Sam and Charlotte got a day off of blogging… So, you’re stuck with a grown-up perspective this time. 😊 Mom and Dad: On July 14th, we left the Ballyroe Heights Hotel, after a delicious breakfast with a great view, to go to Killarney for our bus tour of the Ring of Kerry. We boarded the coach, and our driver, Morris, introduced himself. He was a fabulous guide all day, giving us detailed historical information and geographical explanations and lots of laughs! The first village, called Killorglin, was cute, but particularly notable because of a unique festival held there annually. This year Puck festival will be held Aug 10-12. A goat will be chosen from the fields nearby and crowned King of the town for 3 days. It will be placed on a 40-ft tall platform in the townsquare and literally have a crown placed on its head. The pubs stay open 24-hours per day during this celebration. It has historical
The Road to Dingle
Charlotte: Today we had another nice breakfast from the lady at the Airbnb. Then we went to Kinsale. It was about a 45-minute drive. We walked around and browsed stores. We went to a bookstore. And next we took a long drive to Killarney. We stopped in Macroom where we went to a castle, but you could go inside and it actually had fields inside with sports camps going on. There was also a school and an exercise machine area inside. I used some of them. Finally we got to Killarney for lunch. The town was busy and cute. I got a Greek yogurt pancake for lunch, but I didn’t like it, so I switched with Mom – hers was a bacon and cheese pancake. So then we went to an ice cream place, and I had mango sorbet. Then we got back in the car and drove more! We got to Dingle and shopped for car
Cork and Cobh
Charlotte: Yesterday, we got ready and the nice lady at the Airbnb made us breakfast. We walked about 20 minutes to get to a big park. We played at the park – my favourite part was the spinner. Then we went to a museum and found out a lot about Cork’s history. After that, we went for lunch with Daddy’s friend who works in Cork. He took us to show us his work after lunch. It was beautiful, kind of like a mansion. We walked around the city. I bought a doll, a lucky Irish doll named Eileen. She has red hair. She’s so cute and beautiful and she’s wearing all green. Her tag says for me to bring her everywhere and she will bring me luck. So that’s what I’m doing. Then we went to a place called the Titanic. Daddy wanted to go in, so we waited about an hour until our time
Impromtu Road Trip
Sam: Today we had a 4-hour road trip to an Airbnb in Cork where we will be staying for the next two nights. On the way, we had lunch in Ennis, which is a little town. Inside the restaurant there was a big bar. The food there was pretty good. I had fried plaice (a type of fish) and chips. When we got to the Airbnb, the people were really nice and they have cats. We left to see the Blarney Castle, but there wasn’t going to be enough time to climb it before closing, so we went to dinner instead. We had gelato for dessert. My flavours were mint and chocolate. They went pretty well together. My sister got blue raspberry, but it tasted like coffee. We went to a park that had a zipline, and then we went back to our Airbnb. Charlotte: Today when I woke up, Mom told me that we were going on a four-hour
Carrowmore and Carrowkeel
Charlotte: Today I woke up at lunch time! I stayed up pretty late last night because I couldn’t sleep. We went to a museum about the graves of the dead people from thousands of years before Jesus was born. We saw lots of rocks that were very pretty. They were in beautiful shapes – some were formed into little houses and big circles and I found a tiny rock that shaped as a heart. I put my heart rock in a basket to help build a Queen’s grave. And then we went in the car and drove half an hour to get to our hike. We went on a hike up a big mountain and saw sheep that had paint across them so that the people who owned the sheep could find them (that’s what my grandma told me). I went in one of the rock graves called Cairns and climbed on top of them. And then I came home
Globetrotters on the go again… This time to Ireland!
After such a successful and exciting adventure last summer, we decided to do it all again this year. We set up a home swap with a lovely family in County Sligo on the west coast of Ireland and will be exploring the emerald isle (plus Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) for three weeks. July 9, 2018 Sam: First of all, when I realized we were stopping in Iceland on the way to Ireland, I was relieved that we would get to stop and rest for awhile. I don’t really like long flights. I slept through most of the first flight because it was through the night for me. When we arrived in Ireland, it was 6am. That’s 1 o’clock in Canada. On the ride from the airport to our vacation home, it was kind of scary at first because the steering wheel was on the opposite side of the car and we had to drive on the wrong
read more Globetrotters on the go again… This time to Ireland!
Road to the Eyrie – Thingvellir National Park
Charlotte: Today it was our last full day in Iceland. We went to the park for an hour and a half. We drove to go hiking at a place where they made some of The Game of Thrones show. It is a very scary show. Mom isn’t even brave enough to watch it. There were lots of mossy rocks. I played fox with my mom and looked at lots of caves. There were also big, pretty formations of rocks. There were a few ponds and were a couple of pretty waterfalls. We hiked for about 5 hundred million hours (or 120 minutes). Tomorrow we are going home. Sam: We went to Thingvellir National Park. We saw three waterfalls. There was also a church and a ton of rocks. It really rocked! The park was a place where the government used to meet and talk with people. Two tectonic plates were pulling apart and we walked in the middle for a
Mother Nature’s Meltdowns and Mythology
Sam: Today we woke up at five in the morning again to go on another big trip. About two or three hours into the drive, we stopped at Skogafoss, located on Skogavegur in the village of Skogar. It was over of the best waterfalls I’ve seen on our trip. It was really big and wide and there’s a legend that goes with it. It goes like this – A group of people noticed something sticking out of the waterfall. It turned out to be a treasure chest, but the handle fell off. They went to town to tell others, but when they went back nobody could ever find it again. They think it’s still behind the falls somewhere. We also went to a big lake full of icebergs that kept breaking off and floating into the ocean. There were some seals in the lake, too. I skipped some rocks into the lake. With a piece of ice I chipped from
A Little R&R
Mom and Dad: After our super-long day at Westmann Islands, we took a much-needed day off if “touristing.” Dad has to go back to work when we get home, so he won’t have time to have a vacation after our vacation! Plus, we needed to prepare for the longest journey of our vacation, which you’ll read about later. We spent a lazy morning (the kids did indeed remain in bed until 9) – Charlotte was thrilled to binge-watch Full House on Netflix and Sam happily cuddled up with his Chromebook to guffaw over ridiculous YouTube videos. We had a brunch of pancakes. You know, normal Saturday morning stuff. Mid-afternoon we drive over to the swimming pool near the President’s house in Alftanes. It boasts the largest waterslide in the country as well as the only wave pool. We all had a great time! We still can’t believe that our scaredy-cat kids are loving all these waterslides! They are getting braver
Sam and Charlotte take on the world! 