Trip Report: J&M in the UK and Ireland (plus Philly)

Philly
We originally had a four-hour layover in Philadelphia, but USAir changed it to two hours (without telling us, I might add). That wasn't enough time for me, so we changed it to our only other option: an 8-hour layover. Fortunately, everything was on time, and we took the SEPTA train to the Market Street East station ($5.50 each way) and walked around the historic district. One of the staff members at the visitors' center directed us to Campo's for lunch (around Market & 3rd). I'm no connoisseur of cheesesteaks, but that was the best one I've ever had. (Cash only. Our cheesesteak and bottled water was around $9.)

After lunch, we headed down towards Penn's Landing. The area itself was closed, but we saw the river and the memorial area to Irish immigrants - particularly fitting since we were headed to Ireland in a few days. We walked down Chestnut to Carpenter's Hall and Independence Hall, got some gelato and went to see the Liberty Bell. We walked back through the visitors' center, then walked by the Constitution Center, the Mint, Ben Franklin's grave, the Quaker meeting house, the Betsy Ross house, and (the scaffolding in front of) Christ Church. By that point we'd decided we'd walked enough for the day, so we headed back to the station to catch the train back to the airport.

We got back to the airport in plenty of time, went through the easiest security I've ever gone through, had a snack, and got ready for the overnight flight. The flight was on time and fine - we didn't get much sleep, especially with the broken call button somewhere on board (seriously, every five minutes it would ring). But we made it, and that's the important thing. Next: we're finally in England!

Philly pictures: http://tinyurl.com/2sz3pu

Good start, jent. Looking forward to more.

Thanks!

We're in England!
After a fine but not very restful flight, we went through customs and immigration in Manchester and headed to the airport train station. Our tickets to Windermere were the only ones we didn't order beforehand, since I didn't want to buy them and then have our plane be late. They wound up being £16.90 apiece and had us changing once, in Preston. We had awhile in Preston, so we got some lunch at Upper Crust - first baguette sandwiches of the trip. So much more fun than regular bread.

Our bed & breakfast was Ashleigh House in Windermere (£24/night/person) - I'd booked one close to the train station, since we didn't have a car. For those purposes, it worked perfectly, and we had a great stay there. If you do have a car, I'd suggest one of the more scenic towns - Windermere isn't actually beside the lake, and our room looked out over a courtyard. But if you stay in Windermere, I'd definitely recommend Ashleigh House. It was one of the least expensive ones I found, but was really comfortable and had everything we needed.

Once we checked in, we both showered and then went to Boots to top up the phone and get a replacement hair dryer (M's had blown - it was English but had two voltage settings, and apparently we picked the wrong one!). That afternoon we walked down to Bowness and saw Lake Windermere. It was pretty disgusting and rainy that day, so the lake was very cloudy/foggy, but still pretty. We were pretty worn out, so we got dinner at a "Swiss Italian" restaurant in Bowness and headed back to the b&b. (We never figured out the Swiss part. We each had a pizza and split some garlic bread [about £6.50 apiece] while enjoying some tunes we finally decided sounded like Mexican disco and an Italian Lionel Richie.) Fortunately for us, we were back "home" just in time to catch the British Soap Opera Awards on TV, with Fern and Phil hosting. Awesome.

Pictures from today: http://tinyurl.com/25j664

Grasmere & Ambleside
Our first full English breakfast was good... but no way could I eat that every day! However, it kept us full through our long day of walking. After breakfast we picked up our train tickets for the next day, then took the bus from Windermere station to Grasmere village. (I think we were still jet-lagged - it took us three tries to get on the right bus, and then I tried to buy my ticket by putting a £5 note in the ticket slot. I think we confused the bus driver.) We wandered around Grasmere, thankful for the weather: before we left, it kept saying the forecast was rain, but it was the perfect English sort of day - partly sunny with big fluffy clouds.

We found a riverside path and walked down to Lake Grasmere. Now, I could have sworn I saw a sign the day before that said "Ambleside 8, Grasmere 9," so, thinking the two were a mile apart, we decided we'd just walk on down to Ambleside. It's actually more like 4.5 miles. A bit more than we bargained for! But it was an absolutely beautiful walk. We walked along the main road for awhile, then when the sidewalk ended, headed for a path through the woods.

In Ambleside, we relaxed by the mill for a bit, shopped, wandered, and then attempted to have cream tea - only to find that the restaurant we were at had just run out of scones. This was to be a common theme for us; every time we tried to have cream tea, something stopped us!

We took the bus back to Windermere and stopped at the Booths next to the train station to pick up sandwiches, fruit, and English junk food (chocolate digestives and mango chilli Kettle chips) for dinner. (The Lakes were meant to be our "decompressing" location, as we were both really stressed from work and school before we left, and the scenery and lack of nightlife did the trick!) Back at the b&b, we packed up for the next day, then read, studied, knitted and watched more excellent television. (Today's selections included a particularly touching episode of "Deal or No Deal" - seriously - and the first episode of Big Brother 8. Absolutely fantastic.)

The next day, we headed back down to Bowness after breakfast. Since the weather was again beautiful and we had a couple hours before our train, we decided we'd check out the lake in good weather. So much prettier. We relaxed lakeside for awhile, then picked up our luggage and went off to the train station. Next up: Edinburgh.

Pictures from Grasmere & Ambleside: http://tinyurl.com/254smd
Pictures from Bowness: http://tinyurl.com/yvvkh6

On to Edinburgh
We took a relaxing train ride from Windermere to Oxenholme, then had the worst train trip I've ever had from Oxenholme to Edinburgh (involved a hen party, a group of drunk, obnoxious poker players, a very grouchy man, having to sit with legs on top of our suitcases, no air conditioning on a very full coach, and a tipsy Scotsman who groped me while trying to disembark - train newbies, they are NOT all like this, but it does make for good stories). Once we arrived, Maegan said: "I think we need to buy ourselves things." Good call, M.

