Boherbue

On Saturday, we finally drove into Boherbue, the town where my maternal great-grandfather Carroll was born. I was happy enough be in the area where a fair part of my DNA came from and wonder how many people that I saw at the café, supermarket and pub were related to me as 5^th or 6^th cousins. Dee asked the barman and he was quite helpful. In fact, he drove me 1 minute down the road (leaving the bar unattended) and showed me the green house where a gentleman called Loui could help me in my search. Loui is a 80+ year old retired teach who is a font of local knowledge. I later found out he was out of town on a holiday. I was lucky enough to not need his services.

There didn’t seem to be any people left in the town called Carroll and I wasn’t really planning on knocking on their door and embracing them as long lost kin. That’s too ‘National Lampoon European Vacation’ for me.

My Mum told me that the original home was probably knocked down but had sent me 2 photos of the place taken in 1984. I was able to show them the photos on my laptop.

The bartender’s grandfather and mate were at the pub so I showed them the 2 photos. The grandfather was able to give me very exact directions to the place as it was still standing. Since it was only in the late afternoon and the sun was setting in only 5 hours we drove to look. I’m generally dubious of locals giving directions (eg Go down the road and turn right at the tree) but his was right on the money.

Comparing the photos to the building, you could see that the original walls had been given another layer of concrete and the original doorway had been made a window and another window was made as a new door with a little entrance coming out of the house.

Even though the window panes and frames were gone, the doors were locked. That didn’t stop Gene and me climbing through a window to look inside. Knowing you were standing in a house built over 150 years and lived in by your ancestors isn’t something that most non-indigenous people in Australia would normally experience.

The bartender was pretty chuffed.

We decided to stay in the town Church’s carpark as it was close to the pub and near a take-away shop that sold hot, garlic potato chips with cheese (OMG!). The pub was hosting a 21^st birthday party that night, so I saw the youth of the area socialising when I was uploading photos and FBing.

While I was in the pub, one of the boys tried to open the driver’s door which was locked but his mate reminded him that the bloke in the pub owned the camper van, so he ran off. I seem to have that effect on people. Later on in the night, someone stood on the back step but departed when I called out, “Would you kindly fuck off!”

J

Today, we drove to Dublin and intended to see the Bloom flower festival but with 100,000 people expected there, we decided to visit the National Museum of Ireland. Whilst good, we decided to find a caravan park for the night and not continue our exploring of the city. Tomorrow we’ll have a full day of exploring Dublin, especially seeing another page of the Book of Kells and a chocolate factory.

And it just hailed!

Two Irish Coffees with a side order of Sinn Fein

After a nice night at Buncara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncrana) and an exchanging of read books with unread ones at a public park (with howling cold winds) we headed towards Rosses Point (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosses_Point), a town near the city of Sligo (said Sly-go) that was being lashed by atlantic winds.

A morning tea diversion to the Grianan Aileach, a 2,000 + year old stone defensive position for the locals (http://www.welovedonegal.com/grianan-aileach-grianan-ailligh.html) was fantastic as was the lunch time diversion to Ardara, a village that does traditional weaving (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardara,_County_Donegal). We bought a meter of wool for Dee and Gene's shawls. There was a fair bit of drooling over the hand loom and twill wool.

After being buffeted by the Atlantic winds through the night, we headed towards Carrick-on-Shannon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrick-on-Shannon) but was diverted again at the very start with the 5,500 - 6,000 year old Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrowkeel_Megalithic_Cemetery). It was a great opportunity to point out to Gene that we probably had ancestors who have been here when it was actively being used.

We showed up at the Thatched Inn (http://www.andersonspub.com/) too early, so we spent the day looking at the town, shops and the town's famine cemetery. The pub was very nice but we couldn't meet the owner as he was meeting Jerry Adams the leader of Sinn Fein. Dee even thinks he was coming to the pub later the night. There was a funeral of a popular man the following day, so he may have come for that. From the comments of the few people there, it obvious it wasn't the place for an impartial discussion about the troubles..... We finished our excellent Irish coffees and retired for the night.

