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Europe Trip 2024
  • Karen Long

Europe Trip 2024

An 8 week driving, sailing, touring trip to France, the Greek Islands, Ireland, Scotland and London. En savoir plus
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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    The Causeway Coast.

    2 juin 2024, Irlande du Nord ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    We have a few sights to get to today. Luckily none of them are very far away. First off is the Carrick-a- rede Bridge. It’s only about four kms from our accomodation. An old fishing bridge used to bring the salmon over to the mainland from the safe harbour of the island. Originally just a one rope ladder bridge. About a kilometre walk to the bridge with lots of beautiful vistas along the way. The bridge is a little hairy if you think about it too much. Well worth it when you get across though to see all the wildflowers on the island.

    After a delicious sausage roll and a waffle at the cafe the next stop was The Giants Causeway. Wow so many people, it’s a Sunday so we shouldn’t be surprised I guess. Luckily it’s a big area so all those people spread out once you get past the main area.

    We’ve booked a tour at Bushmills this afternoon. Great tour with only a young tour guide who got a hard time from a ignorant German man in our group. We all learnt a few things about whisky we hadn’t known before. A free drink was included at the end and we had a Whisky cocktail, a cosmopolitan today which was so delicious we had to go back for a second. Graham opted for a nip of two different whisky’s instead.

    I’m the designated driver today and after a stop over for supplies of wine, beer and cheese I drove home very carefully, thank goodness it is only 10 klms.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Belfast.

    3 juin 2024, Irlande du Nord ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We heading to Belfast today. We have to drop the car back at the airport and luckily we’ve got an early check in at our apartment. We’re here just after 10 o’clock and set off to look for some breakfast. We found a lovely breakfast stop but with the crankiest owners. We not used to that, everyone usually loves us in Ireland.

    After a quick stop in at the tourist office we headed off to find the peace wall. The whole Irish conflict is very involved and I can’t say I totally understand most of it. It was a bit of a trek and most of it not too inspiring really. We weren’t really feeling for love for Belfast.

    The sun came out for us in the afternoon and we had a lovely picnic with wine, cheese and beer and set off for Pug Uglies, a Bar just around the corner for dinner. Luckily the barman there was much more friendly then the coffee shop. Monday nights are a bit quite in Belfast it seems.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Titanic

    4 juin 2024, Irlande du Nord ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    We’ve bought tickets for the first session at the Titanic Experience today. We’ve all heard good things about it and it definitely lived up to expectations. It’s starts off showing the Industrial Age in Belfast with Linen manufacturing, machinery works, ship building. Then on to the designing and building of the ship, the launching, fitting it out, the layout, the storage and accomodation before going on to the first voyage.

    Even though we all know the story it was extremely moving hearing s
    tories from the survivors, stories of people who were lost, stories of the crew. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did. They didn’t see the iceberg in time, they didn’t have enough lifeboats, they didn’t have binoculars in the crows nest, the nearest ship to them didn’t hear the sos.

    The whole museum was extremely well done. We all enjoyed it.
    we got the glider back to the city in the sunshine, but by the time we got off it was blowing a gale and starting to rain. We were looking for somewhere for lunch and just by chance picked the oldest pub in Belfast, White’s Tavern. They were just opening and we were greeted by the friendliest barman, who brought us drinks, food and a tour of the old bar.

    After hearing about Irish Linen Marl and I decided we needed a fabric souvenir so the search was on for a fabric shop close by. We found one down a little lane. What a cute shop and good to see it was really busy. A lovely lady in there found some Irish linen for us and we both bought a couple of pieces.

    There are so many lovely old buildings in Belfast and we called into the town hall for a quick look on the way home, In 1888 Queen Victoria granted Belfast the status of the city and it was agreed that a grand and magnificent building was required to reflect this new status. It is stunning, they really knew how to impress in the Victorian Era.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Belfast

    5 juin 2024, Irlande du Nord ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    This morning Marl and Millie are taking a little trip out of town to find a memorial to Millie’s Great Uncle who died in the war. It’s a nice sunny morning if a bit windy so Graham and I are going to visit the Botanical Gardens.

    It’s only a short walk from our unit to the gardens. We had a coffee on the way and then finished our stroll down. Lovely gardens with lots of flowers and surprisingly lots of tropical plants. They have two glass houses for all the tropical plants and they were all looked after pretty well. One is set on 30 degrees and the other 38 degrees. Nice coming in there when it’s so blustery and cold outside.