We were staying at SmartCity Hostel, which is very nice for a hostel (about $40/night for 6-person female room) and is located a bit off the Royal Mile on Blackfriars. It's not quite the "ultimate urban resort experience" which it claims to be, but it does have great showers, individual cabinets and free internet. The only downside was that there was no A/C, so we kept the window open - but our room faced the street and the bar directly across. So about 3am the first night we were awoken by the bar patrons. But after that, I remembered the earplugs I had stashed, and had no further problems. The location was great - Blackfriars crosses the middle of the Mile, very close to the bridge.

After checking in, we went off in search of retail therapy on Princes Street. We were only somewhat successful, but H&M and the smells of Lush did make us feel better! We walked around Princes Street Gardens, past the Castle, and down the Mile, looking for a dinner spot. We had found a recommendation for Gordon's Trattoria, but couldn't find it for the life of us (our own fault completely - we found it the next day in plain sight). We did, however, have a coupon for Bella Italia. I know, it's a chain, but it was open late and delicious! And that coupon let us get dessert. We walked the rest of the Mile down to Holyrood and Parliament, marveling at the sunlight at 10:30pm.

Pictures from today: http://tinyurl.com/2zvyqs

Day Trip to Stirling, Arthur's Seat in the Evening
Judging by the weather forecast, Saturday was the day for our day trip to Stirling. (Side note: We both had been to Edinburgh and done the Castle and Holyrood Palace before, so I decided I'd rather spend time doing something I hadn't done. I do, however, definitely recommend Edinburgh Castle.) We bought return train tickets for about £7 each, grabbed bagels at the station, and had a much more pleasant ride to Stirling than yesterday's ride in! When we got there, we wandered about the town centre for a bit. It seemed much quieter and more sedate than Edinburgh... which I suppose makes complete sense, being a smaller town.

We caught the hop-on-hop-off bus (£7.50 each, though M got a student discount) and got off at Stirling Castle. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the castle was very cool. Besides the normal things, the day we were there they were having a "History of Horrors" event, holding mock witch trials, telling stories of famous murders and executions, that sort of thing. It was a fun atmosphere, even if they were talking about blood and guts. We didn't get the audio guides, but one of the castle employees, dressed in period costume, struck up a conversation and gave us some background on the king and queen's chambers. It was a lot more interesting than it probably sounds! We saw the Chapel Royal and visited the tapestry studio, where they're working to recreate the five "Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestries that used to hang in the castle. We easily could have spent more time there, but wanted to eat and make sure to get to the Wallace monument. We both had soup at the castle cafe (£3.50 - and good soup, too). After lunch we discovered that "bus returns every 45 minutes in summer" did not necessarily apply to early June: we had a good hour till the next one. So we went back into the castle and heard the story of Lord Darnley, Mary Queen of Scots's second husband, as part of the HOH events.

The bus took us from the castle through Bridge of Allan and up to the Wallace Monument. We took pictures with the Mel Gibson-lookalike statue, then hiked up the hill to the national monument. We elected not to go inside and the climb the stairs (we had plenty of climbing to do later), but the views just from the base were great.

We took the last bus back to the town centre, where we stopped by Marks & Spencer to pick up some sustenance, as we had decided to climb Arthur's Seat when we got back to Edinburgh. Now, M had climbed Arthur's Seat before, and kept claiming "it's not a bad walk." And it's not an strenuous hike, for hikers... but I am not a hiker. And I think it was harder than M remembered. The views at the top were really pretty, though. I will say that if you can do this on a sunny day, it would be much better than the cloudy/hazy weather we had. I might do it again in sunny weather, but not on a cloudy day.

To reward ourselves, we ate at...Hard Rock. Please, don't judge! We knew where it was, we knew the food was decent, and most importantly: It was open. (It was about 9pm when we got there, about 10 before we ate.) I just tried not to think about the fact that I was paying $20 for a hamburger. We ran into another hen party there - apparently Edinburgh is the place to be for these!

Pictures from Stirling: http://tinyurl.com/yqaqcv
Pictures from Arthur's Seat: http://tinyurl.com/2azpzy

Really enjoying this trip report. Thanks so much for posting each day's pictures - makes it easier to enjoy them in segments instead of all together.

My sisters and I are going to Ireland and Scotland in Sept 2008. Your experiences are very helpful.

I'm so glad someone's enjoying it! We had a great time.

Sunday in Edinburgh
Sunday morning we went to the early service at St Giles - I love going to church in the cities I visit. Afterwards, we went to Always Sunday on the Royal Mile for lunch. I can't recommend this place enough - good food and good atmosphere at reasonable prices, in the middle of the tourist district. It's a cafe sort of place; M and I both had baked potatoes filled with ratatouille and brie, and I had some rocket salad as well. I think mine was £5.75.

After lunch we split up; M just wanted to wander and souvenir shop, and I wanted to go to the Museum of Scotland. I wandered through The Meadows for a bit, then headed back towards the museum. I really enjoyed it; it's arranged in chronological order, so you can follow things easily. There were also some traditional Scottish dancers there that afternoon. Admission is free.

M and I tried to meet back up for cream tea at Always Sunday... but alas, they had run out of scones since lunch. We had shortbread and maple pecan dessert instead. By this point the weather had turned gray and rainy, and we were pretty tired. We went to the train station to get our tickets to London, went to Lush again, then had dinner at Pizza Express (as usual, about £6 for a pizza margherita). Feeling a bit rejuvenated and curious, we decided to climb Calton Hill and explore. I was really glad we did; it was so quiet and beautiful in the rain and fog.

