In Italy!!!!!!

Hello from Venice!! We have just had a great day in the sun and on the canals.

Just a quick note to let you know that we are still alive, just unfortunately I can't get much access to the net or upload photos. I've got some good-uns though!!!

Hope you are all well and not too cold (mwhahahahahah).
Much love,
xxxx Renelle

Happy Mother's Day!!!

To our lovely mums and also to Lamb and nan;
Hope you have a fab day!!!

lots of love,
Renelle and Hamish

Contiki Plan

Helloooooooo!
In the very likely event that I don't get to use the internet much once we start our tour, here's a list of the places we'll be! Cant' wait! If anyone needs to contact us, Mum has a list of the contact phone numbers etc for the campsites we'll be staying at, or we can be reached by email or Hamish's cell +44 7896471609 it should roam in all the countries we're going to.

12th May – London to Paris
13th – Paris
14th – Paris
15th – Paris to Lyon
16th – Lyon to Barcelona
17th – Barcelona
18th – Barcelona to French Riviera
19th – French Riviera
20th - French Riviera to Venice
21st – Venice
22nd – Venice to Florence
23rd – Florence
24th – Florence to Rome
25th – Rome
26th – Rome to Sorrento
27th – Sorrento to Corfu
28th – Corfu
29th – Corfu
30th – Corfu
31st – Corfu to Athens
1st June – Athens
2nd – Athens to Kavala
3rd – Kavala to Cannakale
4th – Cannakale to Istanbul
5th – Istanbul
6th – Istanbul to Sofia
7th – Sofia to Ohrid
8th – Ohrid to Durres
9th – Durres to Dubrovnik
10th – Dubrovnik
11th – Dubrovnik
12th – Dubrovnik to Zadar
13th – Zadar to Budapest
14th – Budapest
15th – Budapest to Vienna
16th – Vienna
17th – Vienna to Prague
18th – Prague
19th – Prague
20th – Prague to Munich
21st – Munich to Swiss Alps
22nd – Swiss Alps
23rd – Swiss Alps to Heidelberg
24th - Heidelberg to Amsterdam
25th – Amsterdam
26th – Amsterdam to London

Bring it on!!

Dublin, Guiness and on to Belfast

First order of the day was a trip to the Guinness Storehouse in central Dublin, near the site of the St James’ Brewery. It’s a modern exhibition about Guinness, and I really enjoyed it. It went through the whole history and process of brewing, as well as other things I’d never think of like the logistics of such a global brand, and advertising through the ages. Best thing about it though was the free pint of Guinness we got to enjoy at the top of the complex, in a glass-walled bar overlooking Dublin. Magic. I really do think the stuff over here tastes better than back home…
Hamish 'drowning' in a vat of 272,000 pints

My pint at 10:30am in the Gravity bar; 7 stories up. Mmm delish.

Slainte! (cheers in Gaelic - It's supposed to have an accent over it too but I can't seem to be able to get that to publish on here lol).

We missed our free walking tour of Dublin so checked out a few things ourselves, like Trinity College. The library there is amazing and it houses many ancient manuscripts and the Book of Kells (an ancient and beautifully illustrated hand-written Gaelic translation of the Bible written by monks). Unfortunately we couldn’t shell out to see it but I got a postcard!!
You can get a little idea of it from the type of picture on this sign

We then bussed to Belfast (from the window I saw a FOX!!!) and we’ll spend the next 2 days here. More to come on that…

Hope you are all well!! Lots of love, R

Shamrocker Day Three; Day Three – Doolin back to Dublin

Our day started out with a visit to the faeries, as we stopped at a faerie ring. These are where faeries can travel between their plane and ours, through tree roots exposed above the soil. At this point we were in the County Clare, which is apparently the most superstitious part of Ireland. We had to walk clockwise around the ring, and say thankyou in Gaelic once we exited it. I never knew when Murf was being serious or pulling our legs, but everyone did it anyway. There are many types of faeries, including the Pooka who cut and scratch you when you’re out at night, another type who jump on your shoulders and make you stagger from side to side (ie the faerie who makes you get drunk!), leprechauns, banshees, heaps of others that I have no idea how to write as they are Gaelic words. The drinking culture is pretty scary though, bit of an eye opener.

We drove through the Barren, a limestone plateau which was apparently left when Ireland was back at the equator under that shallow sea. It’s pretty ‘barren’ and rocky but this was where Oliver Cromwell sent a bunch of people who he didn’t kill, to eek out a meagre existence amongst the rocks. There are lots of tombs there dating back 7000 years (that’s right, WAY older than the pyramids), with massive slabs of rock hoisted somehow onto their roofs. Human bones were placed inside with the idea that this portal would transport that soul into the next realm or existence.

