Midterm Break at Avon Ri

Once again, I am vowing to catch up on posting about some past trips!

I'll start with the most recent trip, which I took with the kids to Avon Ri Lakeshore Resort and Adventure Center. Avon Ri is located on the shores of Lake Blessington in County Wicklow, 31km southwest of where we live in Dublin.

The playground.

This was our second trip to Avon Ri. We went last Easter for 5 nights after I found an amazing deal on Groupon. I had hoped to return for Easter this year, but it was all booked out by the time I called. Boo. Seeing as the kids seem to have an inordinate amount of time off of school this year however(2.5 weeks at Easter, a full week midterm break in February, another full week in May, and a June bank holiday weekend) I decided to book 4 nights over the February midterm.

(the zipline treehouse on the left)

Last year, over Easter, the weather was spectacular and the place was buzzing with activity. The kids said it was their favorite holiday ever. We rode bikes along the 6km lakeside greenway to Russborough House, explored their "Fairy Trail", kayaked on Lake Blessington and visited the pool at least once a day. It was sunny and warm and a perfect getaway.

The balcony of the cafe

This trip was a little different, but still wonderful. Being earlier in the season, it was very quiet at Avon Ri. This meant however, that we had the pool all to ourselves most of the time. Because it was quite a bit colder than last time, we didn't venture down the greenway or onto the lake this time. We still had a nice relaxing break, in peaceful tranquility, surrounded by beautiful scenery, in a house more spacious than our home in the city center! What's more, is that though the kids were on break, I was not. So I commuted into the city!!

The pool (jacuzzi, sauna and steam room) all to ourselves

I got a taste of the commuter lifestyle, and I can tell you I am seriously tempted. Half the drive (the Wicklow part) was lovely with winding country roads, little traffic and beautiful scenery. The second half, well, that was typical Dublin City traffic. Not so fun. But, I would seriously consider doing it regularly (if I were the one with the regular schedule, that is) in order to have more space and live in the beautiful Irish countryside!

Waking up to a frosty morning

We love Avon Ri and are seriously considering a week there in the summer!

a weekend in Terryglass, Tipperary

I know, I am way behind on chronicling all of our excursions around Ireland. It is my plan to play catch up very soon (story of my life, I think!) We just got back from a lovely trip that I will write up asap, but for now I want to share a lovely getaway we took a few months ago to Terryglass (on Lough Derg) in County Tipperary.

I have a soft spot for Lough Derg. My dad had a house in the lovely town of Garrykennedy when I was younger. I made some good friends down there and especially love the scenery in that part of Ireland.

I was trolling AirBnB, as I often do, for a nice place to visit and happened on a lovely looking cottage in Terryglass. 

We love old cottages in peaceful, rural locations. Somewhere to escape from the bustle of the city, relax and chill out. We also like to be able to bring our dog along...

This cottage was everything we usually look for and more! Firstly, the cottage was traditional but had all the nice, modern conveniences. It was perfectly clean and outfitted with everything we could need. It was in a nice, tranquil location, not too far from the lake.

The added extras that made it especially great: the sauna!!!! The childrens toys, books and movies that were in one of the bedrooms. The shed full of bikes that we could use. The go-cart!!!

 My kids spent hours riding up and down the country lane on the go-cart.

The play area with a bin full of balls. The fairy door. The swingset. It was a fabulous place to bring kids and that makes for a happy family all around. I also personally appreciated the free-range eggs.

One thing I would like to mention is that there seemed to be 3 or 4 cottages here. No one else was staying in the other cottages while we were visiting. I mention it as it seems like a great place for a group to go to, to have some shared space and also some separate space. I know that if we had friends staying in one of the other cottages, my kids would have had an even better time!

I highly recommend staying in Niall's restored stone cottage in Terryglass.

Tags: AirBnB, Ireland, Travel, Terryglass, Tipperary, Cottage, Vacation

Cottage in Rathfriland

One of the reasons we moved to Ireland is that we really want a little cottage in the Irish countryside. Ideally we want something remote, rural and peaceful, with enough outbuildings to use for workspace. Til we have our own cottage though, there is nothing we love more than escaping the city to explore parts of the countryside that we have not yet been to. With plenty of long weekends and school breaks throughout the year, I am constantly trolling AirBnB looking for our next adventure. Last week the kids had a midterm break and so we decided to explore "up North." I had seen Tullyquilly Cottage on AirBnb a while ago and fell in love with the pictures.

