We’re on a mission to see more of Ireland, to go to the sorts of places, which, if we ever thought about at all when last we lived here over ten years ago, we would have dismissed as the sorts of places tourists went to. Places with castles and visitor centres, or interpretive centres, whatever they're called. Back then the new Ireland we… Continue reading The road to the sunny south-east
Category: Travel
Feliz Nuevo Año, de Seville
With only a few hours until midnight on la Nochevieja, as New Year's Eve is called in Spain, you'd think it would be easy to find a suitable restaurant in the packed alleyways around Seville Cathedral, but it wasn't. Even when we found one with an available table, we were usually disappointed to discover once… Continue reading Feliz Nuevo Año, de Seville
There are castles everywhere in Portugal
Two days after Christmas we flew to Lisbon. Not that we particularly needed a break or anything, having spent the previous weekend in Connemara, and the one before that in Brussels, it's just that Tina and I talked ourselves into it one evening watching TV, neither of us dared back down, and next thing I… Continue reading There are castles everywhere in Portugal
A Christmas trip to Brussels, part deux
We went to Brussels for the weekend recently, but I only got as far as Saturday lunchtime in part 1. The Atomium was the main pavilion of the Brussels World Fair of 1958 up on the Heysel plateau, a space-age icon that outlasted everything else. I’d been to it before, on one or other of my… Continue reading A Christmas trip to Brussels, part deux
In Brussels for the Christmas markets
Ruben was in a restaurant one night in October when he got a notification on his phone of a Couchsurfing request - two adults, two kids - for the beginning of December. “A family with two young boys: that could be really cool or it could be a real disaster”, he thought. “I'll take my… Continue reading In Brussels for the Christmas markets
‘On a Greek Island’ is now available on Amazon.com
Finally, after four months on Zakynthos, and a month and a half off it, 'On a Greek Island: A Season in Zakynthos' is available as an ebook on Amazon.com. It's quite a thing to see it there after all these months. What started as an idea back in Brisbane about a year ago and got… Continue reading ‘On a Greek Island’ is now available on Amazon.com
Camping trip in Poland
Here's a short piece I wrote for the Irish Times amateur travel writer competition recently. We'd just come back from Poland, so it seemed like a good idea to write about that. Camping near Weba Only a few hours of daylight were left to us - Maciej and his wife and two kids; me and mine… Continue reading Camping trip in Poland
Family trip to Berlin
After leaving Zakynthos we flew to Berlin via Athens. Not the quickest way to go but the cheapest option we found at the time. We flew with Aegean Airlines who were surprisingly good with 23kg of luggage and meal included. We'd chosen to stay in a small pension-hotel in Charlottenburg- Wilmersdorf because of its excellent… Continue reading Family trip to Berlin
Back in Dublin Town
Well, after being on the road for the last three weeks we are now settling into our new home in Dublin. The plan is to stay here for a school year while the kids attend school and Ralph finds a job. Ideally I'd like a job too but the librarian job market here is almost… Continue reading Back in Dublin Town
The Peloponnese – Monemvasia and Elafonissos
In part two of our trip around the Peloponnese we went to Polilimnio and the Mani. It was time to leave the Mani even though we'd only had time to see a tiny part of it. We headed south to Areopoli and through the mountain pass towards Gytheio with a quick swimming stop at Mavrovouni… Continue reading The Peloponnese – Monemvasia and Elafonissos
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