Thursday, October 29, 2015

October was an exciting month.

I did not get much sewing done this month because my husband and I traveled to Ireland.  We went for a 12 day trip, we left the west coast on October 2nd and after a stop over in Amsterdam we landed in Dublin on October 3rd.  This was the first time I have ever traveled to Europe.  As a matter of fact this is the first time I have had a passport.  We were not able to schedule this very far in advance since getting my husband birth certificate fixed took me 4 months and we did not get our passport until late August.

It was an adventure driving on the left hand side of the road and a real adventure trying to find our way around.  I have a great sense of direction and have to admit that for the first time in my life I was lost in Dublin as we attempted to find our hotel....it only took 5 hours of driving around.  At one point we ask a police officer for assistance and he told us 'that we could not get there from here'.

I don't have all the pictures downloaded yet but here is one of my favorites from Dublin.  We were on a double decker bus when I got this one.



We visited Trinity college to see the Book of Kells and the long room.  No photos allowed there.

We then moved on to Kilkenny and wondered the medival town.   Those pictures are on my husbands camera.  Then onto Waterford and visited Waterford Crystal and the Viking triangle.

After Waterford we went to the West and visited Killarney.  We were suppose the do the Ring of Kerry but decided instead to visit Muckross House and the National park.  This is Torc Waterfall that we hiked up to.



This is Muckross house from a distance.  It had beautiful gardens.  The house has 135 windows which is what it was taxed on.  It was giving to the Irish government with the surrounding lands for a park in the 1930's.



After Killarney we headed north and visited the cliffs of Mohre - very impressive sight.


By far the place we enjoyed the most was our stay in a castle.  We stayed at Ashford Castle.  We saved the best for last and were glad that we had not gone here first.   Ashford Castle was voted the #1 hotel in the world just last month.   Of course for what two nights cost we could have stay another week in Ireland but it was a once in a lifetime experience.


In addition to staying in the castle, we also cruised on the lake and went to the Ireland School of Falconry.  That was my husbands favorite part.  He was not going to handle the bird but after a while he decided to try and I had trouble getting Wexford back.


After Ashford we had to head back to Dublin to fly out the next day.  What a return to earth.

When we got home we were off again to help watch grandkids during a wedding.

After returning home I was finally able to pull out my UFO for October.  I got it done today.  I still need to press it but the sun was shining and I took a picture before the rains return.  We are suppose to have a very wet next few days.  Hopefully I will get some additional sewing done.  I return to work soon and would like to get the snapshot block for September and October done.

The UFO is from last year.  It is the FatQuarter Shop Wishes BOM.  I only had six of the blocks done.  It is nice to have another UFO out of my sewing room.