Dingle Peninsula

A week ago Saturday, we had gorgeous weather in Ireland.  So we decided to explore an area we hadn't been before.  We went west/southwest to the Dingle Peninsula.  It's just north of the Ring of Kerry.  It is much smaller but we liked it as much if not better than the Ring of Kerry.  I read in a travel guide that the Ring of Kerry is dominated by cliffs whereas the Dingle Peninsula is dominated by the ocean.  We left the house on Saturday morning and came home Sunday evening.  Here are some of the pictures that we took.

On the north coast of the Dingle Peninsula is a very small town called Castlegregory.  Here we discovered what is now our favorite beach in Ireland.  There were lots of fun shells and rocks to explore.  We spent several hours here collecting shells.  

Since we've been in Ireland the kids have been asking for shovels so that they can dig when we are at the ocean.  Here Luke is in hog heaven!

After we left Castlegregory, only because it was the middle of the afternoon and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, we drove across the peninsula through Conor's Pass.  I had read that it is the highest pass in Ireland.

After driving thru the pass, we drove into the town of Dingle and ate a late lunch at a local pub.  Then we headed back out to drive along the west coast of the peninsula.  Of course weather was rolling in about this time, so we didn't stop and do anything.  But this structure is from the time of the Irish famine.

This route is also known as Slea Head.

We loved seeing the sheep's fields literally going down to the edge of the cliffs.

the Blasket Islands off the southwest coast of the peninsula

We watched the lambs walk along that roadside cliff wall..... 

It was starting to rain when we reached Slea Head.

Slea Head

Jimmy and the kids enjoyed watching these birds dive into ocean!

When we left Slea Head it was raining and the hills were covered in clouds.  So we went back to our B&B in Dingle.  We ate a late dinner that night and the restaurant was a great find because they served huge crab claws.  There really aren't seafood restaurants in Ireland.  It rained off and on all through the night and into the morning.  However when we were walking to our car as we were leaving the B&B, we noticed blue skies to the west.  So we decided to drive the Slea Head route again.  We found this snail on our car as we were getting ready to leave.

We loved the curve in the road near Slea Head.

The Blasket Islands were much easier to see on Sunday morning.

 

It was quite interesting watching that tour bus maneuver the road.

I had read that whales (minke whales) were being spotted off the Dingle Peninsula.  Here are the kids looking for them.  We didn't see any though.

 I have seen a picture of sheep being herded down a stone path on the ocean's edge on the internet several times.  That same picture was hanging in the entryway of our B&B.  So I asked the receptionist where that picture was taken and it turned out that it was only 10 minutes from there!  

The path takes you down to the water's edge so you can catch a ferry over to Blasket Island.

After we drove around Slea Head again, we grabbed some food in Dingle and then drove along the southern edge of the peninsula.  The kids and I really wanted to go to another beach and see what seashells we could find.  At this beach (Inch Strand), we didn't find as many shells but still enjoyed our time there before heading back home.

I spent a few hours on Monday cleaning the seashells we collected....

Kate was excited to show Grandma how big some of the shells were that we found.

And thank you Pinterest for giving me an idea with what to do with all (ok, most) of the shells I collected!  

May 2014

Here are some fun pictures from this past month!

We usually see large slugs slithering across our large kitchen windows after it's been raining for awhile.

A few days before Jack's game, I asked his coach if games were ever called due to rain.  She just laughed and patted me on the shoulder and said, "If we did that, we'd never get to play!"  And she was right.  The reason I'm sitting in the car is because Luke had fallen asleep when we got to Jack's game and because we had a birthday party to go to afterwards, we needed him to take that nap.  Luke and I were the only ones that were dry by the end of the game.

At the birthday party later that evening, Kate dressed up in her friend's Frozen clothes....and she even applied her own makeup!.....

Mother's Day found us driving in the Boyne Valley.  We stopped in Navan at Eddie Rockets for lunch.  Luke was none too pleased that I wanted to get a picture of them on Mother's Day.

