St. Andrews

August 21st -- We decided to take a break from the shows today and take a day trip to St. Andrews. While the kids don't really understand all the "hype" around St. Andrews, they were excited about the opportunity to play golf. St. Andrews is an easy, one hour train ride north of Edinburgh. We actually arrived in a small town outside St. Andrews and then took a bus to the town. We arrived at the bus station and made the short walk to St. Andrews Links and the Old Course. While we had only travelled an hour north, the temperature was notably cooler and the wind was really blowing..classic St. Andrews. We had read that they had a small pitch and putt area called "The Himalayas", which is actually set up on the ladies putting green. We had decided that would be a great place for us all to "play golf at St. Andrews". We spent some time around the 1st tee box and 18th green of the Old Course and the R&A clubhouse and then begin walking over to the larger, public links clubhouse for lunch. We actually passed the Himalayas on the way and saw a sign that it would be closed from 1 - 3:30 today. We are glad we saw that because we now needed to stop and play before lunch. The kids were really excited about playing golf, especially Austin. He was always too young when we were back in the states, so this was his first experience. Even though we were only given a putter and were on the ladies putting green, the combination of wind, classic St. Andrews undulating greens and location right by the 1st hole of the old course, made it feel much more formal. We have been trying to figure out if Austin is right or left handed. He seems to eat and do most things right handed, but he kicks a ball with his left foot and seems to "swing" left handed. Luckily, he had a blade putter, so when he walked up for his first putt, he lined up left handed. There was our answer...or so we thought. Throughout our round, he seemed to go back and forth between right and left handed. I guess we will have to wait and see. We had a blast but were ready to get out of the wind by the end of our round. It was a little hard to get Austin off the course, but we finally did and headed to the clubhouse for lunch. It was a good lunch with views of the first tees of the other St. Andrews courses. After lunch, we spent some time shopping in the pro shop. We then headed back outside. While in Edinburgh, we had bought the kids what is billed as "the world's smallest kites". They were little tiny, full-functioning kites. They had brought them with them so we decided that with the wind, it would be a good time to fly them. Well, apparently "the world's smallest kite" is no match for St. Andrews wind. We got Abby's kite up first and almost immediately, the wind ripped it away. It managed to get caught on the roof of a nearby building. We spent about 5 minutes trying to get it down. Luckily, the wind was so strong, it kept blowing the kite over the edge of the roof, while the string was hung in the shingles. We finally got the kite down. In the meantime, Austin had managed to get his completely tangled up. Well, so much for kite flying. We headed back to the Old Course and took some pictures on the Swilken bridge. We then went up by the 18th green and watched a few groups finish their rounds. We then headed into the main town area of St. Andrews and found a great bakery for an afternoon snack. After our snack, we headed back to the bus station for our journey back to Edinburgh. When we got back to Edinburgh, we had to go by the Fringe box office on the Royal Mile to pick up our tickets we had pre-ordered for the rest of the week. Of course, there was another street performer putting on a show, so the kids managed their way to the front of the crowd and got front row seats. It was a great show that lasted a little over 30 minutes. By the time it was over, it was almost 7:30. We'd had a great day and now headed home for the evening.

The Fringe, day one.

August 20th -- We got up and dressed this morning and left the apartment a little before 10am. We had decided to see a production of Hansel and Gretel. We arrived at the venue and bought our tickets for the 10:30 show. The venue looked to be a building of one of the colleges and the room was what would be considered a large conference room. It was set up with folding chairs and had an area set up in one corner for the production. The room probably only held 20 people. With so many shows, they figure out how to set up shows everywhere. Regardless of the set-up, it was a great show. It was a combination of a live show with music and a puppet show, with Hansel and Gretel as the puppets. The show was just at an hour and the kids really enjoyed it. The cast was 6 college aged guys and girls. Again, they were really good and we were off to a good start with our show selections. We left the show and walked up to the Royal Mile. By the time we got there it was raining slightly so we decided to find a restaurant for lunch. We found a place for lunch and were glad to get in out of the rain. Before we had been able to get into the restaurant, we had been handed a couple of fliers and one was for a family-friendly comedy show. It was located just a 1/2 block down on the Royal Mile from where we were eating and was at 2:00pm. We decided this sounded like a great idea given the weather. After lunch, we had a little time to kill so we went into the Children's Museum, which was also located on the Royal Mile. It is basically a museum of children's toys from all over the world. The best part was it had a few toys to play with so it was a great way to kill 30 minutes. We left the museum and walked to the Radisson to see the next show. The show was set up in one of the hotel conference rooms and again, was very small, with just a small corner of the room set up for the performers. The show was completely sold out and the room was packed. The show was called "Who's Afraid of the Brother's Grimm". It was, as their bill said, a "magical mix of comedy, music and HanselRumpelGretelPunselCinderDumptyLocks". It was hilarious and again, kept the attention of the kids. So far we are 2 for 2. After the show, we walked a little further down the Royal Mile in search of a Christmas Store so Amy could buy a Scottish Santa. We found the store...and the Santa. By the time we exited the store, it had stopped raining and the sun had come out. We walked back up to the "performance area" of the Royal Mile and quickly the kids found some more shows to watch. One of the shows on the stage was a guys a cappella group. They were really good and we decided we would like to go see them. Unfortunately, we found out they were already all sold out through the weekend. So, as Amy and the kids sat down to watch another street performance, I searched the guide for one more music show for the day. I found a show called "In The Pink", an all-female a cappella show. Best of all, it was starting in 20 minutes and was nearby. So we all headed to the show. It was in a much larger venue, with actual theater like seating. While the girls were good, 3 shows was probably a little much for Austin. I ended up having to take him out because he couldn't sit still. We weren't sure if it was a 3rd show or because it wasn't "fast paced" enough for him. So, Amy and Abby finished up the show and then once it was over, we all headed back to the apartment with another fun day in Edinburgh under our belts.

