We chose to take our time for Ancient Olympia and stayed another night at the same campground. Both kids walked like champions and we rewarded them with ice cream, a dip in the pool and a feast at dinner time.
Today we moved further in our Greek adventures, down the coast to the small town of Parga. We decided to do our loop of Greece anti-clock-wise. From Parga we continue onto the only Iodian island that you can drive onto via a pier. We made it around to the south to Poros Beach. The campground there was closed but the owner allowed us to stay anyway…and for free on top of it all.
April 12th to April 15th
Everything seemed to happen right up until our departure. There was no time to plan (apart from the ferry passage), work was crazy, the kids’ Easter camp was happening, and about a thousand other things. In the end, I packed most of our things alone with Flo using his 10min breaks to carry them downstairs and store them in the car. He worked till 3.20pm which was exactly the time we had to leave to pick up the kids from Easter camp. Which means, we were in time and ready to go…it was just waaaaaay more stress than I had hoped for.
We picked up the kids who’ve had a blast and even managed to talk us into having ice cream with two other kids who’d also attended Easter camp. Afterwards…off we went. South, mostly south for a long while. Flo wanted to see if we managed to cover a lot of mileage that we needed to go while driving at night. Last years holiday and especially the traffic jams right before the Alps made us dread going into the same direction again. Thus, night-time driving might solve this problem for us. After a classic on-the-road burger dinner, the kids even brushed their teeth before we said “good night”. It went okay.
Flo drove till nearly 1 o’clock in the morning when we stopped just south of the Gotthardt tunnel for some sleep in the car. It was a rather uncomfortable night, especially the kids started to complain after a bit of sleep in their seats. Anyhow, we got though it and everybody slept at least a bit. At 5.45am, four little zombies entered the rest stop for coffee and breakfast before heading off bright (*cough*) and early through Switzerland and into Italy.
It was a long day on the road. The ferry would leave tomorrow from Ancona which was still quite a bit further south. But now we were in Italy and the holiday feeling was starting to set in. For a good charge and an even better lunch we stopped in Reggio Emilia. As soon as we walked around, we realized we’d already been in town two years ago on our trip through Northern Italy. Anyhow, lunch was great! Starters of ham, asparagus and eggs, and fried pecorino with honey were followed by good pasta…at which time none of us could eat anymore. Such good food was also a good way of getting over our fright this morning. We hadn’t entered Italy for long when another car cut us off. While nothing grave happened, it threw up stones from the dirty embankment. One of them hit our windscreen and left a little ditch.
After lunch, we tried to get as close to the ferry as we could so that, no matter what life decided to throw at us, we would make it to the ferry. So we ended the day in Riccione, shortly after we passed Rimini.
It was late. We’d been driving for a loooong while, and now the footwell on the passenger’s side, my side, was soaking wet. *sigh* Instead of a quiet evening, Flo started his repair-works, while the kids and I went to the beach for a brief stint. Flo joined us shortly to get his head off things. During dinner, I even managed to ask the right person the right question so with help by a fellow traveller and his compressor, Flo cleared out the blockage in the air conditioning drain hose, the conjestion of which turned out to be the reason for all condensate to have been dumped into the interior instead.
Tomorrow, all we had to do was catch a ferry at 4pm.
This gave us a lot of time for the last 100km of distance to cover. Looking at a map, Flo and I decided to turn back a little and give the city state of San Marino a visit. We got to see the three towers on the cliffside and headed into a great little ice cream place for some pre-lunch ice cream.
Just another manic Monday. It was so nice to just hang around the campground some more. The sun rose through morning fog, the owner of the campground bought us fresh baguette at the bakery and the kids loved all the opportunities for play they had here.
We didn’t leave before 10am with a long drive to Mont Saint Michel ahead of us. Flo let all of us sleep a bit until we arrived at 11.45am. This is actually our lunch time but we hadn’t stocked up on bread and now we were in the giant parking lot with all these other people streaming towards Mont Saint Michel or the free shuttle buses. I just got caught up in all the commotion and the impressive mountain castle in the middle distance (3km does not look like a lot anymore) so we headed on in without having eaten.
