The Burren, Aran Islands, and County Clare

Before school started back up, we visited an area we had seen once before, but got to see a few new sites. We headed to Doolin Cave first on Saturday morning. During our drive we set a booking for noon. Doolin Cave has the northern hemisphere's largest stalactite, weighing in at 10 tonnes and is 23 feet long. After a trek down and back up we drove in to Doolin for some lunch at Stonewall Pizzeria at Hotel Doolin. After lunch we left our car there and headed out on the cliff walk. It is partially closed near Cliffs of Moher but we went pretty far and after about 45 minutes stopped to wander around the tide pool area. After that, Kacey continued on toward Cliffs of Moher and I took the kids back to town. We stopped at Doolin Ice Cream for a bit of a treat. We went and checked in our apartment above Riverside Bistro. It was a nice big 4 bedroom apartment with kitchen and living room. We booked entry at Cliffs of Moher parking for 5pm and met Kacey there. The sun came out again for some really nice pictures. Colin and I went to go in O'Brien's Tower and the others went to walk the cliffs a bit. We got back to the apartment and the kids made some pasta while the parents went to Gus O'Connor's Pub for food and music.

The next day we had tickets for the ferry from Doolin to Inishmore, Aran Islands.  The ride is around 45 minutes and we had a nice day for it. We had views of the Plassey Shipwreck on Inish Oirr, which is the shipwreck viewed on the opening credits of Father Ted. Our plan was to rent e-bikes to explore the island. But unfortunately, Colin was not old enough for one. So he and I had to get a tag-along. So while everyone else e-biked around, he and I struggled climbing hills (these bikes are a bit awkward!). We worked hard and did it together. The first road we took was not a maintained road, but we explored the country side by ourselves while traveling to the Wormhole. This is a naturally occurring, perfectly rectangular, blowhole. It is also much larger in person than any picture shows. Kacey was able to get in for a few minutes. We had packed in lunches so we ate a bit on the rocks here. Next we biked to Dun Aonghasa Fort. You leave the bikes near the shops and facilities and walk the trail up. We had a beautiful day for walking and exploring. There are some sheer cliff edges with very little signage or railings. Next we biked west to the Seven Churches. This site is really only two churches and is famous due to its inclusion on pilgrimage in the Catholic church. We headed back to the port town and stopped for a couple views at Kilmurvey Beach. We took the northern (longer but easier) road back. We also stopped at the Seal Colony Viewpoint for some ice cream (and there was at least one seal in the water spotted). Colin and I pedaled hard to get back to town and ended up making good time. He and I hit Inishmore's Tigh Joe Mac's pub for drinks while the others came in later and did some shopping. We got back to Doolin around 5:15. We ordered some food from the bistro downstairs for the kids and then went to McDermott's for dinner and a bit of music.

The next day we packed up and were going to drive the long way out of Clare on our way home. We had a little rain this day, but not a lot. We stopped by the Burren Visitor Centre in Kilfenora. I got a little info about which roads to take to see some sites we wanted to see. We first went to a pilgrimage for me, Father Ted's house! It is privately owned but you can take pictures from the road. We tried to take a road across to Cahercommaun but it dead-ended, so we headed south around and got there easily. This was a nice hike to a ring fort ruins. This one is built on the side of a cliff. We then drove some nice winding roads to Cathair Chonaill ring fort ruins, but this is owned by someone and their visitor centre lost water pressure, so they closed the whole thing. Oh well. We drove a few minutes north to Poulnabrone Dolmen. This is a early neolithic portal tomb whose opening stones have remained in tact for over 5000 years.

Japan

For spring break, all 3 kids wanted to go to Japan. We didn't want a super busy schedule. We picked Tokyo, Kyoto (with a day trip to Osaka), and Nikko to visit. We flew British Air through Heathrow to Tokyo. I will publish this without cleaning up grammar as I just want to get my thoughts down.

 

Monday 14th 

Landed around 11. Got through immigration after a while. Trained to Shinagawa. Caught a bullet train to Kyoto, had help with shinkansen ticket machine. Kyoto station at 3, hotel by 4. Uber makes you go to a certain spot away from station. Went to grocery for breakfast items. Stopped at 7-Eleven. Walked to Kyogoku Kaneyo for unagi dinner.

Tuesday 15th

930am tea ceremony in Gion area. Wore kimonos. Walk to Yasaka shrine. Street food (apple pastry). Dodge a little rain. Had some meat and saki. Walk to ryozen temple didn't go in. More street food. Go in Kodaiji temple and bamboo forest. Took a break. Went to Kiyomizu-dera temple. Crowded on way up. Walked grounds some. Left around closing and shops were closing fast. Got some more street food and macha Carmel latte affogato. Got kids enough food. Went for Kobe beef, not great. Stopped at karaoke with Boilermaker Charles.

