The One Where I Fall in Love with Ireland

I'm sorry to say, when Tobi and I made our lists of must-see places while we're living in Europe, Ireland was nowhere near my list. I'm not sure why now, but I always figured there were more interesting places to see. Well, how wrong was I? (hint: very). Tobi had some client meetings in Galway that just happened to be the same week as the boys' half-term holiday, so we decided to do Ireland simply based on logistics. Tobi flew to Ireland earlier in the week for work and the kids and I flew in later in the week for the vacation portion of the trip.

Kilkenny Castle

We arrived in Dublin on Friday morning and met up with Tobi there. We rented a car and headed south to County Wexford. On our way, we stopped in Kilkenny to tour the castle. It rained in Kilkenny for about twenty minutes while we hung out in a cafe, having an afternoon snack. That was the last of the rain we saw in the four days we were in Ireland!

Kilkenny town with the castle in the distance.

We toured Kilkenny Castle, which was built in the 12th century. Part of the castle was destroyed in 1650 by Oliver Cromwell during the siege of Kilkenny. Grant was thrilled to learn more about the battles that took place there. After we toured the castle, we walked around the town and we helped Tobi find his first geocache in Ireland (he's up to 13 countries now!). Eventually we headed further south to Wexford.

Playing on the giant anchor, waiting for the car ferry in Waterford.

Sometimes you never know how your GPS is going to take you. I knew there was a car ferry between the city of Waterford and the country house I'd booked in Arthurstown. I thought maybe it would be something to do on Saturday. The GPS had other plans. It took us through Waterford, told us to turn left and there we were, at the car ferry. It was almost dark, we had no idea where we were and we were praying that the car ferry that had just left wasn't the last one of the evening. We finally made it across to Arthurstown, to Glendine Country House.

The kids with Sudsie at Glendine House.

There are some places you stay that just sort of feel magical. Glendine House is one of those places. Ann and Tom, the owners, could not have been any nicer. Ann was lovely with our children. She showed us to our rooms, and she immediately showed Grant and Charlie to their special room, around the corner and up some secret little staircase from our room. She gave us the name of a tavern in Duncannon and told us to tell the owner she'd sent us. We went to The Strand and had a great dinner of fish 'n' chips, burgers and pasta for the kids, and some local beers.

Our first dinner in Ireland, at The Strand tavern in Duncannon.

On Saturday morning we woke up to sunshine and the smell of Irish bacon and French toast. I'd never considered staying at a B&B with the kids before, but this one definitely catered to families. After breakfast, we went outside on the grounds and visited the cows, sheep, and deer. The kids enjoyed the treehouse and swing set and most especially Ann & Tom's sheepdog, Sudsie. 

Highland Cattle at Glendine House

Sheep are dumb! I'm not sure that's true, but it reminded me of Babe.

Glendine's owner Tom gave the kids a bucket of bread and leftover pizza to feed the Fallow deer.

We decided to spend the day sightseeing the Hook peninsula. We started with the ruins of Tintern Abbey, built in 1200 by the same Earl of Pembroke who built Kilkenny Castle. We walked around the ruins, and then took a walk around the grounds, including a church and graveyard and a wooded area (another chance to geocache).

The ruins of Tintern Abbey in County Wexford.

The boys enjoyed climbing the ruins.

The kids at the tower of Tintern

They had lots of fun pretending to do battle in the woods.

We left there and drove further south to Fethard-on-Sea, a tiny fishing village, for lunch. There were three restaurants in the tiny town of 250 people. One was a pub, one looked more like a diner, and one was a pizza place. Can you guess which our children picked? Pizza, of course. At first I wasn't super thrilled with having to eat pizza but as it turns out, it was the funniest thing we'd seen in a while. The owner of Lily's Cafe and Pizzeria hand makes and serves Chicago-style stuffed pizza! He admitted that he lived in Berkeley for six years and frequented the famous Zachary's there and now he's the only guy serving Chicago-style pizza in Ireland. I was excited at the prospect of being the first Chicagoans to try his pizza, but he said we were not the first. He did admit he was a little nervous serving it to us, though. Turns out it was delicious and very fresh. The kids loved the thin pizza and they especially loved that he served them (gourmet, organic, made in Wexford) ice cream. 

At the top of Hook Lighthouse

The kids at Hook Lighthouse.

Views from the top of the lighthouse.

We left Fethard and drove further south to Hook Head Lighthouse. At about 800 years old, it's the oldest working lighthouse in Europe. For many years, monks carried sacks of coal on their backs to keep the fire going and keep sailors safe. I can't even tell you how beautiful of a day it was. Pictures don't do it justice. It was a bit windy at the coast, but it was so beautiful and sunny. The kids enjoyed the lighthouse tour and we all enjoyed the views from the top.