The free shuttle ride was cramped full of people but it’s still a great service that you don’t have to walk the three kilometers with the kids. Plus, Number 3 was excited about another bus ride.
Leaving the bus on the bridge, you have ample opportunity to take in the view (and take pictures) before you actually enter. We arrived at low tide or rather what we thought was low tide but the water retreated even further in the time we spent there.
Going through the gates, you are hit in the face with tourism. Toilets cost 1€ even for the kids, there is overprized food on every corner and quite a lot of people everywhere. Still, the whole thing is impressive. The gate alone is very thick, the wooden doors plated with metal. Followed by layers and layers of fortifications around the hill with an abbey right at the top of it. It gave me quite the Minas Tirith vibe. Climbing up the ramparts, we had great views of the bay and fewer people to deal with. Up and up we went till we were at the steps of the abbey. Thinking it might be good “doing” the abbey before lunch since we were already here now, we bought tickets, audio guides and got in.
The abbey itself is a great structure as well. Many people have added to what was originally there so even here, you have layers upon layers. It is especially visible when you’re on the big west terrace which is also overlooking a lot of the surrounding coast.
Both kids were getting very hungry by now. The Agent had already been nibbling on her pain au chocolat for the past 30 minutes before trying to hand it back to me. A seagull that had previously perched on the low wall as a perfect picture-taking opportunity was suddenly airborn, grabbed the rest of the pain au chocolat, hit Flo in the face with a wing in the process and was off.
The Agent was startled, upset and hungry now. Flo was startled, hungry and hit in the face. At that point, the battery of our camera died. *le sigh* So we decided to get through the many, many rooms of the abbey quicker now to avoid disaster with the kids and only take a few pictures with the iPhone. Pro tip: Only go into the abbey if you have eaten already in order to properly enjoy all of the sights and information. 😉
By the time we left the abbey, we were hustling towards the next eatery. Both kids held themselves with surprising grace and reason so we had no reason to tempt fate any further. The next crêperie was ours for sandwiches and galette, the savory version of crêpe.
Now it was time to leave the small lanes of Mont Saint Michel. Taking the bus back to the gigantic parking lot, Flo and I thought about what to do next. The next rustic campground was half an hour away but in the wrong direction, back towards the Bretagne. In the direction convenient for our travels, it was another 1 ½ hours. Still, we opted for the second campground.
Given that there hadn’t been any charge points for our car at Mont Saint Michel, we planned a top up at a Lidl while shopping for dinner. Through a missed exit from the motorway which added another 20 km to our mileage, we were running REALLY low on charge. Then, the charger at Lidl wasn’t as fast as advertised, meaning we had to spend more time at Lidl while getting less mileage out of it than we had thought.
When we finally arrived at the campground, it was late and the car already complained about needing a top up. Pfff, that was a close-ish call but we made it. It added unnecessary tension to an already slightly stressful day. The campground turned out to be lovely though. We got in, plugged in the car, everybody had ice cream for dinner and we got the kids into bed. The fact that you could only pay cash here and we didn’t even have the 25€ for that anymore barely registered with me anymore. In the end, while Flo asked around if we could send anyone money via PayPal and they’d give us some cash, lovely people took pity on him and gave him a 5€ donation.
Our last day in Ireland had begun. At 4pm the ferry to Roscoff/France would leave the port of Cork with us on it. That was quite the exciting prospect, at least for me. I am always excited when I need to get a specific mode of transport at a specific time. Flo would probably call it anxious. 😛
We got up in the morning on the campsite in Blarney, having decided not to bother the Blarney stone with our kisses. In fact, we didn’t visit Blarney castle at all. After a shower, we drove right back into the city of Cork. Leaving at 4pm, we’d probably have to check in around 2pm…a whole morning to spend in Cork. I mean, Cork is awesome. You can spend way more than a morning there.
After parking the car, we actually accidentally went to Other Realms, the local gaming den. Being there was quite cool, even if it was mostly empty tables waiting for people to play at this time in the day. A couple of board games were on display, work in progress miniature painting and the newest D&D books. The lady in the shop even pitched the teen D&D group to Number 3 who is clearly far away from his teens.
