Had a great last-few-days in Ireland. Maaike had always wanted to get to the Powerscourt Gardens in Wicklow (just outside of Dublin). The actual ‘house’ (castle really) has been gutted by fire and partially restored – but the Italian style gardens surrounding are worth a walk around. This we did with my friend Emma Towey, who had a nice chat with Maaike about all things Dutch.
So – while this is late being posted – all of the above was going on in the shadow of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. The main purpose of this trip to Europe was to be in The Netherlands for Maaike’s sisters’ wedding (Femke). No bleedin’ volcano was going to get in the way of that.
On the Sunday evening we booked a ferry from Ireland to Cherbourg, and there we were to be picked up and driven to the wedding. This would have meant a 20 hour road trip just before the wedding. Hardly ideal.
I had rebooked the tickets for Wednesday morning (11:45) and the boat was just incase at 21:00. All the flights up until 13:00 were cancelled, and basically we’d given up. Fortunately my wonderful brother Matthew had been checking up on Aer Lingus – while calling me to say goodbye. He said that flights were going in the afternoon and that we should try to book on.
So went online, checked – and somehow there were seats available. Bonus!!… booked on, didn’t really believe it was going to happen until the tickets were printed out and bags checked through. And then, I still didn’t really believe it was going to take off.
But take off we did, and flew all the way to Schipol in The Netherlands. This pic was taken on the approach in. You actually land at about -10m or something.. not that you can see that. I was expecting it all to be quite flat – but I’d not quite realised just how flat the reclaimed land would be. Still, more to come on that – and all wonderful and unique things Dutch.. ;)
Just above Shankill (my home village) there is a disused lead works. They used to heat rocks with lead in them – and then the lead would vaporise and head up a long tunnel to a chimney. There, the lead would condense on the sides and be scraped off. Good healthy work with, no doubt, excellent pension plans.
Speaking of pension plans (I digress), in Ireland at the moment with bazillions of Euros in Debt the public is getting annoyed that Ministers are drawing pensions before they’ve actually reached the age of retirement. E.G you could do a few terms in office, quit, and then start drawing a pension for 40, 50K Euro. I could be misunderstanding something here – but seems quite wrong. Is this the same in other countries?!
Anyways – I digress..
It’s a nice walk up the hill, and at the top is the chimney. Maaike immediately decided to have a quick little boulder on it – up to the first break in the stairs.
Matt (brother) then had a go – and … interestingly / challengingly went on past the break, and then right up to the top break (quite a long way up).
There were some Scouts playing around at the bottom of the chimney, and I think they were pretty scandalised by such irresponsible adult behaviour.
I hummed and hawed – as, while I enjoy climbing, I’d rather do it with a rope! That said, it wouldn’t do to have ones elder brother show one up infront of ones parents and girlfriend now would it?
So I headed up, while visions of splatting myself just before Maaike’s sisters wedding ran through my head. It’s actually not that bad, the steps seem very very solid, the only tricky part was coming back down past the first break (which wouldn’t have been life threatening anyway). Interestingly there’s a carabiner right at the very top, so I suspect people have & do climb it illicetly.
Lots of fun – thanks Matt for being reckless ;)
So had a really lovely time hanging out with family and friends in Dublin, and great having Mum and Dad back from Uganda so that the family home was ours again :)
Had a great evening at The Comedy Cellar (above The International Bar) with Morgan & Becs, Matthew and Maaike. The compere was excellent – and most of the acts were well worth the 10 Euro cover charge.
Met up with friends (and unexpectedly bumped into Caoimhin) in the Cobblestone. It’s a trad-music pub – well worth a visit if you’re in Dublin (I reckon). Had a *few* Guinnesses, and didn’t do very much the next day.
On the way back from Skellig Michael we dropped in on some old friends of the family (and my old Scout Leaders) Paddy and Jane Glanville.
They have a holiday house (Bach) down on Lough Derg, so we were lucky enough to have a quick boat trip on the Lake.
Emma, their daughter, was as … sharp as ever.. when she said “if your boat is sinking – get Maaike to row”. No idea why – I think she was just lucky. That said, I suppose the Netherlands is mostly under water.
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