Ireland - Paddy Wagon Tour #2

 After a delicious meal at an Irish restaurant in the Temple Bar area, a good night's sleep we then headed off with Paddy again, this time to the south of Ireland towards County Cork.

First stop was at the Rock of Cashel.  Rumours have it this is where St Patrick's used to hang out so it is often called Patrick's Castle.

Further south to one of the most famous castles in Ireland - Blarney Castle, home of the infamous Blarney Stone.  If you kiss it, you get 7 years of the 'gift of the gab' but all three of us didn't think we need any more opportunities to woffle so used the time to explore more of this wonderful place rather than stand in line for 2 hours!!

Instead we found lots of interesting places around the Blarney Estate - a poison garden, a druid's cave (home to a religious hermit)

and some druid's stones and a sacrificial altar that snakes played a central role in many of the mystical rites and that is why St Patrick was keen to so famously banish them.  Myth or fact??

Some wishing steps.  For hundreds of years the Blarney Witch has taken firewood from the estate for her kitchen.  In return, she must grant the visitors' wishes.  If you can walk down and back up these steps with your eyes closed, making a wish, then that wish will come true within a year.  I won't tell you what I wished for!

The witch's kitchen legend tells us that the Blarney Witch lit the fire every night to stop shivering after her nocturnal escape from the cursed witch's stone.  Otherwise, historians will tell you that this was home to the first Irish cave dwellers.

Then we found the Dolmen, a megalithic tomb portal.  What magic and mysteries has it guarded over the millennia?

Lastly, we come across a ring of stones called The Seven Sisters.  Let's see if this legend is similar to NZ's Seven Sisters myth.  This is about a famous King of Munster who once ruled these lands.  He had 7 daughters and 2 sons.  His rival was also a powerful clan chief and the time came when the king had to defend his lands. One fateful day the army rode out to battle with the king and his two sons at the head of it.  Although victorious, it came at a great cost, as both sons were killed in the fighting.  The army marched back to the castle, on route passing the ancient druids stones circle that had stood for millennia. 

The king dispatched a contingent of men to the sacred site and in his grief he instructed them to push over two of the nice standing stones.  This would forever commemorate his two fallen sons.  The seven sisters remain standing to this day...

We then were dropped off in Cork, second biggest city in Ireland.  Found a pub with great food,

traditional Irish music and timed it nicely to see some Irish Dancing.

Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication with the pick up time for day 2 of the tour, we missed the bus!  Lucky for us, we found a nice public bus driver who took us all they way back to Dublin.  Spent the afternoon wandering around the busy streets, exploring the inner city of the capital.

Fortunate for us we were able to get back onto Paddy's bus for a day tour to the Cliffs of Moher, one of the great natural features in the world.  These sea cliffs are located at the southwestern edge of the Burren region in County Clare.  They run for about 14 km with a maximum height of 214m.

They were absolutely magnificent and we were lucky that the rain didn't come to much as it often does!

One noticeable feature of this fertile land are the rock and stone fences on the farms.  They have been there for centuries because a)  they cleared the land of the rock and stones so could plant crops or graze their cattle and b) mark the territory between farmers' lands.

That is about the end of our Irish adventure, we have loved it here and how they are embracing their very ancient Gaelic/Irish language with bilingual signs and most schools teach the difficult language in most of the classrooms.

Definitely will come back another time but now, another country awaits us....

Ireland - Paddy Wagon Tour #1

To the Emerald Isle we flew, and it was so nice to experience the cooler temperatures of Ireland.  We are only here for 6 days so thought it best to engage in some professionals to show us around – Paddy Wagon Tours

and along with being cool, it was so great to see the greenery again.  Just like at home!!

Day 1 – Dublin to Belfast via a very old monastery called Monasterboice which was an important centre of spirituality and learning for many centuries.  Founded by St Buite, who died 521 AD no other building, of so early a date, survives.  The oldest monuments are three high crosses (that tell some good stories on them)

and the round tower.  The tower was the Irish reaction to the Norse raids in the 10^th and 11^th centuries, serving as a watch tower.  

A couple of churches were also built on this site in the 14^th century.  To this day, it is still being used as a cemetery with the latest headstone of a wife, buried alongside her husband, in March 2025.

