Heading over to the Emerald Isle

Tomorrow we are flying to Dublin to begin our working abroad experience and we are excited (but a bit nervous, of course)!

We have had a wonderful, relaxing week with Gren and Beryl and their family, touring the north west England region. Gren has taken us to see the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, and we got a view of the Granada studios where they film Coronation Street. Today we toured the Wirral Peninsula, took a ferry across the River Mersey from Liverpool, and had a great view of Wales over the River Dee, the sun streaming in (for the first time in a week) through the clouds. We have been cycling a bit (although Mike still has to get a new bike in Dublin), and Mike has been perfecting his computer skills designing a couple of web pages. And the highlight of our time in England has been the Bonfire Night Party at Gren and Beryl’s son and daugher-in-law’s, Peter and Jane’s, last Saturday. They threw a great party and set off dozens of fireworks of all sorts from their back yard, as is the tradition. Everyone here does it, so at any given time, there are fireworks exploding out of three or four yards in the neighbourhood at once, all evening and even for a few days before and after the date. It was a great celebration.

We will let everyone know when we have settled down in Ireland, wherever that might be. Wish us luck as our hope is to cycle across the country from Dublin to where we decide to set up for the winter, and are a little nervous about the weather and sinking into a bog or getting washed to sea in a flood. Hope we don’t chicken out!

We added a few more photos to the Britain section on our photo site.

See ya later!