My first Lab came from an Irish breeder back in 1971. She was a lovely dog with a wonderful sense of mischief.
An overnight ferry would be a pretty cool experience, and if you can take the Dramamine then that's even better. I had no idea that there were quite so many ferries plowing the Channel/Irish Sea/North Sea, it's fascinating to me.
It's a whole new world to me, too! I have a new appreciation for just how far Ireland is - I always fly over from Germany or Spain and it's just this little short hop on a plane. Driving is indeed a slog and the ferry timing/days of operation and pricing is mystifying. On the other hand, despite getting a little green today, it was pretty exciting to do something new - especially something I'd been so nervous to try. It was a lot easier than I thought so opens other options for me that I was afraid to try before like Sardinia. You just never know where the Tardis may go to now that I've (kind of) conquered my ferry phobia. By the way, I checked my trip meter today and this leg of the Labratour has racked up 3200 kms so far. I think I'm going for a record for the longest way to Spain. My previous record was 4300 kms when I went through Portugal and since I've got 2500 kms to go, I think I can safely say this will be my personal best for "the long way round".
Does the Tardis have good fuel economy? Is the price of fuel low over there? 91 unleaded is approx $2 per litre (1.18 EU) which I consider obscene. I can't imagine how much you must be spending on fuel!
Gas/petrol is a little bit more expensive in Ireland/UK (EUR1.43/litre today), similar in France and usually a little cheaper in Germany and quite a bit cheaper still in Spain. The Tardis is a hybrid, so I get about 5.0 litres per 100 km (57 mpg UK) on the motorway and a bit better in town. To be honest, I try not to think too much about it and just keep pulling out the plastic!
Sea-sickness - I take Stugeron (cinnarazine) - makes me a bit drowsy but I can drive when I get off the boat after a 2.5-4.5hr journey - and it works.
I think the little patches behind the ear are pretty good too. Scopoderm I think. Last 72hrs. Popular with the US cruise market. Vastly expensive and prescription only in the UK but don' think they cause drowsiness. Not sure of you can buy them in Spain. Seem to be able to buy just about everything at Spanish pharmacies.
Thanks for the tips! I tried Scopoderm in my 20's and they worked amazing EXCEPT on the second day my near vision went completely blurry. Of course now that I'm old and need bifocals, maybe it would FIX my vision? I'll mosey down the road in Kinsale tomorrow and ask what they have over the counter. It's a harbor town, you'd think they'd have a whole arsenal of sea-sickness medications in the pharmacy. It was an easy travel day today, just down from County Meath to Cork. The hostess of my little flat couldn't have been nicer and I got to see the famous Misty (the Dalmatian) again this morning. I made a stop over in Trim as well. There's a huge castle there (which they are proud of saying was a filming site for the movie Braveheart) but mainly I stopped there due to a rather specially-named pub. I rolled into Kinsale in the late afternoon and got a warm greeting from human Rose and her adorable cockapoo Curly. I'll have a photo session with Curly later this weekend - he deserves to be an important guest star on the Labratour! The pub with the special name... Dog art... Trim and the famous castle...
And today on the Labratour...a decided lack of Labradors. But I'm not letting that stop me. Plus there IS a Newfoundland. That kind of counts as a Labrador cousin, right? And sorry for the photo quality. My big camera battery died a sad death and I had to make do with my old mobile, which takes photos about as well as a potato. I had walkies and goodies with Curly and his human. Wow, do people love Curly - he attracted all kinds of attention from the locals and seemed to know all the important dogs as well. He had a couple doggie "enemies" too. Even though we didn't meet any of them today, you can tell from the look on his face here, that he takes keeping a watch out very seriously. Then I met up with my Irish buddy and his partner for lunch and a toodle around in his car. You would think I'd had enough of the car thing, but it was really nice to be able to take in the sights instead of just trying to avoid hitting anyone and remembering to drive on the left. Our first stop was to call in with a friend and this friend had dogs. And not any dogs, but the biggest Newfoundland I've ever seen. Here are Ozzy the Prince of Darkness (that's his proper full name, I was informed) and little Vizla sister, Nena. Then it was on to lovely Inchydoney to admire the coast and have tea (well, I had a Coke) at the posh hotel. Finally, we chased through the countryside near Clonakilty to witness a new local phenomenon, the starling murmuration. I had no idea what this was, but it was really amazing. The starlings started doing it recently in the same place and time every evening, and it's like witnessing a 3D computer animation, except live and with birds instead of pixels. What was also rather amazing: that about 60 people in dozens of cars showed up on a country road on someone's farm to watch and ooo and ahhhh. Who says people only pay attention to their computer screens? And that's all she wrote for today!
Yay to all the photos! Ozzy is magnificent, but my word that's a lot of dog. Apparently Newfs are absolute crocs as pups which is terrifying, "they're only gentle giants when they're actually giant" according to a Newf owner on one of my group walks. I had no idea group bird flying like that was called a murmuration, that's an amazing sight to see irl - what a varied Labratour you're having.
You can say that again. He really was like a gentle moving sofa gliding around the house - absolutely huge. He's seven years old, so appeared to be VERY calm, but can you imagine the scene when he has/had the zoomies? Hit the decks for cover! When I got my first dog, I also did the whole year of breed research and came very close to getting a Newfie. I went to shows and was a decoy human at a Newfie water rescue seminar. However, when I went on a breeder visit and saw eight Newfies in a normal size house on a hot California summer day, I had a change of heart. I'd only seen them either in the water or in pristine show condition. Seeing them panting and drooling in the summer heat convinced me that it wasn't fair to have a Newfie in California. Plus the fur blizzard! Wow! So I eventually decided on Rotties - also big and gentle but with short hair and better suited to varied temps. Although the irony was that I ended up with a Rottie who drooled to give any Newfie a run for his money. It turns out I'm not one who is really bothered by drool anyway. It's kind of hard to clean off the ceiling, but you just learn to ignore it up there. Me neither. And I also thought it was a strange idea for an evening to go watch a bunch of birds in a remote field. It was really incredible, though, and definitely worth the trek. At certain points they were even forming shapes close to the ground that could be taken as ghosts or even UFOs if you didn't know they were birds. Made me wonder if these 'murmurations' could be the culprits for all sorts of mysterious sightings over the years!
