Monday - and so it's back down south.

We decided to forgo a free morning in Galway and head south - we were due at Waterford Crystal at 3.40pm.

Our trusty coach driver, Justin, suggested a  stop at Bunratty Castle. What a clever lad he is! Bunratty Castle & Folk Park are very easy to navigate around and include a real-life look at how things were.

I won't rattle on, but there is a very good video clip on their website. Another really wow! place to go in Ireland.

http://www.shannonheritage.com/BunrattyCastleAndFolkPark/

Still Sunday, still heading for Galway.

After a quick stop for comfort and ice creams it was on the road again.

The countryside is what we all though Ireland should be like - stone walls, rolling fields and open spaces.




Stone wall heaven.

Not only were there miles and miles and miles of stone walls, there were as many different styles. Some were dry-stone (no cement) with flat stones, some round, some all shapes. Then there were those with cement tops and jagged stones stuck into the tops. Plus many more.

After driving through the city of Galway we arrived at Brigit's Garden. The garden has been developed to help keep alive the feeling of one-ness with the earth and with Brigit an Irish Saint and mythological character.

We had a very interesting hour there. A very beautiful place that all ages would enjoy.
Brigit's Garden

After checking in at our hotel there was little time to spare before Justin drove us to Keanes Bar in Oranmore. Wonderful food and entertainment.

We had our own room and were treated two accordion, brodhran (Irish drum) and keyboards, couples with vocals, tapping and clapping. I can't imagine even one foot being still while the music was playing. A customer came in from the public bar to say hello to the accordion player and the music just took hold of him. He was just about out of the room when he turned, came back, picked up a pair of spoons and proceeded to join in with the band. It made the atmosphere even better.

Later in the evening when we had shown how badly we could do Irish dancing, we notice that four of the wait staff were tapping and jigging by the door. We dragged them in and in no time they were putting on a performance for us. What a wonderful night, even if we did not 'see the sun go down on Galway Bay'.

Sunday - heading to Galway. The Cliffs of Mohar

Up bright eyes & bushy-tailed on Sunday, not for church, but to head to Galway.

Our first stop was a little service station near Limerick. Yes, we had a turn at Limerick writing, and yes, they were all terrible.

Next to the Cliffs of Mohar. Probably some of the most photographed rocks in Ireland, these beasts rise up over 200 mtrs from the Atlantic Ocean. Now, being a holiday weekend there were masses of people there, but the grandeur was not lost and the weather magnificent.

The Cliffs of Mohar.


Carefully nestled into the bank is the Visitors Centre. What an amazing facility this is, with interactive displays, plenty of easy to use information about the geophysical aspect of the area - and, wait for it........ 'The' Ledge. For the faint of heart and scared of heights, this is a reality check and a half. It's one of those fly over movies where you launch of the edge of the Cliffs of Mohar just like a seagull. After flying over some of the cliffs you dive down into the ocean for a fish-eye view and then back up for some more.  All of this is accompanied by haunting Celtic music.

Brave old me entered the room at just the right time - no-one else around, so I stood on the edge and off it/I went. Yes, I did feel like I was swaying all over the place, but it was well worth it. This is one of those tourist-y things that worked out really well. Highly recommended!


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Saturday - cont....

So, after a fabulous time with the Quilters of Cork we spent about a half hour cruising in Midleton. Our boxed lunches came from a little deli/cafe by the gallery. Fabulous!

Then we were driven out to Kinsale, a charming little seaside village a little south of Cork.As it was a Bank Holiday weekend here there were rowing races, flags fluttering and people everywhere.
Kinsale, Co. Cork.
I really expected Captain Pugwash to walk around the corner at anytime. My camera batteries are feeling their age a little & I have needed to use my phone for photos and don't have the cable to transfer them with at present. I'm sure I'll pick on up soon and be able to share even more pictures with you.

Cork - Saturday

This morning dawned bright & sunny, so most of us wandered down to see the English Market. My goodness, it was fabulous.

A fresh food Farmers Market, there were cheeses, salamis, vegetables, fruit, fish, beef, pork, chickens, break, pastries, olives, figs ............... and more. This market has been running since 1788 and Rick Stein has deemed it to be 'the best covered market in the world'. I wish we could have bottled the smells!