Back on the bus, we crossed the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and you wouldn’t even know that there was a border.  The differences to note are that the street signs are now only in English.  In the Republic of Ireland, they are bilingual (Irish and English).  And then we were treated to some impartial stories about “The Troubles” that the Irish people have encountered for about a century, and still there is political turmoil going on, which we won’t get into!

Belfast – home to where the Titanic was built and origin of her fateful maiden voyage.  In 2012 (one hundred years since it sank) the ‘Titanic Experience’ was opened and what a wonderful exhibition, even though it is a sad story.   A couple of notable things to mention, 1.  The building it is in is exactly the same height as the Titanic was when it was floating on water

and 2.  The movie, ‘Titanic’ recounts the sinking very accurately (apart from Rose and Jack’s romance).

That evening, Rosie and Grant left me at home, and wandered down to Queen’s University.  What building does this look familiar to?

And to the Botanical Gardens for a nosey.  There were many people out and about as for some reason, it wasn’t raining.  A rare occasion apparently in Belfast!

Day 2 - Belfast back to Dublin.  Off the motorway onto the country roads, with the first stop being to the Dark Hedges, or you may know them as ‘King’s Road’ in the Game of Thrones series.

Not far away was Dunluce Castle, dramatically positioned on the sheer headland between the Giant’s Causeway and Portrush but a great spot for detecting incoming unwanted visitors.

This was built between 15^th and 17^th centuries and there are many stories about the turbulent history of the MacQuillans, the MacDonnells and the Scottish settlers who lived in the ‘lost town of Dunluce’.

I don't think I would like to live during this time, look at this oven they could have roasted me in!!

The Giant’s Causeway is definitely worth a visit.  There is an Irish myth about two giants (one Irish, one Scottish) who don’t get on but basically it is a geological wonder of about 40 000 interlocking basalt columns that were formed by an ancient volcanic eruption about 50-60 million years ago.

As you can see the rocks look like honeycomb, which made for great stepping stones!

After a yummy steak and Guinness pie at a local restaurant called Fullerton Arms it was off back to Belfast but not after we stopped to get a rare, clear photo of Rathlin Island (Northern Ireland’s only inhabited island).  There are many smuggler myths and tales of this island but the most famous ones tell of Robert the Bruce, one of Scotland's heroes.

After dropping a few passengers off in Belfast it was then back to Dublin and a stay in the Temple Bar area, the centre of Dublin city centre’s nightlife.  So many bars and restaurants to choose from, and that is where this blog ends....

Morocco

After a relaxing week in the Canary Islands, it was then time to travel back to the African continent to join another bus tour, this time around Morocco.  This African country gained independence, from the French, in 1956.  Throughout the country, they speak Arabic, French, Berber, and a bit of English if you are lucky.

A quick mention about the Berbers, indigenous people of Morocco, as their history, and lifestyle, is recounted to us throughout the trip in first person with our tour guide, Aziz, a Berber himself.  There are still a few of them who live a nomadic lifestyle but most of them are now permanent residents in an area of Morocco and have maintained their villages in the Atlas mountains (major mountain range extending for about 2 500km through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia).  They separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert.

Their language, completely different from Arabic, is now being taught in schools, as they hold onto that important part of their heritage. Pic of Berber school below.  They have two sessions for 6 days of the week.  Sundays off.  7:30 - 12pm then 2-5pm

The starting destination of our tour was Marakeech, the fourth largest city in Morocco, that has many historical sites and bustling markets.  Our first visit was to the beautiful Majorelle Gardens, designed by French artist Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s and 1930s.  Since 1980 it has been owned by Yves Saint Laurent, which is also the name of Grant’s aftershave!

That afternoon, in the searing 40 degrees + heat, we had a guided walk around the medina which is the old, walled quarter of the city.  Around the winding streets and alleys we went finding out all sort of interesting things about what life was like for Moroccan families years ago.  In the heart of the medina is Djemaa El Fna and towering over it, the famous Koutoubia Mosque, the tallest building in the city.

The next morning, we travelled over the plains of haouz, started climbing the High Atlas Mountains, stopped for lunch at Tizi n Tichka, and then into the valleys to Ait Benhaddou.

This ancient kasbah is a well-preserved medieval city which has famously featured in many blockbuster movies such as Gladiator 1 and 2, Indiana Jones, Game of Thrones and more recently The Odyssey.

After exploring this very interesting place, we then continued south onto Ouarzazate, another place used by many film makers and tv shows.

