Week One at the Estate of Castlelyons House

Our first week in Southern Ireland has been awesome!  Sebastion and Collette are wonderful hosts and their estate here at Castlelyons House is pretty amazing!  Here are some of the photos from the work completed and a bit of travel as well.

We arrived here on Monday, October 24th after flying from Oslo to Dublin then took a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to a nearby town where Collette picked us up.

This is building is attached to a stable where we are living.  It's a separate house with full kitchen, living area, 2 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bath.

They have 2 of these little American Miniature breed horses that are so friendly.  This little guy is only 4 months old and if very curious.  His name is Moonboy.

Our first task on Tuesday morning was to pick the apples from their orchard

I think we ended up with 7 large baskets/boxes

Tuesday afternoon we went for a walk in the small village of Castlelyons.  This is the ruins of Castlelyons Abbey dating back to the 1300's.

Wednesday morning we started weeding the rose garden.  It's really hard to work when there is such cuteness interrupting us!

After 3 days...we finished!

This is the wood shed; also attached to the stable

On Saturday morning we headed out to do a little sightseeing.  The town of Blarney and Blarney Castle is only 25 miles from we were are staying.

Yes, we kissed the Blarney Stone and gained the gift of eloquence; at least that's what we hear!

View from the top of the Blarney Castle

Now that's a tree!

From Blarney, we headed to the south tip of Ireland to a small harbor town of Kinsale

Our hosts recommended that we go to Fishy Fishy for lunch in Kinsale.  We were not disappointed!

2 Forts were built in the 1700's on each side of the river Bandon to protect the harbor at Kinsale.  The Fort above is called James Fort.

On the opposite side of the river is Charles Fort

On Saturday evening we stopped at the town of Cork

Cork was hosting a jazz festival so we saw many jazz bands playing in the streets and could hear more coming from inside the pubs; standing room only!

Sunday morning we went to the town of Killarney

We continued to the west coast with gorgeous views!

 Views of the farm land and countryside

 We toured the coastal town of Dingle

Such a great weekend and ready to start another week!

Our Time at Villa Fredbo in Norway

Our last two weeks in Norway were spent with Line, pronounced "Lena", at Villa Fredbo helping around the place with whatever is needed.  

Villa Fredbo is Line's house built in the 1800's, an event hall, airbnb rooms and where she also rents out three permanent rooms in the house

This little house is called an "orangerie".  These buildings are popular in large estates and used to store orange trees, etc., during the winter to keep them alive due to the harsh winters. However, it is now a room she uses to rent or for "workawayers" like us to stay.

The inside of our orangerie room

David did a lot of repairs to Line's car while we were here

Linda spent a lot of time scraping 4 layers of paint off this little "Gypsy wagon".  Line is fixing it into a little room for guests.

 We emptied and cleaned Line's Koi pond to find a leak; found it!

Linda washing the windows of Villa Fredbo

One of the many chickens; this tiny guy is the King of the Roost!

We traveled about an hour away to the quaint little village of Fredrikstad.  Named after King Fredrik ll in 1569.  Very beautiful!

Fortress and barracks from 1610

Old city hall from the 1700's

Couldn't resist

There was a little market in the old city center and some local ladies were making Norwegian "pannekaken" (crepes); great with a bit of preserves!

We had to take a small ferry from old Fredrikstad to the new part of Fredrikstad

A park in the new part of Fredrikstad with an art exhibit on the lawn

While walking through Oslo we came upon a free outdoor christian concert; not something you normally see in Europe.

Out for a run and hike along the shore

We heard about some caves so we had to check them out

A wooden coffin, in a cave??  Run, I hear bats!

 On our final weekend, Line had a birthday and invited a few of her friends over to celebrate

 Line's main sitting room

 Linda sitting on the "hand" chair

 Waiting for guests to arrive

 Happy Birthday to Line!

Some of Line's friends.  This couple are opera singers and musicians in Oslo.  They are curently working on the music for a new Disney film coming out next year.  We love the many interesting people we get to meet on this journey

Another great trip, adventure, and of course great people; we had an awesome time!  We now head to southern Ireland to the city Cork for ten days then to Northern Ireland for another 10 days before heading home.