Goodbye to Ireland. England and off to Sunny Spain

Today we are at Torquay on the English Riviera - it is raining.  And cold. 

 

We drove from Fishgard yesterday morning and arrived here at a campground which we have stayed in before at about 3pm.  The weather yesterday was very pleasant and the locals were quite delighted with it.  In fact the lady who runs the onsite bar set up a pergola outside to shelter her patrons from the sun - oh that fair English skin!  

 

We did a load of washing and settled in with an internet connection that cost £6 for 48 hours - ‘not bad’, I hear you say.  I got the laptop out and downloaded my email from the server and went to set up Kenny’s only to discover that I could only use the internet on one device for that 48 hours - ergo I am doing a long blog update and assorted other stuff.  WHY do they make it soooooo difficult?  Anyway I have downloaded lots of points of interest relevant to us in Portugal and Spain onto the GPS and am getting my money’s worth out of their bloody wi-fi connection.

 

It got cold again during the night and started to rain this morning.  Hasn’t stopped.  We planned to catch a bus into Torquay proper to see Joyce today, but the buses don’t run on Sunday and Monday is a bank holiday so the buses don’t run then either!!!  So much for worrying about all the holidaymakers being a pest.  So we decided to stay in a catch up on stuff today and we will leave here tomorrow and drive in to visit Joyce and pick up our mail.  We were trying to avoid driving in because the roads there are VERY narrow and the traffic heavy and the parking non-existent.  However we have managed before and will do so again.

 

After a catch up with Joyce we will hit the road towards Portsmouth, where we plan to catch the ferry to Santander (yes Paul, you were right, it is NOT San Sebastian) on Tuesday evening at 1715.  It will be an overnight crossing of the Bay of Biscay and we will arrive at Santander at 1815 on Wednesday evening.  Hope the wind and weather are fair as I have heard some horror stories of that crossing.

 

Hopefully, once I get this posted I will be able to get the book-keeping done to see how the money is going.  Then I will be able to rest on my laurels again for a while.

 

Looking forward to getting to Spain, where, hopefully the weather will start to improve.

Two old ruins

Wendy on the main street of the folk village at Bunratty Castle

Wendy and gypsy wagons at Bunratty Castle folk village

Inside the solar at Bunratty Castle

 

 

Notes from Tablet

 

·         As we drive along, I am using the Tablet to voice record some of our thoughts.  I am now putting these thoughts down on paper, so hope I don’t confuse anyone.  This year’s blog seems very uncoordinated to me and it goes quite against the grain, but I am learning to deal with that.

·         Driving from Galway to Ennis, we passed by and passed up the Cliffs of Moher - the landscape was rugged and rocky and we had heard the roads were awful and that we would have to walk miles along the top of the cliffs when we got there - points against it:

1.    Bad roads equal stress and we don’t do that to ourselves or the vehicle (henceforth known as Fiona)

2.    Walking (I don’t do that), and

3.    Walking along the top of cliffs (I don’t do that either).

4.    The weather was still cold and windy (we don’t fancy exposing ourselves to that either)!!

·         We noticed as we got closer to Ennis in Donegal, and past Enistimon, the type of rock has changed.  In Galway and all through in north all the stone fences (and that’s the only sort they have) are made from big irregular chunks of rock.  Further south the stone fences and stone gateways are made from slices of rock more like slate tiles.  Either way there is no shortage of rock of one sort or another in this country.  How they ever cleared enough of it to utilise the land for farming is hard to imagine.

Wendy outside St Munchins Church in Limerick

·    

King John's Castle in Limerick

Inside King John's Castle in Limerick

   

Kenny the Celtic warrior (note the beanie under the helmet)

  As we travelled east again, just through Clonmel in County Tipperary, we came around the corner and there were hundreds of large silos.  We could not imagine what could be stored in them in what did not appear to be a wheat growing area.  We soon saw the sign “Bulmers”, and realised that this was indeed at cider factory - the silos must have had millions of litres of apple juice in them - enormous.  That’s an awful lot of cider and the headaches that go with it.

