back to 1 blog

perhaps bog envy...Sarah wants to combine our blogs ,
so we are back to this address, with all of our posts

portlandtoireland.blogspot.com

see you there going forward

Rob

First holiday recap

After nearly a month in ireland, Sarah was getting antsy to do something. Somehow government visits, setting up utilities, buying cars was not spiritually satisfying. School was also looming, starting next Friday so no time like the present for a summer holiday.

Originally we were thinking of heading out to Galway (Easy trip on the M6). Then we looked farther west to the the Aran Islands (of sweater fame). When doing our research their were 3 islands to choose from Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer or in Irish terms Inis Mór, Inis Meáin, and Inis Oírr,  I ended up choosing Inisheer because we could get a boat that would take us to the Island for 4 hours then a 2 hour trip back via the Cliffs of Moher. I reserved  ferry tickets and B&B so we were ready to go.

Day 1
We planned or first day to stop at the walled city of Athenry on the way. We had meant to go there last week during National walled towns day but our car insurance wasn't ready so we stayed local for the Maynooth tour last weekend. Turned out to be a good choice to go on a weekday.
First stop in Athenry, the playground next to the castle. Yet another park with a zipline (Oregon pay attention, these are great and work in all weather even if our weather was sunny this day). Then we went around Athenry castle. It was more than a ruin and was quite a good site.

Next stop , the Athenry heritage centre. Seemed a bit pricey and on the surface looked a bit hokey.
First stop was the costumes

I'll admit not my usual cup of tea. Sarah as a former S.C.A member was all over it as were the kids.
Kids also got to try on some armor and yield some real medieval weapons

Then some time at being royalty, not that different then there normal pampered existence I'd say.

The dungeon , fun stuff like stocks and a neat new punishment device where two quarreling people are locked together for a week. They have to learn to cooperate to eat, sleep and other stuff...

Lastly to seal the experience they had archery lessons included.

even a balloon pop for Jack and Audrey.Kids had a great time and they'd love to go back. 

 Then the second half of our drive to our B&B where we ran across a random castle on the coast tat was quite spectacular

Day 2
Woke up early , had some beautiful food at the B&B

Then off to the Doolin Ferry and Innis Oirr

the Ferry was appropriately the Jack B. When we arrived at Inis Oirr it was raining a little so we grabbed a guide bus/van for a quick tour around the sites. 

shipwreck

"beach"

castle

more castle

sunken church

Then on to the boat again for the visit by the Cliffs of Moher. Definitely the way to see them up close and personal. 

Then an evening meal followed by a little traditional music.

Day 3

We hadn't fully figured the return day out. We decided to head out into the Burren which is the geographical area in this part of Ireland. First stop was Caherconnell fort. One of 600 stone forts that once stood in the area.

One of the amazing things we had being seeing on this part of the trip is the stone walls. All stacked with no mortar. 

After the fort we headed to the a dolmen called a Portal Tomb

The dolmen also happened to be in a great area of the Burren that showed the limestone erosion patterns the Burren is famous for.

That about wraps it up. We had about 2 hours from their to home. Turns out 2 hours is about the limit for Jack on road trips without a break. A bit squirrely at the end of it. .

Overall a successful weekend. Good weather overall, a few surprise finds and some lessons learned.

next adventure school... starts Friday

still many things left on our to do list
1- European pin and chip credit card
2-bank account for Sarah (has been harder then you think)
3- another visit to immigration office
4- visit to social welfare office
5- driving lessons/licenses
and more...

Surprising challenges

Here we are 12 days after getting keys and won't don't we have
1- bank account details. It took a week to open a bank account, still waiting for debit card and official details in the mail
2- new car, number 1 has killed number 2. Had to wait to get details to transfer US money to Ireland. Now need to get online login in the mail to see if money arrived. Meanwhile rental car is out of my pocket so times a wasting
3- trash- seriously, they say 10 days to setup still waiting for trash bins...big pile of recycling and compost ready to go
4-internet- comes tomorrow, then I found out yesterday that the address check for the faster company which said I didn't qualify for fiber internet lies, my neighbors all I have that , more speed and cheaper.

Hopefully all this gets fixed this week and we can say we are all moved in



Rob

Meeting friends

Audrey is now getting into meeting new people. Yesterday we met some new kids at Malahide park. Then we went to Maynooth park and met some new friends. Found out when we got home that they are our neighbors across the back fence, since awkwardly we can see into their house from our bedroom window. Then they were out scootering and found out our street is well stocked with kids, some go to the same school as Jack and Audreyand some go the Irish immersion school (Gaelscoil).
Kids have been out playing down the road with new friends for the last 2 hours. Just arrived in our house with the new friends...















This is family living

Rob

Day 1 musings

Some random observations from our first day

• Flying from Orlando to Dublin was much nicer than Portland to Dublin. The flight is shorter and it is much easier to get to sleep on a normal schedule (the downside while you go to bed early you get woken up early)
• Swimming caps- second trip to Ireland with the kids. Al the pools require swimming caps. Does this keep pools significantly cleaner?
• Murphy's law always applies- found a random seam of wetness in our shipping container. About 5 boxes out of 40 affected. That in itself wouldn't be okay but of course the targeted boxes were files and photos....
• Scheduled multiple things  on our first day in series (pick up keys, setup utilities, movers), but of course movers arrived late so it all tried to occur at the same time
• Driving challenges
• GPS issues - phone needed to be reactivated and car GPS not working
• manual transmission - 
• reverse- couldn't figure out reverse until we read the manual. After that not too bad. 
• phantom limb shifting- occasional tendency to try and shift on the side with no gear

that's it for now

Rob

many goodbyes

House packed, 1/3rd shipped, 2/3rd stored. Air cargo arrives on Friday in Ireland before us. After that it
 has been a week of a thousand goodbyes.
playdates, big house party, family dinner, post work drinks...
As I like to say it is a see you later and not a good bye.

So we hop on a red eye tonight for Florida for a week with the grand parents. Then next tuesday it is off to Dublin.

A fun website for your amusement
http://www.mapchannels.com/RouteMaps.aspx
type in 22 the arches, maynooth and presentation girls school and you can see the street view images for the trip to school..

will try and keep the updates flowing
Rob

movers have come

Found a buyer last week for the odyssey and turned over the keys monday. Found a mini buyer sunday and turned over the keys today. Now using a borrowed car untilwe are off.

Then on tuesday the movers came like I storm that passed through.
Air shipment packed yesterday, house packed today.
No matter what you do you never are ready,A little more challenging for us because we are choosing ship vs store. In other cases you may ship too much because you didn't purge. In our case we may ship the wring things and not enough...

but that part is almost over, 1 week in a hotel, a quick week vacation in florida then on to our new life.

to be continued....

Rob