First thing to do was get a second breakfast at one of the city’s coffee roasters. It was supposed to be have coffee and buy ground coffee for the campground but then the pastries on offer looked delicious and the kids did complain that they don’t drink coffee…
Just around the corner of this tiny cafe under a stairwell was the toy shop where Number 3 had fallen in love with the wooden train set. We spent a couple more minutes there before I managed to lure him away with a visit to the sweets’ shop on the other side of the road. It had a pick’n’mix bar, probably the first proper one the kids have seen. Given that grandma’s bucket of gummy bears was empty once more, we all picked out some of our favourite gummy-things for said bucket.
A bit further was Crawford City Gallery where we’d been yesterday in search of a cafe. Today, we went to actually look at the pictures. Or sculptures as it turned out. The first exhibition was of the Canova Casts. THE Canova had overseen the making of casts after antique statues which were then gifted to the monarch of Great Britain as a thank you for defeating Napoleon in Waterloo. Such strange things exist. The casts were back on display for the bicentennial.
The second exhibition named mEAT & potatoes was a ride through food through the ages as represented in art. It had contemporary art as well as still lifes of earlier times. All in all, our time in the Gallery was well spent.
From here, we went back to the English market for lunch. The Lonely Planet recommended the Farmgate Cafe for lunch as it used all of the fresh produce on offer in the market. That sounded exactly like something we should try for our last Irish meal. Flo had Irish stew with a non-alcoholic cider, Number 3 opted for the fish chowder (what a brave choice!), while I ordered the grilled goats’ cheese sandwich and a cheese & ham sandwich for the Agent who didn’t want to eat at all. But she happily accepted the kids’ choice of beverage, a glass of milk, which she finished in one go. I think I realized only yesterday that she actually has two new teeth and that this is to blame for her being the worst eater at the moment.
After lunch I got twitchy. Come one people, it was time to get onto the ferry! Flo did his best to slow us down on our way to the car, going on a detour to the only catholic church we’ve been in in Ireland. Alas, in the end, we were all in the car queued up for the passport check and then for boarding. Flo turned into his usual grumpy self because of the wait but it didn’t take much longer than an hour before we were allowed to board. At 3.20pm, we packed our overnight bag (for safety reasons you are not allowed to go back to your car) and checked out our cabin for the crossing. THE. CABIN. WAS. AMAZING.
It felt quite spacious, two of the beds folded down from the ceiling and the couch turned into a bed as well. We had a small table, everything to make tea and coffee and even our own toilet and shower. You might not be able to tell but this is only the second overnight ferry ride in the western world for me.
After storing away our things we went to explore the boat. Battleship might be a more appropriate term as this thing was huge. It even had a small pool on the 9th deck and there was an entertainer in the bar in the evening.
At exactly 4pm, the ferry left the port. We waved goodbye to Ireland, both of the kids declaring that they want to be back. The rest of the afternoon was rather exhausting for us parents as the kids hadn’t slept on the short ride to the port and all the excitement was a little too much for them. We tried a lot from chilling outside on the deck to having a drink in the bar to playing foosball…nothing kept them happy for long. In the end, we put them to bed early which they seemed to be happy about.
One more drink for Flo and me at the bar while we posted the next blog post and then it was off to bed for me as well. We will leave the ferry tomorrow morning at 7am in Roscoff, still being on Irish time that meant 6am for us. 5 am wake up alarm anyone?
Our two days in Dublin were over and even our days in Ireland could be counted with only a couple of fingers. Today’s programme consisted of the next city: Kilkenny. It’s conveniently located on the way down to Cork AND it is supposed to be cute and nice to walk along in. We’d booked the city campsite in advance to avoid stress and because I was a little scared it might be fully booked.
Both kids were very tired from our two days exploring the city and Flo wanted to take the scenic route to Kilkenny instead of the motorway so we could see a bit of the Irish countryside between our city stops. Giving the kids time to sleep and us time to admire the drive worked out very well. The Wicklow mountains were very scenic with hills and streams, a great big bog and almost empty of tourists. We really enjoyed seeing so much green and sky again.
