Schirrman's checking in from Ireland

Reporter: Adrian Schirrman

​Our trip overseas started in Barcelona, Spain two weeks ago. We were there to attend the wedding of the son of friends of ours from Melbourne. The bride - originally from Mexico, and groom are currently based in Munich, Germany and decided to have have a destination wedding in Barcelona. It was a lovely occasion and took place in a beautiful function centre located on the Mediterranean coast just south of Barcelona. 

From Barcelona, we flew to Edinburgh for the start of our Scottish trip. We met up with friends from Canada and took in the sights - Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the Royal Yacht Britannia, Rosslyn Chapel and many others. In the following days, we drove through the Cairngorms to Inverness and the Culloden battle field, Ullapool, Invergarry and are currently in Stirling. The scenery and sights along the way have been great - highlands, lochs and castles. Attached is a photo of Janet and our friend Linda at the Eilean Donan Castle near Skye. 

Today, we end our visit to Scotland and fly to Dublin, Ireland. We plan to be there for a few days before heading off into the Irish countryside and take in the sights for a week or so before heading back home to Melbourne. We will be back in time for the Grand Final and look forward to seeing you then. 

We arrived in Dublin last Saturday afternoon to learn that the city was a buzz of excitement - on Sunday was the Grand Final of the All Ireland Gaelic Football Competition. The two competing teams were Dublin - going for its third Grand Final in a row, and Maigh Eo (pronounced Mayo) - which hadn't won a Grand Final for something like 53 years.  The city was packed with people supporting both teams and many others like us who just happened to be here. We found a terrific Irish pub and settled in for the afternoon. The game was terrific - fast and full of non-stop action. We made some new friends during the course of the game - Michael and Maura Murphy. The game went down to the wire and Dublin won by one point - very exciting. Attached are a few photos taken in the pub and also one of the Grand Final cup taken at our hotel, which hosted a celebratory function for the Dublin team on Sunday night. 

It's was a great day!

​We are now in Adare just south of Limerick on the west side of Ireland.  We have seen some great sights - Cliffs of Moher, Dingle and the stunning Dingle Peninsula. Our trip is coming to a rapid end and we will be heading home next Monday.