European Travel
Independent Travel – Ireland Edition
I have traveled Ireland several times – but for many people Ireland is their first trip overseas so what should a beginner be thinking about if they are considering a trip to the Emerald Isle. You could decide to go with an organized tour – lets be clear tours are great – so long as…
Read MoreParisian Restaurant, near the Gare du Nord
Arriving in Paris in a snow storm, without reservations we walked out of the Gare du Nord where the Eurostar and dropped us, turned left and found a 1-star hotel for €40/night. However there wasn’t much for breakfast. We ended up in this little cafe opposite the train station, whose name I forgot to write down.…
Read MoreChristmas Market, Berlin, Germany
I never got to Germany before the wall fell while I was in Europe in 1989. In 2010 I finally made it all the way to Berlin – for somewhere that seems so far and so difficult to get to for much of my life – its only a 6 hour €50 train ride from the…
Read MoreIndependent Travel: Ballyvaughan to Cork
First we went to the Barren Experience Centre – audio visual show at €5/person which was a good introduction to the neolithic stone tombs of the area and the limestone karst geology that made them possible. A few wild flowers were out and it was remote and beautiful in the area. Then we drove over…
Read MoreIndependent Travel:Dingle – Galloway
The weather turned nasty so our attempt at long distance walking ended in failure. Its interesting compared to the UK Ireland is really not set up for walking. The concept of common ways doesn’t exist in Irish law and tracks seem very poorly marked – you really need to have the detailed topo maps –…
Read MoreIndependent Travel: Kilkarney to Dingle
In the morning the weather wasn’t so bad so we went to see the grounds of Muckross House in town. Walked to the bottom of the Torc Waterfall which was about 4km return – and on the return it started raining again. Still cold with snow on the hills. Didn’t go into the house –…
Read MoreIndependent Travel: Killarney and the Ring of Kerry
Raining still in the morning but it did improve during the day. There had been snow on the hills overnight and it was a lot colder and windy compared to what we had been having. Drove the Ring of Kerry the Ring of Beara’s more famous sister. We took a €5 car ferry over to…
Read MoreIndependent Travel: Glengariff to Kilkenney via the Ring of Beara
Well this was supposed to be the highlight of driving the Beara Ring – less famous than the Ring of Kerry but apparently arguably even better. Unfortunately I can’t really comment – because through the mist and the rain we didn’t see a lot. And the roads were very narrow so the driver really had…
Read MoreIndependent Travel: Baltimore to Glengarif
Took the short ferry trip over to Sherkin Island – 15 minutes and €7 pp. Walked the length of the island – three hours. Quiet with very few other tourists – warm and fine weather. Got back to Baltimore about 3pm just as it started to rain. Skibbereen was a bit wet – but did…
Read MoreIndependent Travel: Cork to Baltimore
Skipping over the whole family visiting – kid focused activity bit – we are finally off out of Cork for a tour of the west of Ireland. We are boring a dinky little 2 seater van my brother owns so I can’t tell you much about the cost of hiring a vehicle – but I…
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