Spring Break-Last day in Manchester

Our last full day of our vacation was spent back in Manchester.  After how much fun they had in Ireland, the girls weren't that enthusiastic about being back in Manchester.  There were a lot of groans and complaints about having to walk everywhere again and there being nothing to see.

We got into Manchester pretty early and we weren't able to check into our hotel right away.  However, the nice reception lady let us secure our bags behind the counter and we were able to have breakfast at the buffet.  The kids at free!  So with lighter backs and full stomachs, spirits were better.  We also found out that in the city center, there are three bus lines that are free and one of those lines picks up right in front of the hotel!  

Our day took shape as we looked at the bus route.  We went to the John Ryland Library first.  This library is more like a library museum though with an amazing collection of old books behind glass to look at.  Even more amazing was the building itself.  It looks like a cathedral with flying buttresses and stained glass windows everywhere.  There was amazing things to look at everywhere, including the ceiling.  Small hand mirrors were provided so you could look at the ceiling and not hurt your neck.

As we continued to walk around Manchester, we found a magnificent palatial building and discovered that it was only the town hall.  Not far from there, nestled in among the shops, in a small square called, appropriately Lincoln Square, stood a tall statue of Abraham Lincoln.  Jessica recognized him and investigated further as to why a statue of an American president would be in England.  Engraved on the pedestal under the statue is part of a letter that Lincoln wrote to the people of Manchester, in tribute to sacrifices they had made in support of the Union and toward the abolition of slavery, as cotton was a vital industry in Manchester at the time.

We, then, continued on to the Manchester Cathedral.  By this time, however, the girls' good spirits had diminished and we weren't able to stay long and admire the old architecture or the stained glass windows.

Our sight seeing trip took us to a big, modern shopping center where we had lunch at the food court.  The girls were excited to have Taco Bell and Burger King.  After this, we took the time to go back to our hotel and actually check into our rooms.  We also took naps.  Well, I did anyway.  Cranky children always tire me out.

For dinner, we had to venture out again without knowing beforehand where we were going.  This really concerned Jessica on several levels.  She was concerned that we were 1) going to get lost and 2) not going to find food to eat.  She is such an acute child, bless her heart.  She needn't have worried.  I knew exactly where I was and we eventually found food I could eat.  We decided on a place called Nando's.  It is a restaurant that combines Portuguese and African flavors.  Mostly it sells chicken where you then choose how hot/spicy you want the sauce.  It was good.  Kaitlyn gave her chicken to her sisters and went straight for the frozen yogurt dispenser.  I was so proud how well my children did at restaurants this trip, trying a variety of new things.  They even found some new favorites.  Except for Kaitlyn.  She will stick to the mini muffins at the breakfast buffet. :)

A brief moment of harmony on the train

Jessica learning about amulets of different kinds

Jessica on a balcony

Bethany in the main hall

The ceilings are pretty high so they provide hand mirrors
to view the architecture without getting a stiff neck.

Bethany sitting at a writing desk

John Rylands Library

Jessica reading the inscription on the Abraham Lincoln statue

Bethany, Kaitlyn and Malia in front of the town hall

Bethany hugging a big barrel that turned out to be a keg.

The side steps to the Manchester Cathedral

Supposedly the stone archway is hundreds of years older than the rest of the church
Jessica was given binoculars with which to explore.

Apparently I needed to be studied at close range as I took her picture.

Kaitlyn enjoying many mini muffins at the breakfast buffet

Spring Break- Ireland

Early Monday morning, we took off from Manchester to Dublin.  We had to walk to a different terminal to get our 7 passenger rental car.  The rental car people kept looking at me funny when I told them we had reserved a "standard van," and I realized why once we got to the vehicle.  It was the size of a five car hatch back and two miniature seats pop up in the truck.  We were immediately grateful that we only had backpacks because we barely had room for those in the car with us.  Arnie was dismayed to find out that we hadn't reserved an automatic.  He had to steal himself up to drive a standard transmission from the right hand side of the car.  When telling the car guy why I wasn't driving, I had to be very careful not to say that I couldn't drive on the "wrong" side of the road.  Apparently they are pretty sensitive to the fact that they don't drive on the same side of the road as the rest of the civilized world.  

