We started our day with a good porridge and some fruits at Hollybanks. We drove first to the Alcock and Brown Atlantic Crossing Memorial near Clifton, a memorial for the two pilots who crossed the whole Atlantic by plane from Canada to Ireland. 🇨🇦🇮🇪
And there were also information texts about Marconi, an Italian-Irish man who is known for his creation of a practical radio wave–based wireless telegraph system which was important for this first Atlantic crossing.
Our next stop was the Dimond hill where we walked a 3 km trail and enjoyed the lovely view of the fjord & ate our lunch at the picnic area (and had a small under sugar crisis before :)👣
Then we wanted to visit the Kylemore Abbey, but as we got a pretty view of it from the crowded parking area and decided that there were way to many people and we wanted to skip it from inside and just looked at it from outside. ⛪
Openstreetmap leaded us over the sheep roads with panoramic views of rural Connemara to the Glassilaun Beach 🐑🏖. There we walked along the coast and enjoyed the view and waves and the wind 🌊.
Our dinner was at Oughterad „Power’s Thatch“, a local PUB where we ate Fish and Chips and Irish Stew 🍲🐟🍟.
At Hollybanks we talked to J. (Owner) and then had a nice conversation with J. from Spain, Sevilla 🇪🇸 until 11 p.m. and now we’re looking forword for going to sleep. 💤
We had a delicous breakfast: Laura an Omlette & mom, dad and I porridge 🙂 And we also gotsomething from the breakfast table for our grandmother. Then we sorted our stuff, packed it in the car and went grocery shopping.
We had an 1 1/2 hour drive to Achill Island and saw the wonderful view of the Nephin and Ballycroy Nationalpark and at the end of the beautiful Island. We arrived at the Keem beach and dad and I swam for a few minutes in the Atlantic (the board said it were 13°C 🙂 . 🌊
And there were people with a golden retriever that forced him to go swimming in the Atlantic but we’ve never seen a golden retriever that was so unmotivated for swimming. 🐕
Up a hill we made our lunch, a picnic with a marvelous view and called our grandparents. At our way to the new accomandation, we stopped for tea and coffee ☕🍵 and also stopped at a small local shop were an old man selled handcrafted sweaters and jackets – mom and I found two in the best colours and bought them. Mine is absolutely the lovliest sweater I’ve ever owned!! ✨
On our way to Moycollen we crossed the Connemara Nationalpark and got marvelous and overwhelming beautiful views of the landscape ✨
We arrived at our accomandation ‚Holybanks‘ and met the owner Jane with her German Shepherd Molly. She showed us around and gave us a tip for for dinner. So we took the road she recommanded and got a great view of the 3 Aran Islands with the sunset behind the clouds but a red and pink coloured sky ☁🎨
We ate our dinner at „Pádraicins“ (Irish gaelic) and Laura, mom and dad got fish and chips and I mussels – it was delicous and Laura said it was her best fish and chips this vacation. We walked along the coast for a little and then drove home again 🚘
We woke up at 9 o’clock and made our way to the near Lough Conn and had breakfast on a bench near the pier. Then we went to the Gortnor Abbey, an old monastary that is now a middle school. We saw a lot of birds and a newly created courtyard with young trees. 🌳🌲
Then we drove to the Titanic Memorial Parc in Addergoole. From that area in Ireland 13 persons were travelers on the Titanic, but only 3 survived. The Parc is a monument for all of them who died and is impressive. There are artpieces that are dedicated to them and at one information point you can read the story from every person. It was interesting but also hard because the sink of the Titanic (April 1914) was very tragically. Only 712 people survived and almost 1500 people died because of the little amount of rescue boats. One story that really touched me was from an aunt and her niece. The aunt Catherine McGowan, who was in her 40s, lived in the US for some years and wanted to effort her niece Anna Louise McGowan a better life in America. So she came home to Ireland to pick up Anna and bought the tickets for the Titanic for the two of them. But only Anna survived but could live a long lucky life till she was 95. All the stories and this place were touching and it was heart to leave.
