Tuesday May 1st 2012

May showers have been pouring down for most of the day – it is even more incredibly green while everything is so wet.  This morning when we headed off, after our ungodly early 0600 get up to attend the 0700 breakfast for 0730 departure (I feel like a letter in despatch!) I searched the small enclosures; structures of 200 year old and older rock wall fences, which hold in the sheep, cows and horses, for sheep, and I saw none.  I am growing very fond of sheep.  They dot the green fields providing perspective and dimension to the country side, as well as to gardens in some small towns.   For those of you who I annoyed with the FB castle lunch photo the other day, please note that my dinner/lunch was not that great.  Don’t get me wrong.  The dishes were finest solid china.  The silverware – was, and it was very heavy.  Each of the three courses came with drama and flourish as one would expect of a castle.  “Unplated” by a white gloved server which means each main course plate was covered in a silver hood that was grandly removed in front of each guest at the table of four at which we were seated.  (I have a nice photo of myself reflected in that fine lid)  We made our choices from an artistically created menu with items such as tartar, de jour and crème de la crème.  Where I went wrong was at that menu.  It was with great relish and excitement that all at the table determined the “spring lamb” would be a wonderful choice a traditional Irish feast!  I pondered much like I do at a cliff’s edge and took the plunge.  The meat was exposed as that fine sliver tombstone was taken away!  I hesitated but cut a wee bit off and tasted.  I had put my mind in the place I go when I enjoy fowl.  I love birds all ways – alive and cooked.  Lamb however.  My poor tummy churned and turned.  This was someone’s baby.  I focused on the rest of the meal which on this visit has most often included two types of potatoes!  Yes. I also had plenty of room for the fine carrots, green beans and to finish a lovely dessert trio decorated with a spectacular melted sugar creation.  As wise old gentleman told me once “It’s not like you can’t stand to miss a meal or two!”

Sheep and their babies.  I am enjoying Ireland.

Photos have now reached 16GB.  Moving about and keeping on track has become a 16 hour a day occupation – and we are now off again so there is no time to organize or upload.

One final story:  I was bent down beside a rack of postcards (in the mail) making choices.  Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and I swiftly twisted and poised to reprimand my kind husband who likes to “herd” me along.   Over top of my glasses my eyes met those of the tour guide, an older man who, at times, reminds me of a former school principal.

2 of 2000

Unrest and the soldiers have left Derry and these wee bits of hope bloom on the walls of the city. 

Many legends and great tales abound about the origin of these amazing geological structures.  While here we also realized why one would eat those Irish breakfasts... the weight keeps a person from blowing off the cliffs!  Again these are only 2 of a number nearing 2000

North

Very interesting tour - with all soothing shades of green to aid information digestion! 
If there is a fault to this tour = there is not enough time for photographs.   However we just downloaded close to 500 images so it may be hard to fathom - more photos!
People on the tour are fun and interesting as well - we seem to end up primarily with the Australians - as do they with us.  Too much to write about.
Glad we brought warm clothes with us.  The wind is nipping ears, eyes and every part exposed!
Certainly the place for lovers of green!  Green Irish Sea.  Green green fields. Green trees. Green, green and rocks with green ivy!
Time to upload 2 photos then be off for a quick walk to the Peace Bridge here in Derry/LondonDerry then dinner.  This is the first free internet we have encountered!

Eire We Are!

Awesome flights and connections with Air Canada!  The landings and takeoffs were perfect and there was no turbulence on any of the legs – smooth sailing to Eire!  So smooth in fact that we could see the Emerald Isle from the air as we flew over on our way to Frankfurt before catching another flight to Dublin.  No complaining though.  We had frankfurters and beer in the German airport!  And the flights were “free” with Aeroplan!

The friendliness of the Irish (if we may stereotype) began on the flight from Frankfurt to here.  The young man (our kids age) sharing our aisle chattered about and responded to our queries about his country.  He gave some insight into schooling and marvelled over some of the sights we are about to see.  He was quite interested in geocaching, even mentioning that he would have to look it up when the weekend was over and he was back at work!  Seems he works with computers.   His children, a bit older than our grandkids go to private Irish school where they learn Gaelic and develop skills that make them desirable for government employment.  (French immersion?)   He told us we would see some of these when we make our way around on the tour – we would hear the language.  He was a bit of a joker and very friendly.  When we parted at the airport he even mentioned giving us his phone number in case we had any trouble.  We assured him we would be just fine!