The next day, before we reached the Sahara Desert, we travelled through the Rose Valley, stopping to sample the many products produced by this magnificent flower, and yes Rosie bought some rose smelling product.

We then reached the towering vertical limestone cliffs of the Todra Gorge, which the locals call  Morocco’s Grand Canyon. 

Not only is this a great place to spend a hot day splashing around in the river but you can go rock climbing on these 1000ft cliffs!

Back in the van again, we soon reached Merzhouga, our base to prepare for the camel trek across the Sahara Desert, whilst the sun was going down, before spending the night in a remote Berber Camp. I thoroughly enjoyed riding on a camel although the humans in the group were soon complaining of sore bottoms!

Maybe we should have chosen another form of transport?

After a delicious Moroccan meal of fresh salad, chicken tagine and fruit for dessert, we were treated to some Moroccan music by some young, local men by a campfire.

Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to have a good look at the stars above but we did have some comfortable accommodation considering where we were.  A bit like glamping!

It was up early the next morning to do the return trek, this time during sunrise.

After freshening up, it was back in the van for a very long drive north to the third largest city, Fes.  To break the trip up, we stopped at a couple of interesting places.  Did you know that this area of Morocco used to be under the sea?  Very hard to believe, about a million years ago, and this is proven by the amount of fossils they have found of sea creatures and shells.  We stopped to have a look at some of them.

Later on, it was to a cedar forest to see some cheeky barbary macaque monkeys, who did not like me at all.  I just got flicked away by mother monkey but baby monkey held my hand!

Would you believe that this African country, also has a region that they call Moroccan Switzerland because it is likened to a Swiss Alpine resort?  We stopped in Ifrane for a quick mint tea, to say hello to the Atlas lion (regarded as luck to touch him) before heading the rest of the way to Fes, the oldest of the four Imperial cities in Morocco.

Fes is regarded the oldest and largest medieval city in the world.  We went on a tour of Fes el Bali – a fascinating medina with a rabbit warren of 9500 alleys that often finish with a dead end.

Thankfully we had a local who guided us around several parts that included a tannery where they make leather products, a ceramic making place to show us the remarkable process of creating mosaic pieces by hand, and another area devoted to the art of weaving.  It was there that Rosie did some magnificent haggling and managed to get about 75% off the original price for some handmade cushion covers.

In amongst all that were visits to an old fortress where we could see a bird’s eye view of the medina (look closely and you can see parts of the wall)

the oldest university in the world, another mosque but we weren’t allowed in there as we aren’t Muslim, and an old school where young males would learn to become an Imam (priest).

A busy day that was capped off with Hammam for Rosie – treatment with local products finished off with a relaxing massage.

Then onto Rabat, the capital of Morocco, via the roman ruins of Volubilis.  There we had a guided tour where we learnt loads about the Romans' time in Northern Africa.  Here I am in front of the administration building of the Roman town.

The Moroccan capital, Rabat, is looking really good.  They have put in some great work tidying up this seaside city.  There is lots of greenery, modern buildings and some flash new football stadiums as they prepare for the African Cup later in the year and then in 2030, the World Football Cup.  Below is the Mohammed VI Tower, 250m, which hasn't officially opened yet.  FYI Mohammed VI is the current King of Morocco.

We also visited the Hasan Mosque, which was intended to be the largest mosque, but was never finished after he died.  Instead there is now a mausoleum that he is buried along with King Mohammed V.  

After a quick look at the current King’s Summer Palace, we enjoyed visiting the fortress overlooking the Atlantic Ocean which was used for defensive purposes back in the past.

What a great view of their twin city Sale, and where the River Bou Regreg meets the Atlantic.

It was just a quick overnight visit as we then ventured to Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco, where we were allowed to go into the Hassan II Mosque, third largest in the world, and the only one that allows non-Muslims to visit.  The architecture and artwork in there was magnificent, so Rosie and Grant told me, as vegetables weren’t allowed in there.

And that is the end of our Moroccan adventure, back in Marrakech, after covering over 2000km of this fascinating country.  The only thing I would say is that even though they are quite modern, and they are doing a good job of maintaining their history, and have some great cuisine,

the role of the woman in their society still needs a lot of work.  Moroccan women are encouraged to be independent and run their own businesses etc but it is still very male orientated (Rosie added this bit in).