Month: August 2013

So – 1300 miles and 35 hours in the car and we successfully travelled from North Wales to Dublin – Belfast – Derry – Sligo – Galway – Limerick – Cork – Rosslare. We saw a real variety of scenery, some stunning, some rubbish – and in all it was a good trip. For me though, Ireland is just like Pembrokeshire – some of the things are bigger (Cliffs of Moher) and some of the specific things are not in Pembrokeshire, but in all, the scenery was very much like Wales, and in my opinion the villages are far better in Pembs.

The good things were:
Dark Hedges – loved it, natural and free – it was brilliant.
Giants Causeway – just so impressive, it takes a while to really appreciate how special it is
Galway Town – great place, what Ireland should be like
Churchtown – something about that graveyard
Blarney – over priced, but I liked it

The bad things were:
The “villages” were mostly horrible – I expected Cotswold type places, instead they looked like Glasgow sink estates
The rope bridge – massive rip off, far smaller than you could possibly imagine
The new “visitor centres” which have sprung up and the health and safety nonsense with has grown up around them
The cost – beer and food were about a third more expensive than here

Best Town – Galway
Worse Town – Limerick
Best Hotel – Cork/Raddison
Worse Hotel – B+B then Menlo
Best Food – Pizza Express! Or Galway
Best Site – Giants Causeway

Would I return?
Yep – in a couple of years perhaps, would like to revisit Galway, skip Limerick and base myself somewhere in Kerry. This is supposed to be the best area, and we didn’t get to see it at all this time.

Here we are then, the last day. Okay breakfast, then straight out for a full day of viewing the south of Ireland.
Straight out and onto the fast roads, and off on the next junction down to a little town called Cobh. A little like Tenby i suppose, but not so nice, it did feel the most foreign as we walked down from the car park. Nice little stroll and finished in the cathedral where we found the first electronic candles. Usually you have to light your candles, not here, you just press a button – odd…

Next up was New Ross, where they had an emigrant ship, which was an example of a ship which used to sail to america from Ireland, specifically in this instance when all the spuds died. It was surprisingly interesting – i had chips from a chippy after.

From here we headed south to the oldest maned, working lighthouse in the world. It had a light.

From here to Tintern Abbey, which was created and populated by monks from ‘our’ tintern abbey in monmouthshire. Unfortunately it was closed for repairs, but another sunny day, so we had a walk around, and Kate had a paddle..
Next up was wexford, which was rubbish. Although i need think i recognised some of it and i may have been there on a crawl some twenty years ago. Roads were odd, but we managed to fi d a parking space and had a little walk. From here it was just a hop, skip and a jump to the b&b – i don’t really like b&b’s – this one didnt change my mind.
Quickly out and a pub crawl in the village. The merry elf was first, with a couple of locals and a pleasant  bar man. We regaled them with tales of the ireland trip, mostly mentioning beer cost and weather. On to the next, and final pub on the crawl. We had food here too, i had scampi made out of prawns. It was pretty good. Then to someone elses home, and bed.

Cobh – 6/10
New Ross – 7/10
Lighthoiuse – 5/10
Tintern – 5/10
B&b – 5/10
Pubs – 6/10

Wonderful day. Best yet.
No breakfast in the strand, so it meant that we out and on the road early doors.. First stop was to a lough, or large pond. They had a toilet, but unfortunately as we were up so early the visitor center had not even opened yet. So we had a quick look around and a wee wee, then off in search of breakfast. Half hour later we were in a little town where we went in search of breakfast. We found a little cafe, which was pretty much the only place open – so butties and sarnies all around and we were set for the day.

Next stop was a little place called Chruchtown, which is a little village with a pub. It’s claim to fame however is that it was the village that oliver reed spent a lot of his life, mostly in the pub. After he arm wrestled sailors in Malta and had a heart attack whilst filming Gladiator, he was brought back to this tiny place, with its tiny graveyard to be buried. It’s fascinating. I loved it.