    They also had a lovely rose garden, I was surprised any petals were left on those roses with all the wind we’ve had the last couple of days. Lots of couples and families out enjoying the gardens this morning.

    The road leading up to the gardens goes past a building and there must have been 5 or 6 op shops along that street. We broke a few glasses last night so we called in to buy some replacements.

    By that time we were hungry so went of in search of for lunch. We found Hercules Restaurant along High St. We were the only ones in there, I don’t know why because it was delicious. Actually it’s pretty quite all around town this morning.

    Marl and Millie got back into town just as we finished lunch do we picked them up on the way home.

    We’re off to Scotland tomorrow, to see what other adventures we can have.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Stirling Castle

    6 juin 2024, Écosse ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    We had an early flight from Belfast to Edinburgh this morning. Nice quite airport, good flight bit if a hold up when the hire car wasn’t ready but they eventually got it for us. It a bit more roomy then the last one which is good. Stirling is not far from Edinburgh so it only took us about 40 minutes to get here.

    We can’t get into the accomodation until 4 so we took ourselves up to Stirling Castle for a visit. What a magnificent place, we have a fabulous tour guide with a great booming voice, funny and knowledgeable. The castle sits high up on the hill overlooking Stirling with fabulous views of the surrounding countryside. Parts of it, the kitchens, guard house, vaults and some living rooms are set up as they would have been when the kings of Scotland were living there. Queen Anne’s garden at the front of the castle was filled with flowers. You could just imagine her sitting there enjoying the sunshine.

    We loaded up on happy hour supplies for a few days at Tesco. Our accomodation is lovely. Nice big unit, with big bedrooms and two bathrooms, comfy beds. In a lovely neighbourhood too and close to the Main Street. We went off to forage for some dinner with great success.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Family, Kelpies and The Falkirk Wheel.

    7 juin 2024, Écosse ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    Joc, Lan, Lorraine and Renee are travelling down to the Peak District from Scotland today so we’re meeting them for morning tea in a little village not far from us at Another Tillie’s Tearoom. We got there a bit early and the homemade cakes had us salivating while we waited for the girls to turn up. It was lovely to share a bit of what we’ve all been doing the last couple of weeks. And the cakes lived up to expectations as well.

    The sun was trying to come out after morning tea so we decided to try our luck visiting The Kelpies. At 30 metres high, The Kelpies is the largest equine sculpture in the world. The two steel horse heads rear up by the Forth and Clyde Canal. Sculptor Andy Scott was inspired both by the myth of the kelpies and by the Clydesdale horses that once powered Scottish industry by pulling barges transporting goods and materials for manufacture. It really is an imposing piece of art, and so much bigger than I was expecting.

    Next up was the Falkirk Wheel, The world’s only rotating boat lift, The Falkirk Wheel links the Forth & Clyde Canal to the Union Canal 35 metres above, allowing vessels to sail through the sky thanks to a unique fusion of art and engineering – and the same power it would take to boil eight kettles.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    William Wallace Monument.

    8 juin 2024, Écosse ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    We’ve got a plan this morning to see the William Wallace Monument. We thought it was just a monument you climbed up the hill and had a look at but no it’s a whole experience apparently. We’ve booked for 10 o’clock and once more our timing is impeccable and there are only a few people out and about that early. It’s a bit cool today and the wind is picking up.

    The monument was built and funded by the people of Scotland to celebrate one of their heroes and his efforts to free Scotland from the rule of England. It has 246 steps to the top but luckily there are three floors of displays to break the steps up. The Hall of Arms, The Hall of Heroes, The Royal Chamber and then of course The Crown at the very top. All the displays are so well done but the crowning glory is really at the very top. It is such a clear day we had magic views across the whole landscape in every direction. Jesus, Mary and Joseph the wind was horrendous. I think it was gusty up to 50ks, it was certainly giving us a bad hair day. Not to mention the wind chill factor.

    They had an actor there as well at then end telling the story of William Wallace. Most people know the story thanks to the film Braveheart and after visiting the monument we all want to watch the film again.