·         In County Kilkenny we stopped for lunch in what we hoped would be a charming little village called Ballypatrick.  Very ordinary.  Expected charm and got 3 barns and a cowshed.  As soon as we left it we came across 3 or 4 charming villages we could have topped for lunch without even leaving the road.  This is standard for us.  As sure as we decide we need to stop and will stop at the next possible parking, we stop in some odd places.  When we start off again, we almost always find that we have stopped moments short of a gorgeous parking place, or MacDonalds, or whatever.  We get a laugh out of it every time.

·      I was looking forward to seeing Kilkenny because when wewere children my mother would say that my siblings and I would fight like Kilkenny cats - I was curious to see them - I never saw a cat the whole time we were there.  It makes me wonder what else my dear mother made up!!!.  All the poor starving children in India who would be grateful to have m y revolting Swedes to eat!!! 

Kenny having a Kilkenny at a pub in Kilkenny

·         Coming out of Kilkenny.  We could come back to this city because it is quite charming.  They make a good beer, and good music.  Lots of quaint old buildings, and winding lanes, lovely castle and nice people.  Cork ordinary and confusing.  Prefer Kilkenny and wouldn’t mind coming back there.  Had a great night in the pub with two different lots of Irish musicians keeping us greatly entertained.  Spent the evening chatting with Patti and Lee from Mobile, Alabama, USA.

·         Noticed throughout Ireland a lot very big, modern and new looking houses - nothing like the cottages we were expecting.  The bus driver when we did the Ring of Kerry told us that during the Celtic Tiger years housing prices went up 25% per year and banks were lending money at the bat of an eyelid.  Come 2008 the banks of course were in deep trouble and the government had to bail them out.  People are now in a lot of debt as current prices are 57% of Celtic Tiger days.  Bankruptcies are expected to be in their thousands within the near future and there are already many ‘ghost estates’ which were built with great enthusiasm in some quite questionable locations, and have been empty - never occupied - for years because no one has the money to buy them.

·         The hedgerows.  The first time we came to Ireland was about 20 years ago and we drove from Dublin to Belfast in a little hire car.  We could see nothing because the hedgerows.  In the van we are above the hedgerows and can see the panorama of the countryside.  It is lovely to be able to take in the whole feel of the place.  At the moment the furze or gorse is in bloom.  It is used in many places as hedgerows or ornamental plantations at intersections or along roadsides.  It has a vibrant yellow flower and reminds of the wattle at home in the spring.  Against the vivid green of the fields it makes a beautiful picture.  We have been unable to take a photo to do it justice.  Kenny keeps bemoaning the fact that it is a weed and it has taken untold years to control it - ‘and now they are just letting it go’!!!

A small patch of gorse

Wendy in the bogs of Ireland

·         Met an Irish lady who had been to Australia (one among many) - thought our roads were just WONDERFUL.  Kenny reckons she must have been amazed to see roads straight for 10 kilometres ‘cos here you would be lucky to see 10 kilometres of straight road in the whole country as all the roads are quite serpentine.  He reckons if the road is straight for more than 500 metres they land aeroplanes on it.  We had a big discussion with her on Irish roads and their shortcomings.  Overall though, the roads we have travelled on have been a darn sight better and fractionally wider than those we were on in Cornwall.

Wendy at Blarney Castle

·         We have found the units of distance quite confusing over here.  In the UK they are in miles, but buy their fuel by the litre and pay in metric pounds sterling.  In the Republic of Ireland one travels in kilometres and pays for fuel by the litre in euros, but many of the road signs are still in miles.  In Northern Ireland it is the same as the UK, except that the currency they use is Irish pounds, although they will accept pounds sterling or euros and give you change in Irish pounds - not sure who comes out of that deal better.

·      

Kenny kissing the Blarney Stone

   We are not quite with things on this trip.  We were on the ferry before we realised that it would be taking us to Fishgard in Wales, NOT Milford Haven in Wales as we thought.  Not a problem as it is only about 30 miles north of Milford Haven anyway.  Such a smooth crossing that I didn’t even realise that we had cast off until I looked out the window and saw nothing but water.  We arrived in Fishgard on schedule at 0015 (12.15am) and went straight to the long term car park where we propped and spent the rest of the night tucked up in our cosy bed.

That’s it for now, keep well till next time.