Pictures from St Giles and the Museum: http://tinyurl.com/338my5
Pictures from Calton Hill: http://tinyurl.com/3a3qbl

Jent103 - I don't know why no one is finding your trip report because it is really excellent. The photos are fantastic! I'll just keep topping until the rest of Fodors gets a clue

Great trip report! I sympathize with your difficulty finding a cream tea - it took us a few days before we were successful.

Lee Ann

Great trip report. Looking forward t the rest of it. Thanks for sharing.

Pizza Express may be a chain, but it was a lifesaver on several days when traveling with two nephews who were bottomless pits and who love pizza, etc. The ones we ate in were clean, reasonably priced, and predictable.

jent103 - Nicely done with lots of helpful information regarding cost etc.

I can go along with mango chilli Kettle chips being called English junk food but surely not McVities Chocolate Digestive Biscuits that have been around for close to 100 years made from whole wheat flour! I always get numerous requests to bring these delicious little biscuits back to the States when I am back in the UK.

Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts about your trip, food etc.

Sandy

Sandy - are they really whole wheat? I had no idea! I mean, I know their original purpose, but it had never occurred to me. That makes me feel much better about the packet in my kitchen cabinet...

Even if the digestives don't count, I'll reassure you that we did get our fill of Cadbury, salt & pepper crisps, and peanut butter Kit-Kats throughout the trip.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words! More to come...

jent103,

Wonderful. I love your report and the photos. You've made it so easy to read and see. Can't wait until you get to Ireland.

Many thanks, Joan

I'm loving your report too....its kinda funny but one of my Shetland Sheepdogs (Shelties)is named Stirling, after the castle! I hope to get there one day...I keep going to Ireland (my 12th trip coming up!!)...and, my favorite cookie (biscuit) in the world are McVitties...the Caramel digestives....OMG...GREAT!! They are hard to find though...I look for them in every store in Ireland....and, when I find them I buy about 7 packages of them!!
Great report!! Thanks!
Shadow

Great report,and (I seem to be saying this a lot, recently) sorry about the weather.

I'm so glad y'all are enjoying it! It's fun to write, since it helps me relive our trip. Sheila - we actually had great weather almost every day of the trip... except when we were in Scotland. There, it was about what I had been expecting! We still enjoyed ourselves, though.

On to London
Monday morning, and we're headed to London, for which we are both extremely excited. We picked up scones and jam for breakfast at Always Sunday (seriously, the place was great) on our way to the train station, then had an uneventful train ride to King's Cross.

Once at the station, we asked the underground ticket agent whether to get some combination of travelcards, or load cash on an Oyster. She was extremely helpful, and we wound up putting £10 each on Oysters (also had a £3 deposit, as we were only staying three and a half days). I wound up putting an extra £5 on mine, but got back a bit of that when we left.

We checked into our hostel - Astor Museum Inn on Montague, just across from the British Museum. The location was perfect for us; I'm slightly biased towards staying in Bloomsbury, since that's where our student flats were during our university semester. But it's also in a great spot for walking to so many things. The hostel itself was fine; clean bathrooms, creaky luggage lockers, no lift, £19.50/person/night for a 4-bed female room.

After checking in, we went to the museum for an hour or so - we spent so much time here in college, and I've been back since, but I can wander in that place for days. When the museum closed, we went to the Bloomsbury wagamama for dinner. I know some people hate this chain, but I love the food and the atmosphere, and it's hard to beat the price in London! After dinner we set off on what became a five-hour walk around most of the major London landmarks. We started just going to Covent Garden, then wound up going to Trafalgar Square, down the Mall to Buckingham Palace, past Horse Guards to Westminster, back by Trafalgar to Piccadilly Circus, and then back to Trafalgar Square and Westminster to take nighttime pictures before walking back up Charing Cross to the hostel. (We had a brief stop to try the Cadbury Caramel Delight McFlurry at the Piccadilly McDonald's. I have a strict no-McDonald's policy, but this was definitely something we couldn't get at home. Unfortunately, it was underwhelming to say the least!) For us, it was pretty much a perfect London night.

Photos from today: http://tinyurl.com/2farh3

Enjoying your report...

Jen,

I just found your report and I love it! I can't believe I haven't seen it until now, but that's probably because I've been spending all my time posting my own trip report.

I did have a question...I love that picture of the bridge in Grasmere - we were just there at the end of May, and I can't for the life of me ever remember seeing either the bridge, or the area around it...is it near the center of town?

Our group of three had a car - how long did the walk from Grasmere to Ambleside take you? It seemed really pretty, but were you walking through the countryside
or near the roads the whole time?

Waiting for more!

Love your pictures of London - makes me really anxious to return in a couple of months!

Anna - that bridge was a bit outside of town centre. The bus dropped us off at the village green, then we just walked around a bit till we found a sign that said "riverside path." I think the beginning of the path was near a hotel (which also included the "tourist information centre" - basically a table with brochures). The bridge was a couple minutes' walk down the path, probably one of the last things in Grasmere proper. The walk to Ambleside took us about three hours, although we weren't exactly speedwalking! We walked along the A591 as long as there was a sidewalk, and at that point saw a walking trail through the woods. We followed that most of the way back to Ambleside, although we did get back on the main road closer to town.

Jen,
I'm enjoying your trip report and all the photos and can't wait to read more. We're getting ready to spend a week in London (Chelsea) then off to Bath and Cotswolds for a few days. Thanks for sharing your stories!

Jen,

Thanks for your reply - we actually went to the tourist information area. Can't believe I didn't see signs for the footpath - just more things we have to do next time

Great report! I agree about Pizza Express. You're packing a lot into your trip.

What a fun trip! Just saw the report also. I think one reason is that it's not 'indexed' to the UK - most times I just check the postings for the few countries of interest to me, and if something's not there I don't see it.

