Marije was here...

Shortly after our family visitors left, our good friend Marije came over from Algorta to stay with us. She spent 3 seeks doing an English course in town. It was lovely to have her around! Here we are in the People's park in Dun Laoghaire having a little picnic together!

Marije and the boys got along great!

Liam and Malachy made some spontaneous friends and had some fun...

Together, they even ambushed a traffic warden who was picking up his bike. They quizzed him for quite a while. Heaven knows what they asked him!

It rained a little later so we headed to the park tea rooms...

For ice-cream!

When the clouds cleared, we took a walk on the seafront.

And even did some paddling with Daddy.

the compulsory visit to... Johnnie Fox's

In order to bid farewell to Ireland in style, Maite, Juanra and Leire went to Johnnie Fox's with Jaime on their last night.


You've seen photos of this place before. Yes, we bring all our visitors here!

I think they enjoyed themselves :)

four swingers...

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three swingers

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playground showers

On their last day in Ireland, Maite, Juanra and Leire took a tour of Dublin city. They got caught in the rain (again) but still enjoyed the experience. On their last afternoon, we went walking with the kids to Kilbogget park.

At took the kids to the playground.

There's something there for kids of all ages ;)

Ferns castle

On our way back to Dublin, we stopped at Ferns castle...

The boys had been so good in the car!



It was nice to get out for some fresh air and a walk around.



Liam and Malachy are big castle fans... so we took the guided tour up all the winding steps...

...along the long stone corridors...

...and looking out the magical castle windows.

Irish Heritage Park & Enniscorthy

Still on our weekend in Wexford, on Sunday we crossed the bridge past Wexford town and headed north-east to visit the Irish National Heritage Park in Ferrycarrig.



Equipped with our raincoats and umbrellas, just in case, the weather perked up that morning and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip through Irish history...

Set on 35 acres of land, the heritage park is a fun way of learning about how people have lived on this island for the past 9,000 years.

Our guide described everything to us in great detail. His Irish accent made it hard for our foreign guests to follow a lot of his anecdotes, but we did our best to translate the gist of it!

The boys in a replica of an ancient celtic dwelling.

All of us on the heritage trail...

Viking ships...

After our tour we had lunch overlooking this lake.

We decided to travel on to Enniscorthy for the afternoon as the Strawberry Fair was on there.

It is a quaint little town...

But, alas, the rain came tumbling down and we found ourselves scoffing the strawberries fast and then seeking shelter...

After coffee time, we took a stroll across the bridge over the River Slaney...

The grey clouds eventually swallowed all the blue...

So we headed back to our holiday cottage for the night...