It looked and sounded amazing and it was in an area that we have only really passed through (less than two hours from Dublin, no less!). We were also lured by the prospect of a wood-fired hot tub. So, off we went for three relaxing nights in Rathfriland

The cottage itself was a beautiful space. Unlike most traditional cottages which are usually laid out as several small rooms, the inside of this cottage was a big open space. It was a bit like a loft in a cottage. This was nice for our family to both spread out and be close simultaneously. There was a fabulous collection of musical instruments and vintage toys. The kitchen was the perfect combination of old and new: I enjoyed cooking on the old aga-style stove, especially with the added bonus of under floor heating.

I could see that the grounds would come to fabulous fruition in the summer and be especially magical, but even in winter we still loved the setting, visiting the miniature donkeys (Paddy and Cara) and the chickens. There were potatoes, jerusalum artichokes and the yummiest winter squash ever from the garden. The swings and trampoline were a big hit with the kids and the wood-fired hot tub did not disappoint. Our gracious host had it fired up and warm for us to use on our first night and we used it every night of our stay, even when it rained!

Though we spent most of our time relaxing (and working) at the cottage, we managed to venture out and explore the area a bit, including a beautiful hike in Tollymore Forest Park (where they sometimes film Game of Thrones), a picnic at Murlough Nature Reserve,  a drive through Newcastle and a scenic drive through the countryside around the foothills of the Mourne Mountains. We loved our getaway to Rathfriland and hope to return. Highly recommend it!

Some snaps from our trip:

Tollymore Forest Park

Murlough National Nature Reserve

 Back at "Tullyquilly Cottage"

Visiting Cara and Paddy down the lane from Tullyquilly

The disc swing

The seat swing

Nice light!

The trees are bare, but the ambiance is still special.

The best part!

Check out Tullyquilly for yourselff: AirBnB

Clara Lara Fun Park

Today I took the kids to Clara Lara Fun Park in County Wicklow. 60 acres of fun in the Wicklow mountains. Only adults and children 12 and under allowed. We had a blast! If you happen to visit Ireland with kids, May-August, take them to Clara Lara.

Banquet at Bunratty castle

After our lovely day visiting Kilkee beach, where we found a huge colony of jellyfish hanging out on the sand-

we headed back to our cottage to get ready for our evening activity- a banquet at Bunratty Castle. I had been to a banquet at Bunratty when I was about 13 years old and it was one of those truly memorable experiences that sticks with you always (and not just because, back then, they gave me snuff to snort and some to take home. Whooooo.) 

Anyway, I think we have visited Bunratty on almost every trip to Ireland. The kids LOVE it there. Its not just the castle, but there is also the "folk park." Some info culled from the shannonheritage website:

Bunratty Castle
Welcome to Bunratty Castle, the most complete and authentic medieval fortress in Ireland. Built in 1425 it was restored in 1954 to its former medieval splendor and now contains mainly 15th and 16th century furnishings, tapestries, and works of art which capture the mood of those times.

Bunratty Folk Park
Enjoy the sights, sounds tastes, scents, of this enchanting place as you stroll from house to house or around the charming village street complete with school, post office, doctors house, hardware shop, printers and of course McNamara’s pub!

Bunratty Walled Garden
The gardens at Bunratty Folk Park have been restored to their former glory. The gardens are modeled on the original Regency period garden which supplied fruit, vegetables, and flowers to Bunratty House (built in 1804) and are refurbished in typical Victorian style. This is your opportunity to experience one of the great gardens of Ireland.

The Bunratty Collection
Browse the castle and marvel at the finest collection of medieval furniture in the country which brings to life a vital part of our Medieval past.  You can explore at your own leisure or join in a guided tour with our experienced guides. At night time the castle is the impressive setting for the medieval castle banquets which are held year round.

As I had regaled my children with stories of this fabulous banquet that I had once attended at Bunratty, DD was adament that this was how she wanted to celebrate her sixth birthday. After many years of childrens' birthday parties that involved hard labor, who was I to argue with no work and bottomless (or so it seemed, at least) jugs of house wine.