In what may be a cynical marketing ploy, the graveyard is locked now, and has a note stating that grave digging is a criminal offence! You get the key from the pub… Luckily, although it was only about ten, the pub was open, and a couple of lovely, if perhaps slightly drunk people were inside. They were more than happy to pass the key over, so we opened the yard and trooped through the overgrown yard and onto a little path around to his grave. After whispering a prayer to the god of booze, and taking a few snaps – we left.

Next up was a special treat for Kate, and it was only a few miles away
And it was free – woohoo. It was a donkey sanctury, which was actually quite good, and Kate loved it, so it was well worth it. She had a lot of patting to do, and the sun was shining. It is a little odd that we have a society which has the time to invest in donkeys given the other suffering in the world – but it don’t cost me oot, so no problem.

Both Kate and I  had our treats, so next up was Blarney for Sian. She had been here years ago on a cycle trip, so was interested to see how it had changed, plus we all need a little bit of blarney. Sun was out, parking was free, but of course there was a big charge to get in. In all it was worth it though. Nice grounds, little cave, and the castle itself is  okay. You go up and up through spiral staircases to the very top of the tower, the staircase is tiny, how the fat Americans get up there I will never know. I don’t like these stairs, it makes me sweat, and i don’t like heights, so by the time we got to the top I was a wet mess. Then we had a queue for a short while which was high, my legs were now aching from attempting to save myself from falling. Then it was my turn to kiss that greasy stone. You have to lie on your back then grab some bars and lean backwards and downwards. I didn’t manage downwards, and only just managed to get my lips onto the saliva soaked rock. You are not allowed to take a photo, as they have an Alton Towers type camera arrangement which photos you, where thick tourists pay another ten euros to pick up later. Had a quick pint in the village, then headed for cork.

We tried to go to a neat church in cork where you ring the bells, but we couldn’t park anywhere, so we went to the hotel. Great place, we had room no. 001, which I have never had before. Top room, it was a suite, with a lounge and bedroom – i really liked it. Sian and Kate went for a swim and i had a couple of pints and had a facebook chat…

Took the train into cork and had a couple of beers in a couple of pubs – one of which was “The Woodford”, where I had a Molston Canadian – then a real top draw Chinese. We noticed the time and had around 15 mins to catch the train, which was at least 20 mins away, we went quite fast, and luckily just made it – I was ‘glowing’.

Grave – 8/10
Donkies – 6/10
Blarney – 7/10
Hotel – 8/10
Cork – 7/10
Food – 8/10

Hopefully a better day today, had a reasonably good nights sleep in the Menlo Park – and was up at around 7:00. Shower and sorted, and down for yet another full breakfast, I really should say NO! But I am far too greedy. So bacon, black and white pudding, mushrooms, ham, cheese, sausage, toast and rolls. Greedy greedy. Got Kate a sausage and bacon tiny roll, then we were away and checking out.

After a bit of a faff with the Sat Nav, we headed east from Galway and then south towards the Burrens. This is basically the same as the brecon beacons only in Ireland, and with extra stones. But the first part of the trip was great – another coast road which really skirted the mountain and ocean. We stopped in a little pull in and examined the cliff face, which wasn’t, so we scrambled down it towards the sea. As it was a pretty nice day the waves were mediocre, it would have been very impressive on a stormy day. Continuing around the cliffs we arrived at Doolin which was supposed to be great – we must have taken the wrong road through it (there only seemed to be one) as we saw nothing but a street of nondescript houses and a couple of “pubs”. Don’t know what we missed, but Doolin was supposed to be good – we didn’t see the good side some how. We continued around the coast until we got to the Cliffs of Moher. These are some cliffs, you have to pay 6 euos each to view. From a bit of a distance thanks to elf and safety. They were pretty impressive, but you have to stay so far from the edge that we don’t really get the real magnitude of the sheerness. You could see where they probably used to let visitors go, which was a flat top of one of the cliffs which went right to the edge – no chance now. It would be amazing if they got one of those glass viewing platforms there have on the Grand Canyon (I think it’s there?). As with all of Ireland they had WiFi, and Chinese with cameras.

