Trip to Ireland – Part 1: Arriving in the Landscape
In May 2022, we finally travelled in Ireland.
The trip had originally been planned and booked for 2020, but was postponed due to everything that was happening worldwide at the time. In the two years that followed, the longing to go only grew stronger, even though we couldn’t quite explain why this particular place was calling to us. I had custom suitcases made with my hummingbird design especially for this trip. Luckily, everything we had booked was available again, and we were able to take exactly the same trip as originally planned.
We chose to stay for five days in the Boyne Valley, close to Dublin. From one central location in Navan, we planned to explore the area and visit the Neolithic monuments scattered throughout the landscape. Not to see everything in a hurry, but to take our time. To walk, to look, and to sense what each place might bring.
We were lucky with the weather, and especially in sunlight the Boyne Valley is beautiful: rolling hills, ancient trees, green fields, and now and then a glimpse of the River Boyne, around which everything seemed to revolve. Simply arriving there brought a different rhythm. As if the landscape itself invited us to slow down and to pay attention to the road as well — since we weren’t used to driving on the left-hand side of the road. 🙂
The private garden around the cottage offered wide, open views over the surrounding landscape. I was there for my birthday, which was one of the reasons we chose to travel at this time of year. Not to celebrate in a big way, but to mark life quietly by creating a lasting memory. And that is exactly what happened. Whenever the sun was out, we spent as much time as possible outside, sitting in the garden. When rain came in, we would find ourselves in the nearby pub. With a place like this, there was little need to go anywhere at all. A sketchbook and a camera were more than enough.
There were many animals on the property that regularly came by to say hello: dogs making their familiar rounds and resting in the sun, a cat that appeared unexpectedly and then disappeared again, and many birds. It gave the place a homely, living feeling.
We had just welcomed our own dog as a puppy and named him Bodhi. The name Bodhi comes from Sanskrit and means “awakening” or “enlightenment,” referring to the insight the Buddha attained under the Bodhi tree. How fitting it was that along the driveway to the cottage stood a large, ancient tree, with a small statue of a smiling Buddha hidden in a hollow in its trunk. Bodhi couldn’t join us on this journey yet, but in this way it felt as if he was present, somehow.
Looking back, this short trip to Ireland marked the beginning of a personal and more spiritual journey — one that revealed itself more fully later on and continues to this day. The monuments we visited, the stones, the shapes and symbols, and the way I was present there continue to resonate in my drawings, my paintings, and in the direction my work has taken since.
In the next blog posts, I will explore those layers more deeply: the Neolithic monuments of the Boyne Valley, and the way these places found their way into my work.
During the trip, I created a short video — a visual diary with impressions of the landscape, the atmosphere and the places we visited. The video is a little older and has a different layout than my more recent work, but it still captures exactly what these days meant to me. With Irish music, moving images, moments of stillness — and even a robin briefly appearing. If you’re planning a trip to the Boyne Valley yourself, this video may offer some useful tips and inspiration.
This is part 1 of a four-part blog series about my trip to Ireland.
In parts 2 and 3, I share more about the Neolithic monuments we visited in the Boyne Valley. In part 4, I show how Ireland inspired me to create drawings and watercolor paintings of these ancient sites.
