Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Our first base camp for our road trip was the seaside town of Portrush. Long beaches, fish and chip shops, arcades, the whole classic British seaside town feel. It also had a parkrun. With Portrush being a summer hotspot, over 500 runners turned up for an out-and-back along the beach. The sand was firm enough under foot but there were some wet bits to run through. A lot of runners did it in bare feet.

After parkrun, Venla and I built the first of many sandcastles.

Earlier this month we a wee trip around the north coast of Ireland. Starting in Larne we followed the Causeway Coast all of the way to Derry where we picked up the Wild Atlantic Way and followed that, on and off, as far as Sligo.

I will be filling in some blog posts here, but if you want to follow the whole story, visit our North Coast Road Trip photo essay.

While we were down in Waterword we hit the beach. We had already ben to Tramore and Dunmore East so we decided to head over to Clonea in Dungarvan. Beautiful sand and I managed to get a sea swim in.

Venla and I also built a sand castle. Classic three-ring construction.

Last weekend we visited Galway for the first time.

We arrived Friday and drove over the nearby town of Barna as a friend had recommended eating a Donnelly’s pub. Would recommend the cheesecake if you find yourself there. It was dark so we didn’t see much but did get a good meal and make it out in time before the rugby kicked off.

I completed University of Galway parkrun and then we headed over to Salthill to visit the aquarium. It specialises in local sealife which was great because as much as I enjoy a sealife centre, they get very similar once you have seen one. We also had tapas at Black Cat in Salthill which is very much recommended.

They have lots of reptiles.

I learnt some cool stuff. Did you know, for example, that an axolotl is a real creature and not just made up by Minecraft?

I was a bit unsure at first. Everything is in one room and you can get around it in around 30-45 minutes. That in itself feels like not much for the entry fee. And there were no talks on. But it turns out they just had the wrong sign up for the talk times and they started 30 minutes later.

Once the talks started, they were great. We went to two, spaced 90 minutes apart, with Dr Polly who brought out three animals each time. She told us a bit about them and then we got the chance to touch them. Snakes are lovely and soft: no wonder they used to make stuff out of their skin. Each talk was 30 minutes so there was a good hour of live stuff going on which made it well worth the visit.

There is a small cafe selling toasties where you can grab some lunch.

A bunch of cool stuff to see here including the valley itself, grave yard, tower, ruined church and other buildings. But really shines if you fancy a hike. There are two lakes you can walk around so well suited to a range of fitness levels. And there was a food van selling toasties, so that was lunch sorted.

Scenery is gorgeous.

I did get eaten alive by insects at upper lake, though. I got bitten eight times despite having jeans and a hoodie on. They got my on my arms, wrists, ankles and hips. Why am I cursed with being so tasty?

We did a family trip to the Chocolate Garden. They have a small playground and a toilet, so that is lovely. But they could probably do more on the chocolate front. They had a small wall of chocolates for sale and ice cream, but only one of the flavours was chocolate, and if I am being honest, I hoped for a little more there.

We also had lunch at the MerryTree restaurant at Rathwood garden centre and that was excellent.

We went to Westport last weekend. It wasn’t the stunning success we hoped for.

The idea was to get there in plenty of time and have some exploring time on Friday. But it took 5.5 hours to drive across the country meaning we were not there until late and was late to bed.

In the morning I did the marathon and recorded my first run DNF. I wasn’t in a great state by the time I got back I had a shower, changed and went down to collect my bag. But then we got hit by another rain storm and got soaked again.

We went to the beach on Sunday but it was freezing. Then we headed over to Croagh Patrick for a little walk in the foothills but when we got there the car park didn’t accept card or mobile payments so we couldn’t pay. And then the rain started again and properly lashed it down.

There were some highlights, though: Westport itself is a nice place with plenty of bars and restaurants and we had some good meals in The Wyatt, Servd and Woodfire.

Last weekend I took my first trip to Belfast. It was a flying visit so I didn’t get time to see the sights. But they do have a lovely city hall. And a Greggs:

Pubs were good, too. We dropped by The Crown, Trademarket and Town Square.