I LOVE the baguette sandwiches from Upper Crust! Luckily they are in most train stations, so we always have them for train trips. The ones from Pret are good also. Oooh, and salt/pepper crisps are to DIE for. My favorite biscuit is the plain chocolate Hob Nobs. I couldn't find them on my latest trip to the UK, but on my return found them in our local Whole Foods. Well, now I'm hungry!! (the pictures of the Philly cheese steaks had my mouth watering)

I have to confess that I've stayed at Stirling University for a total of 5 weeks over two different summers and never made it up Wallace Monument (and it was within (long) walking distance!

What is the story on the gnome you have in your photos?

Looking forward to the rest of the trip.

Thanks! I didn't index it because I wasn't sure how to index it to the UK and Ireland. And eventually, I will get to Ireland!

noe, you gave me a great idea - I should check Wild Oats for salt & pepper crisps. All the ones I can find in the other stores have all these extra spices on them. They're fine, but not what I want! (We're getting a Whole Foods soon... another reason to look forward to that.)

Oh, David the Gnome. He is actually not mine, but Maegan's. I don't think there's an actual story, other than that she thinks he's fun, and he has now been on several trips around the US (who knew pharmacy students traveled so much?). So this was his first international trip. I believe he enjoyed himself. : )

I'm glad David had a good visit to the UK and Ireland! Aren't digital cameras great? On our March trip to the UK, my 21 year old daughter chronicled the adventures of this aztec bunny figure that she bought at Magma in London. Most of the pictures are on her camera, but I have one:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8DZsmzZuzbSM

Both my girls have a compulsion to document their meals, beers, and desserts when we travel abroad (always without flash) - we have lots of dark blurry pictures of food.

For future reference, I believe you can index a post to more than one country by holding the "control" and selecting the ones you'd like.

More London
Tuesday morning, I headed off to Regent's Park. One of my favorite memories from my semester in London was when a few of us went to the rose garden early, before classes - it was absolutely gorgeous. I didn't make it there very early, but the flowers were in full bloom, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Most of Tuesday was spent with some friends of mine who came down from Loughborough. We ate at wagamama (yes, again - my friends love it too), saw a matinee of Phantom of the Opera (dress circle tickets were £27.50; we passed on the $6 ice cream), then did some shopping in Covent Garden. We three girls share a mutual affection for Lush. The lone male among us opted to check out the band playing outside. We hung out in Starbucks for a bit, ate dinner at a burger place on Charing Cross just south of Oxford Street, and moseyed back to St Pancras to drop off my friends. We didn't realize how late it was till we were on the tube station escalators, at which point they started running! After a somewhat dramatic separation (they did make their train), M and I went over to King's Cross to take her picture with the Platform 9 3/4 sign.

Pictures from Regent's Park: http://tinyurl.com/246r9q
Pictures from the rest of the day (mostly of the four of us): http://tinyurl.com/yuof7t

Oops, another thing. Your account of the tapestries being woven/hung at Stirling Castle had me doing some research.

I grew up visiting the Unicorn Tapestries which hang in the Metropolitan Museum's Cloisters in New York, and they have a special place in my heart. The 7 tapestries were made in Brussels and hung in France. There was another similar set, that are now in Cluny. I don't think that these tapestries hung in Scotland.

Reading Historic Scotland's description of the tapestry project, the weavings are based on the ones in New York, and are meant to give an idea of what Stirling Castle would look like ith tapestries hanging. http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/stirling_tapestries

Really? Everything I saw in the castle seemed to imply the original tapestries used to hang there, but I guess I just assumed!

Ooh - how close did they end up making the train...more details please!

Well, I remember that their train left at 9:30, and we were on the King's Cross tube station escalators at 9:26 (which is when Matt looked at his watch for the first time). I didn't look at my watch when we got to St Pancras, but the train employees were most definitely yelling for them to run. There was a bit of extra drama because a) it was the last train of the night, and b) they'd missed the last train before! Needless to say, we didn't get a group picture or a goodbye hug.

Thanks for the details - I love train/tube stories since I swear, they all seem to hate me!

You didn't get a photo, but I'm sure you all will remember running for the train!

Love your report(and photos)!

Thanks, Anna!

Solitary Day in London
First thing, M and I headed for the TKTS booth in Leicester Square. She was bound and determined to see Wicked. I was hoping for something else, as I had seen Wicked last fall. However, things at the TKTS booth didn't seem all that discounted - or at least, they didn't have the cheap seats available. So we decided to try the agents around the square. She got a Wicked ticket for £19. I asked about several shows I wanted to see - Spamalot, Mary Poppins, Lion King, Avenue Q - but none had discounted tickets. So... I wound up getting the ticket right next to M. It worked out. Wicked is amazing. And I really wanted to see M's face when she saw it!

After getting our tickets, we split up for the day. I headed down Charing Cross to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Blair at War exhibit (which was excellent). Either they had done some remodeling in the NPG since I was there last, or I really didn't remember much about it, but the entire museum was great - very different atmosphere than I remembered. It seemed more open. I walked from Trafalgar Square down Horse Guards and ran into a marching band rehearsing for the Beating Retreat concert that night, then went to the Cabinet War Rooms.

I had read so much about the War Rooms on Fodors that I really wanted to see them. It was a neat experience - except for the throngs of schoolchildren (French and English) running all the way through the narrow hallways. I think they had let about three large groups in one right after the other. Once I let them get very far ahead of me, it was much better. It's hard to describe the feeling - suffice it to say the exhibits are very well done, with audio guides and clips from BBC Radio, that sort of thing. Admission is £s;11, which sounded expensive mostly because almost all the other museums are free! But it's worth it if you're at all into history.

