Ireland - here we come!

William the Birthday Boy with his birthday Toblerone!

The final chapter in our journey takes us to Ireland where we will meet up with my father, sister, 3 brothers and a friend, Gerard. At the beginning of our journey we had planned to just meet up with my sister Felicity and Gerard. We now find, much to our excitement, that Dad, Peter, Jack and Kevin will all meet up with us for a week in Ireland too. An opportunity to travel together and also trace back some of our Irish family history.

We left Bayeux, France on Wednesday 11th June and experienced the first, and hopefully only, series of train stikes and accommodation problems. The result was that we got to our destination, but it took 13 hours rather than 3. Our accommodation was eventually found too, but not after a number of problems. We had a room over our heads and did find an enjoyable meal so all ended up OK.

Our flight from Paris to Dublin was scheduled for 8.30am on William's birthday - 12th June 2008. We arrived at the Airport (Bouvius) which is marked as a Paris airport but is over an hour out of Paris at 6.15am, checked in our luggage and enjoyed a beautiful birthday breakfast with William of fresh croissants, coffee (for Scott and I) and fresh orange juice.

Our plane eventually took off at 10.00 after delays and after a quick and uneventful flight we excitedly arrived in Dublin.

Customs and baggage pick-up in Dublin was very quick and we anxiously ventured out into the main part of Dublin Airport to be met by Pa, my sister Felicity, my brother Kevin and Gerard. It was fantastic to see family after nearly 3 months! At first we couldn't see them, but a big yell from Fliss saying "happy birthday William' alerted us to where they were! It was fantastic!

Moving from travelling with just ourselves to travelling in a bigger group has both advantages and disadvantages, which we found straight away. With only 2 adults Scott and I were always able to quickly do an audit of bags and children. When we suddenly had another 4 adults with us we found that it was harder to keep track of the children - and the bags. It is great though to be able to share our experiences with others. And so our trip continues!

Our first refreshment together with Sister Clare in Tullow, County Carlow, Ireland.

James on the trampoline at a B&B we stayed at in Kilmulloch

St Keirens School Kilkenny

Kevin, Gerard, Scott and Xavier walk the streets of Ireland