After a morning of domesticity (ie washing and drying of clothes) we headed for Cauldwell. As is the main theme for this adventure, we were again distracted by field of drying peat and a Norman keep (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenry).

The Norman keep was awesome. When I measured it out, the original keep was exactly the same size as the one we were going to build outside of Brisbane. It was great to see what it really looked like.

Tomorrow we are seeing Bunratty castle and Boherbue, the town that my great grandfather came from. 

Ireland

With relatively few grumbles from the girls, we were up at 5.30am and on the road half an hour later to board our ferry to Ireland. All went went smoothly (even the sea which is a massive bonus for me).

We arrived at the stop for the night by about 10am, so we decided to move on and see the Giant’s Causeway. Dee decided that she needed a sleep more than walk around an awesome, cold, wind blasted world Heritage site, so I took Gene. A great place but I think they built it up too much but I’m not a geologist.

We drove on and left Northern Ireland to Ireland with the Euro and km/hour signs. Tomorrow will take us through the North West of Ireland and we should end up around Sligo.

The country side is green with definite field boundaries of thick hedges. You can only wonder how long those boundaries have been set. There seems to be far more wind turbines than England/Scotland which is saying a fair bit. It’s disappointing the lack of them in Australia.

We may be a day ahead of schedule in Ireland but we have a fair bit of travelling to do. If we can split a longer day into 2, that would be great.

When we visited last in 1999, there was still armoured trucks on the roads of Belfast. It looks so much different now. Definitely for the better, M

uch more relaxed. Phew!

Some photos from Scotland

Edinburgh, we missed you!

York was a wonderful experience. We were able to drop Springy (the campervan) at the mechanics and have one of the mechanics drop us off in town and pick us up again. The Jorvik Centre was great. I had a bit of a chat with one of the re-enactors that works there about re-enactor fighting vs HEMA and the normal political things that re-enactors get up to.

I did buy a fabulous purple top hat that will go wonderfully with both my Regency and modern purple suits.
J

I walked the walls of York whilst Dee and Gene did some visual shopping. We met up, picked up Springy and set off for the next leg of our adventure.

Our next leg of our adventure was trying to fill the original gas bottles of Springy. The issue being that one bottle didn’t have the normal valve and the other backup bottle wasn’t of the ‘swap and go’ brand. We were able to ditch those 2 and get 2 that we could.

After only a little searching we found our next stop that had closed down a month previously. That wasn’t so bad as we were fairly self-sufficient. The answering machine on the number for the pub we rang was quite funny as the manger of the pub for 7 years basically told the company to get fucked.

We drove to Lindisfarne (http://www.lindisfarne.mobi/) the following day but as the tide was turning I had to race to the site, get pictures, go ‘Ohh!Ahh!’ and get back to the girls to cross the causeway before it was flooded. A beautiful place.

We drove to Edinburgh the following morning and made great time. I refueled and I don’t know whether if it was because I was tired, annoyed that Dee had told me to get her a coffee or a bit of both but I put half a tank of diesel in our unleaded Springy. About 160m down the road I realised my error and spent the rest of the day getting Springy towed, drained and refueled. We decide to push on and just go to our stay for the night which was at the Falkirk Wheel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel). Dee and I had been through Edinburgh back in 99, so it wasn’t totally devastating.

The following day we were able to meet up with one of our Australian friends in Dundee who was doing her Masters in forensic anthropology (I hope I got that right). It was great to see her again and Ash was able to walk us around Dundee.

The next day was a big day of driving through the beautiful country up to Loch Ness. Dee and Gene were patient enough to let me visit the Culloden Battlesite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden). I wasn’t prepared for the level of detail given in the site’s centre. It was an amazing experience. Dee and Gene had the opportunity to have a kip and read books.

At the Betrix Potter Garden café (http://www.birnamarts.com/index.asp?lm=3&cookies=True), we bought a few more books, one being ‘Twilight’. I’m an unjustified critic of the series as I’ve only watch the first movie under duress. To become a justified critic, we bought the book. Gene has already read it and is disgusted in the whole thing. Please wait out for her critique on the book.

