All posts filed under: Travelling

A Weekend on the North Coast

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The North Coast of Ireland should be on everyone’s bucket list, it really should! We love it there and were delighted when Cancer Fund for Children offered us a long weekend away in one of their cottages in the area, as we knew there will be plenty to do and see over the three days! We decided to make the most of the gorgeous weather and kicked off our weekend with a picnic in the fresh air, overlooking the Whiterock beach. Alex had made some gorgeous prawn and salad wraps that we devoured, almost tasting the sea salt in the air. My brother fancies himself a connoisseur of spirits and other strong drinks so we couldn’t miss the opportunity and visit the Bushmills Distillery since we were only a stone’s throw away. I would have loved a tour of the place, just to give a clear account of tastes to my brother 🙂 but since children under 8 are not allowed, due to the strong fumes in the distillery, we had to do with a …

Five Travelling Tips

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As you know from my last post,  we have been on holidays for a week, seeing family in France. This is the first time we have travelled by car, as we have felt Emma is old enough to cope with long journeys and fully capable of entertaining herself in the back seat. Here are five tips we wish we had been given before starting on this long driving journey: 1. Allow for stops along the way. There has been a hilarious incident on a French motorway involving an emergency lay-by and a little girl who was bursting to go to the toilet! Those lay-byes will forever be engraved in our memories as “pee pee spots” and needless to say, Alex has learned his lesson now and is unlikely to ever miss a filling station or services sign again :-)! 2. Allow for ample travelling time and enjoy the landmarks on the way. As soon as we touched dry land in Cherbourg, Normandy, we wanted to explore. We took a little detour and visited Omaha beach and …

A weekend in Bray, county Wicklow

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We are definitely enjoying our weekends together at the moment! To the point that we plan the following before the present is over, sort of thing :-). We enjoyed our Armagh trip so much so that as soon as we got home, we had to book through our next one straight away, through Lidl breaks! This time, it had to be the south of Ireland and Bray. Alex has particularly enjoyed the challenge of putting together fun things we could do and this time, he had a whole list, bullet points and all! Very organised and much appreciated, as the homework saved us a lot of legwork and stress upon arrival and pointed us in the right directions. According to his well-documented research, Bray’s Saturday farm market was worth a visit so that is where we started. Alex’s research was spot on accurate, loads of organic and sensibly priced local produce and lovely treats to be had! We loved the brand new, homemade hot chocolate stall: the Madagascar cocoa, the organic local milk and the …

Where’s the party at?

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If you follow Mama’s Haven on Instagram, you know by now that as a family, we have spent the last three days travelling in the South of Ireland. Our love for adventure, Dublin and everything Irish is nothing new but this time, we have been asked by Hotel Direct to give them a mention in relation to their New Year’s Eve campaign. The campaign aims to look at and debunk certain myths regarding eight of the biggest cities in the UK. Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Manchester all get a mention and all get featured (and compared), but not maybe for the reasons we would expect them to! Looking at a number of criteria, including the average cost of a hotel room, the average cost of a pint and club entry and number of pubs per square mile, the low-cost accommodation specialist tries to determine the best place to party this New Year’s Eve. So, for example, if you are a foodie, like me, your natural choice would be, according to the …

Magic Moments: Our Halloween break in Greece

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We were away for our Halloween break to Greece. Emma’s birthday is on the 6th of November and her grandparents and auntie were desperate to see her, especially since last summer they didn’t get the chance, and make memories with her. The trip was dedicated to Emma. I knew that it would be very taxing on me, emotionally and physically. As a bereaved parent, and so early on in the grieving process, I knew I would not enjoy much as the pain does follow, wherever we are. But I needed Emma to know she is loved and her life is celebrated and brings us joy, even more so after the loss of our precious baby boy. The relatives went to great lengths to make the trip magical for Emma. Especially her auntie, who lives on a small pension and has known grief as a child herself, having lost her father at a very young age. So Emma got to: – meet princess Maria and spend an hour of laughter and fun and magic tricks in …