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jemck at 11:12am on 14/08/2007
jemck at 11:12am on 14/08/2007Well, there are this summer, what with the warm and wet conditions. We're just back from a fortnight's holiday in Ireland. so that's been Tayto crisps and Club Orange to drink and Brennan's family pan bread in its waxed paper wrapper. Because there's no point going somewhere new and just having the same things as home, not as far as my sons are concerned anyway.
We spent the first week with family in County Laios, relaxing, reading and going to the cinema to see firstly the new Harry Potter movie, Order of the Phoenix (enjoyable, sound job made of adapting a most unwieldy book in movie terms) and then The Simpson's Movie (hilarious and most enjoyable, not something I was necessarily expecting since I've become increasingly tired of the endless repeats on the telly).
Then we went to County Clare for a week in a holiday cottage just near Milltown Malbay. Comfortable, newly fitted out, everything you need for a family of four - if anyone wants details slide over to my website and email me. The owners farm just up the road and are friendly and welcoming, as are their dogs. Which aren't, as the sons initially speculated, some rare breed of western Irish cattle dog. But the product of a local corgi getting friendly with a visiting English border collie. So, corgi shaped with collie head and coat!
We had one hot and sunny day which we spent on the beach at Lehinch. When it was damp and blustery we went sight-seeing. A particularly interesting place is the flying boat museum at Foynes, where the first transatlantic passenger air service was based. When the price of a single flight equated to more than a return by Concorde! And took twelve to fourteen hours, depending on winds, always assuming you weren't forced to turn back.
There's dramatic scenery to be had in all directions. The Burren is really remarkable; great expanses of bare limestone riven with cracks and splits where all manner of plants are thriving. And in one place where we paused to walk and take photographs, a small herd of donkeys were browsing as they picked their way over the rocks. Mind you, dry stone walls you can see through strike those of us used to the Cotswolds as very odd.
Then there's the coast; precipitous, rocky and storm-lashed all around Loop Head which is still very remote and un-touristed. The heights are even more precipitous at the Cliffs of Moher but that now has the full Visitor Experience going on. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing given it means loos and car-parking, and the paths and platforms do make for good views and a solid stone barrier between you and the two hundred foot drop into the Atlantic which I personally appreciated. But there were more tourists to the square foot than anywhere I've ever been in Ireland, including Trinity College Dublin and The Rock of Cashel. And girls sitting playing their harps and singing 'Oh Danny Boy' and 'Molly Malone', to the vocal appreciation of hordes of American tourists. Ah well, if it brings some cash into the local economy, that's got to be a good thing.
Very rural, County Clare. Even for Ireland. And is has to be said, appallingly badly signposted. Even with the detailed Ordnance Survey mapbook we got lost several times. A map's less useful when you cannot actually tell side roads from farm tracks from someone's driveway. And it's very hard to identify the main route at a junction with no signs or road markings. A project the local council could usefully undertake. I mean, they do put up signs and mark the roads, notably at the hairpin bends, blind summits and narrow bridges with which the county is liberally supplied. Where SLOW on the road was in some cases followed up twenty five yards later with SLOWER or VERY SLOW. We didn't come across LOOK, WE MEAN IT, REALLY SLOW! but it wouldn't have surprised me.
Then there are castles, mostly variations on tower houses ranging from the remote and ruinous to those adapted for gracious eighteenth century living like Knappogue. And as in Ennis, interesting local museums quickly running through everything from stone age axes and iron age bog butter through Tudor settlement, Georgian elegance and kicking the English out in the 1920s. Ennis also has a ruined friary, as does Quin which is actually one of the least ruinous I've visited. We did see a marked difference in the post-dissolution treatment of religous houses compared to, say, those in Yorkshire. Where you can tell you're coming up on an abbey site as the farm walls are increasingly made of good, dressed stone. In Ireland, the last friar resident at Quin died in 1820 at the age of 80.
