Well I guess Ireland lived up to expectations in that it was largely wet. And green.
We visited three towns whilst we were there: Cork; Limerick; and Dublin. Each town being very different in its culture and thus experience.
We actually stayed just outside Cork in a country hotel set in a golf course with weddings every day – it was certainly wedding season! This meant that we had to drive to get to our experiences which included a wonderful wild-life park: Fota Wildlife Park. http://www.fotawildlife.ie/. As you can see from the webpage they were great fun to visit. We saw herds of giraffes, flamingos, orang utans, tigers and other large beasties. and generally had great fun.
There was even a wallaby mum who brought her baby onto the general path and just lay there and sun-bathed.
One of the more interesting areas was their newly laid out seal enclosure, where you could go downstairs to an area which was at water level to see the seals and penguins. it looked very weird from the path of course as they appeared to be in the water…
This wildlife park is only about rare and endangered species and breeding. Some animals have become incredibly rare in the wild due to habitat loss and poaching etc.
We also went to Limerick whilst in Ireland as well as Blarney and Dublin.
Blarney Castle is great. They have made a wonderful garden and generally a good experience for all the family especially those people who knit! Now why would that be you wonder?
And to explain you would need to see what the knitters have done – a group of ladies have wrapped the tree trunks in fancy knitted cosies, some embroidered, some crocheted and others just multi-coloured.
And then the kicker – they went into the garden and adorned an arbour with pom poms!
Apart from the pom poms the garden is really nice with a wetland area and other good features including a witch’s cavern and children’s activities and nice planting.
There is even a poison garden which sends you aware paranoid about what you are growing!
And no, none of us kissed the Blarney Stone!
The Bouncing Tigger Reads 