On the coach this morning at 10am to head to Midleton to Moya, Olivia, Lesley, Tina, Anne and many more fabulous quilters that put on the most amazing Show & Tell for us. These lovely ladies all bought arm loads of quilts, plates of baking and masses of great Irish hospitality. The event was held in a small workshops room in a gallery where Moya has one of her two patchwork stores.

http://patchworkplus.ie/

Some of the ladies we meet today are members of the Irish Patchwork Society and others were just there to share. We can not thank them enough for there kindness & generosity.

Tina's amazing star quilt. Just one of over 100 that we saw today.

Plenty more happened today, but I'm off to bed now as we have an early start in the morning. More tomorrow

Cork-er!

Now we are heading for Cork, but first a visit to Mountmellick to learn about their wonderful style of embroidery, with the bonus of a lesson from the experts.

Mountmellick embroidery came about after the Great Potato Famine, when times were very tough in the area. One of the locals taught the women her style of tone-on-tone embroidery so that they could try to earn enough money to feed their families.

Needless to say, with the style of embroidery still being so popular, the originators plans have rewarded them many times over. The Museum is filled with lovely examples of this work and charming stories about the folk who keep its story alive.

We had a 2hour lesson from some of the wonderful volunteers – I must report the our results varied significantly.

http://www.mountmellickdevelopment.com/museum-page52662.html

 

The added bonus was a visiting exhibition of Quaker Tapestries. A series of tapestries was commissioned from Quakers all over the world – New Zealand included. Each area was asked to submit a drawing, or cartoon of some thing that they taught depicted their area, plus a verse, saying or prayer.

The plans were sent back to each country along with a specially woven wool fabric for the background of each, wools for embroidery and charts that broke each work into three pieces. Words can not explain how magnificent these works of art are and we were unable to photograph them. Check out their website for an idea of these amazing works. They are normally on show in Kendal in the Lake District, so we were extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

http://www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk/

 

 

After Mountmellick we headed south and to Cork. Along the way I shared some of my family history with a little information about John & Julia Lane, my father’s grandparents and how they emigrated from County Cork to Timaru in 1875. I can not begin to imagine how brave those two were. Just getting to Gravesend would have been momentous, let along all those weeks at sea. They sailed on the Waikato to Lyttleton and then on the Bruce - a steamer, to Timaru. The Bruce was sunk a few days later on its way to Dunedin.

It was great to finally arrive at our hotel in Cork just before dinner time and how convenient that the hotel is so very close to the shops!

In Dublin's Fair City

What a great time we are having in Dublin. Great city, plenty to see, plenty to do - just not enough hours.

Sorry folks, still no photos. I didn't realise that a new laptop meant new memory card reading requirements. Will try to pick up a card reader tomorrow, so watch out for photos galore.

The Literary Pub Crawl last night was fabulous. Despite how extremely tired we all were we braved it to the first pub for a little entertainment and lots of laughter. Lost a few after that pub, but the rest of us soldiered on. After pub #2 we lost another three; after pub #3 we were down to half strength and none of us made it into pub #4.

Along the way we learned a little about James Joyce and other notable Irish poets and writers, with the bonus of seeing inside some great old pubs. When not suffering from acute jet-lag this would be a great night out.

Today, Thursday, we had a guide with us all day. I'm always amazed with the knowledge that folk like that have tucked up in their heads. Mia made our day very interesting, informative and entertaining.

We visited the National Museum which is housed in an old army barracks. www.museum.ie/

 The collections are vast and very well displayed & described. We missed our last 1/2 hour there as the building was cleared after the fire alarm went off.  Oh well, nevermind, that gave us more time at Phoenix Park. Check it out for yourself. http://www.phoenixpark.ie (you might need to copy & paste this address)

While we were there most of us went into the cafe in the Visitors Centre. Fabulous food and great coffee.

From there we drove back into the city centre in time for lunch before visiting Trinity College Library. The highlight there was seeing and learning about The Book of Kells. http://www.tcd.ie/Library/bookofkells/book-of-kells/  Very interesting - wait till you can see my photos, just amazing.

We completed our city tour and were dropped back at the Gresham Hotel at 5pm.


Our dinner tonight was at the Brazen Head Pub, supposedly Ireland's oldest pub, it was established in 1198. Great grub, fabulous company and nobody really minded when the taxis arrived at 9pm to bring us back to the hotel.

Another big day tomorrow as we head for Cork, via Mount Mellick and an embroidery lesson.