DRIVING AROUND IRELAND - WEEK ONE

MONDAY – We successfully navigated our way out of Dublin and drove to Glendalough through the Wicklow Mountains. It was a great drive into the country. As we drove out of Dublin there was a mist rising from the river which was really pretty. ‘Suppose it was like we call a sea mist. Glendalough is the site of St Kevin’s monastery which was founded after good old Kevin (a monk) went there around 498 AD to live as a hermit but soon other monks came to join him beside the two lakes in the mountains and a monastery was founded known as St Kevin’s. The walk around the ruins was interesting and the lake walks lovely. The day was really hot and we both got very sunburnt. Ian lost his hat in Dublin and I didn’t bring one. We had lunch in the restaurant at the site and both felt we had over eaten. The meals are huge and there certainly isn’t a potato shortage these days. We then drove south down through Wexford and bypassed Waterford to get to Cahir where we had booked into a B& B for the next few nights.


TUESDAY – Set off this morning to Rock of Cashell. Another monastery site sitting on top of a granite hill. Found our way easily and did the guided tour here which was extremely interesting. St Patrick baptized one of the Ancient Irish Kings here in 450AD. The site was originally a fortress built by King Connor in the early 5th century and later owned by Brian Buro (O’Brien Clan). Guess it was another battle for power – nothing has really changed has it. WE lunched in another Pub in Cashell before heading to Kilkerry. This is not our favorite place. No names on the little streets which were hard to navigate and no direction signs to places. We eventually found the Castle, parked the car and walked up the million steps but were happy to just walk around in the garden and look around. These places were all built near streams or rivers and the surrounding areas are pretty. We found our way out of Kilkenny and then drove through some great little villages back to Cahir stopping occasionally to look at various things. Had a walk around Cahir after a snack for dinner – another Castle here and we wandered around the park like grounds there.

WEDNESDAY – Neither of us felt inclined to go charging off to another city this morning so we drove up into the Knockmealdown mountains (over probably 20ks away) and found a lovely little stream that was hard to leave. It was so peaceful. Leave we did, and drove into Lismore just down the road, another b***** castle by a river. We then drove back towards the coast and into Waterford. After parking the car in a carpark we walked down to the harbor, found an Irish Pub and had some lunch before walking around the city. We managed to fill in the afternoon and drove back to Cahir along yet some other country roads.

THURSDAY - Driving towards Dungarvan this morning, saw a sign pointing to a waterfall so decided to take the little lane and have a look, both of us just laughed at the trickle of water falling down the mountainside. Bit different to the falls we saw in Iceland.  After a cup of tea in the car park decided to go to Youghal which was a very old port town with a nice harbour.  Had lunch here then on to Blarney Castle.  No, I didn't kiss the Blarney stone even though Ian tried to convince me that the attendant wipes it with antiseptic after each kiss. The gardens and parklands were lovely though. 
 
FRIDAY - Packed up and left the B&B at Cahir, it was starting to feel like home.  Had a quick look at an old thatched roof cottage before driving on towards Coachford where we had lunch in a pub owned by a Jim and Mary Cronin.  They were great and had a long chat to them both.  Mary would have taken me off for a game of golf if we had had the time.  We stopped at the Drombeg Stone Circle not far from Skibbereeh which is where the Potato Famine really hit the inhabitants at the time.  I went through the Heritage Museum whilst Ian went off to see a railway bridge and was devastated to discover it was a very ordinary looking iron bridge that now serves as extra space for customers of the nearby pub to sit on.  We then drove on to Glengarriff where we booked into a B&B for the night.