The Royal Mile

August 19th -- After a long day of traveling yesterday, we had a slow start to the day. It was nice to not have to rush this morning. Our apartment is located about 5 minutes from the Old Town of Edinburgh in an area that is full of bed & breakfast's. There is a bus that stops right out side our apartment and goes directly to the Old Town. So we caught the bus around 11am and headed into town. We decided to walk to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch today. Its funny, because at this point, all of us can basically order without opening up the menu. We enjoyed our lunch at the Hard Rock and then walked to the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is, you guessed it, a mile long stretch of streets that runs between the Edinburgh Castle and The Palace. It is basically a pedestrian street filled with shops and cafes...and as we would come to find out, the home base for everything Fringe. We have ended up in Edinburgh during the Edinburgh Festivals. We didn't know much about the festivals and just ended up here during this time by coincidence. We have come to learn that the Edinburgh Festivals is actually a group of festivals that actually occur during the same time period. The Edinburgh International Festival is the original and most organized of the festivals with the very best performing art companies and orchestras from across the world. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe was started the same year (1947) as the International Festival and was originally a way for small productions to "borrow" the audiences that would be in Edinburgh and use smaller, unused venues. It has now grown to be larger than the International Festival itself, but still keeps its informal and slightly erratic approach. Anyone that can raise the money and find a space can perform in the Fringe. This year, there are over 2000 shows that can basically be described as small, community theater type productions. There are comedians, musicals, musicians, operas, ballets, children's shows...you name it. So, with a little background now, let's get back to our day. So we arrive at the Royal Mile and are almost immediately overwhelmed. There are people everywhere pushing fliers or playbills. Many of them are dressed up or "in character". We quickly realize that this street is basically one big "live ad" for many of the Fringe shows. There are also 2 stages set up that host "mini-performances" every 20 minutes. It is an opportunity for the productions to advertise their shows. On top of that, there are organized street performers putting on shows as well. So the kids were completely overwhelmed. They would literally run from one performance to another, up and down the street. We asked a lot of questions of the various people and basically found out much of the information that we shared above. In addition, we found out about how to get tickets and find the various venues. So we filled the entire afternoon watching all the various street performers. We finally pulled the kids away by dinner time and came back to the apartment for dinner. After we got the kids to bed, Amy and I reviewed the program guide (of again, over 2000 shows) and began to map out some shows we wanted to see.

Scotland Bound

August 18th--Not a whole lot to write about today since the entire day was spent making our way from Dublin to Edinburgh. We left the apartment at 7:45am for the Dublin port and caught the ferry at 8:45 into Holyhead, Wales. It was another quick 2 hour ferry. They again had a kids movies playing so the kids were entertained and the trip went by quickly. We arrived at 10:45 and caught a train at 11:30 out of Holyhead. After 3 train changes, we arrived in Edinburgh about 5:30. We went ahead and bought our tickets for our trip next week to London before getting in the coolest taxi ever. See pictures for a description. We were greeted at the apartment by Leslie. She was very friendly and helpful. After she left, we ventured out for dinner and ended up at a Chinese Restaurant. We thought that was really funny considering we aren't far away from our trip to Asia. I think we'll get enough of that kind of food soon. After dinner, it was late and everyone was tired. The kids took a while to wind down tonight because Abby insisted on sleeping in her own room for the first time in months. Our apartment has 3 bedrooms so she loved the idea of "her own room". Austin was not a big fan of this idea as he's gotten quite used to sleeping in the same room as his sissy. After we got them asleep, Mike and I got all caught up on the reality tv show Big Brother. It is a great season!