We arrived in Kilkenny after (our usually early) lunchtime. But since the kids had slept through most of the drive, we were still okay. I’d picked a recommended restaurant on the road where we headed now. Foodworks was right up our alley, having a farm to fork concept. Lunch was delicious. Flo had pulled pork, I had a veggie stew with eggs and the kids shared two sausages and potatoes. For some reason, the kids’ portions are super big in Ireland.
Kilkenny has a couple of sights, including Kilkenny castle. I felt especially sight-seen out ( :P) and only wanted to stroll through the city in search of postcards. There was another destination named “Truffle Fairy” which was pretty high on my list, though.
So we wandered around High street, down the Butter slip and ended up at the castle anyway. But we only had a look from the outside. It just seemed too involved to get in. Number 3 was disappointed, so for his sake, we checked out the entry. “No credit cards, cash only, sorry” told us that we wouldn’t go in with a good enough reason now.
From here, the Truffle Fairy wasn’t far away. Delicious truffles were bought, carried for a short way and then eaten before we hit the car. To be fair, we decided to check out the campsite earlier than usual today as we had some much needed laundry to do.
Back at the car, we realized that we still had to go grocery shopping anyway. We already stocked up on Guinness 0.0, in case we won’t have time/ the car close by when we go to Cork, along with the usual milk and bread.
The campground turned out to have three horses and two ponies so the kids were instantly sold on staying here. My immediate chore was all that laundry…checking out how it works here, getting tokens for the machines from reception, getting all our dirty clothes into one big pile and then getting all of them transferred into the washing machine.
Flo checked out the horses with the kids and then prepared our bread and cheese dinner. We tried to be on time as another gaming session was scheduled. We managed to game but our connection was frustratingly slow and I was indeed, super tired.
Since Belfast we had promised Number 3 a ride in a cool bus. We were thinking about the red double-decker sightseeing busses for Dublin, in the end we decided to take the easy route and buy tickets for BigBus Dublin, a company with slightly less red open-top double-decker busses. They started from our campground at 9.30am which seemed to make it the logical choice.
Dublin had overwhelmed me the second I started reading about it. We’ve been tourists in big cities before but somehow, after driving the Wild Atlantic Way for almost its entire length, Dublin seemed daunting. Most of the “must see”s and “top things to do” didn’t feel very kid-friendly, at least not with small kids. Trinity Collage seems amazing…we skipped it altogether as it felt like it would bore the kids to walk around university. The pub scene…Flo’s and my heart bled but there was no good way of making it work with the kids.
So here’s what we did DO. We bought 48 hour hop on-hop off tickets for the BigBus Dublin. Starting at 9.30am, we left for town from our campground. I was anxious we’d miss it, the online tickets didn’t really come through on time, everybody got stressed…in the end, our camera fell down. Pretty spectacularly as well. Luckily, it was only slightly damaged. The battery which was missing a lid already before the trip now stopped staying inside its casing. Flo managed to wedge it in with tape for now…it will need lots of TLC once we’re back home. There’s probably more minor damage but at least it worked for the rest of the day.
The bus drove on the motorway for about 30 minutes without a stop. It was rather quick compared to the 45 minutes regular buses take to get to town. Stopping at “Stop Number 1” of the tour, we had to switch buses but left for real this time within 4 minutes for the 90 minutes sightseeing tour. That is the first thing we did: Get a feeling of the lay of the land, see some sights, have the kids enjoy an open-top bus ride.
It gave us an idea of what we could do later in the afternoon or even tomorrow. Driving by the Guinness Storehouse, a very popular stop of the tour, we decided that we’d get tickets for tomorrow for this attraction. Arriving back in the midst of Dublin’s center, we got off at the northern side of the river Liffey at lunch time. The restaurant we’d picked for lunch was closed unfortunately (no lunch on Mon-Weds) so we ended up in a very different location: A small Korean eatery in the back of a Korean supermarket. A very unlikely thing to stumble upon but lucky for us as the food was delicious and even the kids tugged in properly which is always a concern.
