May 2018 Roundup

TRAVEL ROUNDUP

PLACES VISITED

⋙ ENGLAND: London, Canterbury, Whitstable, Bath + a bit of the countryside.

⋙ IRELAND: Dublin + a bit of the countryside.

⋙ WALES: Snowdonia National Park

⋙ ICELAND: Reykjavik + Akureyri

TRAVEL HIGHLIGHTS

FAMILY TIME WITH MATT’S FAMILY: We were so blessed to be able to spend almost the entire month of May with Matt’s family. His parents flew to London, where we met up with them for three weeks there. Then Matt’s brother and our sister-in-law joined us for the last week in London and we all flew to Dublin for a week. It was great fun full of adventures, museum-visits, watching shows and lots of Yahtzee.

GETTING TO WATCH THREE DIFFERENT PLAYS IN THREE DIFFERENT LONDON THEATERS: Although, I’d been to a few shows before, it had been a very long time. While in London we got to see Oscar Wilde’s ‘An Ideal Husband‘, Agatha Christie’s ‘Mousetrap’ and Les Miserables. Each one was unique and so much fun!

VISITING PLATFORM 9 3/4 AND WINNING A TICKET TO HOGWARTS: In case you’ve never noticed before, I’m obsessed with Harry Potter and have been since the day I started reading it almost 20 years ago now. Getting to visit Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station was a dream come true. In addition to just being able to visit, Matt & I won a ticket to Hogwarts for having the best jump! It’s true, I am a witch!

CHECKING OUT SOME INCREDIBLE (MOSTLY FREE) MUSEUMS IN LONDON: The museums in London were top-notch and I absolutely love that almost all of them were 100% free! My favorites were the British Museum (hello, Rosetta Stone), the British Library (Magna Carta, Gutenberg Bible, Mozart’s sheet music and Da Vinci’s journals) and the Imperial War Museum (wonderful interactive WW1 exhibit and a moving, well-done Holocaust exhibit).

A DAY TRIP TO CANTERBURY: Matt’s parents have a friend who lives in Canterbury and he invited us to stay with him and show us around the area – including dinner on the coastal town of Whitstable. Ron was a wonderful host and so much fun. He kept us thoroughly entertained the whole day!

ROAD-TRIPPING TO STONEHENGE, BATH + DURDLE DOOR: Matt and I rented a car one of our days in England, and it was so much fun! We drove to Stonehenge, Bath and Durdle Door. It was a great day full of history and amazing natural beauty! Durdle Door was definitely the highlight of the day. I can’t wait to share more about these stops!

 

EXPLORING BOROUGH MARKET: This was a suggestion made to us by Ron, which was great. It ended up being one of our favorite things in London! There were more local feeling shops and loads of delicious foods, drinks and snacks. It was so yummy!

EXPLORING DUBLIN: We spent about a week in Dublin and we had so much fun exploring. We went to museums, a castle, gardens, the Guinness Storehouse and more! It was a fun change of pace and great jumping off point for our Ireland trip!

VISITING SOME REALLY COOL RUINS… WITH NUNS: Matt’s cousin is actually living in a convent in Ireland. So when our plans included Ireland, of course plans to see Sister Philomela had to be made. We went to pick her up, and one of the other sisters, Sister Veronica, came with us and we set out to see some amazing ruins. We went to Knowth – a passage burial from 3000 BCE and the abbey ruins on the Hill of Slane. We all had such a great time exploring these beautiful areas.

SEEING THE INCREDIBLE CLIFFS OF MOHER: This was the number one thing on both Matt’s and my lists for Ireland and it did not disappoint. These massive cliffs were super stunning and were the filming location for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and the Princess Bride! Every nature-lover would be in awe of these cliffs.

   

FALLING IN LOVE WITH SNOWDONIA NATIONAL PARK: I knew I was going to like Wales, what I didn’t expect was to totally fall in love with this gorgeous country. We drove all through Wales and Snowdonia National Park and we were truly blown away by the amount of beauty here. Why aren’t more people talking about Wales?

