby kicked out of the cemetery but the townspeople loved Bobby and petitioned to make him a citizen so he could come and go anywhere he pleased. In the end Bobby the dog was made a citizen of Edinburgh and legally was allowed to vote before women were allowed to. We saw lots of other places but I better leave some stories for when we get home :-) After the tour we went to a pub and Ewen and James ordered Haggis for their lunch (I was boring and got lasagna but I did taste Ewen's haggis). For those who don’t know Haggis the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep that is minced together and mixed with onion, oats and spices and cooked up and served with mashed potato. It tastes kind of like a spiced mine meat but with a very odd texture. It was ok but I don’t think I’ll need to have it ever again. By the time we left the pub it was 3pm and starting to get dark, we walked through the town and found a good spot to get some photos of the 'Hogwarts' school and then walked down the Royal Mile to Holyrood house but it was closed.

WEDNESDAY
Our last day in Edinburgh we went to Edinburgh castle and spent a few hours wandering around the different rooms and museums, we watched the 1pm cannon display which was interesting nowhere near as loud as I thought it would be. We had yummy scones with jam and cream and then headed to Holyrood castle which is a nice but relatively modest palace where Ewen’s Uncle Andrew once sat next to the Queen of England at a dinner, we got to see the Queens seat (which was surprisingly the same as everyone else’s) and the seat next to it where Andrew would have sat. It then took us an hour and a half to negotiate the streets of Edinburgh to get us on the correct highway headed for Stirling. Sometimes driving here is a pain and sometimes it’s the best thing in the world... usually it’s the best thing in the world!!!

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