We did enjoy a short walk through a meadow to the littoral zone and found some beautiful clifftop views.

Derby and the girls romped through the long grass on the the way back.

Further along the coast, we finally found the elusive beaches.  It was fortunate that we had gotten the wetsuits earlier in the week since the heat at the Dublin Zoo was dissipated by the cool ocean breeze and the chilly water.

River braved the waters, Sage dug in the sand, and Derby ate shells.  We later found coffee and ice cream and headed on to Malahide for dinner.

Unfortunately, the service was very slow and we were starving.  It did leave some time to take pictures, though.

And Molly managed to get some knitting done, so it wasn’t time entirely wasted.

The coast at Botany Bay is just amazing.  The chalk cliffs at the back of the beach are stunning.

We discovered that there were lots of little hand and foot holds that enable easy climbing.  The kids decided the sand made a nice, soft place to land and spent quite a bit of time climbing up so they could leap down again and again.

The chalk did prove to be quite soft, not quite what you’d like for real climbing, but it was fun to scramble around a bit.  I’ve been going fairly regularly to the indoor climbing centre in Nottingham, which is fun but not quite the same as being outside on real rock.

We’d heard quite a bit about the geology of chalk in Terry Pratchett’s novels for kids about Tiffany Aiken.  If you haven’t read The Wee Free Men (Discworld) and enjoy smart, incisive fantasies, I highly recommend it. The others in the series are excellent as well. Apparently, the witches in Terry Pratchett’s world cannot perform magic on the chalk since it is not true rock, but Tiffany gets her power from the flints embedded in the chalk matrix. Seeing the flint in Botany Bay and Ramsgate and on houses and walls all through Kent, I really got an understanding of this sort of geology.

It does make an attractive wall finish.  We brought a few pieces of flint and chalk home to add to the growing rock and fossil collection.

Interestingly, the name Wales derives from the Saxon word waleas meaning foreigners. The inhabitants, who call themselves cyrmy, have managed to maintain their unique Celtic heritage despite their integration into the United Kingdom. Street signs display their message in both Welsh and English and we heard the beautiful sounds of Welsh on the streets and in the stores.

We spent Friday night in a town called Llandudno, a seaside resort in the coast of North Wales. The weather wasn’t ideal for a beach holiday, but despite the cold, the hail, and the wind, we all enjoyed our time at the ocean.

It was low tide and it was interesting to see all the rocks and mussels and seaweed hidden in the bay.

You can get a sense for the abundance of hotels lining the promenade in Llandudno. I thought it was quite nice for a resort town, which are often a bit on the tacky side. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of arcades, souvenir shops, and even cotton candy vendors, but it all has a Victorian feel to it.

Here they are dancing on the pier with a song in their hearts!