We ate lunch in our bedrooms of the Dolphin Hotel and began watching a new german series called ‚the Race‘ – four Germans try to reach Gernany from Marocco as soon as possible without a phone and no money. 📺
In our midday break our parents took a nap, Laura watched some videos and I learnes a little for chemistry next year.
Our next destination was the National Museum of Country Life in Turlough, a village 40 min away. The museum is located in a beautiful parc with garden houses, a lake and a lot of cute flowers 🌺🌹🌷.
In the building itself we first learned something about Irish history from the 19th centery on, including the Great famine between 1845 and 1847 and the Independence War until the full independence on December 6, 1921. Then the museum contined and showed many important parts of the hard country life of Ireland: they showed a lot of the professions that worked in a village of example the Tailor, Blacksmith, shop owner, shoe maker and the farmers. They showed how almost everything was made by straw: saddles for horses, armchairs, baskets and jewelry. Moreover they showed how much the seasons influenced the people and outlined important days they celebrated. In the museum you could also see traps and boats they used for fishing – in the summer even out on the Atlantic. 🌊⛵
At 5 p.m. the museum closed and we continued walking around the whole area and explored the parc a bit and also saw one old thatched roof house. 🏠
Our last attraction of the day was Westport and at first we arrived at the parking place and heard the bells of the near church ring. It was pretty nice because there sat a lot of birds on the roof top and looked in the exect same direction and as the last bell rang, all the birds flew away. ⛪ 🐦
We walked through the pedestrian promenade and looked into a book shop and then wanted to eat something. But every restaurant in the city center was full or reserved so we went outside of it and ended up in a 4 star restaurant and had a delicious dinner. 🍴
Until 9:45 p.m. we stayed in a PUB and listened to a live band 🎶
We began our day with an Irish breakfast and had the traditional beans, scrambeld egg, omelettes, mushrooms, some potatoes and Laura had pancakes. It was a delicious, giant breakfast!
Then we headed out to the big mountain we can see from Crossmolina: the Nephin that is about 800 meters high and the highest alone standing mountain in Irleand. Laura did not feel so good that’s why she just began the hike with us and went back to the car earlier. But we three others walked one third of the hike, about 5 km in total and got a panoramic view over the countryside of Crossmolina and Lough Conn. ✨
With Laura we made our lunch in the car. Our next stop was a untouristic stop where we first had to cross some cow meadows and the shore of the Lough Conn to reach it: The Errew Abbey monestary that was built in the 13th century and used till 400 years ago but the foundation walls still exist today. It was a magical place and we enjoyes the atmosphere there and the accompanying adventure. ✨✨
On our way back we stopped at a farm and looked at dunkys, sheep and alpakas. We fed the three dunkys with 3 carrots 🥕🥕
And drove back to our hotel where we chilled a bit and slept one round.
At 6 p.m. we walked a round Crossmolina a bit, met the guide dog Kathie and had a delicious dinner in the restaurant of our hotel. Afterwards we went shopping in the supermarket and Laura & Beate bought soft ice cream as a dessert.
Our end of the day was the 2km Tóchar Daithí Bán Trail in the Ballycroy Nationalpark. We drove there 40 min and got a fantastic view of the golden hour qnd the sunset. Then we reached the tourist center and began our walk. We stopped at the top of a hill on two viewing points and shared Lauras and my first Scone together. The atmosphere and vibe was amazing with the panoramic view of the sunset, the ocean and Achill Island. We watched the stars coming and were the only people there and just heard sheep all the time which mowed all the time because they had probably to tell each other very important things. We saw Sirius, Lyra, Kasopaya and the big bear. As the best end Laura and I saw a shooting star on the sky ✨✨🌟💫
We started our day and began packing our luggage. Overnight there was a thunderstorm that had an impact for some electricity in our region but luckily not so bad and we just heard the news later in the visitor center and it didn’t has an impact on us and damaged nothing. 🙂
So we left our pod with sea view behind us, drove by the tidal pool and were sure that we’ll miss this place already. Martin and Beate wanted to buy 4 cans of Irish beer in the shop… But at the checkout the staff said, we have to wait for 15 minutes. And this was no joke, in Ireland alcohol is ony allowed to be sold in a shop from 10:30 to 22:00. Our next destination were the Céide fields, an Stone Age Monument with visitor center. I felt a little ill so I just stayed in the car and took a 2 hour nap and Martin, Beate and Laura explored the visitor center and learned a lot about the life of the people in the stone age there who were farmers and lived there with their animals. That’s how they discribe the monument on their website:
„The stone-walled fields, extending over hundreds of hectares, are the oldest known globally, dating back almost 6,000 years. They are covered by a natural blanket bog with its own unique vegetation and wildlife.“
I felt better soon and continued the open air tour with the others and they told me about the Stone Age lifes of people. It was really interesting and also a lucky coincidence because nature (torf) has protected the stone walls from about 5500 years ago so long that we are able to look at them in the 21th century ✨
After we saw a film and within a recreation of the landscape and how it looked a long time ago in the 360° studio we had our lunch in the picknick area with a nice view with the sea. 🌊
Because one of the employers of the visitor center has recommended another attraction to, we drove another 20 min drive to Down Patrick’s Head, a cliff with a sea-stack that is called Dún Briste, which means „broken fort“.
