Off the road again...Like a band of gypsies we go down the train tracks

After 2 ½ years, 24,411 miles, 13 countries and billions of memories we said goodbye to our little red Fiesta.

Owning a car in London is difficult.  Even if you have a place to park, which luckily we do, it’s expensive to drive and given the chaos of the city of London itself you’d be crazy to try to drive through the city (which, by the way, we’ve done).

So, we’re now pedestrians.  Bus pass anyone?

Christmas Unwrapped!

Ireland wasn’t originally in our Christmas plans but as Amanda will post in a few weeks our decision to end the lease on our car caused us to adjust our holiday plans a bit. So rather than Ireland over St Patrick’s Day, it got moved a few months earlier in the calendar. Despite the rough start crossing the Irish Sea and a number closures due to the Christmas holidays (Waterford Crystal factory, Bushmills Whiskey Distillery and Trinity College Dublin where the Book of Kells is kept) we still had an amazing time. It was also a great place to celebrate our 9 year anniversary!

Grandma Theresa had been telling us how wonderful Ireland is since we discovered that we would be moving abroad in early 2011 but we’d never managed to make the trip actually happen until now. Thankfully, we were able to extend our stay here and spend enough time in Ireland to see all four coasts and most everything in-between. It really is a beautiful country and the people truly are remarkably chatty and inquisitive. 

To close out our series of Christmas posts here are a few bonus pictures that we couldn’t quite fit in our previous adventures but were some of our favorites regardless.

A rainbow in Ireland on Christmas day! Lucky much?

Looking out over Cashel.

I'm not the only one who makes crazy faces!

Looking back inland from the Coastal Road in Northern Ireland.

The darker the color the older the Whiskey. Also check out how much has evaporated out of the darkest barrel.

Need a chimney sweep?

Discount scaffolding! Apparently UK Health & Safety doesn't extend to Dublin.

Okay, perhaps I make a few more funny faces than Amanda.

Umm, Stick!

Relaxing by the fire. Such a beautiful smile!

The Spire, Dublin.

It's New Years Eve, it's Dublin, what could possibly go wrong?

So New Years Eve in Dublin, because well, Dublin. After a remarkably eclectic day of touring we freshened up at the hotel and then went straight back out to witness Irish Culture at the turn of the calendar. Based on this picture alone it’s probably safe to imagine that they did not disappoint.

Mind you this was one pub on a narrow street that featured about twenty similar establishments in less than a mile, and each of them had a similar stash waiting for the evening’s frivolities to begin.

We started our evening out in search of dinner at around 6:30 believing that would be just early enough for restaurants to still be accepting walk-ins and not be turning patrons away who didn’t have reservations. Of the first two places we tried one was still accepting walk-ins but had a 45 minute wait while the other was reservation only for the evening. Our third attempt was a little Italian spot right on the River Liffey in the western end of the Temple Bar area. We walked in and were seated straight away at the last remaining table. Shortly after ordering our drinks the host started turning other walk-ins away. Apparently the Luck of the Irish would be with us!

Dinner was excellent and we took our time enjoying it as most of the festivities didn’t actually kick off until around 10:30 or 11:00. Most of the time Amanda and I can work our way through a three course meal in around 45 minutes to an hour, depending of course on how good the service is. This night we decided to see of we could make it to an hour and half in order to spend as little time in the near freezing temperatures as possible. We ended up making it one hour and thirty five minutes. Go us!

Our next stop of the evening was a concert less than half a mile away that we didn't have tickets to but were able to walk through the grounds on our way to dinner. Unfortunately our gate crashing of the Dublin New Years Eve Concert didn't go exactly to plan and since all tickets had to be purchased more than a month in advanced we weren't able to warm up with a few cups of hot chocolate that were being served from one of the street vendors. Alas, our luck was beginning to wane!

All was not yet lost though as Amanda was more interested in the Parade of Lights than the actual concert anyway so we made our way to the parade route and watched floats, street entertainers and even a high school marching band stroll by. Of course, when we first saw heard the marching band I gave Amanda a quizzical look and asked if Ireland actually had High Schools because they certainly are not common in the UK. She shrugged her shoulders and we both waited for the band to appear. Low and behold it was indeed an actual High School Marching band, only not from anywhere in Ireland but from Mequon, Wisconsin.

As the parade drew to a close we spent the rest of the night trying to elbow our way into various pubs for a pint of Guinness and a glass of wine. Again, luck was definitely not on our side, as just getting to the bar was an exercise in futility and neither of us ever managed to come away with a drink before our patience wore thin and we simply moved on to the next spot down the street. Eventually we’d had enough of the jostling and confined quarters that made up the pub scene and made our way back to the area where the concert was taking place. We rang in the New Year surrounded by several thousand complete strangers and without a drink to hand, but we were together and we were awake which for us is a victory in and of itself. 

We finally made it back to the hotel room in the wee early hours of January 1^st and marked the new year along with our anniversary with a glass of wine out of red plastic cups and a few pieces of chocolate candy. Not the New Year’s toast we’d set out for, but at that point at least we were warm and had something to make us a little warmer.

The next day we began a self guided walking tour of the city but were really more interested in seeing what kind of shape everyone was in after a night of hard partying. Rather to our amazement Dublin fared really well throughout the night with only the requisite few empty bottles scattered down some of the side streets and a broken window or two evidence that something other than a normal weeknight had come to pass. 

Half way through the walking tour we made a side trip to the National Museum of Ireland, because who doesn’t love a good Museum on New Year’s Day, and yes it was actually opened. I even took a picture of the replica Viking Sailing Ship which was on display. It was unfortunately just about the only thing we were allowed to photograph in the Museum. 

After a few hours taking in the exhibits on Medieval Ireland, Viking Ireland and Ancient Egypt we finished off our walking tour and returned to the hotel utterly exhausted and just about ready to make the journey back to the UK the following day.

Luck of the Irish!

We were pretty certain that our 10 days in Ireland were going to be the tail of two halves; starting in the calm cottage set on the lovely farm then ending in the slightly louder bustling city of Dublin for New Year’s Eve.

We were warned that Dublin is one of the most expensive European capitals.  (How could things get more expensive than London?! we thought.  But it did!)  We opted for a mix of a couple free museums, a distillery so Adam could watch me make faces at the awful tasting beverages, and a great walking tour of the city.  We also had to celebrate New Year’s Eve and our 9^th anniversary while we were there.

Speaking of anniversaries.  Next time you book a hotel for your anniversary, double check the fine print to make sure you don’t accidentally book twin beds.

We started our day at St Patrick’s Cathedral.  The first church on this sight was built where St. Patrick baptized local pagans.  Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels) was the dean of the Cathedral for 32 years in the 18^th century.  Surprising to us was the realisation that the church is an Anglican Cathedral rather than a Catholic one.  In fact Dublin does not have a Catholic Cathedral at all in the city!

From there, we warmed up our livers by visiting the Old Jameson Distillery.

I don’t like whiskey. Adam does.  I’ve now tried Bourbon, Scotch & Irish whiskeys.  It’s all awful.  But the buildings they’re made in are beautiful.

Mom - Barkley Creek dining room?

Walking through the city, we then happened upon the most Irish Museum ever.

Though very low tech & extremely cheesy, the museum was definitely geared to the 10-year-old or the thirty-somethings who think they’re 10-year-olds.

Before the New Year’s activities kicked off, we were able to contemplate the day with the Archbishop of Dublin.