STARTING OUR RING ROAD ADVENTURE IN ICELAND: We finally made it to one of the countries at the very top of Matt’s wanderlist: Iceland. Even though I’d been here before, I came in the winter and left a great deal of the island undiscovered. That meant I was excited to return too. We kicked off our time here starting the Ring Road – the road that goes all the way around the island – which is great because everything we’ve seen so far has been totally new for me!

TRAVEL LAUGHS + MISHAPS

THE MOST TIRING DAY OF TRAVEL: Getting from Ynys, Wales to London to catch our flight to Reykjavik was quite possibly the longest travel day ever. We wanted to make the absolute most of our time in Wales, so we stayed there the night before our flight. We woke up to do the 5-hour drive to London and although we made it there in time, we were stressed the whole drive. Then we had 2.5 hours in the airport and a 2 hour flight to Iceland. It took us about an hour to get our rental car, then we had an hour drive to our hostel. It was a long day and we decided the furthest from an airport we’ll ever stay before a flight is 2 hours max!

GETTING A PARKING TICKET IN AKUREYRI, ICELAND: We ended up having a bit of a free day in Akureyri, Iceland which was nice because we needed to get our stuff booked for Prague. So we spent an afternoon doing that and totally lost track of time, but our car was in a one-hour lot. I looked down at my phone, realized 2.5 hours had past and Matt ran down to move the car… 13 minutes too late. We got a parking ticket – super bummer. Oh well… It’s been paid and we lived and learned.

MAY TRAVEL FAVORITES

FAVORITE PLACE WE STAYED: In London, we spent three wonderful weeks in the most amazing flat. It was a VRBO listing (think AirBNB) that my mother-in-law researched and selected and it totally spoiled us! We had a tub, a great location and wonderful shared space as well. It was so hard to leave!

 

FAVORITE SITE: Knowth – this Neolithic passage tomb is located just under an hour from Dublin and is well-worth the drive out. This archaeological site is even older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids. This passage tomb has two entrances and is surrounded by some absolutely beautiful stones carved with beautiful designs. There are multiple small burial mounds around this main one. Plus you can walk on top of Knowth get some pretty stellar views of the Irish countryside. There are other sites within this complex including the more popular Newgrange. The only way to visit these are with their guided tours, so be sure to book these in advance.

FAVORITE MEAL: Everything we tried at Neon Asian Street Food in Dublin. If there’s one thing that we can’t resist, it’s Asian Street Food and the food at Neon was pretty great! We had sweet and sour chicken, crispy beef with cashews, spring rolls, and cashew chicken and it was all super delicious!

FAVORITE DRINK: Guinness fresh from the source. After our tour of the Guinness Storehouse, Matt and I even learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness – we got a certificate to prove it. Haha. We took the pints up to the Gravity Bar and enjoyed them with the family.

FAVORITE FREE SITE: My favorite free site was hands-down Durdle Door. It’s a limestone sea arch on the Jurassic Coast of England. Matt and I made this stop on our day trip we took through part of the countryside and even though it was the shortest stop, it was also the highlight. The sea arch looked just like an elephant stretching out into the ocean. It was unreal.

MOST POPULAR BLOG POST

This quick guide to the castles of Sintra was easily the most popular post, because it was just about the only thing I posted in the entire month of May – I know, what a slacker! However, I had a lot of fun putting this quick guide together because this tiny town just outside of Lisbon is hope to four unique castles!

MOST POPULAR INSTAGRAM POST

A post shared by PAIGE ↠ Travel Blogger (@fortheloveofwanderlust) on May 9, 2018 at 12:57pm PDT

WHAT’S COMING UP IN JUNE?

We’re finishing up our Ring Road road trip in Iceland, then chilling in Reykjavik for a week. Then, we’re flying to the Faroe Islands to celebrate our anniversary in this amazing-looking archipelago. After that it’s two quick days in Copenhagen before heading to Wiesbaden, Germany to stay with Matt’s cousin! Lastly, we’ll end the month in Prague, Czechia. Be sure to follow along by subscribing (it’s totally free). All you have to do is enter your email and you’ll be able to keep up with our travels.