It was an amazing view and we saw again some sea birds.
Local legend says that when a chief of pagans (german: Heidenhäuptling) refused to convert to Christianity, St Patrick struck the ground with his crozier, splitting a chunk of the headland off into the ocean, with the chieftain on top! (Story from the website www.ireland.com)
We drove to Crossmolina near the Lough Conn and checked into our hotel with big rooms and a lot of space for each of us compared to the other accomandations. In the evening we walked around and ate in the Hinys Pub a delicious dinner! 🍴
We walked around, looked at the „green castle“ of Crossmolina and the St. Marys Church. At our hotel we sat again in the restaurant and drank something and Laura ordered an apple crumble with vanilla ice cream.
The end of the day was for Laura and me a call with a friend from Germany 🙂 ✨
Today we slept a little longer and started our day really chilled with some Duolingo and I started braiding a clothesline with old ropes I found yesterday at the beach. Then we ate breakfast and got ready and walked to the tidal pool where many locals were in. The first few moments in the water were pretty cold (15°C) and we swam a bit around. 🌊
After that freezing bath we felt warm, changed clothes at the pod and walked into the center of the village and ate at Mc’s Bistro and Grill our lunch. The portions were very big and delicious so we were full the whole afternoon. We chilled a bit at the pods, slept or braided or knitted.
In the late afternoon we took our second swim in the tidal pool and this time we all got in, Laura too. It was a little bit easier the second time and the warmness afterwards was amazing. We went on a walk to the city again but the cafè and restaurant were closed so we walked back at the sea promenade and ate dinner at the pods. Laura and I played some volleyball 🏐 and soon we will go to bed and will fall asleep with rain and maybe a coming thunderstorm outside ✨
After breakfast we started a washing machine and went shopping in an Aldi, a german supermarket that also has markets here in Ireland and it was interesting to see the diffrences. We placed our almost dry clothes on furniture in the pod and then prepared everything for our hike we expected to be 2 1/2 hours long.
It turned out that the trail wasn’t so short made but completely worth every kilometer. We started in a small village and walked down a road to the ocean and the views got better and better and we walked on sand paths. At a beautiful bay and beach we ate our lunch and looked at the waves and another tourist who actually swim carefullly there. 🏊🌊
Then we went straigth up a hill (it was not the only one on the way to overcome) 🙂
The next hours we saw wonderful views of high cliffs. And some sheeps with their paint on their backs which chilled everywhere. We tried to feed them with carots but they didn’t want to eat it and were so scared of us tourists that they would run away from us several times we tried 🥕.
