We got on the road fairly early this morning. Our first stop was at Connemara Marble Shop. There we met Ambrose Joyce and two of his daughters, Grace and Tess! They are distance relatives of Nana! We were there for a while, talking about different parts of the Joyce family, piecing together different bits of information. It was really nice meeting them! They said that Tess looks like their sister, Claire did when she was her age. Claire won the Beauty Queen of Connemara in 1988! We stopped in Ireland’s most picturesque village, Aldare for lunch. It’s was really nice, but we were sooo full afterwards, we rolled down the street to look in a few shops and then back into the car. We reached our destination at about 5:30pm. After checking in, we tootled off down the street. We had a light dinner, then a very yummy ice cream! The ice cream actually contains milk from Kerry cows, a breed of cow that is rarer than the Giant Panda! 

  Dad took this photo while running near Clennag. 

 This is peat drying in a paddock! It takes Thousands of years to grow.

  Scenery along the way!

  Lunch!

  Everything is so green!

  Dingle.

We left the hotel before breakfast so we could get a start on our big day of driving. We stopped at the Hill of Tara. That was quite interesting, however the actual hill itself was not all that spectacular. By the time we had breakfast at a road house somewhere along the way, we were all rather hungry! We stopped and had a look around Galway – a very nice town. We saw the Spanish Arch, and looked through the town. We had a nice lunch at a pub just outside of Galway with views of the Atlantic Ocean. We had an afternoon hot chocolate and coffee at a cafe that reminded us somewhat of Fran’s Cafe, that we went to in the Northern Territory one time. We had dinner in a seafood place in Cleggan! 

On top of The Hill of Tara, seat of the ancient Irish Kings.

 This is called the Stone of Destiny said to be the inauguration place of the high kings of Ireland.
 

Gaelic is the first language in this part of Ireland.

 Scenery along the way was lovely, lots off water below and above, it rained all day!

Aisling Cottage in Cleggan where we stayed.

Tara

This morning, Dad, Tess and I went to the museum while mum went shopping. The museum was very interesting. They had lots of gold jewellery from the Bronze Age that they have dug up there.

  
  
Then we met mum at Ireland’s oldest pub, The Brazen Head.
  
 
  We had a nice lunch at the oldest pub in Ireland!

 We went to a Guinness museum that told us how they make it, there was a big pit of barley there.

 Here’s mum and dad having their free pint in the Gravity bar on the top of the building!

After dinner we went to a theatre to see the 20 year anniversary performance  of Riverdance. It was very good, it included Irish dancing and music.
 

The theatre was very grand! 

Dublin’s Temple Bar area at night! 

Tess

Ireland!!!  We left the hotel early for our 9:50am flight to Dublin. We went through customs then had breakfast at a cafe in Heathrow terminal 2.  The flight only took an hour so we had the afternoon in Dublin. We picked up our hire car and, guess what, we were upgraded to the same type of car we had in the UK. It was a Nissan Qashqai just without all the bells and whistles like GPS and parking sensors we had on the last car. This one was brand new – 10kms on the clock! We went first to the hotel then onto a hop on hop off sight seeing bus. We went to see Trinity college and the Book of Kells. The book was made by monks in the 9th century. There was also a very old library from the 17th century that has the books organised in size order! We had dinner at the hotel pub which also had some live Irish music – I gave Mum and Dad a 10.30 curfew and we went up to our room early!

  
Flying into Ireland!

  
Trinity University.

  
Trinity Library.

Tess

After a scenic drive we arrived at Stone Henge! It’s a large arrangement of stones over 4,500 years old once used for religious celebrations of the summer and winter solstices. Stone Henge is a fair way away from where you get your tickets so people can’t see it without paying! It’s amazing that they moved such big rocks without machinery! There was a replica of how they think they moved them. After our visit to Stone Henge we left for London as it was our last day before flying to London. We eventually got to the hotel and put our luggage in the storage room then went to return our rental car. They checked the car for damage then we went back to the hotel by cab to get our luggage and check in. But mum lost the luggage tag that you need to get your luggage out!!! Luckily they rememberd us though. We had a lovely dinner at the hotel restaurant.