View from our room at Glendine House at sunset.

We came back to Glendine house in the late afternoon and asked Ann for another dinner recommendation. She called up to The Hollow Bar and asked them for us a table. We had seafood, burgers and their amazing banoffee pie! It was the perfect ending to a gorgeous day.

Grant at our lovely breakfast table at Glendine House

On Sunday we got up and had another of Ann's lovely breakfasts and then we said goodbye to Ann & Tom and Sudsie and the beautiful Glendine House. We went back to Duncannon to visit Duncannon Fort, as Grant really wanted to see it before we left. Duncannon Fort was built in 1588 on the expectation of an attack on the area by the Spanish Armada. It was also used during other periods of war, and we got to witness some war re-enactors while we were there.

Aboard the Dunbrody famine ship, headed for America.

Snooty Mrs. O'Brien and poor Mrs. White, passengers headed to America.

We made our drive up to Dublin, stopping in New Ross to tour the Dunbrody famine ship. This ship made many journeys between Ireland and Canada and New York during the great potato famine of the 1840s. The original ship sank in 1875 off the coast of Canada, but the plans were found and a replica ship was built as a tourist attraction. We got to tour the ship and we were visited by Mrs. O'Brien, a first class passenger and Mrs. White, a steerage passenger, both on their way to New York. The kids especially liked snooty Mrs. O'Brien, who asked Grant if he realized how bad he smelled. 

Our three lil captains

Tobi, with his lucky ticket aboard the Dunbrody.

From New Ross, we drove up to Dublin. We checked into our hotel there and swam for a bit in the indoor pool. We decided to walk a bit toward Grafton Street for dinner and somehow we ended up at Eddie Rockets, a '50s style American diner. The kids, of course, loved it. But I won't lie - the burgers were pretty darn good.

The boys enjoyed the double-decker bus.

Monday was spent sightseeing Dublin. We bought tickets for the hop-on/hop-off bus (hint: this is always a good idea with children and big cities). We saw Christchurch Cathedral and visited a museum next door called Dublinia. If you are ever in Dublin with kids, I highly recommend this museum. It was all about the Viking settlements of Dublin, and then the transition to what life was like in medieval Dublin. A fantastic museum for the kids. We were there close to two hours.

Christchurch Cathedral

The Dublinia museum was a huge hit.

After that we toured St. Patrick's Cathedral. We listened to the American Tapestry Chorus, that happened to be performing a concert while we were there. We saw Jonathan Swift's tomb and saw where Saint Patrick baptised many of the locals in the fifth century.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Inside St. Patrick's.

We spent the afternoon at the Guiness Brewery. Tobi wanted to visit and the kids were good sports. They really enjoyed the end when we went to the rooftop bar for our free pint (sodas for the kids) and could look out over all of Dublin.

At the end of the Guinness tour.

Later in the afternoon we finally made it back to Grafton Street so I could shop a bit at Marks & Spencer and we visited a book store where we bought some books about Ireland and its folk tales. 

We woke on Tuesday to rain. But that didn't matter much as we were leaving town. We ate breakfast in the hotel and took a taxi through rainy Dublin to the airport.

The Irish people are so friendly. The food was delicious, and the weather was beyond our expectations. The history is interesting and the scenery was simply amazing. I'm so glad we went and I hope I get to visit it again. Visiting the countryside was so wonderful. I will always treasure my memories of those days.

Cheers!

Tiffany

Up Next: Burgundy Wine Tour

Girls Weekend: Madrid

Back in May at a school coffee, I heard a group of women discussing a possible girls trip. I think the words I used were, "I'll go! Where are you going?" Didn't matter much to me where they were headed. When they finally decided on Madrid, I was thrilled. Madrid really wasn't even on my radar and I had wanted to go to Spain sometime during our time here, but hadn't gotten to it yet.

Famed statue in Plaza Puerta del Sol, called Bear and El Madrono Tree.
This is the symbol on Madrid's coat of arms.

We left Zurich on a Friday afternoon in September. It was slightly chilly as we left Zurich and downright hot when we landed in Madrid. After seeing more than our fair share of Madrid's airport and finding our car service, we were headed into the city to our rented apartments just off the Plaza Puerta del Sol, the square at the very center of Madrid.

The beautiful Mercado San Miguel

We dropped off our luggage and headed out in search of drinks and a nibble to tide us over until dinner. We ended up at the most fabulous place, Mercado San Miguel. It's a food market that opened in 1916, and then closed for many years. In the early 2000s the building was restored and the market reopened. Inside is a food lover's paradise. We all may have been a bit too hungry, but we decided to split up and each buy one thing to bring back to the table to share. Amazingly beautiful food stalls lured us in with empanadas, stuffed olives, beautiful cheeses, olive oil potato chips, and of course, sangria. After we'd had our fill of refreshments, we walked around Plaza Mayor and shopped a bit.

