Blainroe Hotel Wicklow

... Mountains, surrounded on all sides by steep mountain passes. Glendalough translates as the valley of two lakes and is very difficult to navigate; true Irish signage.<br><br>That leads me into my funny story for the day. When we were given our free time to go and see the two lakes we had to follow the Green Mile signage. However, shortly after the sign that spells out &#8216;Green Mile&#8217; it turns into spikes with arrows with different colours pointing out all the ...

... Polish, New Zealanders, British and Russians all being led into an Irish cave by a French tour guide! Fantastic, as this particular guide reminded me of Mr. Bean in his manerisms (sp) and in some of his speach. He was a great story teller. We learned a bit about the caves an how people died in them.....while we were down there......feet from where they found the bones.....then he turned out the lights.....<br><br>After ...

... so much so that I couldn't tell whether he was being nice or about to rob me himself! But nothing happened in the end :) After checking into my hostel, I walked around for a bit and got some food at the grocery store. I just took it easy that night, had some pasta and did my laundry - I couldn't believe it though...it cost me 8 euros, which happens to be the best deal in Dublin! Ridiculously overpriced, but it had to be done. I met an Aussie girl named Anna ...

... was in front. The road from Dublin - the N2 is a new road and pretty easy to drive. We stopped in Carrickmacross, a town known for its lace making. It was 3PM, and we found the only pub in town which had run out of most of the food on the menu. We had burgers without "baps" (baps are rolls), and chips (fries). The Beech Hill Hotels is a country house hotel, well removed from the center of the city of Londonderry. It is run like a comfortable country home, with perhaps 30 ...

... were be*utiful *s *lw*ys *nd well worth the w*lk. It w*s kind of s*d to w*lk into * church though, *nd h*ve the first thing you see be * gift shop th*t sells big green leprech*un h*ts *nd shot gl*sses. We stopped *t * little burger shop on the w*y home *nd I thoroughly enjoyed some super n*chos th*t I h*ve been missing something horrible since I've been in Holl*nd. Since it w*s so soggy, we w*lked our wet butts b*ck to the *p*rtment *g*in *nd just hung out with the ...

... the races, and the pictures tell most of the story...but the best part is who ran up the hill... My four year old cousin Noah took Sean's hand and took off in front of everyone. This was a you-had-to-be-there-moment: Sean in his Coach Umbrella and Diesel Jeans running up a hill with Noah in his yellow rain coat PRICELESS! Tuesday afternoon we ate lunch with my grandpa's cousin: Timmy McGrael, a Butcher in the town of Castle Bar where half the people are ...

... 18 Jul ST Petersburg And To be confirmed- 20 Jul Tallinn 22 Jul Riga 24 Jul Vilnius 26 Jul Kiev ?? then train through Germany?? 29 Jul Get euorstar from Brussels to  London 29 Jul A night in The Ritz or other 5* 30 Jul Bristol ?? 1 Aug Holyhead-Dublin **Yes you read correctly the plan is Shanghai to Dublin by land and sea

Mark and Grace came climbing this mountain with us. I think we had been out the night before and only got to the bottom of the mountain around 4pm. We were told it takes around 4 hours and it was due to get dark around 8pm so we really had to get moving. Grace and Anna did stretches against a wall before we started to go up the mountain ...

... time travelling without Lonely Planet and I'll be going with Rough Guides, whenever possible, from here on out. I found the book very good, informative (tons to read.... a plus for me) and most importantly, it was, for the most part, accurate. To complement it I brought the Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook. You might get lucky, but as a general rule ...

We had planned a very early morning start, but saying good bye to a lot of new friends takes time. Breakfast lingered, then getting our luggage downstairs, meant meeting up with some of the group again at check out. We took the bus that leaves just up the street to the airport. Only 6 euros per person. Got our rental car and now we are heading south. And into road construction. Our first stop, which should have only been about 30 minutes away, and is ...