An Irish Family Holiday- part 1

“I’d just like to point out something to you if I may?”

The Flybe check-in lady is pointing a finger at our e-ticket.

 Three heads bend down to examine it.

April 6............... Oh. Shit.

Today is April 5^th.

 My husband Fil and I and our teen boys Alex and Flynn had just got up at 4am to catch a flight from Southampton to Dublin. We are headed for a 9 day tour of Ireland.

There are options as to what we can do, but as the boys point out: who in their right mind (if given a choice) would get up at 4am two days running?

We wave farewell to a small wad of money and look forward to that time in the future when our mistake will make an amusing story. I personally wonder whether they will offer wine on the plane as breakfast food.

 In any event, we are now on our way to begin our newly 10 day holiday.

We have booked a 4WD tour for 7 nights with a company called Vagabond Tours, which will begin early on Monday.

 The tour, called North by North-West, will follow the coast more or less, heading north first from Dublin along the east coast, then along the north coast till Londonderry where we will cut across to Donegal and then head down the west coast as far as the River Shannon.

We chose this tour because it sounds like a great combination between sitting back and taking it in whilst hearing local history, and getting out there for walks amongst it.

Best of all its more or less out of our control so I am confidant there will be few complaints from  teen quarters. 

 It now being a Friday we will have three days to explore Dublin first.
 

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto.

From the moment we touch down in Ireland, we notice the people are open and friendly.

Dublin airport border control is the friendliest I have ever come across. Far from making me feel like a criminal (as most countries seem to do) it was a pleasant experience. I was laughing before I even left the airport.

Our Dublin Hotel is The Grand Canal. Though a little south of Dublin city centre it proved very easy walking distance to many tourist spots. The room quality, service and breakfast turn out to be universally great.

With cold but sunny weather, we dump our luggage and we set out to explore.

I must be in Ireland!

 

Dublin has an amazing mix of old and new. I have to say on the whole it is done very well. It is a very easy city to explore: flat with lots of pedestrian and cycle paths with hire bike stands everywhere.

 

Fil had been to Dublin back in 1996.He is amazed how the city had changed in the interim with the prosperity of the Celtic Tiger. Large shiny buildings line the river where he remembers old docks.

Over the next three days we visit Dublin’s beautiful parks and walk along the south and north banks of the river Liffey (the name originates from the word ‘life’ apparently) crossing it's various bridges, old and new.

 

In the beautiful Georgian quarter we visit The National Archaeology Museum. The building alone is beautiful enough to warrant a visit in it’s own right. The exhibits are  excellent. Perhaps most memorable are the ‘bog bodies’ recently found dating from the iron age.

It’s not often you see mummified bodies, especially ones so well preserved. It must be quite a shock for bog cutters to come across one, but a great story to tell at the pub afterwards!

Cleopatra? No, Flynn in chain mail at Dublinia.

 

Dublinia is a place we very much enjoy visiting too. This tourist destination exhibits recreations of life in Dublin in the Viking and Medieval periods. It is really well done, giving a tangible feel to the city’s rich history.

Only his shoes showed that the force was with him.

 

The wax museum also gets a visit. It’s a bit tired and dusty. Many of the historical figures are unknown to us, but we would become more familiar with many of them as we learn more of Ireland on our tour.

Flynn tries on the One Ring

 

In any case the boys enjoyed a few photo’s with some of the figurines.

Spongebob and Patrick

 Fil tries to visit the Old Jameson Whiskey distillery but it the queue is so long, he leaves, consoling himself that he will visit other distilleries on the tour. Honestly, the tears were few.

The Temple Bar area, Dublin’s historic quarter is a great pleasure to explore and probably how I envisaged the city. The buildings are colourful and full of character- a photographer’s dream. There’s loads of quaint and bargain filled shops, pubs and café’s. I much prefer this to the cities high street which is filled with the usual chain stores and costumed leprechauns waving donation buckets near the Molly Malone statue.

