Adventure to Europe & UK 2025

I love this sculpture of Irish folk dancing, it really captures the joy of movement and life. We spotted it beside the car park at the Rock of Cashel.  There are so many historic ruins in Ireland. The Rock of Cashel is a complex of medieval buildings including a Gothic cathedral, a Romanesque chapel, a round tower and more, set on a limestone outcrop in County Tipperary. The Rock of Cashel was first used as a royal seat in the 4th century, but most of the existing buildings date from the 12th to 13th century. Again there were graves from the 1700s. We also saw the Cahir castle when we stopped in the town for lunch. We didn't go inside, because you can only tour so many ruins...but I did like the rooks and geese foraging for a meal in the river encircling the castle like a natural moat.

Well, today was interesting. After a beautifully sunny, calm day yesterday for our gorgeous drive through Wales, we woke this morning to stormy skies, rain and high winds. We were worried that the ferry to Ireland would be canceled because of the weather. It wasn't. It was a very rough crossing and took over an hour longer than it should have done. Thank goodness for Travacalm (the ones with drugs, not the ginger ones!). We were fine, some were not... Tonight we celebrated our first night in Dublin with Guinness (for Peter; wine for me) and Irish stew at a cute little pub not far from our hotel.   

Kilkenny is a city, but when you are here, the feeling is more of a lovely little town filled with historic buildings and interesting winding streets. We visited Kilkenny Castle which has now been restored to its former glory. It was privately owned for many years by the Butler family and fell into disrepair over time when the owners faced major financial difficulties, which led to reduced maintenance and periods of neglect. It was eventually sold to the Castle Restoration Committee in 1969 for £50 due to it's disastrous state. Restoration took over 10 years and is ongoing. Detailed interior design features were reconstructed to match existing fragments such as bookcases and pelmets, and carpets and wallpapers as well as furniture were sourced to match those found during works. The antlers and skull of  Irish elk,  that you can see  behind Peter  in the photo, has a span of 3.5 metres, making it the largest known antlers of any deer. I'm not surprised it's extinct, w...

Rather than taking the freeway from Dublin to Kilkenny, we chose the scenic route and went via Bray (probably lovely in summer with it's beachside promenade, not so inviting with 5 degrees and windy, overcast skies) then onwards through the winding roads of the stunning Wicklow Mountains. We stopped for lunch in the sunshine beside the stream at Glendalough, which means "Valley of the Two Lakes" in Irish,  that is situated in a glacial valley in County Wicklow and is renowned for its  Early Medieval monastic settlement, founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin. How amazing to walk along the path by the river and see the old stone buildings across the valley.  When we ventured across to investigate, we found the old cemetery of   ancient graves  surrounding the ruins of the church, and the round tower, over 30 metres tall, which was built in the 11th century and served as bell tower and refuge during attacks. To me it looked just like Rapunzel's tower. The door wa...

Dublin Castle served as the seat of English and later British rule from 1204 when it was built by King John of England as a medieval fortress until 1922 at which time it was handed over to the Irish government, when Ireland became independent. The first person we spotted when we arrived was a viking, so it was a bit of a letdown to discover he was just a tour guide on his way home. 😆 Today the castle is more like a palace inside, and as well as being a major tourist attraction, it still hosts important state events like presidential inaugurations. There are lots of historic artworks (I particularly like the apparently 3D sculpture of the cherubs which is in fact a monochromatic oil painting on canvas in which shades of grey are used to imitate sculpture), and lots of portraits of former Viceroys. In many of the portraits, the Viceroys were wearing a diamond star and diamond badge, which were the highlights of the Irish Crown Jewels. In 1907 the Crown Jewels, consisting of rubies, emer...

  Dublin can certainly give Melbourne a run for it's money with the four seasons in one day thing. This morning was warmish and sunny, with blue skies. We set off to walk through Temple Bar to see what we would see. After that we wandered through St. Stephen's Green, a lovely park, where the first blossom and daffodils were just coming out. We then came across the National Museum in Dublin, which was amazing with lots of ancient artefacts from Ireland's past, even mummified bodies that have been found preserved in the Irish bogs. Fascinating stuff. As we came out of the museum, we found the temperature had plummeted and it was pouring rain, so we were thoroughly soaked by the time we got back to the hotel. Dublin is a city of many bars and restaurants, and it's tricky to choose where to eat. Tonight though, we had booked tickets to a Celtic Nights dinner show which was fabulous. Such energy and fun music and energetic Irish dance, with a lovely meal. It was a perfect wa...