I got lunch at the Trafalgar Square Pret a Manger - for those not familiar, this chain has wrapped, ready-to-go sandwiches, salads, sides and desserts for pretty reasonable prices. I usually get a baguette sandwich and salt & pepper crisps for under £s;4. I took mine outside and ate on the steps, just people-watching and absorbing. Trafalgar Square is my favorite spot in London, and I had a lovely time just being there. After lunch I took a long walk - this time, up Piccadilly, past the Ritz to Hyde Park Corner, then up to Marble Arch. I walked down Oxford Street, shopping a bit and picking up souvenirs for myself and for friends, before meeting M back at the hostel.

We changed clothes and headed out for dinner at Dionysus, at the corner of Tottenham Court and Oxford Street. We both had chicken doners and split an order of chips for about £s;8 each (they have a takeaway side that's cheaper). After dinner, we took the Tube down to Victoria for the show. There had been lots of cast changes since I'd seen it with the original cast, and you can't really beat Idina Menzel! But the show was still incredible, and M loved it. After some interesting times with our hostelmates trying to check email, we headed to bed, ready for Ireland the next day.

Pictures from today: http://tinyurl.com/24fks5

Just lovely!

Too bad I'm a little past the age limit for the Astor Museum Inn The location sounds great.

On to Ireland - woohoo!

LC - don't write it off just yet! Everything does say the age limit is 18-35, but one of our roommates the first night was well past that. She said they're pretty lax about ages. My guess is they're more stringent during high season, but I don't know that. As long as you don't mind sharing space with people mostly in their early 20s (and very creaky underbed luggage lockers), it never hurts to ask! The location really is fantastic.

Last Day in London, then Headed to Ireland
Thursday morning we packed, checked out and left our luggage while we went to the British Museum again for an hour or so. Today was not really a day of sightseeing, just traveling. We went back to get our luggage around 11:30, then walked down to Holborn station to catch the tube to Liverpool Street for the Stansted Express. At Liverpool Street, we both turned in our Oysters and got our refunds, then attempted to get our Express tickets from the FastTicket machine. No luck. I went inside the ticket office with our printed email confirmation, where the agent basically said he couldn't help me. That was all. So I asked if there anyone who could - seemed like a reasonable request to me! He finally stamped the confirmation, initialed it and told me to present that to the ticket agent on the train. I was a little worried about it, since he seemed to have no idea what to do, but nobody even questioned it.

The train ride was a little less than an hour, and we got to Stansted plenty early, went through security (they let my 4-ounce contact solution through - hooray), and hung out in the departures lounge for awhile. We flew Ryanair from London to Kerry. It's cheap and functional; no complaints here. I was concerned about my bag being overweight, but either it wasn't or they didn't say anything. I don't think they weighed my carryon at all. After an uneventful flight, we landed at the Kerry airport, picked up our bags and went through "customs." Customs and immigration involved an officer standing in the doorway between the baggage claim carousel (there's only one) and the arrival hall. Kerry is easily the tiniest airport I've ever flown into.

We picked up our car keys from the Irish Car Rentals counter - our entire rental was a little over $500 for an automatic for six days, including the extra insurance (lowered our deductible from €900 to €100). It was the best deal I could find, and we had no problems at all. Well, except finding our car - the agent told us it was "by the fence," but we quickly discovered there were two fences! Eventually we found it and set off on our driving adventure. We had decided that I would be the only driver, and I was pretty nervous. We drove around the parking lot for awhile, then drove the half hour or so to Killarney. That was about right for our first day - short drive on major roads! We got a little lost trying to get to the hostel, but nothing too bad.

We stayed in the Killarney Railway Hostel, just across from the bus and train station. It was fine - €25 a night for each of us for a twin private ensuite room (very light breakfast included). Killarney itself isn't very big, so we walked to town to find somewhere to eat. This was more of a challenge than we thought; finding anything non-fast-food in this tourist town within our admittedly modest budget was tough! We finally wound up at a fine and forgettable restaurant on New Street, having a hamburger for M and chicken nuggets for me. They were actually pretty good and under €10 apiece, so we were happy. We walked around town for awhile, then headed back to the hostel for the night.

Photos: I put all my British Museum photos in one set (http://tinyurl.com/yq6kps). Only a few Killarney pictures - I put those with tomorrow!

Great report!

It's salt and VINEGAR crisps though, not pepper! No wonder you can't find them again, lol.

I have an idea that Pret a Manger own-brand crisps do include a salt and pepper. Knowing them, it's probably Maldon Sea Salt and Dawn-picked Hand-cracked Peppercorns.

Oh, but there ARE salt & pepper! And they are delicious, especially the Kettle brand. I don't enjoy the salt & vinegar ones. Which is unfortunate, because they're relatively easy to find in the US. But salt & pepper - no luck with "authentic" ones so far, though not for lack of trying.

http://tinyurl.com/2t9eg4

Patrick - love it. : )

KNP & the Gap of Dunloe
We had stopped by the Deros office the day before to see about tours, but they were already closed by the time we got there. So we headed down there early, around 9am, and bought tickets for the Gap of Dunloe tour (€27 apiece, cash only). With over an hour to kill before the tour left at 10:30, we went to Tesco and bought baguettes, soft cheese, ham and fruit for lunch, then had a scone at the cafe near Tesco. We went back to the tour office around 10:15, saw a bus, and got on it. We noticed that there were an awful lot of people, and something just seemed off, but there was no driver to ask. Finally, when the bus started moving, we got up the guts to ask the gentlemen in front of us if this was the Gap of Dunloe tour. "No, this is the Ring of Kerry!" Whoops! The men were kind of annoyed with us, but we ran up to the front and told the driver. No big deal, he said - he was just moving the bus. Thank goodness. Our actual "bus" turned out to be a minivan which we shared with about five Germans and a very nice Irish driver.