Wednesday 16th

Wanted to wake for Osaka but slept in. Went to shopping food market Nishiki Market. Taxi to bamboo forest and Tenryu-ji temple. Nice grounds walked around. More Arashiyama bamboo forest (just a single walking path).  Walked Okochi Sanso Garden. Ate ramen dinner at Ozuru. Train to Fushimi Inari Taisha temple for night walk.

Thursday 17th

Osaka bullet train. Pastries near station at Grenier in Osaka around 11. Taxi to Osaka castle. Big grounds. Go in go to top for views. Walk down and exhibits each floor. Dress like samurai. Pictures outside, then taxi to kitchen shopping street. Chris, N, L walk to Namba Yasaka Jinja temple and get a few snacks (Mogu Mogu ice cream & donut things, then McD chicken). Walk north to busy shopping area. Anime store. Train back to Kyoto almost miss it. Long wait for taxi to hotel.

Friday 18th

Out by 10. Taxi to station. Shinkansen to Utsunomiya (change in Tokyo) barely make connection platforms not labeled well (by train type). Wait 40min for Nikko line train. Apt by 4. Buy Nikko bus pass and walk around Shinkyo shrine. Empty as everything closes by 430. Walk to last place barely open for dinner at 715, Ramen Bonten. Good food. Saw groups after us going to Family Mart for dinner across the street after getting turned down here. Family Mart, 7-11, and Welcia for breakfast and snack food.

Saturday 19th

Out at 930 for bus to Nikko park. Made it up the mountain to Chuzenji Onsen town by 10:45. Ate milkshake, ice cream, and crepe snack. Walk to falls. Took elevator down. Ate at souvenir shop/noodle bar. Took bus to Ryuzu falls. Saw monkey, barely. Almost missed the cascades behind the building. Took bus to Yudaki falls. Did the loop walk to Kotaki Falls. Bus back to town. Took 2 smaller kids on swan boat on Lake Chūzenji. Nolan and Kacey headed down the mountain to hike some more falls. We ate next to the station at Azuma while they got a table at the busy/full Italian restaurant, Trattoria Gigli.

Sunday 20th

Got to the station around 10 to get the 10:25 train to a station in Tokyo. Dropped off bags around 12:30 at hotel. Taxi to Asakusa area for snacks and temple. Strawberry beer. More food on the grounds of the temple. Girls went to shop, boys went to Ueno Park. Went to gardens but it was a zoo. We had 60 min to speed walk parts and saw some good stuff. Left at 5 to walk back to hotel. Checked in to 8th floor double bedroom. Dinner place was good, tried a variety of random things at Sushi and Tempura Mogana (Okachimachi branch).

Monday 21st

7:30 pickup turned to 8:45 for Fuji tour. 2 hour drive, first stop, Chureito pagoda. Nice view but rushed. Next was 8 pools, Ishino Hakkai. Very busy area. Ate a couple snacks walked around a bit. Ice cream too. Next was Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shring and 1000 year old tree, Fuji Taro Cedar. Then speed boat on Lake Kawaguchi, great views. Then lunch as places were closing.  Then drive over to Oishi park. Beautiful flower pictures. Saw 80s Dodge Ram Van on drive home. Took L & C to a dumpling bar that was good, Osaka Ohsho Okachimachi (Ekimae branch).

Tuesday 22nd

Took Liana to Gōtokuji Temple (cat temple) early. Saw a Dennys!  Met others near the palace. Could not get in. Walked around to east gardens. Did a walking loop. Went to Tokyo station for lunch. Went to Akihabara area for anime stores. First Hokkaido ice cream. Colin went to pokemon store. Decided for Skytree at night. Dinner there first at food hall. Not great. Nice views at night. Combo ticket doesn't add much for higher level. Pictures outside at base before hotel for bed.

Wednesday 23th

Shibuya Sky morning for Liana! But unfortunately raining and it was closed. We could only do inside areas (we were only going for the outside areas). Found hedgehog cafe next door for Liana. Nolan went too. Colin went to Shibuya Pokemon store, very busy! Checked out Nintendo store next door too. Walked though scramble intersection but in the rain, its just a busy intersection. More anime store at Ikebukuro area. Found Truffle bakery, good pastries. Took L & C back to dumpling place. Picked up indian for Nolan, Kacey went to local small Japanese place.

Thursday flight at 8:50am from Haneda to Heathrow.

 

Got by without suica cards (there are different types, and need 1 per person), hindsight could have done it

Nikko, could have rented our own car in town and just drove, possibly cheaper and easy to get around.

