Christmas In Ireland
I usually flip flop between Ireland and the U.K. for Christmas holidays. This year is Ireland’s turn.
As is usual this time of year the flights from our local airport, Bristol, to the local airport in Ireland, Knock, are cancelled. This means we can only fly into Dublin and forces us to rent a car or take a coach / train down to the West of Ireland to visit the family. The first few times we had to do this we were annoyed but now having a car and landing in Dublin has become some what of a useful tradition.
We started the tradition this year by visiting our friends in Dublin and having a nice catch up. They took us to a local restaurant called (I think) Michael’s (help me out here Brian!) that specialises in sea food but has some very nice rustic dishes too. I had some wonderful soft shelled crabs followed by an Irish stew. Very nice, highly recommended.
After that we headed out West to County Mayo where we set up shop for the Christmas period. We visited family and did the usual Christmas-y things. The weather being un-seasonally good for this time of year we also took in some lovely scenery and long walks.
One of the highlights this year was a Google recommended tourist attractions called Ballintubber Abbey.
The Abbey itself was a quiet and calm place and the surrounding grounds are decorated with Twelve Stations Of The Cross art pieces built directly into the landscape. It was lovely visiting it on Boxing Day or Saint Stephen’s Day as it is known in Ireland.
Other than that we both had a great time catching up with friends and taking some well deserved time off. Hopefully I’ll be back soon!