Ireland - Leitrim (and beyond)

So continuing on now with more inventively named blog posts, we continue our journey across Ireland, as we head North by Northwest to the wonderful county of Leitrim. Leitrim is a lovely, lush place with rivers and lakes everywhere you look.

We stayed in the "cruisey" town of Carrick-on-Shannon, in a wonderful apartment complex right by Ireland's longest river. It proved to be a great base, with lots to see nearby; the beaches of Sligo and Mayo (love those names) were not far off; and even Northern Ireland is only a short drive away, for when we felt the need to save on foreign exchange charges.

In the end, the girls didn't want to leave, but in Ireland there's so much to see, and (in our case) so little time to see it. But for now anyway, please enjoy these pics...


Here's the girls hamming it up in front of the Carrick Bridge, which has historically been a strategic crossing point of the River Shannon - it still is.



The kids were fascinated by this beautiful statue in the town park by the banks of the Shannon. We explained to them that the message was "respect your elders", but somehow they didn't seem to understand.


This is the historic Parkes Castle, which lies on the shores of Lough Gill.


One of Leitrim's loveliest nature spots is Glencar (which translates to "valley of the car") and the famous Glencar Falls.


Our hostess welcomed us to Glencar Falls... a short walk up the path.


It did in fact rain as we walked up to the Falls. Luckily, Lucy was fully prepared.


There's the Falls at the back there.


This is Monea Castle in Northern Ireland. It's a very cool place, just sitting there on its own in the countryside amongst the cows.


For the record, Monea Castle has no toilet.
Lucy's gonna kill me for mentioning that.


This is the very pretty town of Westport in County Mayo. Caiti loves mayo, and, as a result, she loves County Mayo.
Seriously - ask her if she liked Ireland and the first thing she'll tell you is that there's a place called Mayo!

Ireland - Dublin

We really need to think of some more creative titles for our blog posts. We were going to go with "The Emerald Isle - Dublin" but that's a bit too obvious.... then there was "40 Shades of Green and 40 billion euros of public debt - Dublin" but that's a bit too topical, so we decided to keep it simple. Anyway, as you no doubt have guessed, here's some pics from our summer visit to Éire, and in particular Dublin, where we stayed on arrival before heading off to greener and quieter climes.

Apparently it always rains in Ireland, but Keezee seems to have had a bit of luck on his previous visits (the luck of the Irish perhaps) because he's, on the main, avoided much in the way of precipitation. His good luck continued this time, and we hope you enjoy our pics from a sunny Sunday morning walk along the Liffey (plus a few more from our Saturday afternoon sail across the Irish Sea).


Not exactly Ireland, but this little green patch is Holyhead in Wales, where we ate our McDonalds after a long drive, and looked out at our ferry in the distance which would take us over the sea.


Our aforementioned ferry. Bigger than a Sydney Harbour ferry, granted.


On approach to Dublin, and the girls are still smiling in their new sailor hats.


Keezee still smiling too, with the shores of Killiney in the background.
Our mate Roger, has a good story about an American who got a taxi in Dublin and asked the driver to take him to Killarney, instead of Killiney....


Dublin's changed in recent years. We don't remember the Samuel Beckett Bridge shown here, or the nearby James Joyce Bridge, or the Sean O'Casey Bridge (where's the Dave Allen Bridge???) or any of those swanky banking buildings from our visits in the 90's.


This statue's new too, but we remember Custom's House in the background there.


As above.


New bikes as well (with the old Customs House).


Ah, O'Connell Street, we remember that.


And that's the Ha'penny Bridge in the background. We remember that one as well. The toll on this bridge was quite reasonable, from memory.



And finally we have the tiny, but fabulous, Palace Bar in the Temple Bar precinct. Keezee remembers going in here back in the 90's, for a few pints of Guinness. Strangely, he can't remember coming out again.

More Portugal

Oops.. we're back. We still have a few photos from Portugal to share before we get onto some more good stuff, which is also not in England. So without further ado...


Here's Caiti at what used to be the end of the world... Capo St Vincent on the S/W tip of Europe



The fort and the cliffs at Sagres... there's surf here and there's a beer named after this place as well - Wow!


The pool



Here we are at the waterpark


Sliders


Splashdown


Here's the girls feeling a bit hot in the town square on the hillside town of Silves, a few miles inland from the Algarve coast. It was spectacular, but a bit hot.


Luckily, you're never too far away from an air-conditioned gift shop


Big scary bloke... standing in front of a statue.


The castle walls at Silves... nice views


The Castle from down in the town


The streets of Faro


And here we are at the marina in Faro... almost ready to get on our flight and head home

Algarve Boating

As promised, we've got lots more scenic photos from Portugal to share with you - here's some from our trip out on the boat to the grotto caves off the coast of the Algarve, which is the classic postcard scene of the area. The old guys driving the boats were unbelievable - they went right into the tiny caves and out again without touching the sides. A lot better than certain boat captains we know, who shall remain nameless.


Getting ready to board our boat for the three-hour cruise.... the three-hour cruise...


... The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew.....


This is the very lovely Praia Dona Ana. We also had a swim there (see below).


I used to complain about all the steps down to Bronte...


We went through that hole in the boat


Happy sailors


Pop kept asking the skipper for boating tips, but unfortunately couldn't understand his accent too well.


Flying the flag


A nicely painted boat


Back on land - ah


Jo enjoyed the boat, but was still happy to make it back to land. The Marina is called Marina de Lagos in Portuguese, but now having learned a bit of the language, we know this translates to Lagos Marina in English - just in case you were wondering.


So this is Praia Dona Ana from the land-side


Caiti likes collecting rocks and shells at the beach, but this was ridiculous