Le Mesnil Gilbert, Normandy, France

With Alan Smith we went on a road trip to France to visit his sister and her husband, Ann and Barry Burrell near the small village of Le Mesnil Gilbert in the Normandy region. This involved a short drive from Alan's house to the port of Newhaven, a four hour ferry crossing to Dieppe and then a three hour drive to Ann and Barry's.

Ann and Barry are retired and have done a wonderful job of restoring an old barn which is now their house. They lived in a small cottage on the same property while they worked on the barn. The barn was derelict when they purchased the property, having been badly burned by the retreating German army in 1944.

We spent a lot of time sitting around eating and drinking but found time for a couple of walks around the neighbourhood. There were not many leaves left on the trees but found lots of mistletoe growing up in the branches of some trees - the seeds having been put there by birds.

Some of the local farm houses had round extensions on the ends of them - these contained cooking ovens.

On the way to Le Mesnil Gilbert we stopped at the village of Yerville to sample some of the local foods and stock up on cheese and specialist meat products. There were quite a few traditional board and plaster farm houses in this region.

Crossing the Normandy Bridge.

Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland

Kilkenny was our final stop in Ireland so we could catch up with Rita and Sean that we had met in Chengdu, China.

Rita was glad to be out of the real estate industry with the current recession. Her mum had a jewelery shop and Rita has taken it over and is also working as a insurance assessor.

Sean is an archaeologist and is working in Limerick. He drove through to spend the evening with us so it was great to catch up. He had to leave early to drive one and a half hours back for work. He has move to where the digs are so living away from home is a hazard of the job.

Kilkenny Castle in the middle of the town sits beside the River Nore. We did a tour of the castle but quite a lot of it was closed for renovation and restoration. The first structure here was built of wood in 1172 and was burnt down. The stone castle was built in 1192. There is not much original furniture in the castle but a few pieces that were sold at auction have been lent by the present owners for displaying.

The city now owns the castle and they have reproduced some of the original yellow shiny silk 'wallpaper'. It was used in the dark drawing room and the shiny bright colour helped reflect the light from the lamps. They have also managed to get original designs from the Axminster carpet factory to reproduce the carpets that were in use by the Butler family when they owned the castle.

Rita had some time off so we went for a drive to nearby villages of Graignamanagh, Inistioge and Thomastown. All very scenic and a target for movie makers. Nice coffee shops as well.









Inistioge.

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

While in China we met Deirdre and Derek, affectionately know by us as D and D. We later found we were on the same Trans Siberian train trip. We swapped addresses and they invited us to visit them in Dublin.

We had a great reunion and did some sightseeing together. The most important stop in Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse where the stout is made. It was a great place to visit as there was a storm raging outside.

We awoke to find Sunday a sunny morning so headed for Glendalough, a monastic settlement about an hour's drive from Dublin. The weather held up long enough for us to walk around the forest and visit the monastery.

In AD 498 a young monk called Kevin arrived here to meditate. He set up house in a Bronze Age tomb site and for 7 years slept on stones, wore animal skins, maintained a near starvation diet and made friends with the birds and animals. People then flocked to the place. The Viking raiders sacked the monastery at least four times between 775 and 1071. The English forces in 1389 almost completely destroyed it. The monastery finally died in the late 17th century.


Today the park is a popular place to walk and take the family dogs. It was quite busy for a cold day and is teeming in summer with visitors.

While D and D worked we cooked meals and even had a meal of NZ green-lipped mussels. In the day we caught up with laundry, emails and the blog. We headed into Dublin city and found the places we wanted to visit closed on a Monday but managed to get to Trinity College where hordes of graduands were waiting for their families.

We strolled around Dublin Castle and walked down Sniper Way (O'Connell Street).

Ring of Kerry, Republic of Ireland

The Ring of Kerry is a coastal route circling the Inveragh Peninsula. The roads are pretty narrow and it would be a nightmare fighting with tourist buses on some of the bends. Being off season we and the locals had the roads to ourselves. It was not as interesting for us as some of the other coastal routes we have visited but in sunny weather it would have looked much better.



At times the coast was very rough and and other times the sun peeped out and the winds calmed down.


Many of the coastal villages like to paint their houses different colours.


This is the building belonging to the Royal Irish Constabulary. Legend has it that, when it was rebuilt after a fire, the plans got mixed up with those intended for barracks in India.


After the Ring of Kerry we continued along the coast from Skibbereen to Clonakilty. Here we took a side trip to the Drombeg Stone Circle site. It has 17 upright standing stones and a cremated teenager's remains were discovered during excavations in 1960. The circle dates from about 5th century AD being an Iron Age update of an earlier Bronze Age monument. Beside the circle are remains of a hut with this Iron Age cooking pit. A stream ran through the cooking pit and a fire was built beside it. Rocks were placed on the fire and when they were hot they were lifted into the water-filled pit and the hot water was used to cook hunks of meat. Some experiments found that the water boiled and kept hot for nearly three hours.



A street scene in Kinsale.


We had a long break at Yougal (pronounced Yawl) where we saw the Clock Gate which was built in 1777 and served as a clock tower and jail: some prisoners taken in the 1798 Rising were hung from the windows.



