For those who are interested: I've uploaded some of my photos of Dublin to my Picasa account.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Friday, 21 December 2007
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Travelling to Baile Átha Cliath
It's over. *sigh* But it has been the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Last weekend my wife and I traveled to Dublin, it has been my birthday gift for her. It was great, but by far too short. On Friday we flew with Ryanair and used the Aircoach for the transfer from the airport to the city. Out hotel has been the Lansdowne Hotel in the Pembroke Road south of the Grand Canal. It has been a good distance to the city, what's also reflected in the value of estates in our quarter - a row house costs about 2.5 to 3.5 million Euros.
We've done a mix of sightseeing and shopping. It has been fascinating looking at all the pubs on friday evening where so many guests are standing outside on the street and having so much fun. And it was astonishing to see how scantily dressed so many of them were, also many other people on the streets, even if it has been warmer as in Oldenburg. At 7 degrees I've seldom seen somebody wearing just a t-shirt, but in Dublin. Another funny thing has been the habit to walk and talk - using the mobile. Overall we get to know the people in Dublin to be very kindly even when having stress in their job or the streets are absolutely crowded due to the christmas shoppings. They've got an impressive easiness, espicially when crossing red traffic lights. *smile*
The town itself pleases through the diversified architecture. Very noble houses in the Georgian style, many of them with offices or shops in the basement, fascinating cathedrals and churches, parks, modern centres, markets, everything you want. We just didn't know where to look first, and we've only seen a fraction of it. So we'll surely come again for a longer visit to see more.
While we've been shopping Carmen doesn't found what she was looking for. The shops have been too stodged, the prices too high. Instead I've been able to find a nice thing for me. We've visited the Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dawson Street. Here we first found an Auchentoshan filled exactly on Carmens birthday. But 899.99 Euros is not in my typical price range. *giggle* But after that I talked to an employee and told him that I'm normally prefer Scotish malts. He immediately interrupted with "Ah, the better ones." So I asked him why he thinks so. He answered "Because I'm from Scotland." *smile* So he then gave me a malt with an almost Scotish flavour for tasting - the Connemara. That's a peated Irish single malt with a fair price. I'll write my tasting notes later.
The evenings we've been in the Den Bar in our hotel. The meals there are traditional and good and we've had several pints of Guinness - I love it. So we've been really sorry to leave Dublin on Sunday morning, flight plan is flight plan. But as written above the next time we'll stay longer.
We've done a mix of sightseeing and shopping. It has been fascinating looking at all the pubs on friday evening where so many guests are standing outside on the street and having so much fun. And it was astonishing to see how scantily dressed so many of them were, also many other people on the streets, even if it has been warmer as in Oldenburg. At 7 degrees I've seldom seen somebody wearing just a t-shirt, but in Dublin. Another funny thing has been the habit to walk and talk - using the mobile. Overall we get to know the people in Dublin to be very kindly even when having stress in their job or the streets are absolutely crowded due to the christmas shoppings. They've got an impressive easiness, espicially when crossing red traffic lights. *smile*
The town itself pleases through the diversified architecture. Very noble houses in the Georgian style, many of them with offices or shops in the basement, fascinating cathedrals and churches, parks, modern centres, markets, everything you want. We just didn't know where to look first, and we've only seen a fraction of it. So we'll surely come again for a longer visit to see more.
While we've been shopping Carmen doesn't found what she was looking for. The shops have been too stodged, the prices too high. Instead I've been able to find a nice thing for me. We've visited the Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dawson Street. Here we first found an Auchentoshan filled exactly on Carmens birthday. But 899.99 Euros is not in my typical price range. *giggle* But after that I talked to an employee and told him that I'm normally prefer Scotish malts. He immediately interrupted with "Ah, the better ones." So I asked him why he thinks so. He answered "Because I'm from Scotland." *smile* So he then gave me a malt with an almost Scotish flavour for tasting - the Connemara. That's a peated Irish single malt with a fair price. I'll write my tasting notes later.
The evenings we've been in the Den Bar in our hotel. The meals there are traditional and good and we've had several pints of Guinness - I love it. So we've been really sorry to leave Dublin on Sunday morning, flight plan is flight plan. But as written above the next time we'll stay longer.
Monday, 10 December 2007
Travel arrangements
Next weekend my wife and I are traveling to Dublin. It has been my birthday present for her in November and now we'll do some sightseeing, shopping, and savour. Beside reading a guidebook and looking for information in the Internet I'm preparing our journey in my mobile phone. As you know I've bought a Nokia E61i. Additionally I've bought a GPS receiver - boys like gadgets *smile* - and installed Nokia Maps and Google Maps. Especially the Nokia software is really nice. It allows you to search for addresses and places, with a near area search for defined categories like museums, restaurants, bars, and many more. You can save those as orientation points and calculate routes. So we've got the right helper with us to find our destinations the best way. You'll read about it in my travel report.
Saturday, 25 August 2007
Vacation is over
It's over now, our three weeks of vacation. *sigh* But it have been very good three weeks, even if we stayed at home this year. Instead we made several day trips to the beach, to the Universum Science Center in Bremen, to the Heide-Park Soltau where I've had the opportunity to take a ride on the world largest and steepest (61°) wooden roller coaster *yeah*, to the Oceanis in Wilhelmshaven, to the Stoppelmarkt in Vechta, to the jet model air show in Alhorn, and playing miniature golf. Beside that we've done some visitings of our relatives. You see, no boredom, but lots of recreation.
I havn't been very busy writing for my blog. But I've finished the work for my next magazine article, this time regarding alternatives to fixed-price contracts. Additionally I continued my port of my Smalltalk frameworks from VisualWorks to Squeak. This work is almost finished but it has been stopped through an unexpected encounter: I've discoverd Erlang and it really fascinates me. I'll write about it in an extra entry.
I havn't been very busy writing for my blog. But I've finished the work for my next magazine article, this time regarding alternatives to fixed-price contracts. Additionally I continued my port of my Smalltalk frameworks from VisualWorks to Squeak. This work is almost finished but it has been stopped through an unexpected encounter: I've discoverd Erlang and it really fascinates me. I'll write about it in an extra entry.
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