St. Stephen's Green Park

August 17th--Today was a nice, relaxing day of kid time. We got dressed and headed to St. Stephen's Green Park. We had to return the rental car so Mike dropped me and the kids off at the park while he drove to the airport to return the car. The kids and I headed straight to the playground area. We stayed there until Mike met up with us. From here, we left to go eat lunch at Fire Restaurant. We were really excited about eating here because we had heard that "they have red and white wine and even bring it to your table". That is a little inside humor. We had a friend, Ashley Jaye, that was in Dublin on business and was dining at Fire. Rachael Ray's travel show was there and Ashley was interviewed. The above statement was her profound insight into what makes Fire so great! Although, it must have done the trick because she made the show. Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience this because they were not open for lunch. So, we headed to the pub we had eaten on our first day in Dublin. We were all really hungry and knew this particular pub had great food (we all had their chicken pot pie). After eating lunch, we bought our final Ireland green shirts before heading back to the park. We finished up our last day in Dublin having more fun at St. Stephen's Green Park. Then it was back to the apartment to pack up for our trip to Scotland tomorrow.

Cliffs of Moher

August 16th--We planned to leave early this morning, but were held up by me waking up with a migraine. Luckily for me, when I have one, it doesn't take long for it to pass. We were ready and in the car by 10:00. We headed west of Dublin today, all the way to the other side of the country, for the Cliffs of Moher. We drove about 2 hours before trying to find something to eat for lunch. We pulled into the first "big" town we saw on the map, got gas and looked for a restaurant open. We were unsuccessful in this town so we kept driving about 30 more minutes when we saw a Subway sign. We found the Subway and it was open. So, about 12:30, we enjoyed our Subway sandwiches in the town of Loughrea From here, we continued our drive about another 1 1/2 hours. Most of the drive was similar to yesterdays...a little bit of highways and a lot of narrow-ways. We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher around 3:00 and there were definitely a lot of people here to see them. It's probably a really popular site in this area on Sundays because nothing else is open. Anyway, the wind was unbelievable so we bundled up and exited the car. We first walked into the Visitors Center which is built into the cliff. After looking around for a little bit, we ventured out into the wind and up the cliffs. The view was spectacular and scary at the same time. We stayed in the areas that had walling around the edge. The Cliffs of Moher are 214 meters high at the highest point and range from 8 kilometers over the Atlantic Ocean. We did make it up to O'Brien's Tower which stands near the highest point of the Cliffs at 214 meters. After many pictures and getting beat by the wind, we walked back down into the Visitors Center for some hot chocolate. Although the wind was intense, we were so grateful that it wasn't raining. Then, we walked into the few shops that were at the Cliffs before heading back to the car. We were at the Cliffs for about one hour. We got back in the car and made the long drive back to Dublin arriving at our apartment about 8:00. Even though we spent most of today in the car, we can at least say we saw a lot of Ireland and got our money out of renting the car. Also, when we began this trip, Mike was unexperienced at driving a standard. He can now declare "mastery" after spending 2 days on narrow roads, shifting with his left hand and driving on the "wrong" side of the road.

Waterford

August 15th—We rented the car for 2 days so that we could go exploring Ireland over the weekend. Our first stop…where else, but Waterford! We left the apartment about 9:30 this morning and headed south of Dublin. We followed the wonderful GPS all the way to the Waterford Visitor Center where we arrived right at noon. We had heard that the factory in Waterford had closed down for good and that was quickly confirmed by the Information desk. Apparently, an American investment firm has bought the company, primarily for their brand. The factory had been in decline for some years and they shut it down causing the remaining 600 people to lose their jobs (down from a high of 3000 workers). The people of Waterford aren’t sure if the factory will ever open back up again. That is very unfortunate for the city, but the Waterford Visitor Center was still open. We walked around the center looking at the magnificent crystal pieces and saw a short video on the making of the crystal. Then, we ate lunch at the cafeteria right there before doing any shopping. After lunch, we went into the shop and really enjoyed our time. By the time we finished up in Waterford, it was a little after 2:00 so we decided to drive an hour to Cashel to see the Rock of Cashel. We took a lot of what we would call backroads. They were very narrow roads with a lot of trees/bushes lining them; no shoulders on the roads. We made it to Cashel about 3:30 and it was very easy to find because the Rock of Cashel towers over the town. We made our way up to it and went inside. It was definitely neat to see it. It can basically be described as the ruins of a castle and cathedral that sits up on a hill (the Rock of Cashel) overlooking the area. It was something different for us to experience and the kids enjoyed rolling in the grass down the hill (It took Austin 24 rolls to go from top to bottom; Abby 21 rolls). From the Rock of Cashel, we walked down into the town of Cashel and got a snack at a bakery before heading back to Dublin. We left Cashel close to 6:00 and arrived back at the apartment close to 8:00. The kids quickly took baths while I prepared their dinner. They ate their dinner and went to bed. It was a great day of exploring Ireland in the car.