Loch Ness was wonderful. This is our 3^rd trip to Scotland and we have finally reached Nessie! In the morning walked around the local area and to Castle Urquhart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urquhart_Castle). One of the locals said it was only a 20 minute walk……. I’m sure I walked 10km that morning. We didn’t go into the castle as it would have cost half our spending money for the day, so we went ‘Ohh! Ahh!’ from the road and drove south.

We’re now just 20 minutes away from the ferry terminal at Cairnryan that will take us to Northern Ireland tomorrow at 7.30am. *Insert evil laughter here about the early start for the girls* 

To York!

You know, I don’t mind getting lost driving around. After all, it does take us down some interesting paths.

What I can’t stand is not having the correct address for the final destination at the end of the day. Spending an extra hour each day trying to figure out if the GPS or the guide book (or both) is playing silly buggers with me is infuriating.

I did a fair walk around a War of the Roses battle site in the morning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Towton). We drove to York to find something but saw a tyre shop instead. We ordered a new tyre but it wouldn't be delivered until 3 pm so we went searching for the night's stay but the address was ridiculous.

We finally found it but it wasn’t up to Dee’s standard, so we went looking for a caravan park but the cheapest was 25 pounds. After spending most of the afternoon trying to find a launderette and a caravan park, we waited an extra 1 1/2 hours for the tyre to be put on. I went walking on the walls of York and Dee and Gene went shopping.

Tomorrow, we visit the Jorvik Centre (http://jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/) the Train museum and head further north.

On our continuing jaunt north, further secrets of the campervan become revealed, such as the little role away screen for the top bunk that stops the sun from streaming in from the sky light. A piece of information that would have been useful to know for the last 6 nights.

As we go, we are doing small improvements to the camper, Some voluntary, some not so:

·         We started to waterproof the corners and exposed wooden areas of the toilet/shower.

       

Replaced one dodgy fluro light with an LED.

·         Changed a tyre when the tread came off when we were on the highway. Luckily, the tyre was still inflated so we were able to limp into the petrol station 400m down the road. 2 new tyres are on the cards.

·         When the tyre blew, it also caught wiring under the van and ripped it off. We checked the lights, brakes and indicators and they all work, so we have no idea what it was for…….

·         Driving through the narrow street of Nottingham to find a park to visit the Information Centre created a situation where I accidentally hit a side mirror of a parked van which then smashed their small triangular passenger side window. I was able to ring the business and they were quite good about it. They were on the same street and they gave us a coffee, took down our details and the lady told us her life story. Lesson learnt! Don’t go driving into a big city looking for car parks for a camper. There aren’t any. We also lost a small strip of siding on the camper but it just adds character.

·         We decided that the van needed a tune up and service. That went very well and the camper drives much better and has improved the fuel efficiency by almost 150% (it was awful before). The mechanic also pointed out that the previous owners had attached coil springs to the old leaf springs to raise the arse up higher in very dodgy way. Possibly because to replace the old leaf springs would cost about 350 pounds. We are doing that on Tuesday.

·         The speaker and stereo work well but if you turn them up high enough to hear it over the running of the engine, you get the speakers vibrating making it hard to hear the music. Buggered how we’re going to fix that one without replacing them.

·         The fridge, stove and burners work well on gas but I’m not sure how efficient the fridge is on electricity, if at all.

·         The table and bench seat are good but we’ll have to re-glue some of the joins as they seem to be coming apart. Not in a critical way but a bit of TLC is needed if we are using them for the next 130 days.

·         The toilet was working great until yesterday, now the blue water isn’t running when you press the button to flush. It’s electrical, so we may have to get that seen to by an professional camper person if we can’t figure it out ourselves.

·         And the grey water tank seems to have a leak which we will patch up soon. It saves us emptying the tank but people may get a bit stroppy.

This may seem to be a bit of whinge but it’s more of a list of things to work on over time. We knew it wouldn’t be perfect when we bought it, so some of the points aren’t unexpected.