From here, we explored the city on foot. The Temple Bar District was just over there, on the other side of the river, so we crossed Ha’Penny Bridge. While admiring the bridge and the river, we noticed a person floating in the river realizing a second later that this person needed to be saved which happened in form of a bystander shedding his cloths and jumping into the river. Many rings were thrown, most of them poorly. A minute or so later, the fire fighters arrived and they were professionals at throwing lifesaving devices into the river. Two of them joined the bystander in the water by which point we left as it looked like a successful save already. Number 3 was rattled by the situation and the loud noises of fire fighters and ambulance.
The Temple Bar district looked pretty epic, thus adding to our heartache. Checking which sights were near, Flo picked the Chester Beatty Library. It turned out to be a really cool place. The Agent of Entropy slept through most of it (again) but Number 3 was pretty engaged with what was on display.
Time for coffee! Going to Clement & Pekoe didn’t take too long and their sweet treats were absolutely lovely. Plus, they had a whole wall full of different teas on display. I actually bought some to give my sister when we’re back home. There was time for one more thing this afternoon before dinner and it was my time to pick. The kids had picked the bus, Flo had picked the library, now it was my go. Fair and square, right? Unfortunately, Number 3 made quite the fuss that he wasn’t allowed to pick but we stuck to St Patrick’s cathedral for the afternoon.
Walking there was a chore not because it was far away but my kid made it pretty damn exhausting. And then we were there, bought tickets and the amazing lady at the counter gave him crayons and a booklet “Explore St Patrick’s with Millie the Mouse”. He was all in for that, looking at things, discovering flags and bells, creating his own flag and generally loving it. Flo got to listen to most of the audio guide while Millie the Mouse taught me a couple of things as well. XD
After a ten minute break in the park right next to St Patrick’s, we went for dinner. The kids were tired, we were tired and a fancy restaurant would probably end in a disaster. So we decided to have pizza, enthusiastically agreed to by our 2 year old. A nine minute walk through a more and more residential looking neighbourhood later, we walked through a pub to get to a back yard with a pizza place. It was a little piece of heaven in form of a woodfired pizza oven. I shared my “Smoked Magherita” daily special pizza with the Agent who ate two whole slices of it. That is A LOT for such a tiny human. It was so good! The tomatoes had been smoked over applewood chips, giving the whole pizza a smoky flavour. Yum yum yum.
Alright, time to get the bus back to our car and the tent at the campground. Oh, the buses back only run once an hour…we better get going. Number 3 was an utter champion running in front while we hustled through the streets to the bus stop. It was getting late and another hour in the city seemed daunting with the tired kids. The bus was late as seems to be a usual occurrence in Dublin so we even had to wait for it. Then a 45 minutes bus ride and finally, we were back at the tent and put the kids to bed.
Our not so glamorous campsite didn’t get more shiny in the morning. We got to use the campers’ kitchen which is always helpful as a jug is so much easier than boiling water on our camping stove. On the down side, the Agent spilled her glass of milk and we had to clean up. 😉
Before we left, we had a great conversation with a French family. They were super nice, the kids were inquisitive and looked into our tent and they gave us recommendations for our time in Brittany next week.
Today’s goal was to take it waaaaaay slower than we had done lately. Just looking at where we’ve been in the last week makes my head spin. Slowly but surely we’re coming to the end of the Irish part of our holiday. The biggest ticket item on our “to do” list now is Dublin. From the far south, we’re going to drive part of the way there today. Along the way, Cashel is a good point to stop and the Rock of Cashel is highly recommended too.
We were lucky enough to prebook the campsite in Cashel which took a lot of stress out of the day. Get there, look around, set up camp, done. Getting there was a bit of a challenge as it meant more than two hours straight in the car for the kids. That’s always a harder sell.
We broke it up with lunch next to a charger. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost the Agent’s hat there. L I hate losing things.
After lunch, the kids could take a nap while Flo and I took a small detour through the Glen of Aherlow. It consisted of a scenic drive, more time for the kids to sleep and time to listen to our audiobook.
