A Fine Time

We're back after 9 days of driving around the beautiful Emerald Isle (click here for all photos). Ireland is a great place - friendly people, non-smoking pubs, Guinness, neolithic sites, dry-stone walls, castles, peat bog, rolling green pastures and suprisingly, very little rain. The weather was not as beautiful as the clear Autumn days we're now getting in Geneva, but apart from making me want to eat big bowls of Irish stew every day (which I did only once), it really didn't affect our holiday.

This trip was my first experience staying in B&B's and there was certainly no shortage of choice. We had only booked our first night's accommodation, leaving us the freedom to decide when and where we wanted to stop for the night. Being off-season there were virtually no problems finding a room. The highlight was the lovely house we rented for three nights in Killarney. After eating a hot breakfast for 9 days in a row, it will be a while before I want to see any more eggs or bacon! I won't mention the black and white pudding.

Dad did all the driving, and with the help of our GPS (and three wonderful passengers!), he did a brilliant job of navigating around the country. The roads were challenging - narrow and bumpy, but not too busy. We started off in Northern Ireland, landing in Belfast then driving north to the Giant's Causeway the next morning. From there we headed west to Donegal and drove anti-clockwise around Ireland through Ballina, Belmullet, Galway, Killarney, Waterford, Kilkenny, Dublin and back to Belfast.

It's back to work for me now, whereas Mum and Dad have headed off to Paris for a couple of days. Peter is back on the tennis court and bike riding while the weather lasts.