From the coast we made our way east to Ennis, nothing much to write home about on the journey, but Ennis town was pretty good. Small enough to be compact and with a great variety of shops/pubs and eateries. It was covered in buntings and was very pleasant. Kate choose our lunch and we must have gone to the Ireland Pizza Express franchise, the place was identical, but was called Milanos. I cannot believe it was a rip off (and subsequent googling and shown it is a Pizza Express, but they are not allowed to use that name). It was nice.

From Ennis we meandered a bit, but headed to Quin, where we looked at an Abbey and some Irish jobsworth told Kate off for standing on the stone frame of a doorway – something that had been there for 700 years and had survived all of those feet. We nipped in a pub here, which was completely empty, apart from the serving woman, it was a nice looking pub, and probably gets rammed in the evenings.. From here we lost our way a bit, and in reality we headed for Limerick to get an early checkin as Kate was desperate for a swim. Sian and Kate went for one whilst I type this…

After swimming we set off for the town and it poured down, then we couldn’t find a pub – in the whole of Limerick, I thought every other shop would be a pub, but we struggled to find one – as usual I asked an old dude on the corner and through his incoherent mumblings he pointed to a pub, just 10 meters away. Flannerys, we bought a pint and sat down next to the most sweary women in the world. She was at the bar, and we were by the window, but every third word was f&*k. She was using it like others might use a um, or ur. The rain had stopped, so we headed off to find another pub, which we found some way away – this one bizarrely was also called Flannerys – not sure if they are related, or that every pub in Limerick was a Flannerys. Off to nosh then in the Texas SteakOut, which was nice but very very rich, and the chicken was too hot for Kate – but 60 euros wasn’t too bad. Back to hotel then and up the glass elevator, which is not so scary in the night time, and I went to get my camera to take a night shot – I obviously do not know how to do that so the shot was rubbish – I think you probably need a tripod for evening work.

Coast road – 7/10

Cliffs – 8/10 (experience – 6/10)

Doolin – 1/10

Ennis – 7/10

Lunch – 9/10

Quin – 6/10

Limerick – 6/10

Shower – 6/10

Same routine in the morning again. Slept okay, then down for breakfast by the river (which sounds better than it was) with Kate having a lie in again. Okay breakfast, I soon tire of these full breakfasts every morning. The day was overcast with the promise of rain, although the weather man said it wouldn’t – he lied.

Set off down south to the Monolithic Burial site, which is the oldest in the world or something, and it shows. We had a walk round in between some rocks and I took some pointless photo’s, but a couple of flower shots which I hope will be okay. The best preserved burial monument can only be viewed from a distance because it lives on someone else’s land. AT least we used their toilet.

We then headed south again towards Cong, which was a long way through rubbish roads and scenery – the only highlight was when we nearly had a crash with a Heron. It was quite shite all told. Eventually we got to Cong – which was very nice, and it would have been good to stay longer, but we had a plan. The plan didn’t work. We did see some amazing scenery but with no real purpose, and we just sort of meandered around for hours. Along this route we came across a “Spar” which had some tasty hot food, and we had quite tasty port and chicken rolls..We came to a sort of beach, so stopped – to kill time and also sneak a wee in, and then we were at Galway – luckily just before rush hour.

Arrived and checked in and the room and a load humming noise in it – no good for me, so went to ask for a move, and the lovely reception woman managed it, to a room we hoped would be quieter, and it also seemed a little nicer anyway. had a beer then a 20 min walk into Galway itself. Galway is pretty good, lots of streets and pubs and restaurants. We sampled a couple, and decided on Oscars for food. I went for the lamb, Sian the Monkfish and Kate had to have the fish and chips – we also splurged on a sharing seafood platter for starters – which involved a variety of items including oysters. If you have never tried oysters, don’t bother. The experience is like drowning in the sea – slowly. I can never understand the love of oysters – I think everyone hates them and people just pretend – because that is what you are supposed to do. They are just slimy bags of seawater – terrible. The rest of the food was top nosh, although Kate didn’t like her fish, but then at a hundred euros I would hope it was okay – the lager was five euros a pop, so unusually we only had one each!.