We brought our on GPS from home and set off across Ireland to Galway County and the Doolin Activity Lodge where we would be staying for our time in Ireland.  We stopped halfway across and had lunch at McDonald's in Athlone and sidetracked to this scenic old celtic cemetery called Clonmacnoise.  Yeah, I don't know how to pronounce that either.  It was a gorgeous area in the middle of no where (which basically describes Ireland), on a river.  The girls had a blast exploring the ruins and reading the headstones that were in English.  Some dated back to the 500s.

We stayed in the little town of Doolin in the Doolin Lodge (formally known as the Doolin Activity Lodge).  We were glad to have purchased full coverage on the rental car as the roads were very narrow and we had to pull over very close to the bushes every time a large car or bus came from the other direction.  

Tuesday morning, we had our first surf lesson in Fanore, a beach twenty minutes north from Doolin.  It was a beautiful, sunny day with no wind.  We were told over and over again that we were very lucky.  We got perfect conditions for putting on 5mm thick wetsuits, complete with boots, gloves and hats, and getting into cold water to learn to surf.  The irony was not lost on the owner of the Aloha Surf Company that I, someone from Hawaii, was going to learn to surf in Ireland.  I tried to bare that in mind when the first icy wave knocked me under.  

In all honesty, it wasn't too bad that first day, especially once we got into our wetsuits.  Of course, getting into our wetsuits was definitely an ordeal.  Think putting on thick tight clothes when you haven't gotten completely dry yet.  The boots were still wet from previous uses which didn't help the proceedings.  Eventually, after about 30 minutes of yanking, pulling and whining, we were all suited up and considerably warmer, and had a great time down in the water.  With the beautiful sunshine and nice waves, you could almost forget that you were in the freezing cold Atlantic, almost.  

Afterwards, we went over to the Cliffs of Moher to get some money from the ATM, and to see the Cliffs too, of course.   We discovered that ATMs were few and far between even though many establishments only took cash.  The girls found funny that we had to pay to get into the place where we were going to get more cash.  We also grabbed a snack because from there we went to the Mountain View Horseback riding stables for an hour trail ride.  Kaitlyn surprised me buy enjoying an odd sandwich that combined ham and egg salad.  Since she rarely ate anything new, I wasn't going to complain.

At the Mountain View Horseback riding stables, we each got our own horses and set off with our trail guide, Pearl.  Peter, the stable's owner, ended up walking with Kaitlyn as she apparently didn't like the fact that her horse moved.  So I guess it was inevitable that she would really freak out once we started trotting.  Peter was very kind and held both Kaitlyn's and Jessica's horses back so the rest of us could go ahead to the scenic point at either a walk or trot, depending on our desire for a sore backside.  The little girls ended up liking the stable's little Jack Russel tarrier, Pip Squeak, more than the horse back riding.  For me, it was a dream come true to go horseback riding in Ireland.  I think Malia liked it too.   

Wednesday, we had our second day of surfing and then headed back to Dublin.  It was more windy the second day and the waves were much rougher.  That didn't keep us from having a grand ole time.  Well, I'm pretty sure the girls had a good time.  I was exhausted.  While driving back, we encountered a herd of cows slowing down traffic.  The girls definitely enjoyed the sheep and cows in Ireland.

Back in Dublin we returned the rental car and hung out at the Radisson Blue Hotel at the airport until our flight back to Manchester the next day.

The girls stuffed into the "7-passenger" car

The girls at Clonmacnoise over looking the River Shannon

Celtic crosses at Clonmacnoise

Getting surfing instructions in Fanore

Dragging our boards into the boisterous waves

Messi showing her perfect "Elvis-stance"

Kaitlyn and Jessi taking a break from lugging the
big surfboard up to the showers at Fanore Beach

Malia and Bethany celebrating a successful lesson

Cliffs of Moher

The whole family on our trail horses

Kaitlyn and Jessica with Pip Squeak

Bethany, Arnie and Malia with our trail guide Pearl in the lead.

