Dublin notes

[I spent about a month in Dublin this past spring, and wrote most of this post then. I figured it’s high time I got around to publishing it.] What I enjoyed most about this stay in Dublin were the little bits of daily life: the grocery stores, the pubs, the friendliness of the people. Spending … Read more

Sligo and more Irish coast

What a lovely Irish weekend we just had – cute towns, sandy beaches, and dramatic cliffs punctuated by heavy but tasty food and creamy ales. Life is good. Our first stop was Sligo, a small city in northwest Ireland. The guidebooks had mixed things to say, but we found Sligo to be a very nice … Read more

Cashel and its Rock

Looking to get away from Dublin and explore more of Ireland last weekend, we set our sights on Cashel. The guidebooks seemed to think it wasn’t worth much time, but for our purposes it worked divinely. The least exciting part of the trip, to me anyway, was Cashel’s big tourist attraction: the Rock of Cashel. … Read more

Waterford: not your everyday crystal factory tour

The other day we found ourselves in Waterford, Ireland, home of the famous crystal. Naturally we decided to stop in at the factory’s visitor center. We were pleased to find a tour of the galleries leaving right away, led by a charming man who was quite knowledgeable about the pieces on display. The crystal creations … Read more

A weekend in the north

Alternate title: Hanging out in Ireland’s Canada Eager to explore someplace new, we dug out our British pounds* and drove north into Northern Ireland for the weekend. Less than three hours from Dublin and we were at the north coast of the island, which I suppose would be northern Northern Ireland. They seem to prefer … Read more

Irish winter

Greetings from Dublin, where I’m hanging out for a little while. I’m a bit disappointed to be missing out on the harsher winter back home in Munich, but at least we’ve seen a bit of snow here in the past couple days (although nothing like what London got). The sun has made itself scarce. So … Read more

Which country would you choose?

So our two possible destination cities are Limerick, Ireland, and Munich, Germany. We have made our choice, but it wasn’t easy. I’m interested in hearing what you guys would have chosen before I tell you what we decided. Munich has a lot of obvious benefits, including… Large, dynamic city with plenty of cultural activities and … Read more

Doing Dublin

We spent a little time in Dublin at the beginning and end of our trip to Ireland, split up that way so we could take advantage of the direct flights between Dublin and Zurich on Aer Lingus. It was one of my first experiences with European discount airlines (since most don’t fly out of Zurich), … Read more

Driving on the left and other notes from Ireland

We had a wonderful week exploring Ireland. The cities and towns were simultaneously charming and rough around the edges; the landscapes were sweeping and beautiful. The weather was intermittently rainy, but we hardly minded since the temperature was so cool and nice. If only they had real, snowy winters, it would be the perfect climate … Read more