    Back into town for a pub lunch, we tried to park in town but it is impossible, luckily our accomodation is not far away so took the car home and walked into town. We passed a bit of a market in the Main Street and one of the vendors was selling home made pies so we bought a selection of them to have for supper. Personally I thought they were much better than the lunch I had. Everyone else had chicken, I had Mac and Cheese, wrong choice!

    Bit of a look around the shops in the Main Street and then home for a quite afternoon a bottle of wine and our pies for supper.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Cultoss

    9 juin 2024, Écosse ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Marl and Millie are off to Edinburgh for the day so Graham and I took ourselves to breakfast and then a wee drive to the seaside to find Culross. I’d never heard of Culross until we went into a gift shop and there was some pretty stretches of a little village there.

    It’s only about 25 minutes away so an easy drive. Today is looking great so far, the sun is out and the wind is down. Turns out Culross is one of the setting for Outlander, a popular tv show. It wasn’t too busy when we got there but the crowds thicken up over a few hours with lots of people looking for filming spots around town.

    Culross is quite unique in as far as it was a bustling little place with a coal mine and salt works 400 years ago but left neglected after the mind was flooded and the entrepreneur who built the “Palace” died. So most of the village was still original, although neglected and has been restored to original condition by the national trust.

    We did a tour through The Palace which is more a large manor house really, it would have been very fancy for it’s day and is certainly much bigger and more opulent then all the other houses in town. The house is set on the side of a hill and has a beautiful garden behind it filled with herbs and flowers. Lovely views over the town to the River Forth from the top of the garden. It’s a very popular place on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

    We picked up a few groceries and checked out the oldest pub in Stirling for a quick drink before having an early dinner and meeting the girls on the train from Edinburgh.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Lock Lomond

    10 juin 2024, Écosse ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Our last full day in Scotland today and we’re going for a road trip around Lake Lomond. Graham and I have been to Lake Lamond before but it poured rain the whole day so wasn’t very enjoyable.

    Today is looking good, the sun is out and the visibility to the mountains is amazing. The locks, the fields, all the sheep, cattle and the mountains make for a lovely drive. We stopped for morning tea at The Duck Hotel. Fancy place on the water with a great selection of cakes. We tried four different ones and shared them. Next stop is the cute little village of Luss. Cruises across the lake leave from here so it’s a popular place, full of lovely cottages with flowers around them, a nice beach, a few gifts shops of course and a pretty church.

    We went past a little outcrop where Graham remember taking a photo last time we were here. So of course we had to get an updated one. Then at a lookout which was closed for renovation.

    Drovers inn for lunch was a hit with everyone. Guinness Pie, Mince and Tatties and Guinness. One of the oldest pubs in Scotland and the most haunted, full of stuffed animals and historical ambience.

    Falls of Dochart, Lock Tay and the River Tay finished off our drive and then we turned for home. We took a short/ long cut on the way home and drove through a gorgeous valley with hills covered in heather and gorse. The gorse was in flower but the heather needs another month to be in full bloom. Makes for majestic scenery with all the different colours.

    We arrived home about five, well pleased with our day and spent the next few hours happily consuming the rest of our cheese, biscuits, wine and beer.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    London day 1

    11 juin 2024, Angleterre ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We caught the train from Edinburgh to London, arriving just in time to settle in and have dinner at the hotel restaurant. We’re all a bit tired after a day of travel but we perked up over dinner and a few drinks. We are getting toward the end of our trip. Only these three days in London to go.

    I missed going to Harrods last time we were here so that was first on my list today. Millie is going to meet her friend so Marl came with us. Harrods is an eye opener. They really know how to market a brand. We wanted to buy a couple of souvenirs but 15 pounds for a key ring or 20 for a tea towel was a bit much. We settled for a shopping bag at the ridiculous price of 20 pounds but at least it will be useful. Marl bought a very cute pink teddy for the baby as well.

    Graham is going to meet a costumer who’s ordered a instrument in Oxford so he left us and went back to the hotel to get organised. We were going to look at what shows were on and buy something for us all to go to tomorrow night. We settled on the lion King but while we were there they had matinee tickets for Sister Act at a great price and we hadn’t really planned anything else that afternoon so we got them as well.

    What a great show, we both throughly enjoyed it. We’d had a delicious lunch at The Cambridge on the way to the theatre so only needed a snack for dinner. We couldn’t find much else on offer around the hotel so we settled for the 2 for one cocktails at the bar and a few nibbles.