Sherwood Forest is heavily conserved now and touristy. Apart from the fact that they don’t know if there was a Robin Hood, they are basing the entire selling point on ‘you have to decide for yourself’. The main attraction is the ‘Major Oak’, an oak tree about 1000 years old that the trustees don’t want to die. It was a bit like seeing a 100 year old person on life support but not being in anything more than a vegetative state because the kids don’t want him to die. I did walk around Sherwood forest in medieval clothes which was fun.
J

We stayed in a town near Halifax on Saturday night. It was a great little village where most of the people are probably related. The scenery was beautiful.

Sunday night has us at ‘The Crooked Billet’ a little pub/restaurant near Towton. A massive battle occurred here during the War of the Roses reporting to have cost the lives of up to 28,000 men. I’ll be taking a walk around the battle site tomorrow.

We were going to visit the Eureka! Children’s Museum but we realised it was more an educational playground for 6 year olds so we decided to visit ShibdenHall which was fabulous.

The next 2 days have us at York to visit the Train Museum and the Jorvik Viking Centre.

We then have 3 days to get to Dundee in Scotland!
J

No longer in Kansas, Toto

With Friday being 4 weeks since we left Australia, I can definitely say, ‘We’re no longer in Kansas, Toto.’

In Turkey there was an accepted understanding that things would be different, the main barrier being the language. Overall, the time in Turkey was wonderful, a great mix of Western and Middle Eastern cultures.

So far in the UK has been great. I didn’t realise it before but Dee doesn’t like the crowds of a big city and wasn’t enthused to travel on the buses and trains every day. On top of that, Dee was recovering from a sinus and chest infection that she picked during the waiting period prior to the Anzac dawn service. Dee spent a few days in the warmth of the apartment whilst Gene and I traipsed through London. Luckily, Dee was better to see The Tower of London on the last day.

We were able to find a campervan under the budget ceiling we had. Obviously, it isn’t perfect but it’s still good and suits our requirements. We are putting it in for a full service and a tune-up so we’re fully aware of the potential problems. I did learn not to keep the choke out for too long, unlike the advice given by the person who sold us the camper.

One of the strange things that I’ve realised when drawing the cash to pay for the camper is that most UK businesses don’t like handling 50 pound notes I was able to get some of the cash converted to 50s but the rest are in 20s. I think that most 50 pound notes have a high risk of being counterfeit and won’t take them unless they know the person well. Asking for 100 pound notes, even in a bank, is like suggesting to purchase an item with livestock..

I think we figured out most of the peculiarities of the camper van by now and are looking at doing small improvements to make sure it’s in a good condition when we sell it in September. I really don’t want to run it into the ground.

Me being me, I’m trying to figure out the fuel economy of the camper. I think we were being too optimistic with 10km/litre but we’ll see how we go driving at a more sedate pace and with a tuneup. I think we’ll be getting half the efficiency I expected which will increase the fuel expenditure but that will simply come out of daily budget which is fairly robust.

I’m also keeping track of our expenditure and dragging Gene into to do some extra math. *Insert evil grin here*

I’ve always had a fascination with Meerkats and we were bitterly disappointed that we couldn’t get Meerkat insurance. We’ve been practicing the accent and everything! As compensation, we found that the UK has Meerkat jelly babies and we adopted a Meerkat doll from a charity shop (read Op shop). He hasn’t been named yet but that will occur sometime soon.

And Gene has a monkey onesie which is adorable. It’s also started conversation

We finally worked a way to run the MP3 player through the camper’s stereo, so we now have our music instead of the local radio or any dodgy CD we may purchase.

Leaving London to the village of Widdington went well, even if the GPS wasn’t letting me pick a locality outside of Albania. I’ve finally figured out how to change countries, so it’s all good now. The Fleur de Lys pub at Widdington was what you expect for a small village. After the barman served us, he then served his grandmother, a gentlemen then his father. Nothing like hording DNA in a village……

A walk in the morning saw a fox, rabbits and a herd of deer. It was very exciting. The path in the forest I was following had signs suggesting that I should stay on the path and not wander off it. I’ve read enough Grimes’ Fairy Tales to know not to.

