Ireland

The Houseboat Family

(we got to be Enid Blyton characters)

There are cousins in Ireland and we have visited everytime we are in Europe. We tried to meet up in the summer but holiday plans, distances didn't coincide so a quick long weekend trip at the end of the Herbstferien was the solution. 

When the kids were little I found an Enid Blyton book called "The Family Collection" and it has been a bit of an ongoing theme over the years. It is post WW2 and the family buy horse drawn caravans to live in and have all sorts of wonderful adventure that involve the English summer, robbers, circus performers, tea and bread and honey. What more does an adventure need. Note, the story about a trip to Morocco has some pretty dated perceptions. One summer they swap the caravans for a houseboat called the Saucy Jane and this has always been my favourite story. So with a trip to Ireland and its canal system in mind I developed a cunning plan, rallied the kids to endorse it then got the Herr on board too (pardon the pun).

That is how we became the Houseboat Family for 2 fabulous days in the tiny town of Sallins. Thanks to google I found a houseboat you could get to from Dublin airport by bus and train that was big enough and still available. So the plan was to fly from Duesseldorf to Dublin, then down to Sallins on the train. Luckily Herr F checked the train station location and we were able to prepare ourselves and be patient as we needed to include a bus ride across Dublin. As the traffic wasn't bad this ride only took 40 minutes and we got to see some of the most important sites so it was a win win situation. We got train tickets then waited for our platform to be announced then did the mad rush with the peak hour commuters to platform 6a which is right at the back of the station. We got seats as the train pulled out and after reading the station indicator concealed our fear of being on the wrong train from the kids. We were on the right train it was just displaying a totally different schedule so we sat back and enjoyed listening to the man in the seat across from us set up a business meeting on the 3rd of the month which was magical. His accent was so lovely to listen to.

After a short trip we arrived in Sallins and found the Roisin Dubh our home for the next two nights. The plan was just to enjoy some quiet relaxing time so even if it rained being on the houseboat (which stayed docked) was the adventure. Luckily Sallins has at least 4 pubs, a couple of supermarkets and a chip shop so all our needs were met.

Life jackets weren't needed but the lovely owner got them out to help keep them warm if they fell in.

The weather was cold and getting colder but bright and sunny. So of course there was a little walking involved but also much relaxing too with the help of books and nooks to read them in, games, the fireplace, the sound system and various CDs on board and watching the other boats pass by as it turns out we lucked upon the one weekend in the year this part of the canal is heavily used as they hold a regatta in Naas.

Yes there was bread and honey, lashings of it. Oh, I just realised I didn't get my fill of excellent Irish Soda bread.

Then the second morning our cousin arrived in his campervan with beans and sweet potato mash for lunch. He accompanied us on a wander along the lock and then we warmed up and tasted some more local beer and the kids tried the other flavours of the free cordial. After a warm and cosy nights sleep we head off to see the rest of the cousins via a side trip to Nenagh, including its restored castle, a food and wine festival and the necessary stocking up on Halloween carving pumpkins as Ireland takes Halloween seriously. This is our second trip in Ireland in the camper and it is a hoot.

It was freezing and we found a great little book shop and stocked up on English language books had a fabulous lunch whilst talking to the rest of the cousins and family in Australia and sampled the food festival. Then it was home to be spoilt with home made pizza made outdoors in sub zero temperatures, great conversation, computer games and English language TV for the kids and the next morning pumpkin carving.

Then there was a walk in the woods the next day before we headed back to Dublin and made the trip back home to Germany arriving home at 3am the next morning. I then had to make the dreaded first day after the holidays absence call to the kid's schools which involved 20 questions and the necessity of a doctor's certificate if they were sick. Ok, so they weren't sick but incredibly tired and as we don't get to Europe very often seeing Irish family is important so, how about that explanation and yes we will provide a written explanation the following day. I may have called but I hand balled the written part to Herr F. Luckily notes were accepted and no further school board follow up action was taken. 

 Thanks Ireland and Irish family, looking forward to spending summer with you in Australia. And we can confirm you can't take Hurling sticks as carry on luggage luckily we hadn't purchased any.