Category: Destinations
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Day 675 – Killarney, Ireland – Gateway to the Ring of Kerry
Killarney ended up being one of our favorite towns of the trip. A small town of under 15,000 people, but large enough to have loads of things to see and do without being overwhelmed by tourists or college kids. Easily walkable, with access to a national park, a castle, an abandoned abbey, and great…
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Day 670 – Galway, Ireland – A fun college party town.
Galway is in many ways a traditional small Irish town but it’s also a college party town. The national University sits at the bottom of town and you can feel its influence throughout the general vibe of the city. It feels young and energetic. But also just flocks of drunken teenagers in skimpy clothes drinking…
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Day 667 – Donegal, Ireland – Home of my ancestors
I grew up wandering the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in western West Virginia, the most ancient mountain range in the United States, formed 480 million years ago, once as tall as the Alps, worn naturally over the millennia slowly down into a vast system of hills with low peaks. The land is so ancient…
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Day 659 – Dublin, Ireland – Pubs and pints and potatoes.
Admittedly, we chose a strange time to visit Dublin. First in after covid restrictions lifted, so the crowds were less, but the city had not adjusted back to the usual party pub Dublin. The first half of our stay, there was no indoor dining or drinking. The city had adapted to outdoor seating and…
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Cervejaria Ramiro – July 7, 2021 (Lisbon, Portugal)
I normally do not review a la carte restaurants and never a beer hall, but this little spot was special and I had a wonderful meal. Ask any chef in Lisbon if you could only eat at one place in the city, more likely than not they’re going to suggest this locals spot hidden just…
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Day 657 – Sintra, Portugal – Palatial wonderland of the Lisbon aristocracy.
In the forests amongst the steep craggy mountains that are enshrined in a near constant mist and fog, lives a town as old as Lisbon. A cool retreat from the hot weather of the larger coastal city about 40 minutes away. A superb vantage point and secure location, this region has been populated from Neolithic…
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Day 637 – Lisbon, Portugal – An ancient magical place.
Lisbon is an old soul looking back on her past with sadness. It permeates the ancient streets, a palpable melancholy. There’s a sadness and longing to the local music, called fado. Embodied in the untranslatable word saudade, a nostalgic longing for the past. Once a world power, the richest city in the world, fallen,…
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100 Maneiras – July 9, 2021 (Lisbon, Portugal)
100 Maneiras is the personal project of well known Lisbon chef Ljubomir Stanisic who immigrated to Portugal from Bosnia and Herzegovina as a young man. He is a well known local television personality as a juror on the Portuguese version of Top Chef, host for three seasons of the Portuguese version of Kitchen Nightmares,…
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Day 547 – Eugene, Oregon – Native homeland of the PNW hippy.
I first visited Eugene (pronounced /yoo-JEEN/) in 1997 while driving around the country, I’ve told that story before in my post about the Oregon Country Fair. But the short version is that we happened to be driving through Eugene on the Friday of the fair, which I had never heard of, and followed a…
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Day 546 – West Coast Road Trip – Southern Oregon Coast
Driving Highway 101 up the southern Oregon coast. 201 miles From Klamath, CA to Florence, OR. For the third part of our west coast road trip we continued north along 101 along the southern Oregon coast. It’s similar to the northern California coast but with even more spectacular haystacks and rugged PNW shoreline. We…