SATURDAY - Today was spent on the Beara Peninsular.  Everyone had recommended this as the best Peninsular to visit.  It was not what we expected however very interesting.  A very rugged area with huge mountain ranges like a spine up the centre.  It is often hard to see a lot as the hedges are quite high.  We drove up to Healy's Lake.  This was an incredible drive up the mountain on a very narrow road however the view once up there was fantastic.  The lake was lovely.  It has been very overcast all day so hard to take photos as the clouds created so much shadow.  We drove to Dursey Point which has a cable car to go across to Dursey Point however it was not running till later in the day so gave that a miss and started up the other side of the Peninsular.  The houses in the little villages are all painted in fantastic bright colours and they really stand out against the grey rocky covered mountains.  We are now on the Dingle Peninsular which, from what we have seen so far, is just as we imaged Ireland would look like.  Lovely rolling green hills running down to the water.  Although it was very overcast and rained tonight they still looked fantastic. 

DUBLIN

THURSDAY 17TH - It was a long day as predicted.  The flight from Iceland to Paris was three hours, we then had a 9 hour wait in Paris and filled in the time around the airport eating, reading, wandering around the shops and more eating and coffee drinking, then a one and half hour flight to Dublin arriving at the B&B at 11.00pm.  We were happy to see a bed in the room.  Both felt like we were getting too old for this carry-on.  The taxi driver that picked us up at the airport had great affection for Australia.  He was there for three and a half years, met his wife there (English) and was finally deported for overstaying his welcome but obviously enjoyed his stay.


FRIDAY - We said we would go to breakfast at 8.30 so I dragged myself out of bed and pulled on some clothes and joined Ian who was up, showered and ready to go.  New country, Ian was ready to explore.  Off he went whilst I went back to bed for a bit more sleep.  In the afternoon we went into the City.  What a buzzing place Dublin is.  The number of people was a bit overwhelming after quiet Iceland.  Ian went off and found a car rental place whilst I went to the Touring info place.  We will pick a car up on Monday.  Trinity College was the easiest place to walk to so off we went, did a tour with one of the students (who looked like Tom Cruise but a much nicer person) then went and looked at the Book of Kells and other ancient manuscripts then went to the Long Room which houses a copy of every book published in the UK with an ISBN.  Just amazing number of books.  Unfortunately no photos here so can't share this with you. We then walked back and looked around the CBD, checking out the bullet holes at the GPO - the result of the 1916 Rising and generally got our bearings.  We caught the bus back to the Clontarf Village, near where we are staying and had dinner in a restaurant and walked back to our B&B.  There is a TV in the room so Ian has been watching the World Cup whenever he can. 

SATURDAY - I purchased tickets for the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus which is the first time we have ever done this however the places of interest seem to be so far apart so we hopped on at stop number one and listened to the commentary till we reached the Kilmainham Jail.  We did the guided tour here and found it very moving.  Many of the Easter Monday (1916) leaders were interned here until they were executed by firing squad in May of that year.  The conditions in the jail were just horrible as they always are and 4,000 prisoners were sent to Tasmania on the Success as convicts in the late 18th Century.  At one stage there were 9,000 in the jail which was built to house about 500.  Many Irish tried to get into jail during the potato famine just to get some food.  How sad is that.  By the time we did the rounds on the bus again we decided it was really too late to do any other 'sights' so filled in some time around the city centre and then had an early dinner in town before catching the bus back to Clontarf.

SUNDAY - We have been much more into the sight seeing today.  We used the Hop On again and went out to Merrion Square which has been closed off for the weekend because the Bloomsday celebrations have continued since Thursday.  A great carnival atmosphere, as only the Irish can do.  They just get into it.  We then walked through St. Stephen's Green and around to Christ Cathedral but there was something happening there today so couldn't go in.  I then spent a couple of hours at Dublina - a museum that tells the history of the Viking and Medieval Ireland.  Ian, in the meantime found a paper and sat in the sun and read that.  After lunch we went to the Dublin Castle, looked around here and then walked back through Temple Bar, the drinking, eating part of Dublin.  Pubs almost outdo restaurants two to one I think.  We walked back to the bus stop and caught the bus home.   Today is Father's Day in Ireland and all the nearby restaurants were full tonight so we settled for a pie overlooking the harbour which was just lovely.  A few more light meals like this certainly want hurt us.  There weather has been lovely, always a keen little breeze however out of that the sun is just lovely. 

