Bear Monkey Mouse: Buses, Trains, Aeroplanes and a CAMPERVAN!

In the last couple of weeks of the Germany summer holidays when the weather was really lovely, we, yet again, packed up the kids and headed off on a 9 day 'holiday'. I say holiday in inverted commas as our 'holidays' always seem to involve a lot of schlepping, walking and waiting. All, of course for an amazing adventure but never to just lay in the sun and read a book. So all packed and ready, up at 5:30am off we go for one of the sunniest countries in the world... Ireland.

Bus, train then plane and finally we land in Ireland. The poor Mouse didn't understand the Leprechaun joke the passport control chap made and really thought she might not be allowed into Ireland. It didn't help that I had dressed her in green.With many reassurance that she was allowed to continue with us we headed out wondering if the cousins would recognise us and us them as it had been nearly 7 years since we last saw each other. Turns out they were thinking the same thing and that we had nothing to worry about as the family resemblance is strong. We were pretty confused as we were lead by the Irish part of the family past the airport car park and through the industrial area. So being a good mother I asked what the deal was. As it turned out the surprise was we got picked up in their mobile home. So we all piled in and took the long way back to their house.

The long way was brilliant, (thank you hatted driver) and it really was a long way to Tipperary. We saw little towns, even smaller laneways where we all breathed in, and a playground for the kids as we stopped for lunch. We won't mention the dinner stop, suffice to say it did have a lovely pond in the drive and as we watched the trucks filled with cattle pull in we didn't tell the kids it wasn't a farm. I can't complain as

all my children tried out the 'facilities' in the campervan and I sent a couple of the last hours of the drive with my head on the most amazing pillow in the world warding off a headache.

The highlight of the day apart from finding a service station when we had been driving on E for half an hour, and the point of the long drive home was Jerpoint Abbey. The family has an ancestral link to this area and the Abbey ruin is the focal point. The weather was amazing, the treasure hunt for the kids really got us looking around and the tour by an amazing guide filled in all the details. Basically we all made ourselves really at home in the couple of hours we were they and explored every nook and cranny.

By the end of the day kids who were too shy to talk to each other at the beginning were planning who would sleep where and what games could be played and what the dog was called...Jack of course.

In the next week, castles and 1000 AD villages galore were visited,

Lakes were explored and attempts at skimming stones were made,

Storybook images came to life...Enid Blyton's "Caravan Family" of course.

The Shannon was sailed upon,

and many a fantastic meal was prepared and share. Millions of thanks to the Irish crew.

With bags and sunny weather all packed and ready, tearful goodbyes were said (I can always get others to cry along with me) we boarded the bus to Dublin and took the quick flight to London.

Luckily for the kids it is really difficult to find a family hostel in the high season in London so we actually forked out decent money and managed to get a really lovely apartment near Kings Cross. Energy levels restored by a short nights' rest the walking got shifted into high gear. The waiting got left out as we decided that a good overview of the city by foot and Tube was preferable to waiting in line to go in.

Luckily we managed to visit London on the weekend they shut down the major roads for a cycle race so we got to explore Big Ben, Westminister Abbey and Buckingham Palace without traffic buzzing by (yet another reason to praise the humble bicycle)

Trying to pass on my fascination with the Tube onto the kids. Mostly it worked, except when they had to stand up.

As per request from the Bear we visited the Olympic Stadium. Herr F and I were skeptical but it was a worthwhile trip to see a really wonderful public space...until the Monkey fell over and took a sizable amount of skin off her hand, knee and hip so with clouds gathering and many more things to see we headed back to central London.

I love the juxtaposition of the old Helter Skelter slide with the new Orbital viewing tower.

London isn't London without a lion photo!

A fantastic installation artwork at the Tower of London. Ceramic poppies are being installed and it will be finished for Remembrance Day in November.

Sometimes you just have to say yes. They all wanted to go to Legoland so much and after much deliberating we decided on the one in Windsor whilst we were there. To give up one of our 4 days in London to go to a theme park was a parental stretch but as the kids repeated over and over again "Everything was AWESOME" at least if you were under 10 so it was really worth the day.

I suppose we owed them some real kid activity after they came with us to our highlight the "British Museum". It was the one thing we were willing to line up for but some how, probably due to pouring rain and possibly using the exit not the entrance gate (by accident) we walked straight in. I have never been there in high summer period before so was a bit shocked at the amount of people but we had our list of things to see and our very own historian to give the tour.

Two out of three really interested isn't bad. Or maybe she is really, really interested, can't quite tell.

We have just finished reading the first two Harry Potter books with the Bear and the Monkey so a final stop at Platform 9 3/4 was essential. The fact we had walked past it everyday and said the line was too long meant it was make or break on the last morning so an early morning walk to the station just for the photo was in order and surprise, surprise there was no line. Just the way we like it.