The driver dropped us off at Kate Kearney's cottage, told us to get snacks and drinks if we wanted them and then to just follow the path, meeting the boats at Lord Brandon's at 2:30. Noticing that we had no map, he told us to follow the Germans, but they stopped at Kate Kearney's and we figured it couldn't be that hard. We were right - there's pretty much one path, and there are signs at all the important places. Instead of walking, you can also hire a jaunting cart when you get there for €20.

The Gap was gorgeous, and we had the perfect day for it - beautiful sunshine, hardly a cloud. Just one thing: we'd not thought to bring any sunscreen. So even if you think hey, you're going to Ireland and it'll be cloudy, bring some! It probably took us about three hours to walk the Gap, with picture stops. (Fair warning: You'll think you're almost at Lord Brandon's for a long time before you actually get there.)

We were glad we'd brought lunch; the cafe at Lord Brandon's didn't look all that great and was relatively pricy. I did buy a Coke, and I think that was €1.50. It was good, though! The boat guide found us while we were eating, assured us there was no hurry, and pointed out where to meet them when we were done eating. There were three speedboats that left about the same time. The boat tour was a perfect way to spend a summer afternoon - relaxing and gorgeous. We were dropped off at Ross Castle and immediately met by the tour office agent who'd sold us the tickets that morning. The tour was worth it, I'd say - we could have driven ourselves to Kate Kearney's, but would have had to either walk the Gap twice or hire a jaunting cart to get back anyway, and the boat tour was great.

After the tour, we were on a shopping mission. My dad had specifically requested a brown tweed flat cap from Ireland. Some Fodorites had suggested Quills as a place to get it, but the price seemed more expensive than I had remembered them saying. So we went to the Woolen Mills outlet and to the other stores in the Killarney mall to check things out (the mall is close to the train and bus stations, almost directly across from our hostel). Not finding anything better, we went back to Quills. I'm pretty pleased with it - the cap was about €20, and it was the only brown tweed flat cap I ever found! And Dad really liked it, which of course is the most important thing.

We had generic fast food for dinner. Killarney is not the place to eat if you're on a serious budget. And we were seriously worn out! We went back to the hostel early and packed up for the next day.

Pictures: http://tinyurl.com/2qbncx

Ring of Kerry, Kenmare, & Dingle
Saturday morning we checked out and set off on the drive to Kenmare. I'd heard that this was the prettiest part of the Ring of Kerry, and we'd heard good things about Kenmare, so it seemed like a good way to spend the morning. And it was - but it was also the most nerve-wracking drive of the trip. The road is narrow, with rock walls on the side a good part of the way and road works for much of it as well. We made it through with just some scratches on the back of the mirror, though, so not bad.

We pulled off at Ladies View - just beautiful. There were several other places we could have pulled off, but honestly I was so nervous about the driving that I just focused on that. It was probably worse because this was only the second time we'd driven; if you're doing the drive after several days' practice, it would probably be easier. As it was, there were several conversations like the following: "Um, JT, there's a rock wall right here!" "Yeah I know, but there's a CAR over here!" Fortunately we only ran into one or two tour buses that day, so that was a blessing!

We parked in Kenmare near the church, then walked through town in search of the stone circle Rick Steves talked about. We finally did find it, but it looked like garden walls rather than something in the mini-Stonehenge vein. Just not what we were expecting. It is right by the harbour, though, and is a good place to just take that in. There are also some stone statues playing musical instruments that I'm fairly certain were not part of the original stone circle!

We walked back into town and had lunch at Jam - delicious! The place was packed, but the staff and the food were great. I had a baked potato filled with ham, corn, cheese and green onions; I think Maegan had a sandwich. My lunch €3.80, plus we each got a scone and jam for later for about a euro.

After lunch we set off for Dingle. We got a little lost going back through Killarney - those roundabouts can be tricky! - and drove on the righthand side of the road for about two seconds. Fortunately there was a gas station right there so I just pulled in and turned around. It was scary, but it was the only time on the entire trip I did that, so I'll take it. Some of the signs were confusing around Castlemaine, since the signs for the N70 did not also say R561, but we made it eventually. It took us a little less than three hours from Kenmare.

We stayed in the Seaview room at Emlagh Lodge - I love this place! Maggie met us at the door and showed us upstairs. Maegan had a double bed, and I had a twin by the window. The bathroom was huge and everything was just lovely (especially after being in three hostels!). Very reasonably priced, too - €35 per night each - and a 5-minute walk from town. We ate our scones and rested for awhile, then wandered through Dingle town. I got some stained glass from the West Kerry Craft Guild shop, then we got ice cream at Murphy's (€3.20 for a scoop). We headed back for a nap, then went to Murphy's pub in time for dinner around 8:30.

When we got to the pub, the only open table was a six-top right inside the door. We felt bad about taking it, but one of the pub staff told us just to go ahead, so we did. We ordered soup and brown bread (€3.80 - I had the tomato basil, and it was quite good) and chatted and people-watched for awhile. We saw a group of five middle-aged men come in, realize there were no tables, then leave... and then come back again. One of them asked if they could share with us, and we said sure. They looked non-threatening! We didn't talk much at first, then one of them asked us where we thought they were from. We guessed Germany (we'd run into lots of Germans), but they said "No! We are from Norway!" We proceeded to have a lovely evening talking with all of them, except for Knute, who appeared to not speak much English. (They didn't teach Norwegian at any of my schools!) The sign said the music was supposed to start at 9:30, which turned into 10:15. We didn't see much of it till the end - Murphy's got very crowded, so we just hung out at the table with the Norwegians. Once the crowd thinned out, we all went into the main room and watched the band. We finally walked back to Maggie's around midnight.

Pictures from Ladies View & Kenmare: http://tinyurl.com/yt7fyl
Pictures from Dingle: http://tinyurl.com/2z3kal

Thanks for the great review of Emlagh Lodge. I have been considering it for our stay in Dingle.

