The Un-Luck of the Irish

On July 24, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn IrelandLeave a comment

The one trip that we knew we had to make during our six months in Europe was to Ireland. Both of our families have strong Irish ancestry, so we definitely wanted to visit the land of our heritage. We also flew our mother over from the United States to join us for our trip since she had never been to Ireland. Instead of renting a car, we hired a local tour guide from a company called ToursByLocals and chose the tour that would take us to Kilkenny and the Southeastern coast. We augmented the tour to add the city of Waterford so that we could visit the crystal factory and purchase something special to bring home with us.

Our tour started out perfectly as our driver took us through the countryside where we saw quaint little farms with fields filled with sheep. We even had sheep crossing the road in front of us, it was exactly what we had imagined a trip into the Irish countryside to be. Our first stop was to one of the many historic churches of Ireland, however we weren’t able to enter the church as they were having services at the time. We have seen plenty of churches in Europe, so that was not a big deal for us, but it was a little disappointing. Hoping to make it up to us, our guide took us to a historic monastery where we could walk the grounds. Upon our arrival, the gates were closed and the ticket office was closed and there was no one at the site. Luck was not on our side, but the day was early and we were optimistic that our luck would change.

We then went to Kilkenny Castle, which was absolutely spectacular and was again exactly what we expected to see in Ireland. From there, we traveled to Waterford where we hoped to purchase something special to remember our time in Ireland. Upon our arrival, we found the Waterford Crystal Factory closed. Not only was the factory closed and no tours available, but even the store was closed. Our guide pulled up their website and there was nothing indicating that it should be closed and our guide had never seen the store closed. We visited a viking museum and while we were there, we asked if they knew why the factory was closed and they were just as surprised as us to hear that it was closed.

We were obviously frustrated that we weren’t able to visit the factory or even purchase something in the store, but there wasn’t anything that anyone could do. So we put a smile on our faces and continued on to have lunch at a seaside town. Our tour guide felt extremely bad as now he had taken us to three places that we weren’t able to actually see, but we didn’t blame him. Our last stop was to another historic church that had a tower that you could climb for a couple of Euros that had wonderful views of the countryside. By now you can guess what we found when we arrived. It too was closed for no apparent reason and there was a sign that it would be open to the public an hour later, but that would have gotten us back to Dublin far too late, so we chose not to wait.

Despite all of these things, we truly enjoyed our tour as well as our time in Ireland. We couldn’t help but joke with each other that for once, we didn’t have the luck of the Irish. These things happen sometimes and we certainly could have gotten angry with our guide, but it wouldn’t have changed anything. There was no doubt that he felt bad, but other than perhaps the first church that we visited, there was no way for him to have known that these other places would be closed as their websites all indicated that they were open.

Sightseeing River Cruises

On June 20, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge8 Comments

A great way to see a city from a different perspective is to take a sightseeing river cruise. We have taken several over the years and have enjoyed each of them. We have taken them during the day as well as at night when the city is lit up, but our preference is to take them during the day. Our very first sightseeing trip of a city from the river was in Paris, France, and it gave us wonderful views of the Eiffel Tower. Another one of our favorite tours was an architectural tour of Chicago done from the waterways. For this week’s Cee’s Which Way Challenge, we are sharing some photos of our favorite river cruises.

How Long is Long Enough

On May 19, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel Tips6 Comments

When planning a trip to a city or a country, how long is long enough? The answer probably depends a little bit on your travel style, whether you plan to revisit again in the future, the detail to which you want to explore where you are visiting, and obviously how much time you have available. Clearly there isn’t a set answer, so we thought that we would try to weigh in on some of the factors that should be considered.

How long should you spend in a new country?

Well, we suppose the obvious answer would be “as much as possible”, but time and money are always limited, so there are other factors that should be considered. As an example, for our first trip to Europe, many years ago, we decided to spend five days in France and then about eight days in England. In France, we only visited Paris, while in England, we went to London, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Manchester. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but we felt like we were constantly on the move and never really got to immerse ourselves in the culture. Several years later, we went to Spain and took a full two weeks just to explore the southern region. Would we have liked to spend longer and visit more than just the southern cities, sure we would, but that wasn’t an option due to the cost of our resort and hotels. What we did do, though, was to stay at one location in Estepona and then spend a couple of nights in different cities, but always returning back to our base resort. Obviously this is more expensive, but it allowed us to take overnight bags instead of packing up all of our stuff and moving it from hotel to hotel.

Back to the question at hand, how long is long enough? If you really want to understand the people, learn about the culture, understand the regional variations, you probably need at least four to six weeks. That doesn’t have to be in a single visit, that could be spread out over an entire lifetime of traveling. Two weeks is probably long enough for a specific region of a country, perhaps one with anywhere from two to five major cities. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go to a new country if you don’t have weeks to spend, but understand that you are only dipping your toes into the everything that the country has to offer.

How much time should you spend in a city?

Again, the answer depends on vacation time, money, and all other limiting factors that might determine what you can do versus what you want to do. While we were living in Germany, we spent many weekends traveling around to visit as many places as possible during our somewhat limited time staying there. What we found is that there are basically three different levels of spending time in a city and seeing the sights that the city has to offer.

If you only have two days, or potentially even one, you can usually see all of the major sites, but you probably won’t be able to do tours and get in-depth information, but you will have the opportunity to at least see the sights of the city, taste the food, and get a sense of what it has to offer. Three to four days gives you enough time to take more in-depth tours, spend quality time in museums, and explore some of the more unusual attractions that might exist in the city. Four or five days in a city provides the opportunity to venture out into the outskirts of town which allows you to see beyond the urban lifestyle and get a feel for the countryside. Generally speaking, we found four days to be ideal for larger cities and two days to be just right if the city was a little smaller.

Obviously, one answer can lead to another. If there are four cities in a region of a country that you want to visit, and you want to spend three to four days in each of those cities, plus get into the countryside, two weeks in that region of the country will be barely enough time, but it would certainly work, like it did for us in southern Spain. We spent six months in Germany and felt like we were just getting to truly understand the country when it was time for us to leave. Unfortunately no one usually gets to spend as much time as they truly would like to in the cities or countries that they visit, but depending on the time that you have, at least you can prepare yourself for how much you will be able to accomplish during your trip.