There are two seatings for the banquet: 5:30pm and 8:45pm. When I went to book, 5:30pm was sold out, so we went with 8:45 (knowing that we would be on Spring Break and my kids are not sleepers.) So, we headed down for our 8:45 banquet and were allowed stroll around the folk park, though it was closed to the public.

At around 8:30pm we entered the castle for our banquet. After being serenaded at the entrance by a bagpiper, we entered the main hall where the adults were offered a porcelain goblet of mead (Mead is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, and frequently fruits, spices, grains or hops.) Yum!!! The children were also offered a goblet of juice. Everyone was happy. While enjoying our refreshments in the main hall, we were treated to delightful music by a harpist and violinist.

We soon moved up to the dining hall, where we were treated to a four course meal (lovely vegetable soup, ribs, chicken with potatoes and vegetables, then dessert) and lively entertainment. There were jokes at the audience' expense. Incredibly beautiful singing. People taking photos with their giant iPads (oh, rewind, am I the only one who struggles with this? people whipping out their giant tablets to take photos! Who carries a bag that big around? get a camera! anyway...)

My daughter was brought up on stage to contrast her youthful 6 year birthday with the 60 year old who was also celebrating his birthday (by being taunted and sent to the dungeon.) It was a fabulous evening. My children had the time of their lives (and were oblivious to the tawdry jokes at the 60 year olds expense), and I think they were the only children at the 8:45pm seating. We had a fabulous evening and highly recommend a banquet should you visit Ireland (or this area). I think you have to be a visitor to attend. No one that I know who lives near there,  it seems,  has ever been to one.

Cottage in Clare - part I

Its been a while since I posted and I now have a bunch of catching up to do. Last month the kids were on Spring Break for 2 weeks. So we were able to take a nice little week-long vacation to county Clare. Then, the week after Spring Break, there was a "bank holiday." There is a bank holiday every month! That's basically a Monday off, so you get a three day weekend. Every month! For the May bank holiday, we took a little trip to Wexford. So, we had two trips in a row and I was itching to blog about them. I really wanted to do so while I was immersed, but I had no internet in either location. Grrr. There's always a lot to catch up on after a trip, so I am only getting there now.

I won't try to cram everything into one post because we did a lot of touring around while we were in Clare and that would be too overwhelming- for you and for me!

We chose Clare for our trip because DD wanted to celebrate her birthday with a banquet at Bunratty Castle. I also have friends in Clare and generally love visiting the Shannon region. There is also The Burren, caves, Cliffs of Moher, beaches and plenty of "touristy" things that we love to explore. I had a little trouble finding a cottage for us to rent. Though cottage rentals are abundant around Ireland and generally pretty cheap in April, it was hard to find one that allowed us to start our vacation on a Friday. The standard turn-over is Saturday. Bringing the dog was not problem, but starting on Friday was. I looked on vrbo, airbnb, a whole bunch of cottage rental sites, but ended up using sykes as they were really helpful and found me a cottage at a great price, that allowed me to start our trip on a Friday.

Clare is a county on the west coast of Ireland. We rented a cottage that was somewhat central in Clare and would allow us to tour around. It took about three hours to drive there. The cottage was a small, traditional two bedroom farm cottage, just perfect for our little family.

The cottage was in a rural area, near the village of Kilmihil, mostly surrounded by farms. The day we arrived, the weather was beautiful, so we were able to take a nice walk around our new hood.

On the second day, we decided to drive over to the beach. It was about a half hour drive to the town of Kilkee. Again, we had lovely weather and a really nice day at the seaside.

Next up, Bunratty castle!

Mother's Day at the Dublin Flea Market

Today, for Mother's Day, I insisted we all go to The Dublin Flea Market in Newmarket Square.

I really like this maket, because its small and accessible (well at least compared to The Rose Bowl or even Pasadena City College Flea Market) and has a lot of fun stalls to browse. Its easy to pop down for an hour and see the whole thing. There are a few stands with mid century furniture, but mostly bric a brac and clothing. 

There are coffee and food stands and the Dublin Food Co-op is housed in the same building. The co-op is a pretty amazing source of organic and Fair Trade food and household items. I am blown away by the selection and prices here. SO not missing Whole Foods! Anyway, this was how I wanted to spend Mother's Day. I am in search of the perfect chair for my living room and didn't find it today, but I still had a nice time.

After the market we visited my lovely Donnybrook Fair and The Natural Bakery to get a lazy dinner that I don't have to cook.