Frankfurt, Germany

Andrew and I got married on September 24, 2016, and after waiting a couple months we are finally off on our honeymoon! The trip is scheduled for 3.5 weeks in Thailand and Hong Kong (with a quick stopover in Frankfurt on the way to Asia!). We left Toronto on Dec 17, 2017 with our backpacks ready to go!

Our first stop was an 11 hour stopover in Frankfurt, Germany. Since we only had limited time, we headed straight for the Frankfurt Christmas Market in the city centre. We had a great time strolling through the streets, sampling the different foods, and just taking in the experience! This is one of the largest Christmas Markets in all of Germany!

Below are a few photos from the Christmas Market: 

 

Of course we also had to buy some German pretzels! They are delicious, and they come with various toppings – the ones we had were topped with loads of cheese:

Once we were done at the market, we took a little stroll along the riverside: (where Andrew made some friends with ducks!)

Before heading back to the airport we stopped at a little German restaurant for some 1L steins of German beer and some lunch: 

All in all it was a great short stopover in Frankfurt - we wish we would have had time to see more of the city, but that'll have to wait until next time! Once we returned to the airport we got a great little surprise - we were upgraded free of charge to Premium Economy tickets (we had purchased Economy) for our 11 hour flight to Hong Kong - oh what a difference it makes! The seats are bigger and there is much more leg room! 

Republic of Ireland: Kilkenny and Dublin

On July 25 we left Cork and traveled to the Cobh Heritage Center, the last port of call of the Titanic on April 11, 1912. They have a really good museum there and we spent a good amount of time exploring the museum to learn about the Titanic.

In the mid afternoon we arrived in Kilkenny, a city in Ireland on the banks of the River Nore. One of my favourite ways of exploring cities is to walk around, which is exactly what we did – we took a walking tour with a local guide. The city is quite small, and the tour took us through the small streets and past all the pubs and shops, while our guide kept us entertained with his jokes and stories about the city. Below are a few photos from around the city:

The following morning (July 26) we left Kilkenny and traveled to Dublin – our last location in Ireland. Our first stop was the Guinness Brewery. Guinness is a dark, dry stout that originated in Dublin and has become one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. We visited the Guinness Storehouse, which is located at the St. James’s Gate Brewery. The Storehouse is a tourist attraction and museum, where visitors can learn about the process of making Guinness, can buy Guinness souvenirs and learn about how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I enjoyed exploring the museum!

One of the best parts of the visit was attending the Guinness Academy to learn to pour the perfect pint. There are 5 steps in the process.

1. Take a cool, dry, Guinness branded glass
2. Hold the glass firmly at 45 degrees under the tap
3. Pull the handle fully forward towards you. Slowly straighten the glass as it fills. Stop when the glass is 3/4 full
4. Leave the surge to settle allowing the creamy head to form. The head should be between 10-15mm high
5. Top up the glass by pushing the tap handle away from you. Stop when the head is up to the rim
6. Present the perfect pint to the customer with a steady hand, logo facing forward

Later that evening we attended an Irish band and Irish dancing performance. It was really good! I loved the Irish dancing – it is so graceful and takes a lot of skill!

That evening was our last night with the Contiki group. We had spent 17 days with this group, traveling through England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This was my 5th Contiki tour I’ve done, and my 3rd Contiki tour of the summer, and although I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the UK and Ireland, I can honestly say that I would not recommend this particular Contiki tour for someone who wants to explore these countries. I love Contiki as a travel company, and I have loved all of my tours (including this one), but this tour was different than the others in that I felt like I had so much less time in each place than any other tour and I felt extremely rushed. I found this especially bad in Ireland (England and Scotland did not feel as rushed as Ireland). For example, we would drive all day and arrive in a new city around 5 or 6pm, we may have about an hour to explore the city before dinner, and then the following morning we would leave at 8am for the next location. I like to explore cities and sites so that I can have a good feel for the area, and so I can form an opinion on each place I visit. I did not feel like I could form a solid opinion about most places I visited because I had such limited time in each place. This is why my blog entries may have seemed a bit less thorough than normal. I found it hard to write blog posts about locations I did not have enough time to explore. I think Contiki was trying to squeeze as many places as possible into a short amount of time, and because of this we were unable to gain any real depth into any of the locations. For anyone wanting to visit these countries, I would strongly recommend traveling around without a tour group, maybe renting a car or using trains/buses, so that you can explore the areas at your own leisure.

