Tuesday 4 August 2015

West Coast of Ireland, July 2015: Ballinderreen

As we'd enjoyed our short break in Dublin so much last year, hubby and I decided to have a holiday on the West Coast of Ireland this Summer. We booked ourselves into Bertie's Cottage in Ballindereen, which was an attractive, quaint thatched cottage about 200 years old, possibly more, but recently refurbished and modernised by the present owner, Michael.


We arrived at Shannon airport on Saturday evening and were pleased to find that the Tesco's in Ennis stayed open late, so we bought fish pies for dinner and some other things we thought we might need and drove along the N18 and beyond it in our hire car until we came to Ballindereen. We drove the last stretch in heavy rain.

We'd phoned the owner, Michael, to let him know we were on our way and he was waiting for us when we arrived. The cottage had been beautifully renovated. There was a modern kitchen with a cooker, fridge and a kettle as well as a toaster and some kind of mini oven. So we had a cup of tea and cooked our pies and peas. We were pleased to find some fresh scones in the cake tin afterwards. Michael had also provided milk and teabags.


There was a pleasant dining/living area




Ballinderreen is a quiet, rural village situated on the N67 between Kinvarra and Kilcolgan. It has as a garage with a small shop and a pub.


There was a farm behind us, which we could see out of the kitchen window, but we didn't hear or see much activity there, so it certainly didn't disturb our peace.



In the other direction it was mostly fields. The local church is the modern St Colmans church, although there is the ruin of a much older church nearby.




Whitby, April 2015

We spent a few days in Whitby, just after Easter this year.


Dublin, September 2014

We stayed in Malahide, which is just north of Dublin, for a few days last September, which was the first time we'd ever been to Ireland.  Malahide is a coastal town on the Broadmeadow Estuary, just 16 kilometres north of Dublin and seems much like one of its suburbs.








Monday 3 August 2015

Aghia Marina, Crete, July 2014

There was a lovely sandy beach at Aghia Marina, but it was very crowded.


Our Trip to New Zealand: In and around Wellington

Wellington is one of the smallest capital cities in the world and it could well be the most attractive, too. 

The modern architecture is quite striking, not least the beehive to the side of New Zealand's parliament building.


















The older parliament building remains to the right.


Our Trip to New Zealand: the Lord of the Rings Tour

                             



Much of the filming was done in and around Wellington. This is the tree where Frodo, Merry and Pippin hid from the Nazgul horseman, and on the other side of the path is the actual dip they hid in.