LAST DAYS

Sunday-Well the sun did shine last night however the light was not as magic as the night before.  We were deeper into the Fjord and there went behind the mountain before it reached the water level and there was cloud.  Today we went to Akureyri - this was to be the place to play golf however it was very overcast and cool so we went up to the golf course, had a look and I decided it really wasn't worth probably the equivalent of $150 to play when a game at Emerald would be just as exciting for a lot less money.  The pro shop wasn't very encouraging either.  Ian and I both left feeling pretty disappointed as this is where the Artic Open is played in a couple of weeks.  We visited a Santa shop then had lunch in a nice resturant.  By this time it was drizzling with rain and getting colder so decided to call it a day and go back to the hotel which was out in the countryside.  The setting was lovely.  A very responsible 18 year old was managing it for his parents whilst they were away on holidays in Italy.  I think he will be glad when they get back though.  There was a lot of washing after two coach loads of people from last night.  The rain did stop and the cloud cleared a little and I took a few more night shots.

Monday - We decided to divert from the program and drive north again however when we got to where the map showed a tunnel going through the mountain from Olafsfjordur to Siglufjorour was not finished we gave the 80 odd kilometres of dirt road a miss and back tracked and drove around the bottom of this huge mountain range which was a lovely drive any way.  After lunch we were driving along and saw a huge mob of Icelandic horses being mustered so stopped and watched.  They really are beautiful animals, small but with this great flowing mane and tail which seems to fly when they are moving around.  The last port of call tonight was to Kolugil canyon with yet another enormous waterfall and then the long canyon with water gushing down.  We still had a long drive to our hotel at Laugar for the night and were very glad to arrive there as the rain was really coming down again.

Tuesday - The drive back to Reykjavik wasn't all that far we drove down to Borgarnes where we had lunch and then north to Eldborg Crater then around the Hvalfjorour Fjord and on to Reykjavik  This Fjord was a very large base for allied warships during the WW 11.  We arrived in Reykjavik about 4.00 in plenty of time to return the car after giving it a badly needed wash.  Ian is always relieved to hand the cars back in good condition when we rent them.

Wednesday - I went off this morning on a small boat to the outer harbour to go Puffin Watching.  What funny little creatures they are.  There are about 5,000 pairs on the little island we went out to and it was great watching them flying around and diving into the water.  They are very heavy birds and have trouble propelling themselves up out of the water to fly off.  Ian met me at the wharf and we walked up around the CBD, had some lunch, warm soup, it was wet again today.  Then visited the Art Gallery before walking back to the hotel and packing up.  We have an early start in the morning.  Wake up call at 4.00am to go to the airport for a flight back to Paris and then to Dublin later in the day.  It will be a long day.

Thoughts about Iceland.  An interesting place.  The landscape is very different.  Mostly mountainous with some valleys in between.  Colours are very black and white - there is snow on most mountains still - frozen glaciers, thermal geysirs and mud pools, water like we just dream of in Australia.  I've mentioned the big water falls but there are small waterfalls just everywhere tumbling down mountains into the rivers, streams and fjords.  The grass is a beautiful green and at present the dandilions are in flower along with the lupins so you get yellow and purple carpets in various places.  Plenty of bird life however no other wild animals.  Sheep, cattle and the horses are the main farming things.  Fishing is the big product. 

