We decided the best way to see everything was to hire a motorhome and travel around the country. Unlike Scotland, Southern Ireland (the Republic of Ireland) does not allow for free camping (just pulling up somewhere and staying the night) so we used Safe Nights Ireland to find ourselves some places to stay. We were traveling in the off-season, so most of the caravan and camping parks were closed, but I sent some emails and made some calls and we managed to find many that would open up just for us. We also stayed at a few Safe Nights Ireland's sites (€10 a night) which were usually carparks. We steered clear of the pub carparks since we had the kids, and ended up staying in pet farm (petting zoo) carparks or similar, where we were provided with toilets and in some cases showers- I'll provided details of where we stayed as I go through the trip.
Ireland is a land of contrasts and that was something that we really saw. A country that was formally torn apart by civil war over British vs Irish rule and divided over religion (Protestant vs Catholic), and there were still signs and scars of this, particularly in Belfast. The history of English invasion and battles was shown in the castles and towers dotted throughout the land, and none more so than the fact that the country is still divided into the Republic of Ireland (South Ireland) under Irish home rule and Northern Ireland under English rule. I wont make this a full history lesson about Ireland's past, but I will provide a few more details when I discuss Belfast, as the city is really all about these divides.
The southern part of Ireland is also in contrast to the cities in the north. Both capitals, Dublin (of Southern Ireland) and Belfast (of Northern Ireland) are on the east coast and fairly northern. The southwest of the country is home to a mix of sweeping cliffs and islands and farms and rural villages. It was strange to go from a small rural road that was only just as wide as the van, to the four-lane motorway in a matter of minutes.
For us, the trip was also one of contrasts, an exciting and enjoyable tour around an amazing country, coupled by a series of minor (in hind-sight) disasters.
The start of the trip wasn't a good sign for things to come. I'd come down sick with some kind of evil man-flu and had a few days off work sleeping. By the time we came to Thursday, I was feeling a little better and we spent the evening packing. We were due to fly out Friday morning and we made it to the airport in a reasonable time, but got held up at security for a random check of one of our bags and then for a more serious check of a second bag that the scanners were sure was full of liquid. The bag was pulled apart and scanned multiple times before they finally realized that the two big liquid-filled flasks were actually the binoculars we were taking with us. Since our gates were at the far end of Copenhagen airport we had a 15 minute walk / light run to our plane as it was already boarding when we cleared security. We were last to board (but we did make it before final call). All of our carry-on bags needed to be under the plane as it was full - but that was fine, we had expected it. Then there was a hold-up because someone was sitting in our seat, having misread their ticket. Their seat was a window seat one row back so this required a game of musical chairs on the crowded plane before we finally got seated.
When we landed in Dublin and collected our bags we called for our shuttle from the motorhome company and were told to wait at the specific pick-up point as the shuttle could only collect us from there due to the airport layout. We followed the instructions (set out of the terminal and head right, wait below the glass bridge), and had been waiting for a few minutes before I realized that we had come out of Terminal 1 instead of Terminal 2 and were actually waiting at the wrong glass bridge. This lead to a mad dash to the actual correct pick-up point and we made it in time to meet the shuttle.
We picked up our van without any problems and headed out to our first stop - in this case it was the caravan park we would be staying at, via some shops to fill our fridge.
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| Tom relaxing on his bed (note these photos were taken when we stopped - the kids had actual seats with seatbelts during travel) |
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| Alana reading Harry Potter yet again |
In the end we gave up and started towards our destination, before coming across an even bigger shop with plenty of parking.
After filling the fridge and freezer we arrived at Streamstown Caravan Park where were setting up for the night. It cost us €30 for a site with power and access to toilets and showers. They were officially closed, but left the gates and toilets open for us and gave us the key to the gate so we could lock up when we left the next day.
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| Streamstown Caravan Park under a nice layer of ice |
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| Our trip for day 1 |
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