Ireland:part 2

Dan and I were hoping to start our morning with a sightseeing walk of Kilkenny, but waking to the sound of pouring rain put a bit of a damper on those plans.  After eating a full Irish breakfast (we even tried the black and white pudding) we headed for our next destination, The Jameson Experience at the Old Midleton Distillery.

I am not a huge whiskey drinker and due to my current state, I did not think I would truly appreciate this tour.  I was definitely wrong.  It was so interesting to see how Jameson was made, right there from the late 1700's through to the 1970's.  Our tour guide was very enthusiastic about whiskey and made this non-whiskey drinker want to sit down with a glass.  It poured during our tour and parts of it were outside.  Thankfully, the folks at Jameson supplied us with ponchos that came in handy throughout our trip.  At the end of the tour everyone gets a good-sized sample.  You have a choice of straight Jameson or a Jameson and ginger with lime.  I tried a few sips of the latter and it was delicous; I may have found my new drink after this baby comes.  The tour guide also asks for volunteers to do a comparison tasting.  Brian was lucky enough to be one of the official tasters.

 

We are all so proud

 After eating a scrumptious lunch at distillery restaurant, we headed about 15 minutes away to Cork for our 2nd night.  I must say that I was not overly impressed with the city of Cork.  I found it to be slightly seedy and being we were there during the week a lot of the stores and sights were closing down as we set out to explore.  The only benefit I found to staying in Cork is its location to the Old Midleton Distillery and to the Blarney Castle. We did find a decent apartment that was right on the river.

View from apartment living room

Ava really liked the coffee table- please note the Santa Ana Star water bottle that my mother has been reusing since we lived in New Mexico; I am sure that is safe.

The next morning we woke to more rain, but we braved the storm and headed for the Blarney Castle.  By the way, the next group of pictures are courtesy of my brother, Brian. I didn't want to take out my camera in the rain.

Yea, we look good.  Thank you Jameson Whiskey for the free poncho, it came in handy.

I read so many mixed reviews about the castle, mainly complaints that it is simply a huge tourist trap. Sure it was touristy, but it was also beautiful and well worth the visit.

 

 

Blarney Estate, built in 1704.  Unfortunatly you can only view the house with a tour.  We didn't feel like paying more for the tour.

View from the top of the castle.  The Blarney Stone is located at the top of the castle.

So...these are the stairs to get up to the top.  They were extra scary when wet.

I had to put in this beautiful picture.

After hearing stories about people peeing on the stone and thinking of all the germs I swore I would not kiss the stone.  Well, you can see how well that worked it.  It was raining, so it had to be clean...right?

After drying off we headed to Killarney were we would spend the next two nights.  I already bored you to tears with this post, so to be continued...I will leave you with a picture of this cute little girl I saw trying on hats.

Ireland Part 1 and Pregnancy Update

After Dan and I planned our week-long trip to Ireland my parents called us to see if they, along with Brian, could join us on our adventures.  Of course we were thrilled for the chance to see everyone and for Ava to spend some time with her family. 

We arrived in Ireland on July 30th and after we rounded everyone up at the airport (which was an adventure in itself), picked up our car rentals (car hires as they call them in Ireland) we headed for our first stop, Powerscourt Estate. 

Our plan was to stop here, check out the gardens, have some lunch and then head to our first hotel in Kilkenny.  There has been a castle on the grounds here since the 13th century. The original castle no longer stands, but has been replaced by the current house in 1730.  Part of the house was destroyed in the 1970s and it has never been restored to its original glory.  Based on recommendations, we chose to skip the house tour, but we were blown away by the beautiful gardens and the views of the Wicklow Mountains in the distance.  There is also a Ritz-Carlton on the grounds and it is breathtaking.  I wish we had booked a night here, it would have been a great place to spend the first night.

 

 

If you ever visit here, I highly recommend grabbing lunch from the cafe.  They had a good selection and when the weather is nice, the patio is a beautiful setting for lunch.

 



After lunch, we headed back into the car and made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Kilkenny. We checked into our hotel, The Kilkenny Ormonde, and then headed out to explore the town.  Our first stop was the Kilkenny Castle.  This amazing castle was built in the early 1200s for the Earl of Pembroke.  It later became the home of the powerful Butler family in 1391 and stayed with the family until 1967.  It was "sold" to the city of Kilkenny for 50 pounds.  The castle has been restored and is open to self-guided tours.  Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures inside the castle. 

 

 

 

Behind the house was a huge lawn where Ava loved running around

 



We found a great playground on the castle grounds that were a gift to the town.


 

My family was super jet-lagged, so we had an early dinner and then retreated to our rooms for the night. In my next post, I will write about our stay in Cork and visits to the Old Middleton Distillery and Blarney Castle and our stay in Killarney. I will write a third post on our stay in Dublin. Don't hold your breath though, it only took me three weeks to sit down and write this post.