Once finished, we walked the long walk home, stopping at MaccyD’s for a McFlurry for Kate, then home to sleep the sleep of the conquerors and hope that tomorrows visits will be better than today’s.

Monolithic – 4/10

Cong – 8/10

Drive – 3/10

Galway – 8/10

Food – 7/10

Shower – 8/10

Slept okay, not great, but okay – dreamt that someone shot themselves, so probably not ideal.

Down for breakfast at a reasonable time, Kate stayed in bed to get some beauty sleep, me and Sian don’t need that anymore!. Great normal Premier breakfast, and we made Kate a bacon sandwich, then checked out. As we went for down the hotel had a massive leak of water from above reception, we guessed that someone had left the bath on, i guess that is an occupational hazard in hotel, but not seen it before, the water was pi%%ing down through the ceiling.

As we didn’t get to Derry last night we went down and parked in a dodgy place, recommended by the hotel lady. We walking thought he new “city of culture” square, and across the peace bridge (TM), into Derry itself. As it was Sunday and early, we walked the walls in relative quite, although nearin the end we met three guided fat American tours. You would not believe the size of the behinds of some of them. We made the circuit in quick time, seeing the all too reality of large fences at the loyalist end, and the IRA writing on the roofs of Bogside – it does make you think – and Kate worried.

After the quick tour of Derry it was time to get on the road to the continent, and within 20 mins we were on “top of the world”, and Kate and Sian shouted from the top. This was some sort of fort, which was tall, and well made, but not very big inside. It was about a six bedroom, with no second lounge sort of thing. The views were immense. This journey had some of the odd up and down roads again, which are fun, until you begin to get scared of hurting the car. Back into UK, the out again, then back in and the next stop was Omaghn. These places are quite sobering, in the sense of death and nonsense reasons, ut also have very little open on a Sunday morning. we did find a bar, and I accidental ordered a beer. Quick Heiniken,  Latte and Coke and we headed off, with my head slightly spinning, into Enniskilling.

A day of town visits I guess today, but this was supposed to be good – it wasn’t great, I probably wouldn’t bother again – but we saw the square where the bomb went off, I realise this seems like a tour of bomb sites, but unfortunately a lot of N. Iron had it. We also had some food – which was good. Unfortunately we had a bit of an issue when I parked up, as I was looking for a toilet and had to walk for 2 miles to find it, I had my camera bad over my shoulder and was crossing my legs slightly – I had a lot of looks from normal people and quite a few from the mincers. We probably stayed too long here, but the pub was “busy” and it took ages for food – although Sian and kate had a free beer from it, I didn’t as by this time I had already had a couple of beers. we left and headed for the subterranean tunnels.

We finally got there about three thirty, and the queue was an hour long, as we had another hour plus home, we decided against it – thank christ. It would have been good to do it, but I was knackered, and the thought of leaving over two hours later made we happy for the choice. After an hour we arrived in Sligo and the Glasshouse. We parked underground and watched a dude slip over in front of us as we went in – which I am sure made him a little embarrassed – he even said sorry to us! We squeezed into a parking space (later we realised there was another two floors) and then checked in – cool room. Bathroom not as good as the room, but the room was massive and we had a balcony.

Down the bar, then into Sligo. We had some beers in some nice pubs – none serving food, but eventually we got to the final feeding pub. Looked great, really liked the interior, and they were obviously busy. I spoke to the waiter and he told me to have the rib eye. It was shit. As a “starter”, they gave us a loaf of really tasty bread with butter and a chilli “marmalade”, it was good. My steak looked good, the meat was grand, but it had bad fat and tough bits, it was rib eye from gods sake – the onion rings and thick chips were under cooked. I told the serving wench (the main man didn’t come back) and she didn’t seem to either give a shit, or know what to do. Sian’s was great, Kate’s wasn’t.

We seemed to get a beer for free, but no one came back over, and Sian paid to save me having a moan, so we came back to the hotel for a final beer – then bed – in our large, comfy room…!