Options to get down to our hotel from the airport included cab or Blue Bus:  Blue Bus was very easy to use and a quarter of the cost of a cab, plus another fun experience.  We had only been up for 30 hours at that time so did pretty good.  No meltdowns!

The hotel is nice.  Surrounded by amazing oak trees and other species we don’t know the names of.  All of the yards are fenced with black wrought iron or mossy stone structures, either choice festooned with ivy.  Ivy is everywhere.  Looks to be a pest. What a great pest to have!

Day 1: We slept till 10 and missed the “free” breakfast in the hotel so we headed out the front door at the same time as an older man (older than us even – maybe 75.)  He said good morning and when we replied he realized we weren’t from here, he asked what we were looking for.  As he listed off the choices we may make another gentleman overheard the conversation and advised us of a place called Roly’s “just a five minute walk.”  The older man offered to “drop” us, but we declined his gracious and sincere offer and wandered off.  It seems everyone we meet tries to find a Canadian connection – this gentleman’s was that his daughter was a barrister in Toronto.  We met this guy later in the midafternoon.  He was just leaving his home with his daughter and we recognized each other!  He exclaimed loudly to his daughter as he introduced us as, “The CANADIANS!!”

Breakfast at Roly’s was great although once you have had a full Irish Breakfast – you needn’t eat again until your next life!

Roly’s Full Irish Breakfast

2 big slices of bacon (looks like back bacon – no fat tastes great)

1 slice white haggis – 1 slice brown haggis (Murray – fry it in something like bacon fat then put seasoning on it)

1 large pork sausage (the size of our beef sausage) tasty!

1 large mushroom with a whole baked mid sized tomato atop (weird but good)

1 large fried egg ( a cheery dot of yellow in the sea of breakfast meat!)

1 triangle shaped hash brown to complete the circle of food on the very large plate.

A full basket of dry toast to the side washed down with coffee that I considered to be very strong – and we were set for the week.  Weird and interesting side note is that tourists must be eating all the Irish folks breakfast for we have only seen about 2 (yes two) people on the heavy side.

We had the GPSr with us so we carried on in an attempt to burn off breakfast, find some interesting geocaches and look for birds (come on some of you – if you made it this far – have been wondering when birds would come up (no joshing).  We managed to find 5 caches as we made our way on a 7 kilometer stroll around this part of the city.  Caching sure is a great tour guide!

So the tally for day 1 was Blackbird (really great singers), goldfinch, great cormorant, grey heron, mistle thrush, irish robin and BLUE  TITS!!! Along with crows, pigeons, ducks, swans, magpies and a myriad of other birds that were too high up in the tree tops to identify; 40 thousand Guinness signs; coloured doors, rock fences; heaps and heaps of fancy cars but NOT one pickup truck!

Day 2:  We had a manageable “free” breakfast this morning before heading off for a geo-stroll.    We found 2 more today in spite of a bit of circling and having downloaded a couple that are missing in action.  We have had the weather described to us several times now as four seasons in an hour: sun, rain, hail, snow then sun again.  Well no snow but it’s been several moments of hail, a minute or two of rain followed by an hour or more of sun – the mist comes and goes from out of nowhere.  And yes it is very, very green!

Not sure how much blogging will take place – internet is not free here and time might be premium.  Gotta go log the caches and make some pdf maps for the pc all the “free” maps end at the edge of town we are in.

One more sleep

great masses of clothing strewn over the bed

unsure what to do next we watch hockey instead

the list has been checked and now we must wait

in a mere 16 hours we'll be at the first gate

tomorrow morning suitcases will be stuffed with our stuff

two pages of items - sure hope we have enough! 

...sick i know but - it's a start.



Maps maps maps...

We are excited to see that Ireland is literally plastered with Geocaches!  Watchlists have begun...

All around the edge!

Birds of Ireland

Part of our adventure will entail meeting some new avian species - as we begin this looks to be a good site with which to do that: Birds of Ireland.  At this point the Tits and Robins look intriguing...

Irish Robin - meant to be very common year round.  

At a mere 3 inches tall he won't be the size of our Canadian Robins!

Blue Tit - supposed to be common, friendly and easy to find.  

Looks like a mixture of Black-Capped Chickadee and Superb Fairy Wren!  How cool is that??