The pictures only got better.....

After lunch, we continued on driving through the Boyne Valley.

We stopped to hike out to an ancient burial tomb.

But the rain was heading our way, so we decided to head back to the car and head home.

Celebrating Jimmy's birthday!  I made him Olive Garden's Chicken Scampi for dinner and a cinnamon chocolate cake.

I didn't have 37 candles to put on the cake, so I told them that they each had one that they could blow out.

We bought Jimmy a DVD player that plays Region 1 (USA) and Region 2 (Europe) DVDs.  Finding a movie that everyone could enjoy was a bit harder.  So I picked up Season 1 of the Dukes of Hazzard.  The kids love it!

One tired little girl who made sure her American Girl doll, Jenny was swaddled in her new blanket before falling asleep.

Not the best picture, but this is how light it is at 10:30 p.m. here.

I know this picture is out of focus, but one night while taking the trash out, the moon was orange and huge in the sky!

I finally found a setting on the camera that showed the moon non-blurry.

Kate and Luke willingly wanted to go outside and play in the rain.  I don't mind if they want to do that, its just that on this particular day there was a breeze and the temperature was in the mid 50s...too cold for me and turns out for them too.  They didn't stay out too long!

A mermaid and a knight helped me collect Jack from school one afternoon.

Some friends that we have made here in Rathcoffey are moving to Spain this summer.  They threw a party at their house this past Saturday.  They had hired a face painter for the kids.  Kate loved it!

And so did Luke!

European Vacation - Last Blog - Germany & France

Tuesday morning after we finished touring Aalsmeer, we drove east out of the Netherlands into Germany.  

Jimmy was pretty excited to drive on the Autobahn.  He got a big kick out of driving over 100 mph and watch cars come up on him and pass him like he was crawling.  However, now there are speed limit zones on the Autobahns when driving near a town/city with speed trap cameras.  So at times there were times he'd be driving really fast and then he'd have to slow down to literally a crawl!

Our first stop in Germany was in Cologne.  We went to the Cologne Cathedral after grabbing a quick bite to eat.

Construction on the present structure began in 1248.

This is one happy boy!

Jimmy found this cathedral neater than Notre Dame!

The Crucifix of Bishop Gero, 10th century, is the oldest known large crucifix.

"Mom, this is where a giant died."  This memorial to a bishop looks like a man lying inside the walls of a castle.

And he's at it again!

We are easily amused!

One of the many speed trains we saw on our vacation.

That evening we met up with my friend Conny and her family in Frankfurt.  Conny was a foreign exchange student who lived with my best friend Jennifer and her family during our junior year in high school.  After we graduated, Jennifer, our friend Kerrie, and I came to Germany to visit Conny and her family.  I hadn't seen her since 1995.

Conny and her husband Sasa (Sasha) took us out to dinner to the Frankfurter Haus, where traditional German food is served.  There they treated us to schnitzel, apple wine and Hent cheese "with music", a soft mild cheese in olive oil with lots of chopped white onions on top.  You eat it on top of buttered bread.  A while after you eat it, you "make music" thanks to all of the chopped onions!

Wednesday morning while Conny and her family went to work, we headed about an hour south of Frankfurt to Heidelberg.  There was a large grass area near the castle and Jack instantly became a football player!

And he scores the winning touchdown!  I love the look on his face :)

The Elizabeth Gate - built for Elizabeth Stuart (the English king's daughter) who married Frederick V.

The world's largest wine barrel which holds over 220,000 liters (58,000 gallons).

After we toured Heidelberg Castle, we took a tram down the hill into the old part of town and ate lunch.

We wore these babies out again!

After leaving Heidelberg we headed back up to Frankfurt.  There we went to Conny & Sasa's house.  After Sasa got home from work and collected the kids from Kindergarten, he and Conny took us on a tour (via our cars) of the highlights of Frankfurt.