  
Stone Henge!

   
The theory on how they moved the big stones.

  
Here’s a skeleton that they found and sent to forensic scientists in Sweden to find out what he looked like and they made a model of what he would have looked like.

  A massive chocolate Sunday. ( we did all share!!!)

Tess

Today was a very exciting day!  Dad and I started the day with a run up the steep hills of Port Isaac and along the top of the beautiful cliffs, little did we know that the track we were following would end up taking us through river crossings, dense prickly bushes, and mud puddles! Safe to say our nice clean runners were not as nice and clean by the end of it!! But, we did see some lovely parts of Port Isaac! 

 A view from the cliff top!  

 Sunshine!

  This is the world’s second smallest road! It used to be the smallest, until one in Germany ‘over took’ it. It’s in the Guinness World book of records! 

After washing all the mud off, we went on a walking talking Doc Martin tour of Port Isaac! It was so awesome! We learnt so much about how they film it, and we even got told a little bit of a sneak peak as to what’s coming in the season they’re currently filming! We also learnt that one of the actors (Bert Large, played by Ian McNeice) is staying in the village at the moment. Which is interesting because earlier today when we were strolling around the village, Tess had remarked that she saw someone who looked similar to him! Maybe it actually was him!! The tour guide had two dogs and Tess and I got to walk them whilst on the tour! The tour took us to many different sights around the town. We learnt that Doc Martin’s surgery is actually owned by an Australian person! The film crew aren’t allowed to actually block off roads, so they just have to apologise when they are blocking people way, they often give out bottles of wine as a way of saying sorry to the surrounding shop keepers for the disturbance. They were not filming while we were there, but they have been in the last few days and they will most likely be back in the next few weeks! For those of you who are fellow Doc Martin watchers, you may have noticed that it is always bright and sunny in the show. This is most definitely not the case in real life! So the film crew have to set up big machines that make ‘artificial’ sunlight! The chemist shop in the show is actually a fudge shop in real life, so when they film scenes in the chemist, this is what they do:

1. Take a photo of the shop so they know where to replace things once they’ve finished.
2. Take everything out of the shop.
3. Put all the chemist props in.
4. Unhinge the door! Because after the show had started, the shop owner decided to replace the door, Doc Martin filming crew decided that just wouldn’t do, so they bought the old door off the shop owner and now, every time they film in there, they have to hang the old door!
5. Hang the old door.
6. Film the scene.
7. Reverse these steps!

A very involved process! 

Many of the locals have been cast as extras, our tour guide had not been for Doc Martin, but he had for a movie, Saving Grace, which was also filmed here. Anyway, now I’m just waffling…

So after the tour, we jumped in the car and drove out of Port Isaac, trying not to knock over anyone on the narrow roads with no footpaths! (ruddy tourists!) We went to Lanhydrock Castle. It was so grand inside, and out, as are most castles in the UK. The gardens were absolutely magnificent! They way they did the displays inside was really good, too! They had real food on display, and instead of having signs up everywhere, they wrote little bits of information on things like tea towels, and uncooked pastry tarts! 

  The front of the castle.

 The beautiful gardens!
   This cool marble makes an ideal surface for pastry rolling.

 Milk was delivered to this busy room twice a day from Home Farm for the vast quantaties of butter and cream made here.

Following our visit to the castle, we went on to a place called The Eden Project! The Eden Project is so amazing! It’s a series of bubbles that contain, in a way, different worlds! One set of bubbles held a tropical rainforest (it was very warm!) and the other, The Mediterranean! 

  The biomes!

  It was so hot in the rainforest, in fact, that they had a cool room! 

   Tess and a waterfall in the rainforest!

  Trekking through a rainforest!

 The Mediterranean!

  Chilling in the Mediterranean…

After the Eden Project, we went to  where we had yummy English fish ‘n’ chips by the sea. 

   The location of our fish and chip eating!

 The English chip fork.
When we got back to Port Isaac, we went to the pub from Doc Martin for a little bit, it was the perfect way to end another fantastic day!