We journeyed on to Clonmacnoise which is a site of foundation of Christianity in Ireland. It is now a site of pilgrimage and even Pope John Paul II journeyed to pray there. There are some amazingly carved Celtic crosses in the graveyard dating back to 900AD, and in attempting to preserve and restore them it was discovered that even with lasers and all the modern technologies we have, the skills of these ancient stonemasons can’t be replicated. They had to take casts of them instead.


Last stop was the Locke Whisky distillery, where Hamish took on the female species in a taste-testing game and won himself a lil bottle of whisky. I still like scotch more 

Shamrocker Day Two; Killarney to Doolin

This day was my favourite, the scenery was amazing as we drove up the south western coast of Ireland. We stopped off first in a town called Dingle which is known for a friendly dolphin called Fungi who hangs out in their harbour. I reckon he’s a relative of Opo. We had amazing coastal views along the Dingle peninsula.

We also stopped at the ‘end of the world’, the most westerly point of Europe and where the flat world ended before the Americas were discovered. This is Cloargh rock, and in good Shamrocker tradition tour members are incouraged to remove their shirts.

We caught a ferry across the river Shannon (the longest in Ireland) which took all of 10 minutes but saved a couple of hours driving apparently. We discovered that the Irish really do like to take the piss as Murf had directed us to a passenger lounge and glass-bottom viewing area on the ferry. The passenger lounge turned out to be a bench at the side of the car holding bay, and the glass-bottom area was a small dirty window.

I had been waiting to see the Cliffs of Moher most of all, and was delighted that the weather was really clear so we got a great view. Check this out!


Dinner that evening at a local Pub was a treat; delicious Irish stew with the most amazing Irish soda bread, a pint of Guinness and traditional Irish music. Celtic music is fantastic and there was a great band with guitars, a banjo, fiddle, squeeze-box (kinda like a piano-accordian but with buttons instead of piano keys), a bodhrain (special type of drum), and a tin whistle. Magical!

Delicious Irish stew, extra-delicious soda bread, washed down with a pint of Guinness - yum!

Shamrocker tour of Southern Ireland 1st - 3rd May

After really enjoying our Haggis tour of Scotland back in August last year, we decided to do a wee tour of Southern Ireland with their sister company, Shamrocker.

Day One; Dublin to Killarney
Our tour guide was Murf, (Murphy, classic awesome Irish accent too!) and unlike Haggis tours the Shamrockers also have a bus driver so the tour guide doesn’t have to navigate and talk/guide at the same time. It rained leprechauns for a while but then thankfully the weather was amazing for the rest of the trip. First stop was the Rock of Cashel, a castle built on an ancient Viking holding fort, and was the seat of the King of Munster.

Next were the Mitchelstown caves, owned and run by the family who discovered them so was quite an un-commercialised and different experience. Massive caverns underground have great acoustics so they run underground choir concerts, wine and cheese evenings and the like. There are even fossils in the caves of equatorial coral from 350 million years ago, proof they reckon that Ireland used to be near the equator under a shallow sea. We weren't allowed to take photos though.

Highlight of the day was visiting Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone. This was special for Hamish as his mum has been there and done the same thing! Kissing the Blarney stone supposedly gives ‘the gift of the gab’ or the gift of eloquent speech. There are a few theories as to where it came from;
1)Faeries made it magical (this can be an answer to anything).
2)Queen Elizabeth I coined the phrase ‘load of Blarney’ after trying to take over Blarney Castle but being frustrated by the cunning language of the owners in their refusal to hand it over
3)The stone is said to be half of the stone of destiny, upon which Scottish Kings were crowned, as a token of comeraderie towards the Irish who had found alongside the Scots.
Me kissing the Blarney Stone. It's actually scarily exposed and there's enough gap to fall through to your death for sure!

Hamish's turn... he went after me so he got my goobies mwhahaha

The queue to kiss the Blarney Stone.

We stopped for the night in the town of Killarney which was buzzing with young hooligans in town for a rally. We all went out for a proper pint of Guinness, and then a pub theatre session with a local storyteller. His message involved stories of pubs and a song about syphilis, and various other ‘interesting’ topics. After that it was on to a ‘dishco’ where the dance floor lights were ragin’.

Our tour group in Killarney