Then, we arrived at the Rock of Cashel. Cashel is the anglisized version of the Irish word for castle. It describes a castle on a rock from the 12th century. Just looking at it from below gave us flashbacks to Carcassonne even if it is way smaller. We walked in, bought tickets and learnt that the free guided tour had started 20 minutes ago. We could try to catch up with them (it’s not a big place) or wait 40 minutes for the next one. Given that we have small kids, we opted for the first option. I love that the guided tours are for free. Number 3 listened very well to the English talk and repeated some of the facts afterwards: The round tower is the oldest part of the castle. The big cross got hit by lightning and that’s why the top is in pieces, lying on the ground now.
It’s pretty cool to see your kid do this. Maybe history will be one of his interests one day.
We finished the guided tour and then walked around the perimeter for a bit. Since I wouldn’t allow the kids to balance on the graves, they soon lost interest in more walking. Happy that we got most of the guided tour, we left in search for coffee. Since it was Sunday, the recommended cafe was closed when we got there. None of the other places looked inviting, most were kiosks selling ice cream.
Taking it slower is also paraphrasing “getting to the campsites earlier”. Which is exactly what we did. We pulled up at the campsite and had coffee there. I mean, we made the best choice really, as the campground was literally underneath the Rock of Cashel and you had a view of the castle and a ruined abbey a bit further away. We got to enjoy the view for a couple of hours now.
Number 3 instantly made friends on the playground and the Agent just refuses to acknowledge that she’s younger. She is always in the thick of it, too.
In the evening, we even managed to have that postponed gaming session as reception was really good here.
Camping in Beara was nice despite the slightly abandoned vibe of our campground. We had so much space and quiet, the kids could be as noisy as they wanted during breakfast for a change. To make it even better, Number 3 found a plastic dinosaur another kid must have forgotten. It made both kids very happy.
Beara peninsular also has a ring road (how could they be left out) but we were a bit peninsular-ed out. Instead, we only drove a little bit along the coastal road and then turned inward to take the Healy Pass to the southern side. We had a light drizzle, many clouds and a bit of fog going up. The moodiness suited the landscape a lot! It cleared up every now and then to give us really nice views of the rocks. From the actual pass you could see down to the road which wiggled through the landscape below…quite a bit of awesome road. Probably amazing on a bike. J
Now following the southern coastal road, we got to Ballylickey where the Lonely Planet advertised a foodie grocer with a cafe. Of course, we had to stop there for a second breakfast. The kids and I went for the sensible option of tea and cake while Flo couldn’t resist the sandwich options. In the end, we also bought cheese and bread for the road, all of which looked and smelled delicious.
We didn’t have a real plan for Bantry. The Lonely Planet suggests the Bantry House which didn’t appeal to us. Instead, we opted for a fast charger, a bit of shopping at Supervalu and lunch at Organico, a zero waste organic place. During lunch Flo chatted up a couple on motorbikes so we had a lovely conversation about places we’d been.
Going further south, Mizen Head was our next destination. It was a while away and offered a good opportunity for me and the kids to have a nap. The night had been short and full of terrors. The Agent of Entropy had been too cold and then wet and all of it had cost the rest of us valuable sleep. So against our habit on the road, I had a nap as well. Only Flo needed to drive. I like to tell myself that he enjoyed the quiet time but he was probably also very tired.
We woke up shortly before we stopped at Mizen Head. I was still a little wobbly and disorientated when we moved into the visitors’ centre. I knew it counts as the southernmost point of Ireland as the races seem to be Malin Head to Mizen Head. However, from the visitors’ centre you could walk over a bridge to Mizen Head Station on a tiny island. So we did. It was very cool even though the bridge worsened my wobbly legs. It had the “end of the world” feel to it. Mizen Head Station is a signalling station that isn’t manned anymore these days as everything can be done remotely.
As we had gaming on tonight, we’d picked a nice campground but when we got there, we weren’t too sure anymore. It advertised its glamping opportunities but it felt unstructured, more like a side project than a tightly run business. It was expensive, had no wifi or signal and seemed to be much busier than we would have liked it to be. We were too tired to debate or move again so gaming had to be cancelled or rather postponed unfortunately.