Across the top of Iceland

Saturday - We left Raufarhofn this morning and drove across the top of Iceland.  The most northerly point is not on the road however we could see the marker clearly so not too far from the tip.  The temperature went down to 4 yesterday and reached 9 however today it reached 19 degrees so great range in two days.  We then headed south and after checking that the road was open and okay went to two waterfalls.  The first, Hafargilsfoss, was pretty spectacular and the second, Dettifoss is said to be Europe's most powerful waterfall.  It was fantastic with huge sprays of water as it hit the bottom this created rainbows in the canyon. Very hard to get clear shots.  After leaving there we had a slow 30 k drive along a very rough gravel road before getting back on the sealed road again.  Our next port of call was at some geothermal area (similar to Rotorua) with thermal pools spitting sulphur mud with lots of steam vents and bubbling mud.  The surrounding area was very bare but interesting shapes in the surrounding hills.  It was 3.00 when we went into Reykjahlid where we found somewhere to buy a salad roll for lunch.  This was on the Myvatn Lake and we later drove around it and then went for a walk through a Lava Field with contored crags and pillars.  We stopped at some pseudo craters nearby (really just small craters above ground level and then on to another waterfall, Godafoss - this name was given to the falls because some chief became a christian in the year 1,000 and threw his pagan idols into the river so it is known as waterfall of the gods.  Whatever it was a really nice waterfall and a nice end to the day.  We are now at Porisstadir in a hotel overlooking a fjord.  There are two coach loads of Germans also staying here and enjoying their shooters and wine in the lounge with much giggling and frovolity. We don't dare mention the war.  It's

11.30 pm and we are waiting for the sun to go which must  happen soon.  Last night the colour was just magic about this time so hopefully it will be the same tonight. 

EAST, SOUTH , WEST THEN NORTH

Monday – After picking up the car we set off from Reykjavic east to the Pingvellir National Park. Already we are in some volcanic landscape. After walking up through a valley overlooking the park we had lunch and then set off to our first waterfall – the Oxavarfoss (foss means waterfall we’ve discovered). This was worth the walk – very pretty. It was sunny and when we got back to the car we wondered why we were carrying all those layers of warm clothes. Soon found the aircon and drove along in comfort. Our next stop was at Geysir – the first geysir was discovered here and the reason all geysirs are so named. The original one doesn’t erupt very often however one nearby ‘Strokkur’ is very active and goes off every 6 to 10 minutes so we spent a while here watching it. Probably not as spectacular as ‘Old Faithful’ in Yellowstone NP, US but certainly more prolific. Close by we walked down to the waterfalls of all waterfalls. The Golden Falls at Gullfoss – these were just fantastic. Absolutely huge and the power of the water coming over is just amazing. We climbed down the steps to the bottom and then back up again and walked around the rim – every angle was different but each beautiful. We drove on from here stopping at other places of interest. The sun disappeared behind cloud and we soon turned off the a/c. Our first night was at Leirubukki. A small community south east. We had dinner in the restaurant and were surprised to see so many women in the restaurant. We found out they were from the local area and met there once a month – one group were a bit like a View club the other group were made up of more professional women who have a lot of input into the local area. Sounded good to me.

Tuesday – After breakfast and hearing about the local Icelanic horses – these are in mobs in paddocks like we see cattle – we quickly moved into the real volcanic area and seemed to spend the day walking through fine black volcanic dust. It was a very overcast day and couldn’t see the top of any of the high mountains but could certainly see the devastation of the recent eruption of Eyjafjaklajoksell – Joksell means volcano, I think – it was really dark and cold around this area. Interesting though. More waterfalls – Seljalandsfoss – there were three in this same area and then Skogafoss – this one fell from a great height and Ian climbed up the steps to the top whilst I happily stayed down the bottom taking photos. We finally found the last sandwich at Skogar about three oclock. Any sort of shops are very infrequent and really no villages at all just farm communities. It is extremely isolated. Why would you want to live around volcanoes that could go off anytime anyway. This was really only a short driving day but we managed to take about 8 hours to travel 200 ks. There was just so much to stop and look at and once we got out of the real volcanic area we came into some very pretty mountainous country and onto the east coast.

