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Regular activities of the Thomas's in Melbourne, Australia. Please note: All comments are moderated before being published so please be patient for it to view to all.

Photo Gallery

Below are photos from our trip to Ireland, UK & France late January/early February 2006. We accompanied our daughter Christine to her new place to study and then left to holiday some more before returning home. Just click on a photo for a larger (and closer) view. Be prepared - some of the images are over 1meg in size so if you have limited download you might want to content yourself with just these images below which are about 10% of the original size.

I might not have known the names of all the buildings I took but I loved all the old architecture and it was incredible to think that some of the buildings were many hundreds of years old.

Ireland Click UK or Paris for photos taken on our trip
First Stop: Dublin
At Tullamarine, Melbourne	First glimpse of Irish Coast	Graham reading on the plane
Hop on Hop off Bus in Dublin	Trinity College	The buildings are so much older in Dublin than Melbourne
The building with no windows	Graham and Christine in an Irish pub	A church in Mt Herbert, Dublin
Next in Kildare
13th century church	St Brigid's Church from the back	Round Tower behind church built long before the church was
St Brigid's Cementary	Gravestone date 1778	Gravestone dated 1729
Inside St Brigid	Another view inside	A beautiful building inside
Graham inside the church	Chris & Graham with the round tower
In Monasterevin
Church at Monasterevin I love looking at all the old churches	The front door of the church with statues	The housing is very different to Melbourne
I thought this would make a great postcard picture	Houses by a canal	Drawbridge over the canal
This was amazing - a canal crossing a river!	Graham & Christine well rugged up	Another of the Canal Bridge Crossing
Japanese Gardens
It was a frosty morning when we took Christine to the Irish National Stud	In the Japanese Garden at the Irish National Stud	There was a story to go with the walk
See the frost in the garden?	The leaves were crunching under my feet	The pond surface was frozen too
Another bonsai beauty	Early frosty morning - wonder how many others get to see it like this?	Final picture - it was beautiful!
Next, Wicklow Gap
It was beautiful to view	Apparently an old road passed through here	Another view of Wicklow Gap
Kilkenny Castle
Information about moat and castle	The castle moat	Former stables are now a college
View of Kilkenny Castle	Riverview of castle	Entrance where we came in
A street in Kilkenny - so different to Melbourne!	Another view of the street	I took this one because our girls are into the show Black Books
Kildare and Other Places
Graham with a Celtic Cross	Celtic Cross from the 5th century	Original abbey archway in front of younger church (Castle Dermode Abbey)
Festival of St Brigid in Kildare
	Traditional Irish Musicians	School dancers waiting their turn
Brigidine Sisters bring in the flame	President of Ireland holding the flame	The sisters light the new home for the eternal flame - a sculpture that was put into place on the day we arrived in Kildare. We watched it being set in the ground not knowing it was for the festival.
The President of Ireland speaking at the event - she is obviously very loved by the Irish people.	Local schoolgirls doing a flame dance	Brigidine nuns came from all over the world. These 3 were from Nigeria.
Hill of Tara
We visited the ancient Hill of Tara which had extremely old history attached to it. Settlers first came to it 6,000 years ago.	I love this photo of the church in the fog - it used for seminars and tourists during peak season. Built in 1822 on grounds where older churches once lay.	The Mound of the Hostages is a megalithic 'passage tomb' and is the oldest monument on the hill of Tara, dating to about 2,500BC. The name "Mound of the Hostages" derives from the custom of overkings like those at Tara retaining important personages from subject kingdoms to ensure their submission.
Close up of the entrance of the mound	Inside the mound - click on the image to see the markings on the stone on the left	Tara's royal symbol: The Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny brought by the godly people as one of their sacred objects. It was moved to this position in 1798.