Northern Ireland Northern Ireland was a bit different. No more dolls houses (odd, large rectangular houses, very symmetrical that look exactly like a dolls house on a piece of flat land - everywhere in the area of Ireland we drove in). Stopped by armed Police at the entry (via a back route) to Omagh and had to show Ken’s passport. The Police stations in all the towns we saw were large and well protected (fences, barbed wire etc). Great little B&B. Visited the Ulster Folk Park (really good with people in each little house telling about life “in the olden days”. Drove to the Giants Causeway the next for a walk with lots of other tourists then on to Derry. No one wanting to see anything in particular - except I wanted to see the murals ... read more

Hi from Granada. We arrived last night on the train from Madrid. Typed up some blog on the train about the end of Ireland and Madrid (great art) but now need to find wifi access to send it. Anyway Granada is lovely. a bit cooler than Madrid - thank goodness, my big mistake of the trip being that I expected Autumn and what we have had so far I would consider to be an incredibly good summer. Have a garden which is nice and close to markets. Out now in search of gin and tonic since we have a laden lime tree in the garden. Having a couple of quiete days after doing lots in Madrid. ... read more

Amazing what constitutes luxury. Today luxuury is sitting in a lovely library at a real PC with a real office chair, table and mouse and typing at the same time as Sarah (rather than each patiently and politely waiting for each other...). I have just discovered a little cluster of comments on the blog - oops sorry, didn't notice them before (getting the habit of rapidly copying emails to the C drive, pasting replies to previous emails and pasting in the blog text. Photos have been more tricky but I think I have a better way - will try next time I take 'little' (the laptop) to the hotel, not convinced Ken will be thrilled with the Kempo photos I pasted of him!) Kaen and Lucy are wandering in the castle grounds and Kate was last ... read more

Birr, Ireland part 2 Well, it is Sunday evening and I’m sitting here at 6pm outside with a glass of wine funally getting around to typing something up to put on the blog. Dinner is in the oven (I’m feeling very domesticated here, as is Lucy who has made 2 batches of muffins since we arrived). The weather is unusually warm and sunny. Ken had a massage yesterday from a sports physio who said the weather is the best they’ve had in years. I’ve no real idea on the best way to do this blog. Will do it day by day for the last week as we’ve done so much, probably wont always. Girls all relaxing into the trip. Bit of texting going on to friends at home and Sarah is always keen to check and ... read more

I have a few minutes to type before our taxi arrives to take us from the airport hotel in Dublin back to the airport to collect our rental car. It was a very long day yeasterday with a a 12 hour flight then 4 hours at Heathrow and then a 1.5 hour flight. oops here's the taxi........ read more