Moreover we saw some special birds. Many of the water birds ‚Kormoran/cormorant‘ on the small islands next to the cliffs and in the Moors the ‚Wiesenpieper/Meadow pipit‘. 🐦
It was overwhelming how we stand there in front of this unique views and cliffs and how colossal and giant they stood out from the sea 🌊✨
At our pods again we chilled a bit, did something for school and Beate cooked dinner: rice with champingons we really enjoyed. And we met people of the camping place, for example a man from the UK who cycels a race from the North to the South of Ireland and rode his bike today for over 300 km – that’s so crazy!! And a man from Ireland who has a tidal pool at home and uses it through out the year. He thinks that the 17°C (the summer temperature of the Atlantic) are comfortable. For someome who swims normally in the Mediteran Sea it’s a little bit crazy, but tomorrow we want to try the tidal pool. 🙂
In the evening Laura & I played volleyball 🏐 and fell tired into bed. ✨
These flower pictures are espacially for our grandmother we called today too! ✨
Today we had our last breakfast at our first accomandation at Ireland. Then we washed dishes, checked out and drove about 4 hours to our new at the Nordwestcoast of the ocean. We made a stop at a gas station and at a restaurant in a small city called Ballaghaderreen in the restaurant „The fiddlers Elbow“ – and the meals were delicious! They had a robot called Betty who served the food and it was the first one we saw in real life🍴✨
The whole drive we drove by wonderful nature with such pretty landscapes that were diffrent from Germany. And somewhere tere were sheep and some cows and completed the views like from paintings. 🎨
We arrived in Belmullet and checked into our wooden pod with sea view. After a dinner with salad and good soda bread and cheddar we went to the beach and looked at the Tidal Pool not far away from our new place. We watches the sunset and walked a little bit around.
We started early in the morning with a breakfast and then drove 1 hour to Dublin by car. As unplanned and chilled we were, we arrived at the Guinness Storehouse Museum and wanted to get tickets but they told us that they were almost sold out and the last minute family ticket would have cost around 70€. So we decided to chance the parking space and just took a picture in front of the big Guiness house. 📷🍺
The first real stop we made at a coffee house and drank Cappuchino and hot chocolate☕.
But as we went that way we came across a big second hand store called ‚Oxfam‘ and found a beautiful jumpsuit for Laura and for me the original book of Little Woman in a really pretty version. 📕
Next we went to the St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the center of the city. It was touristic, informative and we learned a lot about the Irish belief, the architechture and history of the building with the help from audioguides. ⛪
For lunch we walked through some pedestrian streets of Dublin and crossed the Halfpennybridge where you had to pay a half penny for crossing years ago. We ate in a traditional Irish restaurant delicious meals and enjoyed the atmosphere🍴 Our next stop was in a pink ‚Gelateria‘ (ice cream store).🍦
Then we walked by the Costum House, an interesting and imposant building and saw the Spire, a 121 m high monument that looks like a needle. And we walked through the Trinity College campus 🙂
At 5:30 p.m. we were again in the St. Patrick’s Cathedral and listened to the ‚Evensong‘, a special mass with a visiting choir, a lot of good music and a wonderful atmosphere ✨✨
We stopped again at a coffee shop and then drove to the Caravans again. We made a diner, cooked noodles for noodle and her family and went sleepy to bed! 🌌
Today we finally had a day to sleep longer so we stayed up at 9 a.m. and a little more sleep made us all feel very relaxed and great because we had some lacks of sleep of the last days to close. After a good porridge we drove to Rathdrum to go shopping in a supermarket called „Centra“ and bought some food for the next days and today. 🎒
Then we headed to Glendalough where we parked at Lower Lake. We began walking down the Upper Lake to a big brook/waterfall up the hill with a wonderful view over the whole vally with the lake. There we ate our lunch at a bench – with yummy cheddar! 🍞 🧀
On the way up the mountain we saw goats, sheep and deer that were very comfortable with our human presence. The whole day the Irish scenery was beautiful and we were overwhelmed by all the great views. We also enjoyed tea and biscuits in small breaks🍪
The last meters uphill were a little challenging for all of us but as we arrived at the top everything was worth it and fhe way back we enjoyed all the wonderful views. 🏞
At 7 a.m. we arrived at the camping place, showered and now Laura & I will play some volleyball and then eat noodels with Irish mushrooms. 🍝
Addition: The evening was very funny. On the camping place are a lot of cats and they are always hungry. So one cute black kitten came and we gave her about 7 noodels and called her „noodel“. Later another cat mum and her kittens came and also got something for their hunger too🐱
