Grandad's photos

Since we saw Betty & Ron, we had an interesting day in York, had a look at York Minster and the Jorvik Viking display (no photos allowed).

TheNational Railway Museum was great, the blue engine is the Mallard, a 129 MPH steam engine.

Then off to Manchester - a busy industrial red-brick city that was fairly heavily bombed during the war. Here's the view from our window, with three main-line railway tracks on those bridges (no sleep-ins) and the 40-level Hilton hotel. The midnight fire-alarm evacuation was not great. An interesting visit to a large water-wheel powered cotton mill, employing 300-400 staff with 90 apprentices aged 9-18 that lived in a single house. The machinery was still in working order.

A day to North Wales to visit Ceri and her school where she has just been made redundant. We went to see Roger and Yestyn at Roger's garage, since 1939, inherited from his father and accessible through a narrow lane requiring 400m reversing if someone else also wants to use it.

Then Manchester airport - plane-spotter's heaven. The Ryanair plane arrived an hour late, but was a 737-800 that appeared to be brand new.

Ireland is interesting, Gertrude took us the 'shortest route' instead of motorways, right through the centre of Dublin, out the other side and over the Wicklow Mountains! As you can see, no cars, peat bogs, misty clouds, narrow bumpy road. This rental car from Budget is a Toyota Auris, a wierd car, you can't see the front, very hard to estimate the sides on these narrow roads, and it won't start unless you depress the clutch. Don't buy one! The VW Polo was much nicer.

We have a lovely modern cottage, with an internet resource centre a 200m walk. We really are in Laragh rather than Glendalough (2km away).

We visited Glendalough yesterday and its 600 year old relics, this is one of the best preserved towers in Ireland, a bolt-hole for the monks when the regular invaders turned up - Vikings, Normans, Saxons, English.