Ireland

I'm back! Ashley took over the blog for a few weeks as I studied for my GMAT. Well worth the effort; my score improved considerably, especially in the "Maths" as they say here.

We’re going to skip our second trip to London and go straight to our trip to Ireland this past weekend. We’ll go back to London later – had a great time, finally got some Mexican in Camden, but more about that next week.

We booked our trip to Shannon, Ireland, £10 round-trip for BOTH of us – on an airplane!!! Yes, I don’t know how they do it, but we did it. Rented a sweet Panda to ride around in:




Hard to tell from the pic, but it’s about the size of a riding lawnmower. First time driving a manual transmission and having to shift with the left hand, but once I adjusted I was taking full advantage of all 35 HP the Panda had to offer.

Ireland is not part of the UK (Northern Ireland is, but do not call Ireland “Southern Ireland” as I quickly learned from our Ireland Sales Rep a couple months ago. He also taught me a lot about Rugby, which was handy for this trip). So Ireland measures speed and distance in Kilometers.

I set the GPS to avoid highways. The speed limit did not match the terrain in my opinion, but it made for a hell of a fun journey. Speed limit on this road 100 KMH:





Backtrack a bit, we spent the first night in Limerick. A major city, nothing that special about it. Guinness fuels this country. So we had to track down a pub to have a pint, even if Ashley isn’t a big fan:

Ooops, a little souvenir from the pub:

Pub that the glass wandered away from:

From Limerick we were heading to the Moher Cliffs. Just riding through the countryside of Ireland, soaking in the rawness that is Ireland – such a contrast to England’s perfectly manicured/farmed landscape, Ireland is all natural. It really represents it’s people – here I am, beauty in it’s natural form.

We arrive at the Cliffs of Moher – major tourist attraction. Very cool, although I don’t like that guy that’s constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure I don’t lean too far with my camera or lean too close to the edge, or touch something I’m not supposed to. Still breathtaking views:

All that bureaucracy, it takes some of the fun away… I’m still a 10 year-old at heart, I don’t want my parents constantly on my back. Oh wait, what’s this sign:

Hmmm.. “Please Do Not Go”… sounds like a “request” to me…

YES. This is what I’m talking about.. standing on the edge of a ledge, your heart thumping in your chest for a great pic and a great experience that will last a lifetime. Forget the walls and constrictions, going to the edge for an experience is what it’s about:

Well, Ashley still wasn’t satisfied – she wants to go to the coast and get closer to the water. So we head back down towards the village to find our way to the coast.

Some pics of the land and homes along the ocean:

Until we find our way to the water…

After I get completely soaked from getting just a rock too close, we decide to head into town and find a pub to enjoy another fine Irish beverage to relax and enjoy the beach.

It wasn’t too hard to find one of the most popular spots on the strip, grab a Smithwick and watch the surfers! Yes, 50 degrees and these fools are in the waves:

A brief side-trip to a town called Doonbeg in search of a recommendation from a co-worker that lead to a dead end, we started towards our next destination Galway – the 4th largest city in Ireland.

Along the route, there were a few opportunities to pull to the side of these tiny roads to get a few snapshots:

We arrive in Galway at sunset. Our hotel was right on the bay, so we ran out to get some last minute photos:

Then we were off to find dinner! I’m starving… the food in Ireland is fantastic!!

Every time we leave England, we quickly realize how horrible the food is. By the time we make it into town the Ireland vs Wales Rugby match is mid-game. No chance for food until this is over.. so we choose a pub (every single one is packed to the walls), manage to get a drink order in and watch the rest of the game. Ireland goes on to win its first Grand Slam in SIXTY-ONE YEARS in the last two minutes against Wales. The town erupts! I think Ashley is afraid; people are going nuts, what an atmosphere, what an experience.

We make our way to the back of the Pub to find the chef standing there with his arms crossed with nothing to do. He seats us, finds a waitress and we enjoy a fantastic meal as the crowd continues to go crazy in front of us..

Sorry, no pics of this experience. We weren’t going to risk being “tourists” in this atmosphere. Hopefully my words paint the picture.

Our final day, we toured around Galway’s downtown, visited a bunch of shops, grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to Shannon:

Ashley did manage to catch 2/3rds of the “Welcome to Ireland” sign at the airport:

Returned our Panda and back to England after a very enjoyable weekend of Ireland. I don’t know why, but much of the experience reminded me of America – maybe I’m starting to feel a bit homesick, but there were moments when I felt like I was back in NY and would be turning any minute to see my parents or that we’d be jumping on I-75 and on our way to see some long missed friends.