I booked two private day tours of Mt Fuji that were cancellable until about 48 hours in advance. We checked the weather forecast 2 days out and kept the one on the better day. I should have also maybe done this for Shibuya Sky, as we missed it due to weather.

Google translate is great

Some ATMs are weird and not in english. Family Mart and 7-11 usually worked well. 

Give yourself time to get through train stations. Some platform areas are not numbered, you walk to certain types of train areas (which we didn't know the names). There is plenty to eat at the station, buy takeaway food to eat on the train.

Nearly all taxis are for 4 people. We used uber to get (what they call luxury) 5 seaters.  The Japanese TaxiGo app did not work with my google voice number.

Paris

We headed to Paris for a few days for the half term break in February. We visited when Nolan was 5 and Liana was almost 1, so we figured we would show Liana and Colin a few sites.

We flew in Saturday around lunch and took a taxi to our apartment. We stayed next to the Strasbourg - Saint Denis metro stop. This stop has 3 big metro lines so it made getting around very easy. We only pre-planned a couple things and had some other things to book in last minute. We walked around our apartment first and ate some crepes and pizza. I also bought a couple pastries for the morning. Then we headed to Champs Elysees and hit a few shops, including Laudree for a few macarons. We ate some Italian food and walked to Arc de Triomphe to view it at night.

The next day we had a 1:30 entry to the Orsay Museum (which we entered about 25 minutes early). We took the metro to Concord plaza and walked to the museum from there. We spent a good amount of time on the 5th floor looking at some art from Van Gogh and Monet. I then took the kids for a snack at the basement level cafe. We then spent some time wandering around the open air area of rooms, art, and sculptures. We left around 4:30 and took a taxi toward the Eiffel Tower to just walk around the park and base. We had tickets to go up our last day. There are only 2 places to enter through security now. We bought a couple snacks and walked around a while. We decided to find dinner in the area and afterward catch the 8pm light show. We struck out at a couple places but ended up back at Italian food. We walked toward Trocadero along the Seine and realized our view from the river walk was pretty good. So we stayed there and enjoyed the 8pm light show. We then tried to take the metro back to the apartment but our line was down for repair so we took an uber.

The next morning I once again tried for tickets to Notre Dame (it is hard now) and got some! So instead of waiting in a huge queue we showed up at 10:15 and walked right in. It was great to see how much work was done the past 5 years since the fire. We slowly walked the clockwise loop. We next walked north toward some food and shops. Liana found a beret and Nolan found a baguette to eat. Kacey hit a leather shop while I took the kids to the Lego Store. We enjoyed gazing at the custom Parisian structures that had been created. We then met Kacey for lunch at le Paris Halles. While this felt like a touristy area, we had good food. Next up was the Louvre. We walked 20 minutes and were also seeking some ice cream on the way. We only found Haagen Dazs which worked for the kids. I ate a crepe along the way.

We started by recreating a photo of Nolan from 2013 on the pillars in front of the pyramid. We also took photos of each kid. We had a 2:30 entry time and there was a very long queue for the 2:30 entry crowd, but it moved fairly fast. We were in and on our way (after checking coats and a bag) by 3pm. We walked toward Mona Lisa first to show the kids. Next we went toward the French crown jewels. We then started walking toward and through the Egyptian area. While the kids took a break and slowly walked through more Egyptian stuff, I ran over to view Napolean's apartment. We met back up (after figuring out how to get through due to closed hallways) and walked toward Venus de Milo. It was almost 5:30 at this point and the announcements started as the museum was closing for the day. We debated between uber and metro and since the queue to buy metro tickets was quite long, we just called an uber back to the apartment.

Tuesday was our day to visit Versailles Palace. We had never visited before. We arrived in the village a little early and bought some lunch sandwiches and snacks at a grocery store and ate them outside.  We had 12:30 entry time. The queue was quite long but once it started moving it didn't take too long. While the palace is huge, not all of it is open to the public. We walked through the open areas, many of which have no furniture, just art. By 2:30 we headed out for the gardens. The kids ran around a lot and we walked toward the canal by the shop for snacks and a restroom. By 3:45 we started making our way out back to the train station. We were back in the city by 5:30 and found a place to eat (Au Metro) where Colin tried escargot with me. It was good!

Wednesday morning we checked out and dropped our bags near the Eiffel Tower so we could all make our way up. Kacey and Liana only went to the restaurant level, but I took the boys to the top. We bought a couple snacks and Liana and Nolan did a special exhibit, walking across the expanse at the restaurant level called "Le Vertige de la Tour". There was a 40m long net bridge across the expanse, 60 meters high.

We found some food nearby for late lunch before taking our uber to the airport. Some simple pizza, hotdog, and sandwiches (and crepes) suited just fine. 

Orly airport is nice looking, but their people management and line process is terrible.