LC - it was great! Maggie is so friendly and helpful. The house is right on the harbour, but only a 5-minute walk from town. Our room was ensuite and plenty big; I think the bedroom next door to us was a bit smaller (just one double bed), but their bathroom (a separate room, but next door and private) was bigger than ours with a tub. We didn't see the other rooms, but I'm sure they're equally as nice.

Slea Head Drive
The weather Saturday was a bit cloudy, but we woke up to sunshine Sunday morning. We ate a delicious breakfast, then set off to follow Rick Steves's Slea Head drive. We spent some time at Ventry Beach (which made me wish I'd brought flip-flops), walked around the beehive huts, took lots of pictures, and stopped at the beach on Slea Head, which was my favorite part of the day. We also stopped at the Blasket Centre, which I believe was €3.70 (something like €1.50 for Maegan - I was really wishing I had a student ID!). Definitely worth the admission. We watched the film (after a false start using the German version), then just wandered around the exhibits. We also kept running into a lovely couple from Ohio who were staying at Emlagh too. There's not too much you can say about the drive, other than the scenery was amazing and the roads were narrow, but not terrible. Really a case where pictures are more helpful than words!

Back in Dingle, we went to the SuperValu supermarket to get some snacks for the car ride the next day and more cash from the ATM (Emlagh Lodge takes cash only). We had pizzas at the Oven Door across the street from SuperValu for dinner (€7 for a margherita). We'd thought about going back out for the music later, but apparently we are old boring women at heart! We spent the evening relaxing to a movie on TV and the harbour view in our room.

Pictures: http://tinyurl.com/27c6no

Long Driving Day
The weather today was gray and cloudy, spitting rain, but fortunately we weren't planning on seeing much. And no torrential downpours to worry about while driving. We had another fabulous breakfast with Maggie - today I had the bagel and cream cheese with the mascarpone yoghurt and fruit to start. If you stay here, get the yoghurt!

We were headed to Ennis, so took the N86 up to Tralee. We'd thought about going over the Connor Pass, but with the weather as it was, I didn't think the view would be worth the nerves. We got very lost in Tralee; the N69 only seemed to be marked from the other direction! And our Michelin map was no help. However: Rick Steves's map saved us. I don't know if there's a similar one in the Fodor's guidebook, but I definitely suggest a more detailed map than the Michelin one if you're going to be driving in cities (the Michelin map only has a few insets). Anyway, we finally made it to the Kilimer-Tarbert ferry (just follow the signs once you get close).

Once off the ferry, we followed the signs to Ennis. We ran into road works once we got on the main road, and they sent us on a detour that had us going on a road about as wide as a driveway. No big deal, though. Once in Ennis, we decided to do a test drive to the airport, because I'm type A like that. That started out being a good idea, because we discovered that they were doing a lot of work on the N18 - but then we proceeded to get lost on the way back and wound up in County Galway. Apparently there is both an N18 and an N18 bypass. But we made it back, and found our B&B, Glenomra House. It's not quite as nice as Emlagh, but really my only complaint is the somewhat outdated decor and fixtures. Everything else was fine. We had a twin room that overlooked the backyard. Mary and her family were very warm and friendly. Price was €35 each per night.

After checking in, we walked through the town and went to Cruise's pub for dinner. The food was delicious. I had Irish stew (€9.95) and M had the fried plaice (€12.50), and both were excellent. The music wasn't going to start for another couple of hours, so we wandered some more, then found an internet cafe when it started to rain. We got back to Cruise's around 9, got some cappuccino and tea, and had a nice talk before the music. It was pretty mellow, I suppose being a Monday, but we still enjoyed it. Since the B&B was about a kilometer out of town, we started walking back about 10:30 so as not to be walking alone in complete darkness.

Pictures: http://tinyurl.com/2p5knf

Jent,

I nearly died laughing about driving in Ireland. Our group of 3 girls were just in the Lake District, England in May and we had the exact same conversation - except added to the rock walls, I always kept "drifting" toward the left hand side and our shouts were "drifting! Rock walls!" Did the drivers in Ireland speed around windy roads as well?

You seemed to have fantastic weather at the beginning of your trip to Ireland! How was it traveling with a friend? Any problems along the way?

Anna - we didn't have too many problems with other drivers, other than freaking out with the tour buses! Since we were in areas where tourists are pretty common, I guess everyone around us was either a tourist too or used to us.

We had amazing weather most of the trip - such a blessing. It rained the day we got there, on our long driving day in Ireland, and then it was gray and cloudy for our two full days in Scotland. But otherwise it was gorgeous.

I was a little nervous about us traveling together; although we've been friends for years, we've lived in different states since 2002. But it went great. I'm sure she got annoyed with me a few times, but she hid it well!

Cliffs of Moher & the Burren
Maegan had gotten really excited when I told her we were going to get to see the "Cliffs of Insanity," since the Princess Bride is one of both of our favorite movies (really, who doesn't love it?). After breakfast we set out to see the cliffs from the visitor centre area (€8 for parking), driving through Ennistymon and Lahinch. It was cloudy and foggy, but the cliffs were still really beautiful. Probably took us an hour or so from Ennis to the cliffs.

After a bit we drove the last few kilometers to Doolin; we had booked a Cliffs cruise for noon (mohercruises.com). The sun came out as we were waiting by the pier - perfect timing! The cruise was €20 apiece and I highly recommend it, especially if you have good weather. It's just such a different way to see them than from above, and you get to see the puffins and the stone tower close up. We called the day before and booked.