Pregnancy Update
I haven't written much on Facebook or on this blog about my pregnancy.  I am currently 19 weeks and with the exception of some aches and pains I am feeling pretty good.  Within this past week my pants have been getting a little uncomfortable, so I started using a belly band or resorting to my one pair of maternity pants.  Maternity clothes shopping is a little limited here, so I had to order a bunch of stuff online. 

Here at SHAPE we do not have a hospital on the base, only a clinic.  The clinic does not staff an OB/Gyn, so I have to go "on the economy" for my visits.  I was not happy with my first doctor and the care I was receiving, so I just switched to a hospital which came highly recommended.   Unlike the US, you do not visit your doctor at a practice, instead, the doctors work for a particular hospital, which is where you go for your visits.  My midwife and doctor speak English, but my midwife has been sick.  So, my first visit was with a midwife who didn't speak English.  It worked out better than you would expect.  She used Google Translate to ask me the questions I didn't understand and I was able to speak enough French to answer all of her questions (that French class came in handy).  She was actually quite impressed with my French.  So far, I have had un ultrasound with every visit.  The doctors here all seem to have ultrasound machines in the room.  Being this is my first pregnancy, I didn't know this is not what to expect in the US.  The baby looks great and was very active, but he/she had its legs crossed the whole time:(  I have my morphological scan on the 9th, so hopefully then I will find out if it is a boy or a girl. 

Here is a belly shot.  I think I am finally starting to look a little pregnant. 

Our "Diaper Bag" is About to Get a Little More Crowded

18 months ago, we were blessed with this amazing miracle.

And now, God willing, we are about to be blessed with one more miracle just over 2 years after we were blessed with our first...

Yes, Ava is going to be a big sister and No, we are not adopting again.  That is right...I am pregnant!  This little munchkin is due to arrive on January 13th.

Baby Daddio at 12.5 weeks

The pregnancy has been going pretty good so far. Aside from several weeks of nausea and exhaustion, which have since passed, I am feeling pretty good.  Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, I plan to keep you all posted throughout the pregnancy.

Other than that, we have been keeping pretty busy spending our weekends with friends or taking day trips around Belgium.  At the end of the month we are meeting my mom, dad and Brian in Ireland for a week-long vacation.  In October, we are heading to Russia (sans Ava) to check out Moscow and St. Petersburg.  We are finally starting to get a little summer here in Belgium.  This is such a beautiful country and the beauty is truly at its peak during this time of year (especially when the sun is shinning).  I plan to do a post with just some pictures taken around Belgium in the future.

I will write a few posts after our Ireland trip.  For now, here are a few outtakes of my attempt to take Ava's picture for this post.

Floralia- A Little Piece of the Netherlands in Belgium

Keukenhof is known worldwide for their stunning tulip displays and it is on my list of places to visit while we are living here in Belgium.  Today is a particularly exciting day in Holland as it is Queen's Day and a very special Queen's day, because the Queen is passing the crown on to her son. 

Due to a very late Spring here in Europe (and in the US, from what I hear), rumor has it that Keukenhof, although still beautiful, is not in its prime.  So, I decided that this year was not the year to visit.  So, I jumped on the chance to go Monday afternoon with a group of wives from Dan's unit and check out the Floralia Exhibition at the Castle of Groot-Bijgaarden.  The architects of the exhibit are from the Netherlands.  Even better, this exhibition was less than an hours drive away.

What a stunning display of flowers.  The beautiful 14 hectacre (equal to 35.5 acres) castle grounds were decorated with 500 varieties of flowers, 400 of which were varieties of tulips.   All the bulbs were planted by hand, over 1 million bulbs!



A local retirement home had an outing.  They remind me of a biker gang, with wheelchairs. 

In addition to the gardens was a greenhouse displaying a rotating collection of over 150 flower arrangements (changed each week) and flower beds

No, the colors on your computer are not messed up.  These are muli-color roses.  I wish I knew how they were able to do this

The largest Hydrangeas I have ever seen

A little bit about the castle itself.  Kasteel Groot-Bijgarden (or Castle of Groot-Bijgaarden) is a 12th century castle (that is the 1300s, or a really, really, really long time ago) just outside of Brussels.  For those of you interested in architecture, the castle is considered to be in Flemish Renaissance Style. 

Looking pretty good for being over 700 years old.

The castle is surrounded by a moat spanned by a bridge with five arches (not sure the signifigance of the five arches) leading to a drawbridge and gatehouse (dating from the 14th century). 

Although we couldn't go into the castle (though you can rent it for weddings and special events), we were able to go into the tower (or the dungeon), which was built in 1347.  Not quite a dungeon anymore, the tower housed more floral displays.

 

Again, turn your head:)  Sorry for the sideways pictures.

 

As you can see, Ava really enjoyed the flowers as well.



Oh no!  The gang got a hold of Ava.