Slovenia

Click here to see our Slovenia video on you tube

And just in case the video doesn't work here are a few of our favourite photos.

Atlantic Crossing

I'm so glad we decided to do this! 

We took so few photos and none of the Atlantic wildlife we saw, but here are the few that we did manage to  snap.

 

 

 

No photos of our fancy dinners, but here we are on one of the dressy evenings.

 

Brendan took a few photos when he went on a visit to the Bridge with the kids' club. I'll try to dig out the camera and get them on here.

Despite my reluctance to go "on a cruise" (and my insistence that we call it a "crossing", haha) it ended up being a great experience. We're so glad we decided to do it! Of course there were some things that really were a bit pompous but we managed to relax about it and enjoy all that luxury.

Some of the highlights, in no particular order...

Tadhg learning to swim
Multiple pools to choose from
Whales, dolphins, porpoises, sharks, birds
Chatting with a knowledgeable bird watcher 
A very good lecture series by an astronomer and good Q&A session
A couple of interesting evenings with Sir David Frost during which I learned a lot about Nixon
New friends for us and boys
Sunrise from the hot tub on deck
Lots of food options (though the wine was a bit pricey)
A couple of child-free fancy dinners in smart clothes (yes, I like to do that once in a while, and Steve scrubs up nicely!)
One cloudless night for stargazing
Coming into port in New York City, standing on deck with thousands of people, including some crew, feeling the excitement, sparing a thought for history and all the people who had done this before, under different circumstances but maybe with a teeny bit of similarity- I am a new immigrant after all :)
Coffee and a pastry every day by a window in the Irish Pub, watching the waves (Steve)
Investigating the selection in the library (Siobhan)
It didn't sink
The boys' enthusiasm and excitement (until about day 6 that is!)

You can't say what I just deleted. Silly! (Edited to add- I wrote that we made a baby! Why can't I say that?)

 

We arrived into Brooklyn docks in the early hours on one of the hottest days of the year, spent ages getting through immigration due a problem with my visa, took a taxi to La Guardia, had a few hours to kill in a tiny airport (ouch!) and finally arrived into Ottawa in the evening.

Welcome home!

Two Taxis & Three Trains Later.......

Well here we are in Glasgow, two taxis and three trains later. With less than a few weeks before we depart for Canada, we hade to use up some of my vacation days from work. So, in our usual way of packing in way too much, we booked a multi-purpose trip through Scotland and Slovenia. Our trip started with the taxi and train journey to Glasgow. From the house we grabbed a taxi to the Mons train station where we scooted up to Brussels. Jumped onto the Eurostar to travel under the Channel to London. Walked to Euston Station and boarded the Caledonian Sleeper which runs over night. One we got off the train at Glasgow Central, we grabbed one more taxi in order for us to pick up the hire car and just like that, we rang Uncle Paddy's doorbell 16hrs later. Once in Glasgow, Siobhan and Paddy got to packing up his flat and I took the boys to Loch Lomond for some rock throwing into the lake, the Sea Life centre and finally an indoor soft play for play, snacks and milkshakes. By that point, we where all together (Siobhan, the boys, Caitlin and I) before Paddy and I want to go and watch the footie (ITA vs DEU) at the pub. Just a bunch of words so we'll try to add some pictures soon. Time for Paddy's graduation in a few hours.

 

coastal cycle

A holiday in Norway.....

...without the kids.

Well here we are enjoying life in Norway. Caitlin and Billy where gracious enough to come and watch the boys so Siobhan and I could get away for a short break.

First stop on the agenda was Hafjell, one of the ski resorts north of Lillehammer where a few of the '94 Olympic events took place. When we arrived, Siobhan decided that a quick 3hr nap was in order while I went and did some skiing.

On day two, we got 5 hours of skiing in. This is a picture on the t-bar as we head for the top and the best run on the mountain.

 

Overall, the weather was warm enough to ski without gloves or a hat by mid-day but that meant the slopes became fairly slushy.

Siobhan editing to add a bit...
The view from the top was spirit lifting, of course, and very different from the Alps. These mountains are quite a lot older so not nearly as dramatic and rugged, but that meant we could see a fair distance. I love being above the tree line, and was dreaming of long distance walking again. We'll have to get round to it one of these days.

At one point, while on the uppermost chairlift, we spotted a large flock of birds approaching from the south and to the east, heading north. We are at 61° here so not that far from the Arctic Circle (as the crow flies), and actually, now that I think about it, this is the furthest north I have ever been. I've often wondered how on earth birds can fly such great distances, and I guess the point is that they are not "on earth". The most incredible thing yesterday was seeing just how quickly they travel. We took our eyes off them as we got off the chairlift, and moments later they were so far off to the north we were just flabbergasted.

