TechnomadicsVagabonding Europe

Category Archives: Ireland

Mobile Broadband in Ireland

Posted on by Michael

Ireland has the same requirements for contracts as UK, so the menu again had only prepaid on it. In the prepaid broadband-ish market, there are only two contenders. 3 This is who we settled on, after failing to get along with Meteor. 3 Ireland are a little challenging for passers-through, as they refuse to sell you pre-paid Internet without selling … Continue reading

Ring Of Kerry

Posted on by Michael

The Ring of Kerry driving tour is another popular Irish attraction, and one we weren’t going to miss. Having been warned to travel counter-clockwise, in the direction of the tour coaches, to avoid having to make any tight passes, we started in Kilorglin and headed South. The Ring started out a little underwhelming, after some of the sights we’d seen … Continue reading

Dingle

Posted on by Michael

Our first stop towards Dingle was Inch, a place recommended to us in Galway. A little narrow road took us in, and we were met by the sight of a long sweeping sandy beach with mountains wreathed in cloud behind. We were excited to see a host of motorhomes parked on the beach and, thinking we’d found a pretty cool … Continue reading

Co Limerick, Co Clare, Cliffs of Moher and Co Cork

Posted on by Michael

Galway behind us, we drove through the city of Limerick and onwards, approximately following the coastline. We drove through County Clare, the county from which Katherine’s mother’s ancestors came, and characterised by strange purple hills which upon closer inspection were covered with purple rock. The abundance of stone in the area has led to a vast number of pretty stone … Continue reading

Galway

Posted on by Michael

Arriving in Galway, from the Connemara area, we made a beeline to the harbour, which often represents a promising spot to park for the night. This time, it didn’t look so good — somewhat on the industrial side, not surprisingly — so we pulled over for a quick stint of online research, and found out that the nearby promenade had … Continue reading

Connemara National Park

Posted on by Michael

After a very scenic drive through the mountains, we arrived fairly early in Letterfrack, at the slightly-disappointingly-crowded visitor centre. With, refreshingly, most of the day ahead of us, we decided to do the 7km walk up to the top of a nearby mountain, Diamond Hill. The beginning of the walk, starting at the visitor centre, felt a bit like being … Continue reading

Towards Connemara; Sligo

Posted on by Michael

From the Sperrins, we drove for what seemed like three or four times as long as we expected, stopping on the way to get fuel, empty the dreaded black water and top up on fresh water. Once we were about an hour over the border into the Republic of Ireland, the motorway became very picturesque, with enormous steep-sided mountains and … Continue reading

The Sperrins

Posted on by Michael

Belfast behind us, we drove west for a long way, following the motorway. We arrived in Strabane in the evening, a town right on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; picked a random road that looked relatively promising, leading towards the river that marked the border, and stopped when we found an adequately out-of-the-way clearing beside … Continue reading

Belfast Taxi Tour

Posted on by Michael

For our final day in Belfast, we were doing a Taxi tour, which gives an insight into the Troubles, among other things (see the route here). We filled up our LPG tank in a little petrol station on Shankill Road, every surface covered with the Union Jack. We parked in a car park just off Shankill Road (which, for reasons … Continue reading

Staying in Belfast

Posted on by Michael

The Causeway Coast tour complete, we made our way back to Belfast. On the way, we spent a sneaky night hidden away at a golf club in Galgorm, Ballymena, tucked behind an old brick wall amongst woods on the grounds (I did ask permission – the guys behind the counter said we weren’t really allowed to stay in the car … Continue reading

The Causeway Route, Day 2

Posted on by Michael

Having woken up and found ourselves in a car park in Cushendall, we set off again in bright sunlight down a small suburban road recommended to us, off the official Causeway route. To our great pleasure it quickly became a winding rural road, snaking through rolling emerald-and-yellow patchwork hills punctuated by four-or-five-house proto-villages. Sometimes the road was perched on hillsides … Continue reading