Derry Walls – 6/10

The fort (views) – 7/10

Omaghn – 5/10

Enniskillen – 5/10

Roads – 6/10 (some 10/10)

Hotel – 8/10

Sligo – 7/10

Food – 5/10

Shower – 3/10

Here we are on the third day of the tour of ireland. Today we tour the antrim coast. I had a pretty good nights sleep, but was up at six, then hung around in bed awaiting the call to the throne.. Breakfast was okay, had crumpets and marmite, with bacon on top, so can’t complain. Then we were out of there.
Headed to larne to start, but took a detour of to see the glanoe water fall, which was really good, and free. On the way there i went down the most roller coaster road ever, i even let out a sad squeak of worriedness on one especially steep up and down. Then we hit the coastal road….

This was ace. Slow run, mainly because of the scenery the road was right by the sea for miles, you could see so far ahead around the bays, it was great. After a time we headed for the dark hedges, the driving to get here, which was a good ten mile out of the way, was immense. It went up and down through the Irish glens and we saw maybe ten cars in the entire trip, the road was twisty and turny and i spent most of it on the right hand side of the road… Really enjoyed throwing the five down here. Then after a slight wavier, thanks to the sat nat and postcodes we got to the trees. I loved them.

We were now way behind my schedule, but we rejoined the coast road which was no loinger on the coast, and made our way to the rope bridge. Didn’t like this. At all. Too busy, too pricy, too badly organised, no real pay off. The bridge is the one you may have seen in some photos, it’s a rope bridge across to an island, and looks amazing in the photos, is not. It’s shite. Although being a shandy i was scared crossing anyway. You queue, then you go 18 meters across the wobbly bridge, then you wait to come back – not great.

After this we went to giants causeway. I was unsure about this to start with, but only six pound for parking i heard, bargain. Not any more! They now have a ‘cool’ visitor center work needs to be paid for, so it’s now 21 quid, but to be honest it is worth it, it’s incredible. I was a little unsure to start with, but after looking at it for some time you realise that you can never see something like this for real  *anywhere*. We spent some time here, and we had not even had lunch yet, and it was after three, so we headed on. Next stop was a beach side town, we decided on Portsteward rather than Portrush, luckily from one point of view, as Portrush was completely packed out for some reason, but the other was rubbish. We parked up, for free, which was good and then walked down their promanarde which was odd, people just sat in their cars looking, sleeping or eating ice cream. It troubled me more than it should. We didn’t stay long. on the drive to Derry we passed an appropriate place  to retire to – Dungiven… !

Next stop was Derry, as we are so late we decided to see the town tomorrow, so we got the bar immediately and after quite a few buds i risked the chicken buffet, and the others tucked into fish and sausage and mash.

Waterfall – 7/10
Coast road (start) – 8/10
Trees – 8/10
Rope bridge – 3/10

Shower -6/10

So here we are on the trip proper and off on the ‘fast’ very to Dublin. Unfortunately we don’t have the time to stay at Dublin, so it’s a trip from Holyhead to Belfast today. Kate has been a little worried about the troubles which have been on the news recently, but we told her that’s just usual…

Bit of a lie in today as we had allot of morning to kill, so a doss around, and then went to MaccyD’s for bacon rolls this morning. Then to Asda to make a pic-an-ic. I was desperate for a wee-wee which seems to happen more and more these days, so i was out of asda quick smart whilst they took an eternity to decide which charity they wanted to stick there little green disks in. Fifteen minutes of more dosing and it was time for the ferry. Not having done this before i was a little apprehensive, but it was fine. We got there about half an hour before the start and were pretty much last. Wait wait wait as all the others slipped up the ramp into the belly of the waiting ‘fast crossing’ Irish beast. Finally it was our turn, and he stuck us, at a weird angle at the very very back of the boat. Not in any of the car channels, just pushed sideways into the back…. Managed to secure some chairs by the TV which was pretty good, but even before the beast moved i felt sick. But there was wi-fi, but the bloody fantasy football is blocked by their filter, as it’s a ‘game’ dag-nammit…

Had a sneaky try of outside on the boat, and by god it was windy, but nice – made the inside feel odd when we got back. Once the film had finished we were nearly over. We snuck back to the car, and due to the fact we were at the back we could join a queue to get the funk out of there. We were in a foreign place. It was raining…

Out of the port and though the toll charged tunnel, then on the m1 to belfast. Rainy, and just that little bit different, is not quite the UK – close, bit no e-cig. We followed a little yellow car for miles, keeping speed with him, assuming that he knew where to go fast and where to go slow.. Not sure he really did, but it was nice. One little bit of a queue and we cruised the rest of the way, and had to pay another toll.. Before too long we were back in the USSR UK.