Once the cruise was done, we set out for the Burren. Since it again looked like it could rain any second, we took the inland roads through Lisdoonvarna to Ballyvaughn, then took the R476 back to Ennis. M gets motion sickness and obviously knew to take medicine before plane and boat rides, but she was wishing she'd taken more before the drive to Ballyvaughn. These were definitely the most winding roads we drove the entire trip. Neither one of us was really sure what to expect of the Burren. It's a desolate place - pretty, but in sort of a sad way, almost, to me. We stopped at a couple of pullouts and at Poulnabrone, getting back to Ennis in the late afternoon.

We went back to Cruise's for dinner - we were definitely at the point in our trip where we were tired of trying to find places to eat, plus we loved the food from the night before! This time I got the fried plaice, and let me tell you - that was some good fish and chips. Delicious.

Not really wanting to stick around till ten for the music, we headed back to the B&B. This actually suited us pretty well, as we had developed a taste for British and Irish soap operas during this trip! Plus we needed to get up early the next day. And so ended our last night in Ireland. Tomorrow... our attempt to get home.

Pictures: http://tinyurl.com/2n2asp

Jent,

Wow! You got to see the cliffs of insanity - I'm sooo jealous! We were just in Derbyshire, and we missed going to Haddon Hall, which was used as Prince Humperdinks castle

Well, just more places for us to go next time

jent103,

I've seen a lot of photos of the Cliffs of Moher and I think yours are wonderful. The ones from the boat are outstanding. I'll be sad to see your report end as I've enjoyed it so much.

Joan

Thank you so much! I hope people find it helpful in the future, but it's so good to hear people are enjoying it now.

Hello jent103,

I'm certainly enjoying reading your excellent account (and pictures) of Ireland - makes me homesick! Will you venture to Dublin? If so, hope you can get rid of the hire car before you get there.

Good luck,

Peter

Peter - we'd both been to Dublin before and only had five and a half days in Ireland, so we stuck to Kerry and Clare. But I definitely would have turned in that car rather than trying to drive in Dublin!

Home Again... Or Are We?
This last day doesn't have much to do with the UK or Ireland, but what an ending to our otherwise relaxing trip! We were supposed to fly USAir Shannon to Philadelphia, then Philly back to Nashville, where M's car was waiting for her to drive back to Arkansas. We got to the Shannon airport and dropped off the car with no problems. Our flight took off an hour late, but we had a four-hour layover, so no sweat. We actually wound up landing in Philly early even with the late departure.

We made a few friends in the airport, I knit a scarf, M studied. We heard them cancel a flight to Detroit. Then we heard them cancel one to Atlanta. Knowing Detroit and Atlanta are not really close to each other (stellar geography classes we have in Tennessee), this worried me a little, but no announcements on the Nashville flight. About ten minutes before we were supposed to board, I was coming back to our seats and saw the dreaded red "CANCELED" for our flight. Great.

Turned out pretty much all the flights from our part of the airport were canceled (and probably others too). They turned almost every gate in our terminal into USAir customer service. The only other flight to Nashville that night was full, so the agent asked about alternate cities. (Meanwhile, I had a friend texting me hotels with open rooms and shuttles to PHL. She's a good friend.) The agent booked us on a 6:50 flight to Knoxville, since my family is there. Well, that flight wound up being delayed till 9:20. Once we figured that out, we decided to try to fly standby on the 8:05 Nashville flight, and headed from Terminal B to F - only to discover that the last Nashville flight was also canceled. So, back on the shuttle bus to terminal B to wait even more.

We finally boarded the plane around 9:15... only to sit on the runway for two and a half hours. Apparently there were somewhere between 50 and 100 planes in line somewhere in front of us (I was drifting in and out of sleep, as we'd been up for 24 hours at this point, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details). We finally made it into Knoxville at 1:30am, when my poor baby brother had to pick us up from the airport, then take us to Wal-Mart. I always, always pack at least one change of clothes and toiletries in my carry-on on the way to places, but this time I figured well, even if they lose my luggage, at least I'll be home and have some things. Wrong! We finally fell into bed at 3:00.

We weren't sure whether to file a baggage claim in Knoxville, where we actually landed, or in Nashville, where our bags were still tagged for. There had been no staff to do anything when we landed, so I called USAir Thursday morning. They told me to go to the Knoxville airport. They were wrong. Baby Brother drove us all the way out there (about half an hour), only for us to be told well, filing a claim here would be useless - your bags are going to Nashville. Which makes sense. I just wished the girl on the phone had realized that. So, Baby Brother drove us to Nashville, with a stop at BNA on the way. (He had been planning on coming to visit that weekend anyway. But he definitely gets Brother of the Year award for taking the day off work just to drive us to Nashville early!) We got our luggage the next day. And thus ends the trip.

Hope you all have enjoyed this, or at least parts of it. Thanks again to all the Fodorites who helped us - it helped immeasurably!

First of all, thank you for posting the link to this trip report on the budget Ireland thread! My mission lately is to read trip reports. However, with research to do on Ireland, Barcelona, London, York and Edinburgh, I've decided that if I want to get anything else done (you know, those pesky little things like going to work, laundry, dishes...), I have to limit myself to the parts that cover places we're going.

So I have to confess to skipping some parts of your report. But the parts on Edinburgh and London were wonderful and very helpful! I enjoyed it very much and have passed the link along to my son. I think he'll be particularly interested in your dining choices as we're trying to keep costs down.

Thanks for a very nice report!

CAPH52 - I'm so glad you found it helpful! I know it's long - no offense taken if you didn't pore over every word. If you or your son has any other questions, feel free to ask here or email me (thompson dot jennifer at gmail). I'm happy to help!

Thanks, Jennifer, I really appreciate that! And, believe me, it wasn't the length of your report that caused me to skip parts. It was very well written and easy to read. If time weren't a factor right now, I would've pored over every word!

This was great! I'm going with my 22 year old son in May. Got some great info here. Thanks for sharing.