  The balcony at the pub.

Tara.

We had a big driving day today, so we made sure we got on the road quite early this morning. We first stopped at Fingle Bridge – a very picturesque old bridge! We had to travel along some ruddy narrow road to get there! Nothing like a good old narrow English road to put you you on the edge of your seat… 

 Fingle Bridge.  

 Arghhh!

Our next stop was Widecombe in the Moor (on the edge of Dartmoor) where we had lunch at a little pub. We stuffed our faces and then got back on the road and headed towards a Clapper Bridge. Rubble stone Inn

 We saw some horses just running through the centre of the village! A very strange sight!
   A very happy stone wall !

 The Clapper Bridge. A Clapper Bridge is a medieval form of bridge found in the moors of Devon formed by large flat slabs of stone supported by stone stone piers.This particular bridge is found at Post Bridge in Dartmoor. It’s slabs are over four metres long and two metres wide, they weigh over eight tonnes each!

Then we went to a place up in the moors where there was a Neolithic stone road and smaller stone circle. 

   The stone circle.

On the Moors!

We made it to Port Isaac by about 5pm. Just enough time to check in to The Old School  hotel, have a walk around, try and spot as many Doc  martin Filming sights as we could and then go and have dinner! Port Isaac is just so beautiful, the narrow streets, the white buildings with slate roof tops, the quaint little shops, the aqua blue water, the fishing boats, the cliffs, and the list goes on!! 

   Doc Martin’s Surgery!!

 Behind the sea gull is The Old School  hotel.

  Isn’t it just gorgeous!?

Tara.

After leaving Hunting Butts farm accomodation we went to a tiny little coffee shop in a tiny little village called Nailsworth. They had the best home made cakes! We finally arrived in Bath. We walked into the town centre and went to see the Roman baths that were built around AD150. It was very interesting seeing all the different sections. There was a steam room and then a cold pool as well as the spring pools that are hot. We had a look around town before going back to the hotel.

  One of the Roman baths 
 This is the Pulteney bridge.
 The Royal Crescent built in 1796.Tess 

We had a big photo taking day today!! First up we drove to Oxford. It was really exciting seeing the town and university, and comparing the university to its arch rival, Cambridge! I have to say, purely based on the looks I prefer Cambridge!

   
Then we went to a town called Stow-on-the-Wold for lunch. We had lunch in Britain’s oldest pub! Just as a side note, I feel it is important to mention Britain’s obsession with dogs! Most restaurants, shops, accomodation places and pubs seem to allow dogs inside. It is a very strange sight seeing a dog sitting up at the bar! 

   Spot the dog!

  Britain’s oldest pub!

Then we went to the Cotswald Show. It was really great to see a traditional English country show, no show bags in sight! We saw lots of animals including horses, donkeys, birds, pigs, a cow who has met the Queen, and a ferret race! 

  
  
  
From there we went to England’s most picturesque village, Bibury.
   
  Here  is a row  of medieval cottages

Before dinner, Tess and I had a swim in the pool! The pool where we are staying has a blow up bubble thing around, quite unlike any other pool I’ve ever seen!   

 Today was another really great day. I really do love the United Kingdom!!
Tara

We were heading to The Cotswolds  today and thought we had a 3 hour drive but it turned into 5 due to traffic. We didn’t book our accommodation early enough so there was nothing left online in our price range. We thought we would take a chance and see if we could get something there. Mum rang the tourist information centre and they do a booking service. They managed to find a place that is usually more expensive but because they had no one in that night they gave it to us for a cheaper price! I think it’s our best place yet! It’s a two story cottage with two bath rooms, three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a  little courtyard out the back. And a washing machine!!!  On the way we went to Stratford upon Avon and saw where Shakespeare was born. We also had a very English afternoon tea of scones with clotted cream. For dinner we went to a nice little pub a half hour walk from our accommodation!
  On the way we stopped for a  scone and tea. Yum!

  This is the house were Shakespeare  grew up!

  Our lovely cottage.  The place we stayed.

Tess