Bethany in front of the Doolin Lodge

The girls right after having a yummy meal at McGann's Pub

Sunset over Doolin

Arnie and I on the terrace of the Doolin Lodge

My traditional Irish breakfast complete with black and white pudding (the small round sausages)

Cows in the road!

Spring Break Manchester and Liverpool

Our Spring Break plans came into being because of some great airline deals by Ryan Airlines.  They were promoting their new route from Stuttgart to Manchester, England with really cheap tickets.  The thing about budget airlines like this is that they make their money in many other ways, such as charging for checked baggage, charging for getting an assigned seat (more if you want leg room, although if you want to recline your seat into a comfortable position, you will just have to find another airline to accommodate you), refreshments (including water) while in flight, even charging to print out your boarding pass at the airport if you are some poor person and don't have a personal printer at home.  Our strategy to thwart these devious plots consisted of forgoing any checked baggage and just carrying a backpack per person.  This meant that we had only a couple outfits a piece and minimal toiletries that are airport security approved.  We also printed out all of our boarding passes for all six flights ahead of time, effectively draining my printer of ink.

We didn't really know what there was to do in Manchester so we ended up having a day trip to Liverpool on our first full day there.  We took a bus tour around the city, stopping at the wharf where there is a museum on the Beattles.  Unfortunately, the girls weren't all that interested in touring the museum and we weren't anxious to spend 70 pounds on a museum that the girls were going to complain about.  So we ended up going on a big Ferris wheel that was located across the street and then taking the bus back to the free history museum.  I'm afraid that going to the Smithsonian museums ruined other museums for us.  

One of the more interesting phenomenon that happened to us during this trip was that we never ate English food in England.  Manchester and Liverpool turned out to be very diverse places with many good foreign food restaurants.  The first night we were there we had Chinese.  The day of our Liverpool trip, we had Spanish tapas for lunch and went back to Manchester and had the "best burritos in town."  Although, we did get to try new beverages that were English.  Fentiman's botanically brewed sodas were among the more "interesting" drinks we experienced.  The dandelion and burdock drink with ginger extract was an intense combination of lollypop/cough syrup and burning ginger that I'm pretty sure would eat through plastic if left on there long enough.  Oddly enough, the taste grew on me although I couldn't let the drink linger on my lips very long before it got too painful.  

The second full day in Manchester happened to be Easter Sunday.  We thought we would take the bus to the Manchester United soccer (football, to the Brits) stadium and take a tour.  Only we found out that it was really pricy, again especially for children that weren't that interested.  Not that it mattered as it turned out because we missed that bus stop and ended up at this big shopping mall that resembled the Taj Mahal.  Despite the holiday and closed shops, we saw people entering the building and milling about the gigantic mall.  We eventually discovered that the food court and some other things, like the movie theatre, were actually open.  This was good for us as it was lunch time.  We had lunch at Five Guys burgers (again, not English food) and decided to play laser tag in honor of Malia's birthday the next week.  We were thoroughly tromped by Arnie who seemed to come out of no where and then disappear before we could retaliate.  And then for dinner we had some great Italian food at a place right next to the main square area in Manchester where tons of people where just relaxing and enjoying the sunny Easter afternoon.

The girls in front of the Spanish Tapas restaurant in Liverpool

On the tour bus in front of one of the cathedrals in Liverpool

Arnie relaxing on an anchor

On the ferris wheel high above Liverpool

Eating ice cream outside the History museum

Kaitlyn(above) and Malia (below) drinking Fentiman's dandelion and burdock drink.

On the bus going past the Manchester United Stadium.
 I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a good picture of it though

Bethany and Jessi dancing in the fading sunlight near Piccadilly Gardens train stop

Eating appetizers at Ask Italian 

Riding home on the bus