There were several interesting things on the town's historic walk including St Mary's Collegiate Church from 1220 and Sir Walter Raleigh's former home.

We found the National 1798 Rebellion Centre in Enniscourthy open. We took the opportunity to try to understand more of Ireland's history. There were no other visitors at the centre and the attendant had to turn on the exhibits especially for us, but unfortunately that didn't mean the heating!

We were able to learn more about the influence of the French and American revolutions and how they sparked the uprising against British rule in Wexford and the battle at Vinegar Hill.

Adare, Republic of Ireland

We drove through the central part of the Republic heading south through Limerick. Adare is a popular stop along the way with lots of medieval buildings and rows of thatched cottages. A river runs through the centre of the village and it was used by the women to wash their clothes. They used to soak the clothes and then bash them on the rocks with a wooden mallet called a beetle.

The Church of the Holy Trinity from the 13th century has been restored and today is a Catholic church.

Beside the church was a restored dove- cote. It was made of stone and had a hole in the top where the pigeons flew in and out. Inside the beehive shaped structure were ledges where the birds nested. Pigeons and their eggs were a common food at that time.

Several villages in this part of the country had flags flying in the local colours. They were showing support for their provincial Gaelic football and hurling teams. These sports are the most popular sports in Ireland. they are fast games with extremely aggressive contact between the players. Two teams of 15 players try to get the ball through a goal that looks like a rugby gaol with a netted soccer gaol under the crossbar. Goals above the bar and between the posts are worth one point while those under are worth three points. We haven't managed to see a hurling game yet but have seen lots of school children walking to and from practices with their wooden bats that look like large flattened hockey sticks known as hurley. A leather ball is used and it must be hit or carried on the hurley while hand passing is not allowed.



Gaelic football looks a lot like Australian Rules football.

Athlone, Republic of Ireland

We headed inland to Athlone. Simon Rolleston plays rugby for the Buccaneer's Rugby club in Athlone. He used to be an apprentice with John in NZ so we decided to catch up with him. We watched him play a game against a Belfast team and they won so will get paid a bonus for the win.

Simon's grandmother was born in Donegal so he was able to get an Irish passport and has been playing semi-professional rugby here for 3 years now. As it was Halloween weekend the rugby club had a dress up party. It seems it is a festival that started in Ireland so they decorate the houses and the children go from door-to-door to get sweets from their neighbours.


Athlone is on a lake with weirs and locks.


Simon, and Hope dressed as Amy Whitehouse.

There are several players from NZ in Athlone and they all live in the same street as Simon with some from Samoa as well.

Galway, Republic of Ireland

Traveling at this time of the year is quite difficult. Many tourist venues are closed for the season and so are campgrounds. We have found signs to campgrounds and when we travel the 12 or so kms to them we find that they are closed. We even arrived at one place as it was getting dark. There was no one at reception so we made ourselves at home. In the morning we wanted to shower but there was no one about so we could not get tokens to start the showers. When we were ready to leave there was still no one about so we just left.

It is also difficult trying to find places to park overnight. People build stone walls close to the road and there is no place to park. Some people build a recess for the gateway and may have a small section to park their visitors cars so it is not suitable for us to stop there either. We have found a couple of gravel dumps to camp in and so far haven't been woken by graders or workers.

We had to do some running repairs on our van as the sump cover rattled a couple of bolts loose and a garage worker kindly let us help ourselves to his nuts and bolts. John was able to fix it with the small set of tools we had on board.




Stopped for lunch at the Connemara National Park. The weather cleared and it was quite pleasant. The visitor's centre was closed though.

In the middle of nowhere was the Kylemore Abbey. We read that it was used as a boarding school now. It was originally built by Quakers.

There were many small villages with mussel and salmon farms.

The leaves are falling now and there are many trees with berries. There were some huge holly trees along the roadside.


Many people say that Ireland is a lot like New Zealand. Certainly some parts are like parts of the South Island but we haven't see much that looks like where we live in the Bay of Plenty. This scene of gorse and flax reminded me of NZ though.


We followed the narrow coast roads through the small villages and saw this castle at Slyne Head.

Donegal, Republic of Ireland

We camped outside Derry where the hedge in the camp marked the border with the Republic of Ireland. When we woke in the morning we saw the hills in Donegal covered with a sprinkling of snow. We had heard on the radio that the overnight temperature was -4 Celsius.

We headed north and all around the coastline of the Inishowen Peninsula. the roads were pretty narrow but the drivers are very considerate.

This dog thought he was in for some treats as he watched us eating our lunch.

Donegal town is much smaller than we thought it would be with a population of 2450.

We managed to find a tourist office open here and asked for a campground. The receptionist told us that there were some unregistered sites but she wasn't allowed to give us any information on them but we were welcome to camp in the car park behind the building for free. She tried to find us a place to have a shower but the hotels did not want us there and the local leisure centre wanted to charge us 30 Euros.


In the evening the main square in Donegal was bustling with teenagers dressed for Halloween.

We moved onto Sligo which was very pretty.


We drove through the Doolough Valley. In 1849, in icy weather 400 people died as they walked along the road from Louisburgh to Delphi and back. They were hoping to get food and help from a landlord but were refused.


Later we passed the Aasleagh Falls.