Category: Wanderlust

We love to travel and this year we are going big. Throughout 2015 we will be traveling around the world from Fiji to Lisbon and everywhere else we can in between. Use this page to track our itinerary, take walks with us on our hyperlapse video tours and read about our experiences and learnings.

A tour of Giant’s Causeway and The Legend of Finn McCool

Giant’s Causeway is located in the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, near the the town of Bushmills. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.

It is a beautiful display of nature. In truth, the formations exists because highly fluid molten basalt  mixed with chalk beds 50 to 60 million years ago. As the lava cooled contractions of the rock fractured, leaving the pillar like structures you see in the video below. But maybe – just maybe – there is a different reason altogether …

The far more entertaining explanation for the causeway is told through a legend of how a giant named Finn McCool once lived there. Many of the scenic displays are given names based on Finn’s life such as the Giant’s Shoe, The Giants Organ, and the tall basalt columns on the peak of a cliff known as his chimney. Check out  the video below about Finn’s story!

Giants Causeway Visitors Centre – The Myth of Finn McCool from The Pond Studio on Vimeo.

Our visit to the Concentration Camp

In Germany we took a train from Berlin to visit one of the nearby Nazi concentration camps. We have seen quite a few “[lest we forget]” monuments between our visits to France and Germany. It seem appropriate to post one now since, as a world, we seem to be forgetting all too often. You can watch more videos of our tour of Germany here. 
 
It wasn’t the camps that started the tail spin into genocide. It was the devaluing of human life through the separation of general populations. Last week we visited a camp in Cambodia where the Khemr Rouge separated out minority ethnic and social groups as well as enforced repression of Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. All for “the greater good”. This happened in 1975. Lest we forget, right? :-/ There are far too many sites around the world of this nature to list, but the pattern to avoid should be clear.

 

Around the world Part II – What we packed this time

When we left in April for our first around the world trip we assumed we’d follow the sunshine and packed for a year of warm weather. This time we are heading east and starting in Ireland in the fall. As a result we’ve had to pack for colder weather, and hope what we’ve learned for our last packing experience will come in handy.

Aware of underwear

Last time I went light on under garments. Based on how they were advertised I assumed quick-dry and odor fighting under garments would come in handy. They did not. It sucks wearing underwear for more than 24 hours no matter how “antibacterial” they claim to be, and quick drying items don’t dry at jaw dropping speeds. So, this time, I packed 10 days of under garments instead of 3.

For the times we do end up washing clothes, we are packing a few washing machine detergent pods. They came in handy a few times and are pretty small and light weight.

Nix’ing some Knick-knacks

We ditched a lot of knick-knacks and gadgets this time around. The quick-dry towels and specialty water containers never added much value for a hotel hopping couple like us.  After buying one bottle of water we just refilled the bottle and we always had towels in our hotels. We rarely wanted to carried the binoculars with us on our walks, and our bags always weighed the same so the bag scale was useless for 99% of the trip.

Keepers

We doubled up on the vacuum bags. They are awesome. Here is me using one below.

 

 

Driving through Scotland and Ireland.

U dunno have insurance here, pal!

If you plan to drive through Ireland check with your insurance company and/or credit card about what is covered before you visit.

As it turned out, our two auto insurance plans (one with our credit card and one with our regular auto insurance provider) excludes protection specifically in Ireland. Every other country in Europe is covered except Ireland.

Pay ye Toll

Stay alert. Some tolls don’t have booths, gates, or entryways, just an obscure sign on the side of the road (that look much like regular highway signs) that reads, “You must go online within 24 hours to pay your toll” with a URL at the bottom. If Jackie didn’t notice the sign we would have easily missed it.

We don’t break for Banshees

Every country has their own signature style of driving. Everyone in Italy, for example, thinks they are a pro racecar driver, and the eye in the sky keeps Australians annoyingly honest. Ireland and Scotland are a wee bit different. Sort of inbetween the two.

The average posted highway speed limits were between 100 Kph and 120 Kph. The fast lane had cars moving 20-40K faster than the posted limit and the slow lane was about 0-10K slower. There were no crazy lane changes or people cutting each other off like in Italy, but the locals have the same level of respect for letting faster folks pass.

In general the speed limits were quite high. Highways were typically between 60-70 Mph. Not too crazy, but even the small, one lane, curvy, country roads were quite high at 60 Mph as well.

Something that bothered me about Scotland was while the roads were strewn with signs  warning drivers of speed cams there were few posted signs that actually let you know what the speed limit was. I guess it is just understood: if you are on a highway, drive between 60-70 Mph.

What side and what unit of measurement are we on exactly?

While driving through Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland we crossed through a hodgepodge of units of measurements for speed. Although all three countries drove on the left side of the road North Ireland and Scotland use the Imperial system for measurement and Ireland uses the Metric system.

This created a peculiar situation as we drove from Ireland into North Ireland. Our rental car (that we rented from Ireland) ONLY had Kph on the speedometer.  Within two-seconds we went from reading signs in Kph to reading signs in Mph, followed by a whole lot of calculating what our speed should be on our phones. Talk about a crash course in conversions. (Lucky that didn’t turn into a pun. We made it out unscathed.)

Don’t get stoned

Many Irish roads are not only tight, but lined with stone walls that jut out. In a slight miscalculation I clipped the passenger side of our car on one of the narrow, curved, stone walls. (Jackie has made it hard to forget about it.) Luckily it was small enough that our rental company let it slide. Maybe this is why no auto insurance company wants to cover Ireland drivers.

Aye, that price? Not bah.

Here is a huge tip: Before coming to the area be sure you learn to drive stick! The price of a manual transmission rental car is around $20 per day. Compared that to a car with an automatic transmission at around $80 per day. As such, it can be super cheap to drive through the country and as I’ll explain below – you will most definitely want to.

THE COUNTRYSIDE IS A BEAUT!

Oh my gosh, what an amazing country side! Ireland is filled with ancient structures dating back to before the pyramids. Scotland has rolling hills filled with rocks and picture perfect lakes (AKA Lochs). The grass is emerald green and lush. You will be in awe.

If it is your first visit to either country then: Explore the south of Ireland (the Kearny loop). For Scotland make your way up to the north (AKA Highlands) and especially in the north west for majestic views of the country side.

Golf courses

You may not be a golfer, but many of the golf courses we saw in Scotland were worth stopping for anyway. Some are situated between amazing lakes and mountains and other straddle quaint towns. They make for a great walk, and, if you ARE a golfer, a magical round.