Eschenheimer Turm was a city-gate during medival times.

Conny and her two children Vincent and Marina

After driving around Frankfurt, we went back to their house and ate spaghetti.  It was a dish I had remembered her dad making and loving it!  And hers was just as good!

We said goodbye to Conny and her family Wednesday evening.  Thursday morning we headed east of Frankfurt to Rothenburg.  

We visited a Christmas museum.

We spent the day wandering around the town, eating lunch and doing a little shopping.

Rothenberg's medival wall is still all entact around the old town.

climbing up to walk part of the wall

When we were finished at Rothenberg, we headed south to Munich.  

We spent Friday in Munich's city center. 

We watched the cuckoo clock on the square. 

The view of the square from the top of the town hall (above the cuckoo clock).

For lunch we ate at the famous Hofbrauhaus.

Among many things, Germany is known for its beer and pretzels.  That glass is 1 liter.  Yes, he drank it all....and it was pretty easy to convince him to go shopping after lunch :)

Jimmy gets this look quite often.  I was happy to have captured it on camera!

One of the things we did in Munich was walk around a farmers market.

We even found ristras! 

Later that afternoon, the kids were hungry so we looked for a place where we could eat outside.  We ended up back at the Hofbrauhaus.

We found a table upstairs in the beer garden.

After the kids ate their hotdogs, we left to find Jimmy a brat with sauerkraut.  Blah!

Saturday morning we left Munich and drove southwest to the Germany/Austria border to visit Neuschwanstein Castle.  This drive was beautiful.  In fact Germany was probably our favorite country to drive through.  It was very hilly and the hills were either covered in agriculture or forests.

In Germany I noticed that people had decorated bushes or small trees with Easter eggs.  I don't know why they do, but I thought it was pretty neat!

looking down on a waterfall not far from the castle

looking toward the Bavarian Alps from the castle

Jimmy took this picture from the castle of the bridge we walked across over the waterfall.

After we left the castle, we started heading west.  But when we exited off the motorway, we went the wrong way (we did that frequently.....).  But this time we found ourselves driving into Austria!  And with a quick look at our map, we found a short road that drove through the Bavarian Alps and eventually met up with the road we meant to get on in the first place!

We drove through a lot of tunnels on our trip, which our kids loved!

Austria is definitely at the top of our "want to see" list now!

When we got back into Germany, we headed west/northwest towards France.  When we came close to France we exited off the autobahn, but not before Jimmy said, "watch this".  That usually meant that a car was coming up on us really fast.  This time it was a silver Porsche.  But just before it got to us it had to slow down because someone had pulled out into its lane.  When the other car pulled in behind us (keep in mind Jimmy's going 120-125 mph), the Porsche downshifts and within seconds he's GONE!  Jimmy LOVED it!  We then exited off and took a drive through the Black Forest before driving into France.

We stayed the night in Metz, France which is about 3 hours east of Paris.

rapeseed - France and Germany were covered with these fields.  They were bright yellow and beautiful! 

Luke noticed nearly everyone of these signs on the road.

And of course since we were back in France, that meant more toll roads!  For our drive through eastern France we spent 48 Euros ($64)..........

We made it back to the airport in Paris with plenty of time to return the rental car, check in our suitcases and grab a bite of lunch.  The kids even found something to play on for a little bit.

Our flight back to Dublin was just under 2 hours, which was fine with them because they got to play their LeapPads the entire time :)

We had an absolute blast on our vacation!  We had really good weather and were glad we choose to rent a car so we could see the countryside. 

We put 3900 kilometers (2,423 miles) on the car and took 1,000 pictures.  Our kids were EXCELLENT and really enjoyed the trip as well.  Although we were tired of living out of a suitcase, we were sad to see our vacation come to an end.  So now we plan to explore Ireland a little bit more while making plans for another trip!  :)