If anyone is interested... we were trying to work out what 5° latitude (from here to the Arctic Circle) looks like on the ground, using wildly inaccurate guesses about the circumference of the earth. Anyway, we were close but not that close- so in the interests of noting accurate information, here is a sentence copied from wikipedia...  "the meridian length of 1 degree of latitude on the sphere is 111.2 km or 69 miles." Oh, and the circumference of the earth is about 40,000 km or a little less than 25,000 miles. A bit smaller round the poles. So there you go. We're not that far from the Arctic circle. 

Back to Steve...
After we finished on the slopes, we quickly drove to the opposite side of the valley to have a go on the Olympic bob sled run as passengers in the bob-raft, a square padded sled which actually looked like a blue porta-potty on its side. Nonetheless, it was an excellent opportunity to see what it's like to do the bobsled run. We'll now watch his event on the telly in a different light.

As for the kids back home, although I do miss them, and it would be nice for them to ski, it sounds like they are having a wonderful time with their Auntie Caitlin and Uncle Billy.

a wet week in the west

A walk in the woods just west of Galway City.

We were joined on our walk by a lovely dog who didn't appear to have an owner nearby. He walked with us for quite a while and the boys loved it- I think it was a highlight of the trip because they continued to talk about it for ages.

We spent the first two nights in a hotel in the city before moving to this hostel (above) in Clifden for a night and then back to Galway for a night in another hostel. The first hotel had an awesome breakfast but not much else going for it. The hostels weren't busy and we got a four bed room to ourselves in each one. The only other guests in the hostel in Clifden were five sedate young French people who may have been saving up their energy (and money) for a big night out on New Year's Eve. In Galway we stayed in a city centre hostel so that we could easily walk to the theatre for a pantomime on the last night. Which totally rocked! The boys (all of them) got right into the interactive side of it and yelled and booed at the stage. Will have to take them to more things like that.

We drove around quite a bit, checking out the coast and dreaming about buying a house in Connemara. The rain did stop now and then, for a few minutes at a time, but the rain didn't stop us getting out for a few walks. We stopped at the wee beach above to watch a pair of surfers hit the waves before the sun had even risen.
  

We stopped in a few pubs for lunch or supper or just hot chocolate. Each time Brendan would get out his Octonauts annual and drawing stuff. We also had a couple of nice restaurant meals in Galway.

As the boys ran about at this viewpoint a farmer drove up to check on his cattle. I asked him if he could suggest a beach where the boys could run around a bit. The conversation went something like this...

him.. Ah, yes, down there now, (pointing) just by that headland.
me... And how do I drive there?
him... You can go straight on when the road turns down there. It goes right and then left and then one road goes this way and another that way (arms waving) and then there's a road going straight on when the road forks. It's not straight on mind, just to the left but then you turn right.
me... Ahh, great, thanks. So I don't go left or right but straight on when the road forks?
him... A course there's a whale there.
me... A whale?
him... Yes, a whale.

Now, I don't know why but I thought we were still working out driving directions and started picturing a "biggest whale" like the "biggest axe" or "biggest moose" kind of thing you might find in North America. We carried on...

me.. A whale? On the land?
him... yes, on the land. 45 foot long it is.
me... A 45 foot whale, on the land?  (my brain was working slowly at this early hour of the day) By the road?
him... Well, yes. But you have to walk.
me... We'll be able to see it?
him... Ah, yes, there are a lot of people out there so you'll find it.
me... You mean a real whale?  (he must be thinking I'm really thick by this point)
him... Uhh, yes, a real whale. Beached though, it's not alive. (Kindly pointing out the obvious now- given how stupid I've appeared till now)
me... Wow. Ok. Great. Thanks.

So off we went in search of a 45 foot beached whale. We made sure to tell the boys that the whale was dead long before we got to it. The beach was on Omey Island, a tidal island which was only accessible for a few hours either side of the low tide. We had to wait a few hours and then parked on the mainland, walked across a lovely stretch of sand and along the single narrow road across the island, over a gate, through a field and down the rocks to the beach. Despite the rain there were quite a lot of people out walking on the island and we made a note to come back and visit when the weather is better.

 

It was both sad and awe inspiring at the same time. I thought it looked like a sperm whale but wasn't confident. I asked some others but noone knew. Later that day I read in the paper that it was as a 45 ft male sperm whale that may have been 60 years old. He had died at sea and washed up on Omey Island 2 days before we were there. Sperm whales are toothed whales and Brendan informed us that they eat giant squid in the "midnight zone" (what the Octonauts call the dark depths of the ocean).

After the walk we were all completely soaking and headed to the nearest pub for soup and sandwiches.

On another day, Steve took the boys to the boys to the spot where Alcock and Brown landed after their successful attempt at the first non-stop transatlantic flight. I was a lucky woman and got to look around the shops and buy brightly coloured wool socks.