On The Road Again

After an amazing time at Up Helly Aa — from the parades and bar singalongs to the festival of fire to the epic all-night party, it was time to head back to mainland Scotland with our Haggis Adventures crew. We finished our Up Helly Aa experience with a final hazy day in Shetland, exploring the northern part of the islands, images of which you can see here.  I actually made it through all day following the all-night party without so much as a nap — I passed out on the ferry at around 9:00 PM and slept like a log until we docked at 7:00 AM. With a full day left on our tour, we had time to check out the sites of Scotland’s east coast, from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Stop #1: Stonehaven Stonehaven, at first glance, was a pretty but ordinary seaside town.  It was nice.  Nice is good. And then we came to Dunnottar Castle. Dunnottar Castle will take your breath away.  It’s that spectacular.  Even captioning it is an insult, as I can’t possibly bring words tha...

Since my Germany-Austria-Liechtenstein adventure, I’ve returned to the closest thing I have to a home in Europe: my pretty little northern city of Chester, England. It’s been a welcome break.  I learned the hard way that I planned WAY too much into too short a time period.  I had no idea I would be going out until 3:00 AM and getting up at 7:00 AM every day at TBU, and I needed a break after that conference alone! Instead, I ran from Liechtenstein to Seefeld to Salzburg to Vienna to Salzburg to Munich — activity-filled days with never more than two nights in one place, and being so busy for so long really took its toll on me. So it’s been nice to sink back into life in the UK.  Take yesterday.  I made my new breakfast specialty, Jim Beam French Toast, and Dave and I found a Modern Family marathon on TV (which he had never seen, but quickly grew to LOVE!).  That’s as close to a perfect Sunday as I can imagine. But still, I’m a traveler at hear...

I cannot believe it took me this long to wake up to how wonderful Northern Ireland is. It’s only a couple of hours up the road from Dublin, but I’d barely explored it at all. Luckily, this year I was given several opportunities to see it from different angles and I keep falling more and more in love with it. As you may have noticed from some of my previous posts, I am a Game of Thrones fan. I have now visited several of the filming locations in Northern Ireland and even a few SECRET ones . So when I was asked to try out a new Game of Thrones Doors and Food tour with Glenara Elite, I was pretty excited. Nerdiness, food, drink AND beautiful Northern Ireland ?! Sign me up!  Game of Thrones Doors and Food Tour About Glenara Elite Glenara Elite Travel is a Northern Irish luxury tour and transport company run by Frances Galbraith. Her 16-seat mini van is plush, comfortable and intimate. I have done a couple of tours with Frances this year and have brought my mot...