On one day we have a great lunch at The Brussels, an iconic pub. My mussels in garlic- cream sauce (with a chunk of soda bread on the side) is truly delicious.

The Big Keg?

We really enjoy out three days of exploration. We like Dublin very much but its time to leave.

Before we know it we are shaking hands with our tour guides and loading our luggage into the converted  4WD’s.

It being the beginning of the season, us four are the only guests. As a bonus we have two guides- Mark, and Sean who is in training. Wow, we will be spoilt! We can’t wait to start.

The little black Vagabond- mobile

The first leg of the tour takes us all the way up into Belfast. Mark has organised for us to take a ‘black-cab’ tour of the city’s trouble spots: the area occupied by Catholic’s and the area where Protestant’s live. The black cab idea is that it is a discreet and respectful way of visiting these areas. Our driver proves himself a wealth of unbiased knowledge.

  When we arrive at a particular open area whose house ends are covered in various memorial murals of people or events, we get out to take a better look.

 I don’t take photos. I feel odd and slightly uneasy here. It is a very sobering experience. When we drive into the walled areas of the city I am even more quietened. People live here in the lee of the wall (which is 25 foot high) with tiny caged gardens, so that if people throw something over  they are safe. Gated areas are still locked at night to keep possible troubles at bay. The whole thing is very sad but of course interesting in a depressing way and quite an alien sight to me for which I am grateful.

I am offered an opportunity to sign the ‘peace wall’, a piece of the wall which runs along My words look completely lost amongst all the other messages of peace, but it’s good to see so many hopeful words.

Amazing food. We personally came across nothing but.

The day’s mood is lightened by a great lunch at one of the most beautiful pubs I have ever been in- ‘The Crown’ in Belfast city. I could go on for some time on its merit alone- a true Victorian beauty. It is just as well we were eating as my mouth was hanging open anyhow. How I wish we had pubs like this in Australia!

The beauteous Crown, Belfast

In the afternoon we wind our way into the Glen’s of Antrim area.  It’s very beautiful with it’s green and rolling hills and still very cold with snow by the roadside in higher areas. We are told they had so much snow in fact that many farmers lost their new lambs. It is obviously a wild place where you take a risk to make a living.

 We stay the night in The Londonderry Arms, Carnlough, a faded seaside town. It has the feel of a closed down fairground on this cold day but I imagine it hums with life in the summer as it is a beautiful spot.

 

 Fil and I take a post-dinner walk along the seashore. Snow is clearly visible of the hills beyond.

Carnlough

 

We sleep well ourselves, but the boys in the next room do not. They are convinced it was haunted and kept the light on all night. It is the first time they have ever said such a thing . The Hotel, once inherited by Winston Churchill has a dated seaside holiday charm reminding me of childhood holidays. Later when I look up the hotel on the Internet there are numerous mentions of ghosts. The hotel itself calls the ghost ‘friendly’. Well, you would, wouldn’t you!

Rathlin Island and part of Scotland in the distance

 

The next day we continue our spectacular coastal drive. We have opted to do a walk across a rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede. We are asked if anyone is scared of heights and warned the bridge does swing a bit. In my mind I imagine an old rope contraption with seaweed dangling from it and seagulls flying below us through a bottomless crevasse. I am carrying my terrified husband.

I am relieved by the reality. I see the area is owned by the National Trust and the rope bridge is very new-looking and stable. Phew! It is still enough to have the group of Japanese tourists, crossing it when we arrive, scream very loudly. It seems the more terrified they are, the more photo's are taken.

The Carrick-a-rede rope bridge- better than you could hope for!

The area is beautiful; rocky cliffs and blue sea with green pasture above. The water below is a place where salmon used to run each year and the bridge was originally made by fisherman for whom my initial respect turns to thoughts of lunacy. It’s quite a thing to pick your way along a steep cliff, then make it over a paltry rope bridge to a tiny rock, all in the name of fishing. Sadly there are no salmon left to fish now.

The bridge is 66 ft long and 90 foot high above the rocks and waves. And it does swing!