The girls trip begins with our first sangria!

On Friday night we headed to Cava Baja, a very famous street in Madrid that is lined with tapas bars and tavernas. The idea is to tapas bar hop from place to place, ordering a little bit at each place. I'm going to blame the sangria on this, but I am a bad blogger because I couldn't tell you exactly where we ate on Cava Baja. We went to two or three places and ended up at one bar with a delicious Rioja and the best chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream. Don't judge - turns out that is a fabulous combination!

Empanada, stuffed gherkins, stuffed olives

On Saturday morning we got up and out at a decent hour, considering we didn't get to bed until 1am on Friday night. We hit a lot of shopping on Saturday. We started in Chueca, which is now home to Madrid's gay community. I can't remember the name of the street, but I've never seen so many shoe stores in one place in my whole life. We easily went into twenty of them. A few of the ladies purchased beautiful boots made in Spain. We found another mercado to have lunch in, aaaaaand more sangria. 

Plaza Mayor

On Saturday afternoon, we got our art on! We headed to the Reina Sofia Museum. It's a beautiful museum housing much modern art in what was an 18th century hospital. The must-see work and highlight of my day was Pablo Picasso's Guernica. Having studied it a bit in high school Spanish class, I was interested to see it in person. The Spanish Republican government commissioned Picasso to create it for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. They wanted it to be an indictment on the Nationalist forces' bombing of Guernica, a village in northern Spain. However, Picasso's powerful work is more than that. It's viewed as an indictment of the atrocities of all war. I have to say that I was overwhelmed at seeing it in person. Its size is massive at 11 feet by 26 feet. It is a painting that elicits much emotion. It was truly a highlight of my experience in Europe.

Flamenco dancer and singers

On Saturday night we decided to try a Flamenco show. Nothing but the best for us ladies - we went to Corral de la Morería, the most famous flamenco show in Madrid. The place opened in 1956 and the walls are lined with celebrities who've visited, from Rock Hudson to Ronald Reagan; from Marlene Dietrich to Sarah Jessica Parker. I was a little hesitant because I wasn't sure if it would be cheesy or touristy. It turned out to be an amazing display of music with the men singing and playing guitars, and pure athleticism and artistry on the part of the dancers. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. When the show was over, one of the dancers called a lady from the audience up on stage because it was her birthday. She and her boyfriend were seated just behind us and her boyfriend accompanied her up on stage. The whole place sang Happy Birthday to her (thank goodness for high school Spanish!), and then (!!!) her boyfriend knelt down on one knee and proposed! It was the sweetest, most perfect thing I've ever witnessed that I immediately burst into tears. The ladies I was with thought this was all very hilarious! After the woman said yes to her boyfriend, the whole place erupted into cheers - it was very, very sweet.

Those ladies could dance!

After the show, we headed back for another night on Cava Baja. We had a few tapas and some Rioja and found an outdoor table for some great conversation and people watching. We may be middle-aged ladies with kids, but we held our own and didn't return back to our apartment until 3 a.m.!

Just the ladies hanging out in Madrid. With El Diablo.

On Sunday we walked the city. We purchased some souvenirs for the kids we'd left behind in Zurich. We visited the Museo del Jamon for breakfast ("It's like a museum of ... jam." said our taxi driver, mispronouncing ham in English). We walked through the beautiful, historic Palace hotel, where Hemingway and Dali stayed. We walked past the congress building, up to the Parque del Retiro, Madrid's answer to Hyde Park. It was a beautiful, hot sunny afternoon as we walked through gardens and around monuments. 

Stephanie, Villy, Lara and Nancy at the Crystal Palace in Parque del Retiro.

Later on Sunday we split into two groups. Some still had some shopping to do and some of us wanted to visit the Thyssen art collections. The museum opened in 1992, showcasing the private collection of Baron Von Thyssen and his wife, Carmen Cervera (a former Miss Spain). The small amount of time we had to spend there did not do the museum justice, but we did see noted works by van Gogh and Degas, among others.

Villy, me, Lara, Stephanie, Nancy, and Anne

Not long after that, we had our last late lunch in Madrid and headed off to the airport. I had so much fun with these ladies. We laughed a lot, shopped a lot, walk a lot, ate and drank a lot. Some of them I didn't know very well before the trip. Traveling with people accelerates friendships and I'm so glad I have these five ladies to call my friends.

Salud!

Tiffany

   

Up next: Ireland