Wednesday – Well if yesterday was volcanic today has been Glacier day. We only drove about an hour when we came upon the beautiful glacial part of Iceland. The ice is also dusted with black volcanic dust but they stand out so white and are just huge. We seemed to be driving towards them for miles and stopped to have morning tea outside Skaftafells National Park and from here we had a great overall view of the Skaftafellsjokull, Vatnajokull, and Svinafallsjokull glaciers. Once in the park we walked to the ‘snout’ or face of the Skaftafellsjokull across the various levels of vegetation that have grown as the glacier has retreated. The final kilometer is across the dry river bed which was very rocky and then the water where the glacial run off flows. After lunch back at the National Park Headquarters we decided to drive into the other Svinafallsjokull glacier which the Fromers book tells us the road ends just 500 metres from the face of the glacier which it did and it was fantastic to be able to walk up and look down onto the face. Unfortunately the road was very stoney (probably an old river bed) and we hit a rock which damaged the rim on a back wheel which meant a flat tyre. After repairing this and driving on with the spare which is only a temporary tyre we drove on a lot more cautiously sticking to the main roads. We stopped at Jokulsarlon where there is a glacial tidal lake with small icebergs float. This is just beautiful – it was like a fairy land with beautiful blue tinted blocks of ice in a variety of shapes floading along with the tide. Today has been a big driving day 460 ks. The rest of the drive to Eglisstadir has been around fjords – up one side and around the other with mountains on the other side. A fantastic road and just so pretty. (You guessed it jokull means glacier).

THURSDAY - The program gave us today as a free day which was great as it enabled us to have the rim and tyre repaired which didn't take long at all this morning.  We then went for a short drive up to the top of the mountain and back down the other side to a small village, Seydisfjorour, which was settled in the 1800s by Norwegians. It is now a place that a lot of artists and writers come to now and you can understand why, it is very pretty and a lot of little timber cottages sit around an small inner lake.  We had lunch at the local pub and a wander around before driving back to Eglisstadir where we are staying again tonight.

FRIDAY - We have now reached the far north eastern part of Iceland and are staying tonight at Raufarhofn another fishing village.  We are staying at the only pub in town which is run by a bit of a character who has spent the last 12 years planning an Artic Henge which is under very slow construction many due to lack of funds.  This is a sun dial similar to what Stonehenge once probably was.  The trip here was interesting.  Not a lot to stop and look at but the road took us on top of a very flat mountain and we were able to see 360 degrees for quite a while which is not something we have been able to do very often since leaving Reyjkavic.  There is still snow and ice all around on the highest parts of the mountains which in the main are black so you get this very black and white landscape.  We had lunch at a pub at Porshofn.  The Fromers recommended the clam chowder in this pub and we weren't disappointed beside the fact that it was freezing cold and some hot soup really helped warm us up.  Somewhere a long the way I needed to find a loo and we stopped at a village and I asked a young fellow where they were.  His comment was 'I'm not a native of here, just here for the summer but I think you will find some toilets at the camping area'.  I had trouble not laughing when he said he was here for the summer because it was 4 degrees according to the thermometer in the car. 

ICELAND-Days 1&2

Our hotel

Saturday/Sunday - Our departure from Paris and flight to Iceland was pretty uneventual.  The airport is about 50 ks. We caught the shuttle bus in to the hotel.  Our first impressions of Iceland were very much 'oh what have we done'.  The landscape was just dismal.  Very flat, volcanic rock with very little colour - just black - not much else. As we drove into the city it did improve although the suburbs are very lego land type housing - some painted in bright colours others continue this grey colour.  Our hotel is a walk away from the CBD.   

Ian walked into town this morning, I chose the bus option.  We managed to get our wires crossed as to where to meet.  Eventually we caught up with each other, had lunch and then walked around the centre of the city which the locals call 'down town' this is where the eat streets, museums etc are.  We went to the Art Gallery and saw a couple of interesting exhibitions.  Back to the hotel for a while and then the walk/bus fun all over again.   Ian walked - I bused however the bus didn't go where I expected and when I asked the driver (he couldn't speak english) a young fellow explained that I was on my way to the outer suburbs and it would be best if I went to the end of the line and caught another bus back to where I wanted to go.  This was about an hours fun and games and I have now seen lots of Reykjavic.  Ian was waiting and we went off and had some dinner in a local pub.  We are impressed with the food.  So far no half sheeps head, whale and horse meat, puffins.  The lamb I had last night was just fantastic.  It is chilly out and about but the rooms are so heated we are sitting around in very little.  Tomorrow the next lot of fun starts when we pick up the car and start our self drive tour around Iceland. 