From Dublin I traveled to London to spend my last 4 days in Europe before returning home.

Republic of Ireland: Aran Islands, Cliffs of Moher and Blarney Stone

On July 22rd we left Northern Ireland and traveled to Galway, in the Republic of Ireland. We only had a few hours to explore the city, and from what I saw of the city I enjoyed it.  At this point in the trip I was getting annoyed with Contiki (the tour group that I was traveling with). We had been visiting many cool cities and sites, but we weren’t given too much time to actually explore them in detail. We had approximately 1-2 hours in Galway, which in my opinion is not nearly enough time to visit a city and get a good sense of the area. Either way, since I was unable to change this fact, I made the best of it and took my little time in Galway to explore the pubs and shops along the main street. They have a pedestrian area downtown that is full of pubs and stores and lots of souvenir shops. Below are some photos I took of the city.

There are also a lot of jewellery shops selling the traditional Irish Claddagh ring. This ring depicts two hands holding a heart with a crown on top of the heart. The hands represent friendship, the heart represents love and the crown represents loyalty. The ring can be worn on either hand and with the heart facing either towards or away from you – all depending on your relationship situation. If you are single then the ring is worn on your right hand with the heart facing away from you (so the pointy part of the heart is facing out - it looks like the ring is upside down). If you are in a relationship but not engaged then the ring is worn on your right hand but with the heart facing you, so the pointy part of the heart is facing down towards your wrist. If you are engaged then the ring is worn on your left hand with the heart facing away from you, and if you are married then the ring is worn on your left hand with the heart facing towards you. The origins of this ring come from the village of Claddagh which is part of Galway City, and many rings are passed down through generations of family members.

The following day we spent the whole day exploring one of the Aran Islands. This was probably the best day I’ve had since arriving in the UK. The Aran islands are a group of 3 islands off the west coast of the Republic of Ireland. We only had time to visit one of them, and we spent all day on that island exploring it by bicycle. The island was just beautiful! I really enjoyed biking along the water, past cows and horses, beaches, rocks and cliffs.

Biking along the paths and through the fields was so peaceful and beautiful.

We saw many animals along the route as well.

On one side of the island there is a large fort on top of a massive cliff. We climbed up to the fort to explore the cliffs. They were really cool – and very scary! There is no barrier to stop people from falling off the cliffs and down onto the rocks below!

The following day (July 24th) we headed off to visit the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland’s most visited natural attraction. These cliffs are about 214m high (at their highest point), and they are much larger than the cliffs we saw on Aran islands!

After visiting these cliffs I was able to compare/contrast them to the ones on Aran Island. Although the Cliffs of Moher are much larger than the cliffs on the Aran islands, I liked the Aran island cliffs better – mainly because we were able to get closer to the Aran island cliffs.  For the Cliffs of Moher we had to stand behind barriers and could only see the cliffs from afar. I understand that this is done for safety reasons, but I did really enjoy getting right up to the cliffs edge on Aran islands!

Our next stop was Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney Stone. This castle was built by the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty and dates back to 1446.

The main attraction while visiting the castle is the Blarney Stone, which is a famous stone that, according to legend, will give the kisser the “gift of the gab”, meaning that it will give them the gift of eloquent speech. Once you enter the castle, you must climb up narrow staircases and through narrow passageways in order to get to the top of the castle, and to find the Blarney Stone.

 

Once we reached the top there was a long line up of people waiting to kiss the stone, and there were two attendants manning the stone. One was to man the camera (you can buy a souvenir photo of the kiss) and the other holding tourists as they are kissing the stone (just so they don’t fall through the hole!). After every few people the stone is sanitized. 

Kissing the stone is pretty awkward; you must lie down, grab on to two metals bars and lean upside-down and kiss a wet shiny area of the stone. Hopefully it was all worth it and I have now been blessed with eloquence!

We slept in Cork that night, and the following day continued making our way through Ireland.