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In October 2018 we travelled to Ireland. Later we would go on to England (the south coast and London) before travelling overland (and underwater) by rail to Belgium and then on to Berlin to visit our grandchildren there. 

The island of Ireland is not very big, about a quarter as large again as Tasmania, with a population not much bigger than Sydney (4.75 million in the Republic of Ireland with another 1.85 million in Northern Ireland).  So it's mainly rural and not very densely populated. 

It was unusually warm for October in Europe, including Germany, and Ireland is a very pleasant part of the world, not unlike Tasmania, and in many ways familiar, due to a shared language and culture.

 

Our Travels

 

We had a simple plan.  We would hire a car in Dublin and drive around the island in an anti-clockwise fashion to Belfast, stopping at points of interest, as recommended by friends, the tour brochures and the Internet travel apps. 

To minimise the number of hotels we would spend several nights in some places and use those as a base for day trips to nearby points of interest. With three days in the two largest cities (Dublin and Belfast) at the beginning and the end we decided the two weeks would be sufficient for an introduction.  

We resolved to find middle priced accommodation with parking in the following locations.

City/Town County
Dublin
Waterford
Kinsale (for the Cork area)
Killarney (for the Dingle area)
Galway
Sligo
Derry
Bushmills (for Portrush area)
Belfast
Dublin
Waterford
Cork
Kerry
Galway
Sligo
Londonderry (UK)
Antrim (UK)
Antrim & Down (UK)

 

Wendy had been to Ireland over forty years ago but it's a different country now.

Today Ireland is an easy country to drive in. They have similar road rules to Australia, so there isn't that alarm exiting a driveway one has in Europe or North America:  'Damn! What side of the road am I supposed to be on?'  The roads are generally very good. Highways, that we often avoided, are like those in England or Australia and local roads are mostly two lanes finished in smooth black hot-mix. The speed limit on these is typically 100 Km/h limit, except through towns, and we didn't encounter much slow traffic, for example tractors.  The longest driving time between the towns listed above was two and a half hours. Several were only an hour apart, so we had plenty of time to stop at a view or to find a pub or cafe for lunch; or on one occasion to shop for grandchild requested Lego.

Unfortunately the Seat Toledo* we'd hired in Dublin was unaware of the antiquated system of mensuration in the North (there was no mph marking on the speedo) so we had to rely on Tom Tom (our invaluable worldwide GPS) to stay within the speed limits.  Another issue for the unwary traveller is that Northern Ireland is not in the Euro zone, so it's a good idea to have some Irish or English pounds when crossing the border.  Of course one can simply use a credit card for essential things, like petrol. 

Yet I came to grief attempting to use some very old one pound coins, brought from a stash home, and even a relatively recent five pound note. The Bank of England has finally seen the light, only thirty years after Englishmen first mocked Australia's colourful 'plastic money'.  Britain is at last progressively withdrawing its old fashioned paper money from circulation.  A bank in Derry happily replaced the paper notes with plastic ones but not the coins.

When travelling my principal goal is not to lie on a beach; hang out in a luxury hotel; or get close to nature; but to learn more of the history of the place; its people; and their beliefs. Wendy is even keener to get out among the locals.

 

*The Car - for those interested only

We hired the car, well in advance, from AVIS in Dublin. They were the only company we found there that allowed us to drop it off in Belfast (in a different country).

I'd not driven a Seat before - it's a Spanish VW - described in one review as:  "the automotive equivalent of a Bosch dishwasher: well made, utterly functional and entirely devoid of character.

It lacked 'bells and whistles like self-parking and the Sat-nav was disabled, but it was more roadworthy and comfortable than many other cars we've hired while travelling.

With a 1.2-litre petrol engine and a five-speed manual gearbox it was light on fuel, that's expensive in Ireland.  Yet mountainous winding roads, leafy, slippery lanes and overtaking were not a problem. 

Even on a stretch of boggy unmade farm road, that TomTom had led us onto as a 'shortcut' after missing a turn, the Toledo ploughed on.  It even took a steep climb over a grassy bank out onto the made road, obviating the imminent need to find a farmer to extricate us.  We had a flashback to Sicily

But the best thing was a big boot, that took both the big bags and the small ones too.

 

 

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Travel

USA - middle bits

 

 

 

 

 

In September and October 2017 Wendy and I took another trip to the United States where we wanted to see some of the 'middle bits'.  Travel notes from earlier visits to the East coast and West Coast can also be found on this website.

For over six weeks we travelled through a dozen states and stayed for a night or more in 20 different cities, towns or locations. This involved six domestic flights for the longer legs; five car hires and many thousands of miles of driving on America's excellent National Highways and in between on many not so excellent local roads and streets.

We had decided to start in Chicago and 'head on down south' to New Orleans via: Tennessee; Georgia; Louisiana; and South Carolina. From there we would head west to: Texas; New Mexico; Arizona; Utah and Nevada; then to Los Angeles and home.  That's only a dozen states - so there are still lots of 'middle bits' left to be seen.

During the trip, disaster, in the form of three hurricanes and a mass shooting, seemed to precede us by a couple of days.

The United States is a fascinating country that has so much history, culture and language in common with us that it's extremely accessible. So these notes have turned out to be long and could easily have been much longer.

Read more: USA - middle bits

Fiction, Recollections & News

Skydiving

 

 

On the morning of May1st 2016 I jumped, or rather slid, out of a plane over Wollongong at 14,000 feet.

It was a tandem jump, meaning that I had an instructor strapped to my back.

 


Striding Confidently Before Going Up

 

At that height the curvature of the earth is quite evident.  There was an air-show underway at the airport we took off from and we were soon looking down on the planes of the RAAF  Roulette aerobatic display team.  They looked like little model aircraft flying in perfect formation.  

Read more: Skydiving

Opinions and Philosophy

The demise of books and newspapers

 

 

Most commentators expect that traditional print media will be replaced in the very near future by electronic devices similar to the Kindle, pads and phones.  Some believe, as a consequence, that the very utility of traditional books and media will change irrevocably as our ability to appreciate them changes.  At least one of them is profoundly unsettled by this prospect; that he argues is already under way. 

Read more: The demise of books and newspapers

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