And then it was back home via on overnight stop in Laois and the ferry to Fishguard. Yesterday was sorting post and email and laundry and a couple of time-critical tasks scheduled before I went away. Today is going into town for domestic administrative stuff. Hopefully I can get back to real work tomorrow!
We spent the first week with family in County Laios, relaxing, reading and going to the cinema to see firstly the new Harry Potter movie, Order of the Phoenix (enjoyable, sound job made of adapting a most unwieldy book in movie terms) and then The Simpson's Movie (hilarious and most enjoyable, not something I was necessarily expecting since I've become increasingly tired of the endless repeats on the telly).
Then we went to County Clare for a week in a holiday cottage just near Milltown Malbay. Comfortable, newly fitted out, everything you need for a family of four - if anyone wants details slide over to my website and email me. The owners farm just up the road and are friendly and welcoming, as are their dogs. Which aren't, as the sons initially speculated, some rare breed of western Irish cattle dog. But the product of a local corgi getting friendly with a visiting English border collie. So, corgi shaped with collie head and coat!
We had one hot and sunny day which we spent on the beach at Lehinch. When it was damp and blustery we went sight-seeing. A particularly interesting place is the flying boat museum at Foynes, where the first transatlantic passenger air service was based. When the price of a single flight equated to more than a return by Concorde! And took twelve to fourteen hours, depending on winds, always assuming you weren't forced to turn back.
There's dramatic scenery to be had in all directions. The Burren is really remarkable; great expanses of bare limestone riven with cracks and splits where all manner of plants are thriving. And in one place where we paused to walk and take photographs, a small herd of donkeys were browsing as they picked their way over the rocks. Mind you, dry stone walls you can see through strike those of us used to the Cotswolds as very odd.
Then there's the coast; precipitous, rocky and storm-lashed all around Loop Head which is still very remote and un-touristed. The heights are even more precipitous at the Cliffs of Moher but that now has the full Visitor Experience going on. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing given it means loos and car-parking, and the paths and platforms do make for good views and a solid stone barrier between you and the two hundred foot drop into the Atlantic which I personally appreciated. But there were more tourists to the square foot than anywhere I've ever been in Ireland, including Trinity College Dublin and The Rock of Cashel. And girls sitting playing their harps and singing 'Oh Danny Boy' and 'Molly Malone', to the vocal appreciation of hordes of American tourists. Ah well, if it brings some cash into the local economy, that's got to be a good thing.
Very rural, County Clare. Even for Ireland. And is has to be said, appallingly badly signposted. Even with the detailed Ordnance Survey mapbook we got lost several times. A map's less useful when you cannot actually tell side roads from farm tracks from someone's driveway. And it's very hard to identify the main route at a junction with no signs or road markings. A project the local council could usefully undertake. I mean, they do put up signs and mark the roads, notably at the hairpin bends, blind summits and narrow bridges with which the county is liberally supplied. Where SLOW on the road was in some cases followed up twenty five yards later with SLOWER or VERY SLOW. We didn't come across LOOK, WE MEAN IT, REALLY SLOW! but it wouldn't have surprised me.
Then there are castles, mostly variations on tower houses ranging from the remote and ruinous to those adapted for gracious eighteenth century living like Knappogue. And as in Ennis, interesting local museums quickly running through everything from stone age axes and iron age bog butter through Tudor settlement, Georgian elegance and kicking the English out in the 1920s. Ennis also has a ruined friary, as does Quin which is actually one of the least ruinous I've visited. We did see a marked difference in the post-dissolution treatment of religous houses compared to, say, those in Yorkshire. Where you can tell you're coming up on an abbey site as the farm walls are increasingly made of good, dressed stone. In Ireland, the last friar resident at Quin died in 1820 at the age of 80.
And then it was back home via on overnight stop in Laois and the ferry to Fishguard. Yesterday was sorting post and email and laundry and a couple of time-critical tasks scheduled before I went away. Today is going into town for domestic administrative stuff. Hopefully I can get back to real work tomorrow!