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Published: December 17th 2006
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Sacre Coeur
A final spot of sightseeing on my last morning in Paris Top o' the morning to you all from Ireland.
I've now arrived in Ireland and have spent the last few days winding down after a frenetic pace in Paris. Now that the pace has slowed somewhat, I have been able to make some updates to my travelblog profile. I've added a number of email address's from from my address book so apologies to those of you who are only now reading my previous two blogs that were published a little while ago. I've also now added some photo's to my previous two entries. Being new to using a travel blog, this has been a trial and error process! I now think I have it worked out, but unfortunately the photos that relate to my second blog entry about Paris are all in my first entry that talks about Singapore/JB!
As I indicated earlier, I'm now in Ireland, but my departure from Paris was not without its drama, although not for me personally. Just as we were getting ready to board the shuttle bus to the airport, one of the other young Aussie girls (the first time I bumped into some Australians in Paris was at this bus stop) discovered
that her handbag with her Oz & UK passports was missing. Despite there being a dozen of us around in broad daylight, we realised that two motorcyle thieves had taken off with it. This was a sobering reminder to us all to be very careful and cautious during one's travels. Whilst we were able to assist with embassy telephone numbers, phone cards and give some moral support, nothing could take away the pain this girl felt after not only losing passports, but also knowing that without them it was not possible to catch the planned flight in about 3 hours. Her friend also stayed behind with her and we all felt terrible about it.
But the bus had to leave as scheduled and we got to the airport at Beauvais (80km north of Paris) in good time. After arrving at Shannon airport near Limerick, it has been wonderful to see my brother's wife and my niece for the first time in over 18 months. My niece Emma is just over 2yrs and is just gorgeous. She is talking now and comes out with some cute sentances. Its fun to watch her wanting to do what the grown ups do
like helping to clean up in the kitchen but she loves doing the things the little girls do as well, like playing dress ups with all her dolls. I'll have lots of photos to show when I get home.
I've spent my first day in Limerick relaxing in my brothers home but did venture in on the bus to check out the Limerick shopping centre for a couple of hours. Limerick is about the size of Bendigo. The shopping scene here reminds me a lot of home with the busy traffic and the large number of people doing their christmas shopping. There are some good museums and castles to be seen around Limerick too but all in good time. I'll be here for just over 3 weeks and I don't need to cram it all in quickly like I did in Paris.
The weather in Ireland has not been clear as it was in Paris and my brother tells me that its been raining constantly for the past 3-4 weeks. The news reports a lot of flooding in various parts of Ireland and the local rivers are gushing with water.....quite a contrast from home. I'm certainly feeling the winter chill a lot more in Ireland and I think the thermal clothes I have packed will come in handy.
We did score a sunny day yesterday although it still did rain on and off quite frequently. Greg, Michelle, Emma and I spent a nice afternoon taking a coastal drive just north west of Limerick. Drove through some quiet seaside villages and saw some rugged coastline. With all the recent rain trickles of water are flowing over the cliffs in some parts but the coastal winds blow it back giving a seaspray effect.
This afternoon we are heading off to spend the night with Michelle's parents in nearby county Tipperary. I'mlooking forward to seeing them and Michelle's sisters families after 5 and half years.
Tomorrow we will spend the day in Dublin taking in the Christmas atmosphere and off course, doing some shopping. I did not expect to visit Dublin whilst I was here and I did not see any of the shops there on my last visit, so this is an unexpected treat that Greg and Michelle have planned. I'm also looking forward to baby sitting my niece this Thur/Friday but in the meantime I might to some local sightseeing around the Limerick area
In case I do not logon again this week, I wish you all a happy and relaxing Christmas.
Sian leat from Limerick
Alison
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Matt Carra
non-member comment
Glad to hear you're enjoying it Al
Hi Al, On behalf of Mary and I we wish you the best for Christmas and a few Irish ales on us :) Cheers