The area is full of flint! It makes me just drool. They build fences, churches and houses out it! I just want to run a tempered steel bar down a flint fence to see how many sparks I could make.

We were hoping to catch up with an Australian who has made home in Ely, Cambridgeshire. Unfortunately, with the lack of internet connection and the will of the Gods, he wasn’t available to catch up on the day we were passing through. It was a great shame as he was one of my groomsmen in 1999. We did see the amazing Ely Cathedral and visit the home of Oliver Cromwell, more by luck than anything else.

Tomorrow after the tune up, we’re off to Nottingham. I’m trying to talk the girls into dressing up in medieval clothes for the day but I don’t think I’ll have much luck….
L

Update: When the camper van was being serviced, it was noticed that a extra coil springs have been very dodgily attached to the body and rear axle to give it more lift. We’re trying to get a costing on replacing the springs and how long it will take. We may not do it here but further down the road. We’ll find out more this afternoon.

The Tate and Globe

Hello guys, Gene here.

Today was very exciting. This morning we went to the Tate Gallery to see some modern art, which was a nice change from pale women sitting in fancy armchairs and marble statues. 

After that, Mum went home (not that exciting) and dad and I went to see Shakespeare’s Globe!! It wasn’t as big as I had imagined, but much more impressive. We learnt that we were late for our tour of the place, but we still went and saw “The Merchant Of Venice” which is a story filled with romance, money, lies, and Religion. It was an experience of a life time. Most of the language took my brain a while to comprehend, but I got there eventually. (Not that bad, considering the constant change in English over the years.) The dresses and other costumes were beautiful. It was amazing, but my feet hurt because we had been standing up for the past two hours. A Lady behind us collapsed from the lack of blood flow to her feet.

Tomorrow we are seeing the Victoria Albert Museum tomorrow. We also found our campervan!! It’s really yellow. We still haven’t found a name for it yet. I’m voting for Springy. It’s a long story. We are picking it up on Monday.

Well, that’s all from me, dear readers.

The Museum of London

Dee is still resting and Gene wanted a day off, so I went out by myself today. My main goal was to visit the Museum Of London and try to catch up with an English FB who was attending a scooter gathering.

The day was fantastic. Being able to see the original shoes, axes, belts, etc that I've been basing my reproductions on was amazing. I didn't knowingly let out any fangirl squeals but I may have bounced in happiness. The issue of not being able to talk to anyone about the shoes was frustrating. Still, it was an awesome experience.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shoes-Pattens-Medieval-Excavations-London/dp/0851158382

Unfortunately, I missed meeting up with my scooter riding friend by minutes but I'm sure I passed him as there were about 200 scooters waiting at the lights to go for their cruise.

I also had a chance to see the Old Bailey and St Paul's which holds the tomb of Lord Kitchener.

This afternoon we started making phone calls about 4 possible camper vans. We'll start the visits after Monday's public holiday.

Tomorrow, we visit the Ritz, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the Eye. Hopefully, Dee will be well enough to come. We're putting off the places where Dee wants to visit until she's better.

The Streets of Monopoly

Alex here:
Things aren't going so badly here in London. Dee picked up a sinus and chest infection just before we left Turkey but she's been resting for the last day or so. It could be much worse ad we were expecting the cold weather to impact upon her. I've been taking Gene out to ensure we see the parts of London that Dee is happy to miss or she has seen before but Dee does need to see the camper vans that we'll be spending 5 months in. It does take a toll on her.
:(

We do have a few good leads for a camper van but you never know about them until you see it and take it for a drive.

We share an apartment with an American who is currently doing consulting work for a local VW dealership. We only see him briefly in the morning and a little bit in the evening. He skypes his wife and children everyday as they live in the US or another part of the UK.

The days have been full with visits to the Wallace Collection, National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the oldest toy shop in the UK and quite few other places. I have to be careful not to infect the girls with ABC (Another Bloody Castle/Church). We have our Heritage passes but we shouldn't use them too so as they are only valid for 14 consecutive days each.

Recently we have spent the days on the posh streets of the Monopoly board. It's been great.

We still have quite a few places to visit but we have 10 days left in London before we go north.