Ireland

So before we leave for Ireland we have to say something else about our Guernsey hosts, Jordan and Hannah. They were amazing, sorting things out for us, loaning the van, giving up work, convincing their friends to take us places, showing us around, lending us everything we needed for Europe, arranging ferries (& then rearranging!), amazing bbq's, giving us something amazing to do every single day we were there, and providing perfect sunshine days. Thanks is not enough. So after one more bbq Monday night we got up early Tuesday morning on yet another perfect blue sky island day and flew to Ireland with half a day stop off at Gatwick airport.

We picked up our rental car and quicckly found our B&B which is very nice. Total luxury compared to our lovely but little van. We are right now sitting down to our huge Irish breakfast, while chatting with our friendly hosts about where we should drive today. Yesterday was "Anna's" day and we spent the day looking around historic family locations. We headed north through Cork to Blarney castle, where we walked around the gardens and kissed the Blarney Stone. For those of you who don't know the stone is built into the top of the castle wall, many stories high. You have to lean out in order to reach it..

We also got to crawl through some under ground caves that doubled as dungeons, kennels, water storage and escape routes. Mallow was our next stop to go grave hunting however all graves beyond about 1890 were washed away & impossible to read. But the hunt was fun anyway.

Then it was down to the coast at Clonakilty when Anna's granny spent some time growing up. The people there paint their buildings different colours which makes the town look very beautiful.

We ended the day with a drive around the coast and found a surf beach, had a wonderful roast dinner at a local pub which was especially tasty because we were late and they reopened the kitchen just for us.