Seeing Green

August 12th—Our first full day in Dublin was a slow day. We took our first green double decker bus into town. The bus dropped us off right in front of Carroll’s Souvenir store. It was amazing the amount of green and Irish stuff that was in this shop. It is by far the biggest souvenir store we’ve encountered so far. From here, we walked down the pedestrian shopping street, Grafton. We ate lunch on a side street at a Pub and had great Irish food. The kids had chicken pot pie, Mike had Shepard’s pie and I had the traditional all Irish breakfast with white and black pudding. After lunch, we continued to wander the streets going into several stores along with bookstores. We were looking for some future travel books that we successfully found. After shopping, we walked across the street into Trinity College where we went in to view the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four gospels of the New Testament. It is from around 800AD and contains some amazing illustrations and calligraphy. Looking at it, you would swear it was done by machine, not by hand. After touring the Book of Kells, we walked to St. Stephen’s Green. It is a large park that has a children's playground. The kids played at the playground for a couple of hours and really enjoyed being able to communicate with the other kids in English. From the park, we took the bus back to our apartment for dinner and bedtime. Still no computer though…However, it has been nice to have English TV. We've been able to watch old comedy shows like Friends and other BBC shows. It's nice to be able to watch something besides CNN International.
August 13th—One of the first thing Mike did this morning was call to check on our computer. He was told that they were working on it and to come by about closing time which is 6:00 p.m. So, we decided to head out for our day in Dublin. We took the bus back into town where we visited the Tourist Information Office and picked up a bunch of information on the area. Then, we walked to the Temple Bar area of Dublin. This is a very colorful area with a pedestrian street and many local pubs. There is an actual Temple Bar with a Temple Bar Trading Company store next door. We went inside the shop to check out what items they had in there, but didn’t purchase anything. From here, we went to eat lunch at the Hard Rock Café which is right in the heart of the Temple Bar area. After a great lunch, we walked to Christ Church Cathedral and then St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The kids were such good troopers through the churches that we took them back to St. Stephen’s Green to play for a while. We had to cut their play time short though so that we could get the computer. We all took the bus back to the apartment, but Mike and Austin immediately went with Naomi to pick up the computer. Abby and I stayed back at the apartment watching some TV. About 30 minutes after the boys left, there was a knock on the door. I answered it and it was Naomi with Austin. Naomi told me that the computer was going to take about 30 more minutes so she brought Austin home and Mike would take a taxi back. This was at 5:30 and Mike didn’t arrive back to the apartment until 8:30. Mike said the guys were good, but very disorganized. They were having problems getting the data back on the computer and kept getting distracted by other issues. So, 30 minutes turned into 3 hours, but the computer is fixed. Mike had to spend the rest of the evening getting our computer back to “normal”.
August 14th—We headed out this morning to go back to Carroll’s, the souvenir store. We had strict instructions from Lisa to get her all set-up for St. Patty’s Day. So, we did some shopping before lunch. We also walked back to Temple Bar Trading Company to make a purchase so we ate at a local pub in the Temple Bar area. After lunch, we walked about 20 plus minutes to the Guinness Storehouse. It was well after 2:00 by the time we arrived here. We spent a couple of hours touring the brewery before enjoying our free drink at the end. We left here about 5:00 to get to Hertz before they closed at 5:30. Well, we arrived on time, but the downtown Hertz didn’t have any cars to rent. So, we hopped into another taxi that took us about 45 minutes out to the airport to rent a car. It was probably about 6:30 by the time we got in our Ireland car….steering wheel on right. Luckily for Mike everything else is pretty much the same in the car except you also have to shift with your left hand. So, we pulled out of the parking lot having to continuously remind ourselves to DRIVE ON LEFT. It was definitely not what I would call a relaxing drive home, but we made it home safely. Actually, Mike dropped me off to pick up fish and chips for dinner while he took the kids home. I got dinner and walked back to the apartment. We ate dinner, watched a movie and off to bed so we could get up early for our road trip tomorrow.