Give me a bucket and spade and leave me for 20 years. The wonderful Ballintoy Harbour.

 

The next place we visited was Ballintoy Harbour. I immediately wanted to move there. What a magical place! Sandy little beaches, sea-caves, rock pools and boulders strewn with emerald sea-weed and yellow lichen. The sea was calm and serene in the sunshine. At this time of year (April) we almost have it to ourselves but I imagine in the summer it’s very popular.

 

 To top off this perfect place (if possible) there is a little café with the most delicious and enormous range of cakes (and other food, but who cares?). The boys order ‘Lumpy-Bumpy’ which is as delicious as it sounds odd. I'm hungry just thinking about it.

 

Sigh. It’s hard to leave this spot, but with belly's full and the Giant’s Causeway beckoning, how can we possibly resist…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York City Holiday

I would just like to say one thing about our journey from London to New York and then I thing we'll move on just as the therapist suggested: If you really dislike someone and want to make them suffer, buy them plane tickets with Brussels Airlines.
Moving along then...New York eh?! Yep, we decided because we were that much closer to the USA whilst in England, we would just nip*across the Atlantic and take our boys, aged 14 and 17 to see New York for five nights, and even some days.(*really it's a decent 8 hour+ flight)
My husband Fil  and I are not really fans of cities. We don't much like crowds.
I stress about etiquette/cultural faux pas on the go and Fil, well, cities just seem to upset his whole Tardis coordinates.
To be fair though, the kids have been dragged around a lot of pretty scenery and historical buildings which is clearly boring as all buggery (This is mild colloquialism in Australia, so take it in context if you would- it means 'really, really') and we thought New York would be a little more exciting for them.

 New York City certainly hit the spot. What a great place! It's big, bold, busy and brassy.
 And I still liked it.
 Fil was the only one of us who had been to the US at all and never New York, so I looked up some etiquette and cultural tips so as not to appear too ignorant an ass during our  visit.
 I'll mention a few here in case you're thinking of going yourself and would appreciate some advice from a fairly clueless novice. Here goes-
For one thing tipping for service is standard,  but just so you don't get complacent, it varies from one thing to another.
Learning the different percentages is a great start, but there is a certain grace to it once you get the knack. So I imagine. We were hopeless! We tried. We threw extra money at some people and short-changed others (sorry!) in our awkwardness. No one swore at us though which was really decent of them. Not in a language we could understand anyway.

At first we didn't really get which helpful 'service' people get a tip and which you might offend by even offering. (For those interested, we left $2- a day for the hotel maid, tipped cab drivers between 10 and 15 % {you're grateful to survive the ride after all} and tipped meals 15-20%- but you gotta check the bill as some venues actually add the tip  themselves. )
Our accomodation was the Wellington Hotel on 7th Avenue on Manhattan Island. If you like a combo of chandeliers and scuffed skirting boards, this is your place. It impressed Borat in anycase as this was the hotel he stays at apparently in the movie of the same name.
 Don't get me wrong, it's a combo I quite like. Olde grande I call it. We had booked a suite based solely on having very little choice with it being Easter weekend.
We had spent many hours trawling the Internet for a hotel, getting more desperate as time went on.
 New York is not cheap at all, but the suite at The Wellington ended up a good thing as the boys had one room (a queen sofa and a portable king-single) with a tv and table and seats and so did we, plus a teensy kitchenette with microwave, fridge and sink.
 We all shared a nice bathroom with water pressure so high, taking a shower had you pinned against the far wall like a bug on a windscreen. From this I can assure you New York tap water tastes very nice.  Bonus!
 The Wellington is in a great spot mid-town, equidistant from Times Square and Central Park. There is a Greek Restaurant attached to the hotel which we never made it to, but the diner-style cafe is where we had our breakfast each day. Unfortunately the Internet shots did not show the queue most mornings to wait for a table. I had never been mashed up against diners, waiting a breakfast table for an 'included' brekky, but I have to say, the staff were amazing at wending and weaving and we never waited more than five minutes. It's just part of the fun.The trick was not to drool on seated diners.

