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Armchair Traveler
“You can lead me all over Attica or anywhere else you like, simply waving in front of me the leaves of a book.” ~ Socrates When the Covid lockdowns had begun to take their toll on my everyday tolerance for staying at home – something I thought up to that point was limitless – I decided to travel in my armchair using other peoples travel memoirs as gateways to the world. “We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth.” ― John Lubbock People told me I was mad and only making the restrictions worse, but in fact the books I was reading told stories of journeys I would most likely never have taken even without the freeze the pandemic placed on us. As you can see from…
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DRIVING OVER LEMONS
Given the ban on travel because of the current pandemic, and a series of unfortunate events that have prevented us from even wandering around Ireland, I've taken lately to travelling vicariously through other people's accounts of their journeys and life experiences in various parts of the world. In this adventure we're off to Andalucia in the 1980s with the first drummer of the band Genesis (I bet he's sick of being described in that way at this stage), his wife and a menagerie of both human and non-human characters. This memoir is an easy read and if I'm to be honest it's suffering from a dated feel at this stage, even though the version I read was a 25th anniversary edition with an extra chapter (that didn't really add anything to the overall story).
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IRELAND: THE STAR WARS CONNECTION
The Ban Cheile* and I were fully charged and ready for our three-day adventure to South West Kerry to see if the Star Wars™ influence had changed the area in any way and also to enjoy a seriously chilled extended weekend break. If you’re a Star Wars fan you’ll know the cast and crew spent some time in and around Kerry while filming scenes for The Force Awakens and returned for the upcoming The Last Jedi. I’m pleased to report that other than an odd, and I mean odd, reference to the brief, but important, Star Wars experience (like a three foot storm trooper challenging an equally diminutive sith lord in the window of a guest house in Portmagee and a few “Skellig Wars” t-shirts featuring green-eyed puffins in Darth Vader gear) the Kerry coast has been…
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IRELAND: VALENTIA – ISLAND AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
While the Ban Cheile* and I were on our Ring Of Kerry trip last month we based ourselves in the Valentia Royal Hotel on the small island off the Kerry coast. The island is just 11km long and 3km wide with a population of only 665 permanent residents – about the same as a very small neighbourhood in Dublin. Having said that it’s a fascinating place to spend a few days and since we were fortunate enough to have terrific weather it meant we could arm ourselves with our cameras and do the on tourist exploration of the island. Accessible only by a bridge at Portmagee (the small ferry from Reenard on the “mainland” – can you even call a bigger island a mainland? – to Knightstown only runs from April to late autumn). Valentia is steeped in history and…
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VALENTIA ROYAL HOTEL
The Ban Cheile* and I were really looking forward to our three-day stay on Valentia Island (Kerry, Ireland). We jokingly decided we’d go to South West Cork to see if we can follow the Force as it were. All true Star Wars fans know by now that the amazing scene at the end of The Force Awakens, where Luke Skywalker makes his big entrance, was shot on a tiny monastic island off the Kerry coast called Skellig Michael. We decided it was time for us to return to the area to see what the influence of the Force might have had on the place and to treat ourselves to a chill-out long weekend in the process. We arrived early the previous day to our hotel, The Royal Valentia Hotel. We’d stayed there some years earlier when it…
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GALWAY: A WEEKEND TRIP (Part 2)
In Galway: A Weekend Trip (Part 1) I took you through the food and accommodation highlights of our recent weekend trip to Galway. In this instalment, I want to share some photographs of the first leg of our tour of the Wild Atlantic Way. The Lonely Planet™ describes the route as “The ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ driving route neatly packages the abundant attractions of Ireland’s west coast, from West Cork to Donegal. The well-signed, easy-to-navigate route includes 157 ‘Discovery Points’, where drivers can stop and learn more about the must-sees and lesser-known diversions of this fascinating area”. It’s 2500 km of coastline and apparently one of the longest coastal routes in the world. Our plan is to take in chunks of the way over a period of time in a weekend or one-day bites. In truth, we’ve travelled along much of the…
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CHARLES FORT
How often do you get the chance to have a day out with your Grown Up Children – especially when there are no grandchildren involved? Not too often in our case and so we were delighted when last month, The Ban Chéile* and I teamed up with GUC No. 4 and No. 6 for a trip to Charles Fort near Kinsale in County Cork. It’s less than an hours drive from the country place and we just wanted a couple of hours out in the sunshine doing what tourists do. Charles Fort proved to be a great idea and since we were all armed with cameras (No. 6 is an avid photographer and blogger – paparali.com) it turned into a bit of a “shoot out” with lots of lighthearted photos of both the fantastic fort and the…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK! (Challenge #6)
New York City, USA is the place I would like to see most of all for a number of good reasons and here they are (in no particular order). I’m a shopaholic and would love to roam through the department stores and shopping thoroughfares of the Big Apple (preferably with someone else’s credit card!). I was raised on TV cop shows based in New York, like Kojak and Cagney & Lacey and now Bluebloods. So I kinda feel I already know the place! The sights to see – Lady Liberty alone would be worth the trip. The bars and the restaurants- pastrami on rye, please. The people – it’s THE melting pot of cultures. no surprise the UN is based there. The fact you can be your ‘authentic’ self there and it wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.…
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FRANCE 2013: BEDENAC
At the end of news broadcasts there’s usually a lighter item preceded with the words “and finally..” and I suppose this is it for our holiday in France 2013 (although we still have the 8 hour drive to Roscoff tomorrow and the sailing). We rented a gite in Bedénac in Charente owned by Sue and Paul Wright in 2011 and again in 2013 for three weeks each time. The village itself is very pretty and to a great extent typical of villages all across France. It’s a 30 minute drive north of Bordeaux and 55 minutes or so south of Cognac. The gite itself is lovely and big enough for the two of us. I really like the layout of the converted space – it was originally three tiny cottages. Sue and Paul have plans to move…
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FRANCE 2013: ARCACHON
In my mind there are Beach People and for the record I’m not one of them. Beach People thrive on finding a spot amongst hordes of other sun, sea and sand worshippers and laying out between swims like seals basking in the sunshine. They have mastered the knack of dressing and undressing under a multicoloured towel slightly larger than a facecloth, while standing on one leg and watching the world around them, meerkat style. The very word ‘holiday’ can be found in their personal dictionary under ‘seaside’ and they eat food surrounded by sand and without complaint for God’s sake! The only thing I like about being on the coast is the freshness of the sea air and you can get that in a harbour town, so I’m afraid a trip to the seaside is never…