All except that I was sitting on the wrong side of the car and driving on the other side of the road, oh and the sheep… yeah, so we were definitely in Ireland. J

Canterbury, Dover, and Suffolk

The weather was questionable all week, so we didn’t really make our travel plans until Friday night. We woke up Saturday morning and headed to Canterbury.

We saw a VW that had a strange sign on it, not for Wicked the play.

We have a habit of just putting in High Street into the GPS since that is generally the city center. Normally this works okay, but in Canterbury High Street is a pedestrian only road. We traveled on some little narrow streets and eventually had to turn around and quickly find the park-in-ride. If you are ever driving to a larger city in England, always go for the park-in-ride, it is just easier than the little streets around the city!

We finally arrive in the city center and start off by walking on the city wall towards the Canterbury Castle which was built in the 11th century.

Here are some pictures in the castle:

Then we headed off to the Canterbury Tales Visitor’s Attraction. This was a little silly; they have reconstructed different scenes from Canterbury tales.

Here is one of the characters telling us a story:

Next we headed down High Street and caught some glimpses of the Canterbury Cathedral.

We didn’t go into the cathedral, since it was a little pricey and all the cathedrals are really starting to blend together.

Jay found a “typical” looking British man he tried to get a shot of, he is wearing a tweed suit and carrying his top hat and umbrella (on a bright shiny day).

We finally ended up at the Canterbury museum which is housed in an old Priests’ hospital. It had a cool piece of artwork that explained Thomas Becket’s life. It also houses the Rupert Bear museum…it is some book/cartoon that must be big over here, but we have never heard of it.

Cool ceilings:

We did a little shopping before we left; I got 2 pashmina’s for about $6 from a street vendor, that is cheaper than NYC.

We left Canterbury around 3pm and decided to head to Dover since I was dying to see the coast.

We headed to the White Cliffs of Dover, and after we got there I think we both wished we had more daylight. It was a little foggy, however they say on a clear day you can see to France. We will defiantly go back to Dover and explore Dover Castle and spend more time at the White Cliffs.

The pictures don’t really do it justice:

A perfect view to end our day:

We decided that we would go check out Suffolk on Sunday, if it looked nice. It was supposed to a pretty rainy day. We woke up and it looked okay outside, I checked the weather reports and it didn’t look like rain until late afternoon. So off we go, headed to Aldeburgh which Jay was told has the best fish and chips in southern England.

We walked along the beach and saw everyone had paper bags from this fish and chip place and were eating on the beach.

As you can see there is quiet a line for the fish and chips – an hour later we strolled by and the line was twice as long!

Jay did say it is the best fish and chips he has had in England. He’s tried it 4 or 5 times at some local places in Stevenage and Hitchin (where we live and work), and until eating fish and chips in Aldeburgh he said it was forgettable – nothing that would be missed back in the States. When everyone says you have to have fish and chips in England, this is what they are talking about. (My chicken was like Mc D’s, but I guess that is what I get for not liking fish).

The North Sea is quiet different from any beach I have ever seen, it is covered in rocks. Apparently it is illegal to pick up rocks from any beach in England. Oops.

Here we are checking the water temperature, yes it is COLD.

They have little shacks on the beach were they sell fresh seafood, they pull their boats right out of the water up to the shack.

A mini rainbow row:

Since there was still some sun, we headed to Southwold, which we also told was a “better beach.”

Jay breaking another law and climbing on the rocks:

Not as many rocks on this beach:

I don’t know what this person was thinking, but they got in:

They have these little huts that they pull put on the beach, I guess for the winter they were in the parking lot – Jay was told they cost 55,000 pounds each! I really thought they were cute, so we got a little hut keychain to turn into a Christmas ornament.

Southwold had a pier with an “Under the Pier” show, which consisted of some very strange games.

Fly Driving:

Rent a dog:

Jay’s getting his daily exercise:

By this time, the storm finally caught up and it started raining, so we headed home.

There is a cool tunnel on the way we have driven through a couple of times:

So where to this weekend, well we don’t know yet. This is our last weekend with the company car, so I am sure we are off on another adventure…