The stodgy and tasty brekky of either French toast, a pancake stack with maple syrup of an 'American' cooked brekky, set us up each morning for a day of adventures.
I had booked a New York tour on-line (New York See It All! Tour). This turned out to be a really great city 'taster'. It was five hours long, mostly on a bus which we got on and off half a dozen times and there was also a boat cruise. It started and ended a few blocks from our hotel and we all had a great day out in glorious weather. We saw so many iconic tourist sights. Many we would have had to go quite out of our way to see on our own so this was a great time saver.
The Statue of Liberty out on the harbour was lovely. I was surprised to find to she was shorter than I  expected, but unlike me, of course seems taller on closer inspection. This was as close to Ellis Island as we got and for us that was fine.

Over the next five days we either walked or if we were feeling giddy, caught a cab which is a very affordable way for four people to travel cross town. Hailing a cab is a good exercise for tourists in confidence but in fact cab drivers are so used to bumbling out-of-towners, they'll pull up even if you gaze at them long enough with raised brows (you are trying to see if the cab light is lit to indicate it is vacant).
We visited the Empire State Building Never again. The queues sadly were a joke of two hours plus. At the top you have to wait patiently in crowds three-deep to get a view. Or yell "Look, there's King Kong", and push in as everyone turns their iphones upward.
 It took over an hour to get down again too. Urrgghh! Go after 10pm if you must go. (We tried to go at a 'shoulder' time too).Personally we happened to fly in to the city at night and they were the best views by far. Magic!

On another slightly disappointing note- Central Park- don't expect much in winter. It's bare and many lawns are roped off to recover. It just looked tired and over-loved. There are not really any flower beds that I saw. I bet it looks lovely in the summer and autumn though. I'd say best seen then.
I'm afraid artistically we only made it to the Guggenheim. There was an exhibition on that was not really my cup of tea, though I'm sure some people would enjoy it. Maybe. If you stood on your head and squinted.

 It really was worth going to see some of the permanent collection in any case. (I personally loved the pieces by Gauguin, Cezanne, Picasso, Rousseau, Bonnard, Seurat, Van Gogh).
New York is of course filled with amazing art galleries and museums but my teen boys were more interested in giant meals, giant toy-stores (FAO Schwarz is really impressive), Times Square and the general buzz of New York. We tried to book a Broadway show but could get no seats together. Should have booked before-hand. Speaking of hands- the tickets will cost an arm and leg but obviously worth it if you can gather the funds.

The USS Intrepid museum which is an actual aircraft carrier was a big winner. The museum is very interesting as are the collection of aircraft on deck including one of the  space shuttles. We also did the submarine tour which was genuinely fascinating (in a wow! and I'm glad it wasn't me way).
We visited the shrinking Little Italy, the growing Chinatown and SOHO- all great for a fascinating wanders of distinct uniqueness.

Our ice creams in China Town by the way ( Chinatown Ice Cream Factory) were amazing. My Zen Butter was divine (peanut butter and sesame).

We were pretty tired out with tramping by the end of our holiday, but really enjoyed our visit.
The locals were friendly and helpful to us at all times, though being a big city, people generally keep to themselves and get on with their own thing. Like getting around the ogling tourists;)
There are just so many beautiful buildings in New York, you have to look up a lot to appreciate them all!
I will just add that food really is very expensive if you dine in- even just a simple cafe, so the best way we found to eat (other than treating yourself to at least one great restaurant) is street vendors (the ones with queues are often the good ones;), deli's (which sell EVERYTHING) and the restaurants of Chinatown, Little Italy and the wharf building down Seaport ferry terminal.
I'm sure you could spend weeks in New York City and not really have seen much of it. It's truly a vast metropolis, but with all it has to offer, mapped out of sequentially numbered streets you can't really get lost on, I would highly recommend it as a fantastic place to visit.

Next we're emptying the coffers to go somewhere completely different...Ireland!