Top photo: Houses in the centre of city

Centre: Some young lads who stopped and asked us where we were from and why we were visiting Iceland.  None of them knew where Australia was.  They start a 10 - 12 week school holiday next week.

Bottom photo:  Lunch time dancing in a square - much fun it seems. 

Fontainebleu Chateau

Feathers in the Caps ready for parade

Lunch from the markets

Ian shopping

Sunday – Had a quiet day around the Apartment. Ian went off and bought a paper in the morning, mainly to get the tennis results and I went to the Cyber Café later in the afternoon.


Monday - Made up for the quiet day yesterday. We caught the metro and then regional train to Chartres where there is a 12th Century Cathedral. This is a lovely old medieval village with nice gardens and very old buildings. We visited the Cathedral and walked around for a couple of hours. The Germans bombed part of the village and the old city wall in 1944. Somehow the Cathedral was left untouched. There was a memorial for the French Resistance in a square. We caught the train back to Paris (a two hour journey) and came back to the apartment to rug up before going out again. We walked up to the Louvre to have dinner at the food court however this was closing so found a nice Café nearby and had a delicious meal of braised lamb – lamb shanks cooked in a cast iron pot which was how it was served to us. After we finished we went off to take some shots of some big steel balls in the Garden of the Royal Palace. Whilst doing this the fun started. A lady came running through the area shouting something in French. I am generally oblivious to things when trying to set up a photo so didn’t really take much notice. By the time Ian worked out what she had said we were locked in the grounds surrounded by high iron fences. We tried every gate to get out but they were all locked. Luckily some fellow using the fence for an exercise wall noticed us and called ‘madam’ who came to our rescue and let us out again speaking sharply to us in French. Obviously she was not impressed with a couple of silly old tourists overstaying in the gardens. We visualized a very cold night in the gardens for a while. We were now on the wrong side of the Louvre and had to walk back to where we started. Thankfully that area isn’t locked up and we were able to take the photos of the huge Courtyard area of the Louvre lit up which is what we had planned. This area is amazing at night but it isn’t dark till after 10.00. After our previous escapade it was well and truly dark when we got there. We had a lovely walk home along the Seine which is also well lit and the Eiffel Tower has bright lights twinkly until 11.00 after that it is just lit up with normal lights. It was after mid-night when we arrived back to the apartment and both slept well. 

Five minutes from the Apartment

Tuesday – Much quieter day today. Ian went off for a walk to see a Chateau de Vincennes. I did the fun thing at the Post Office, we pay a different amount each time we post a card so goodness knows if mail will turn up in Australia before Christmas. After lunch I went off to Rue Saint Louis. We had walked up here last week an d I wanted to go back to really look at the shops. They are just wonderful. Lots of small boutiques.

Wednesday – We went off to Monet’s Garden at Giverny. This was a wonderful time to see it. The iris are out and there are simply hundreds of them in every imaginable colour. It was not as easy to see the bridge this time as all the trees are in full leaf and the wisteria is really overhanging. Enough to get a couple of photos though. We caught the train back to Paris. We are really impressed with the trains. They are so fast, clean and comfortable. After tea we went up to Sacre Coeur. This is the party place at night – we didn’t go for the party but to take some night shots. It was almost midnight again when we arrived home. 

Thursday – In the afternoon we went up to Luxemburg Gardens and walked along the fence outside looking at a photographic exhib. That was done over a ten year period by a husband and wife showing the lives of nomads. Very interesting. Last night we had a great dinner in a local restaurant nearby.

Hats on Display                                                    There's always somewhere to eat                

We say goodbye to Paris in the morning and fly to Iceland.  Bye for now.