Two hours and we were at the hotel, another great room from the premiere team. Quick checkin, then my time to shine and show the gang all the best things i know about belfast. BT building, the coroners office (which i think really sums up the troubles), the road passed the Belfast social club and the town hall. They were not awfully impressed.. Kate thought bombs were going to go off, and at the least some fires.. They didn’t. We had a pint and sat outside in the fug of the smokers, next pub didn’t let us in, so we went back to a place i knew well, the holiday inn. Couple pints here then to pizza express, were we had a weird server, who was ace, but started with a very broad Irish accent, then went into a special Italian one. The food was absolutely wonderful – really enjoyed it. Long walk back, then bed.

Ferry – 5/10
Driving in foreign climes – 6/10
Driving back in UK – 9/10
Belfast pubs – 6/10
Pizza Express – 9/10

Shower – 6/10

So here we are at the start of the nee journey. Up early doors at around six, after yet another rubbish night. Toilet, then tea, then decided to head into Newport and fill up the tank with some cheap petrol curtsey of Tesco. Snuck through the old steelworks again, hopefully they will open this road for real one day, but sneaking through world for me. Some toast and a completely jammed car, and we were on or way, three minutes early at 8:27.

Roads were empty which was great, because i always think we’re are going to hit rush hour, bit after a few hours in the car we made it add far as dolgeddlau. We had to take a bit of a detor here, as i just had to take the team up the massive hill i did when i was cycling. I am not convinced they were quite as into it as i was, but it was quite interesting seeing what it looked like from a car perspective.. ( it was still hilly) we had a little pause here to see the view and then through dolgellau and onto Caernarvon.
We had pretty much followed the route we went with paul, at the start of the lon las, but we veered off into caernarvon. It was a cracking day, and typically i think i have probably burnt my mush somewhat, but we did manage food in the black boy ( or bouy) which was quite nice, but my beef with hoi soon was cold which surprised me. After caernarvon we decided to hear over to Bangor, which was shite. Brendon had been trying to get a joke through to us regarding a girlfriend and bangor, which never worked, and even that nonsence was a million times better than the real place. I never want to go there again, i cannot think of one redeaming feature of the place, although i suppose the multi story was quite nice.. It was full of people which you couldn’t help but think they just ‘didn’t know better’, we also saw, what Kate called an old Sea captain, who would have great stories, but was actually a stinky old wierdo, with a Captain Birdseye dirty beard, a long mac and wellies – ah, the innocence of youth….

After Bangor we headed over the Menai Bridge, which is an amazing feat of engineering, and then up the road to llanfairpull… The famous long named train station. Not much to sees here other than the sign, so we soon set of to Holyhead itself. Nipped up the A5 and before we knew it, we were in the second worse place of the day. Quick Checkin to the travel lodge, then a walk along the “promenarde” to a place for stella. Couple of beers and then we examined the food options, there were none. Kate thought she would hop up the steps from the prom and thought she had broke her tendons – don’t know where she gets this air of the dramatics from… So we went to the chinky, it was surprisingly tasty, and compared to the rest of the holes we saw uber luxurious. It would have been good in any town, nevermind this hellhole. After Garlick and satay chick chick, sizzling beef and black pepper and some amazing rice, we paid up and returned to the lodge – knackerred.

Trip – 7/10
Caernarfon – 7/10
Bangor – 3/10
Holyhead – 5/10
Food, lunch – 6/10
Food, supper – 8/10

Shower – 5/10