Recently, I travelled on holiday to Europe, where I began my trip in Copenhagen. As Carly also visited here and recently spoke about Copenhagen in the Monday Mail, I'll move on with the rest of my trip. To read Carly and the rest of our team's recent adventures, Click Here.
Next stop for me was Wrexham, Wales. For anyone who has watched the Netflix series Welcome to Wrexham, it was great to visit and see some of the locals and have a Wrexham beer at The Turf.
Heading back to Manchester, we called into Chester for lunch, a gorgeous town with extensive Roman walls and it’s Tudor-style buildings with colorful flowers lining the streets and buildings. Overnight I stayed in Manchester, an eclectic and great city to walk around and pop into the array of different shops.
I then flew to Dublin to begin my Shades of Ireland featuring Northern Ireland 12-day tour, with Collette.
We began with 2 nights in Dublin, which included a traditional Irish evening with music and dancing. The next day, we began with a city tour of Dublin ending at the Guinness Storehouse, which was fantastic, and a pint of Guinness on top of the storehouse which has 360-degree views of Dublin.
Throughout the Collette tour, we visited and stayed at some wonderful places. Some of my highlights included;
Visiting Kilkenny on the way to Waterford where we went to the Waterford Crystal factory and watched how they have made the exquisite crystal from start to finish for centuries, and the 1000’s of hours that go into the pieces.
In Killarney, we stopped at Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone, After 128 steps to the top and if you do kiss the Blarney Stone, the legend goes that those who do gain the gift of eloquence, obviously it works!
We took in the rugged coastline of the Ring of Kerry, looping our way around the picturesque scenery.
The Cliffs of Moher, one of Ireland’s most iconic sites. Walking along the rambling edge, soaking up the views was incredible.
Galway's vibrant atmosphere filled with traditional music and buskers scattered around as well as the lively pub scene.
Next, we made our way to Northern Ireland, along the way we visited the Inishowen Peninsula and the most Northern point Malin Head, stopping into Farrens Bar, the most Northern Pub in Ireland for an Irish Whiskey. Giant’s Causeway followed along with the most amazing views. We were fortunate enough to be able to see Scotland as it was a clear day.
For anyone who has watched the Netflix series Welcome to Wrexham, it was great to visit and see some of the locals and have a Wrexham beer at The Turf.
Londonderry was fascinating, it is the only remaining completely walled city in Ireland. We took a city tour here and heard the story and viewed the artwork of one of the Troubles' key events, "Bloody Sunday", which occurred in Derry in 1972. On 30 January, 26 civil rights protesters were shot by members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment. Thirteen died immediately. Many witnesses including bystanders and journalists testify that all those shot were unarmed.
Our final stop was Belfast, another incredible city with amazing stories and history. We visited The Peace Wall ,which in total stretches over 34 kms. It was built to separate predominantly Irish republican or nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from predominantly British loyalist or unionist Protestant neighbourhoods. Of course, we also visited the Titanic Museum, a must do for anyone stopping in Belfast.
Sandi
