Recap Twenty-two Days In
Friends, we write to you today from Biarritz, France, where we arrived yesterday. It’s our first stop outside of the British Isles (and our first non-English speaking destination). We’re here only for a couple days before taking a bus to nearby San Sebastian, Spain, but it seemed like a good time for a quick recap of our trip to date.
May 12: We arrived in Dublin after flying from Boston, excited to kick off our trip. Thanks to British Airways Avios, we had the pleasure of flying Aer Lingus business class, and it was fantastic, although the flight was too short to get very much sleep after dinner service ended. Business class passengers do get the option of a “revival lounge” upon arriving in Dublin, where a fresh shower awaits, and it really made all the difference the first day as we fought off jet lag and drove north to see the fantastic Newgrange/Knowth attraction north of Dublin, ancient homes/fortresses built into some hills and fortified by stones.
We spent a few great days in Dublin, including a night at the theatre where we saw an original new play called Tina’s Idea of Fun, which had mixed reviews but we both really enjoyed.
May 15: We drove west, headed to a new hotel in Limerick. As a city, Limerick doesn’t have a huge amount going on, although there’s a bar there that’s a fun mix of locals and tourists where they usually have some traditional Irish music and dancing most nights. The next couple days, we enjoyed taking some day trips, including a really incredible hike at The Burren and a nice trip to see the Cliffs of Moher.
May 18: One of our drives from Limerick took us to Doolin Pier, where we grabbed a ferry to Inis Mor, one of the Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are accessible only by boat or plane, and are a little remote, off the western coast of Ireland. Once there, we rented bikes to get around and had a couple of great days seeing the ancient fortresses Dún Aonghasa and Dún Dúchathair. They’re really impressive, although Dún Dúchathair takes a little bit of hiking work to get to. (Side note: I haven’t ridden a bike in many years, and I think I forgot how awful it is to go uphill. My friends who can ride their bikes a hundred miles at a time or on LifeCycle rides from San Francisco to Los Angeles have even more respect from me now than they already did.) Inis Mor is beautiful, and I’d recommend a detour to the Aran Islands for anyone who takes a trip to Ireland and has a couple days to spare.
May 20: We arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland after taking a brief flight from Shannon. Edinburgh, in a word, was amazing. The city really seamlessly blends its old architecture and castles with modern construction and amenities. While there, we took a day trip to tour the Glenkinchie distillery (of which Charley was already a really big fan) and saw the second live theatre experience of our trip, a touring show by the Balletboyz. (We saw an advertisement poster for it and discovered that tickets were only £15 each.)
May 24: Leaving Scotland, we hopped a plane to Birmingham, England. (Side note: If you’re curious, there’s a long but very educational video on YouTube explaining the difference between Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the British Isles, Scotland, England, etc. here, and I love it. I probably watch it once a year to re-educate myself.) Our hotel here was actually a shortstay apartment, and Birmingham was the first place during our trip we really had the chance to relax and spread out. A couple locals stopped us in a pub to ask if we really came to Birmingham for pleasure; we got the feeling that very few people do. We did take a fun day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, which the nerds out there will know as the home of William Shakespeare. The city itself is mostly a tourist trap at this point, although we managed to get affordable tickets to a matinee of Cymbeline, which they described as a “rarely performed tragicomedy.”
Originally, we had planned to leave Birmingham for a couple of quick days walking around Cardiff, Wales. Upon arriving in Birmingham, though, we found out that we would be leaving the day before Birmingham’s Pride celebrations. We didn’t hesitate to change our plans and stick around for a couple more days. Like the Pride celebrations we’ve visited before, Birmingham Pride reinforced one key thought for myself: I’m still proud to be me. See Charley’s full gallery from the day here.
May 29: We took a train from Birmingham to London. As New York City residents the last six years, we certainly felt right at home with the hustle and bustle of London life, with people running for trains this way and that, and lots of foreign languages being spoken right around us. We only stayed for a few days, owing mostly to the fact that London is a really expensive place to spend much time, but we did manage to meet with a college friend of mine over soup dumplings (or Xiao Long Bao for the uninitiated) in Chinatown, and visit Queen of Hoxton – a bar that coincidentally had a ukulele hootenanny going on, which Charley couldn’t resist joining. We also saw our fourth live theatre experience of the trip, the musical Titanic. (Titanic the musical did in fact come out before the movie, in case anyone was curious.) It was a really great show and also gave us the chance to meet up with a high school friend of mine, Doug, whom we seem to run into in Europe in really strange coincidences.
June 1: We finally left English-speaking countries behind, as we took a short flight from London, England to Biarritz, France, from where I’m writing this recap. We stopped here for a couple days en route to San Sebastian, Spain, which was declared the European Capital of Culture for 2016. It’s been a great day so far, and I can’t wait to see what else Biarritz has in store for us!
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