    Millie and her friends and Graham came back in time to join us for a couple of drinks. Sounded like everyone had had a good day.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    London Day 2

    13 juin 2024, Angleterre ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    This morning we took a walk along the canal near our hotel. Started off quite nicely, some pretty boats and eateries. Deteriorated into a old barge boatyard after a few kilometres so we ditched it and took the bus over to Rick Stein’s restaurant for lunch.

    It’s overlooking the River Thames and we had a window table which was lovely. Nice food but for the price a little underwhelming.

    Quick trip over to Buckingham Palace as Marl and Millie hadn’t been there yet. It was hopping with lots of tourist about. It’s King Charles birthday celebrations in a couple of days and they have all the flags up and barricades around everywhere. So different to last time we saw it, only a couple of people around then. We still managed to get some nice shots without too many people in them.

    We are going to see The Lion King tonight so we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel for a few hours rest. Another lot of two for one cocktails in the bar before we set off for the theatre.

    What an amazing show, incredible costumes and set, great dancing and beautiful singing. What more could you ask for. I don’t know how they managed those costumes but they were incredible. All the animal were fabulous, moved just like the real thing does. We all loved it.

    It has rained while we’ve been in the theatre , but we managed to stay dry for a quick trip home on the underground.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    London Day 3

    14 juin 2024, Angleterre ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    It’s our last day in London. We have a late check out at the motel so we have until 12 to see something. We missed going into Westminster Abbey last time so that’s the project for the morning. Marl decided to come with us, Millie saw it from the bus with her friend so she’s staying home to organise her suitcase for the trip.

    I forgot how close Big Ben is to Westminster Abbey and after a quick trip on the subway we came out to see him in all his glory. When we were here 7 years ago we heard the last bells ring on Ben Big before he was shut down for 4 years to be refurbished. He looks amazing now. I’ll have to get the photos out to compare.

    Westminster Abbey is just around the corner, and the line to get in, if you aren’t prebooked is already quite long. We waited about 20 minutes, have I mentioned I hate queueing and finally got in. 29 pounds to enter the Abbey. Holy Moly it better be worth it.

    We didn’t realise so many people have been buried at the Abbey. It’s a bit of a Tardis, it looks quite compact from the outside, inside seems to go on forever, different altars, different rooms, so many tombs. Really you could have stayed there for hours and not seen everything, our attention span is not that long and after an hour we were Abbeyed out.

    After another photo shot with Big Ben we figured Millie would be getting anxious for us to get back so back on the underground for a quick trip home.

    We’re having lunch today at The Summerhouse an easy ten minute walk from our hotel, unfortunately as soon as we left the hotel the skies opened in the heaviest downpour we’ve had the whole trip. Luckily a taxi came along to save us, he hadn’t heard of our hotel but Marl had the directions on her phone so we got there and taught a London Cabbie something on the way.

    Lunch was delicious and the restaurant lovely and quite busy too. Bubbles, salmon, calamari, fish cakes and Graham had to rebel and have lamb rump were all a hit. The mango and coconut rice pudding we got for dessert grew on us after a few bites and since we only had one between us we managed to finish it off nicely.

    We had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport so we got the Underground to Piccadilly Circus to buy a few souvenirs. Had a walk around Trafalgar Square while we were there.

    A cup of tea back at the hotel and to keep Millie and Graham from getting to the airport way too early we had a cocktail as well. The Train station is quite close to the hotel but it’s a bit convoluted getting to it with suitcases. Luckily someone else was leaving the hotel at the same time and he knew the way. Thank goodness because it was even more complicated then we though. Easy check in and security when we got there, a quick bite to eat and we were underway.    En savoir plus

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  • Karen LongEurope Trip 2024Voyageur

    Home

    16 juin 2024, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We are home. After 2 long haul flights, a long wait in Brisbane for our flight home to Gladstone we finally made it.

    We’ve had an amazing 8 week adventure. We packed so many things into that 8 weeks, visited so many great places, met some lovely people, enjoyed spending time with my sisters and brother.

    The grass is 2 foot high, the verandah and the cars are covered in dust, the cruiser won’t start and we have a mountain of washing to do but it is all worth it for the fabulous memories.    En savoir plus

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    Fin du voyage
    16 juin 2024