Summer in Cyprus began in early May, and now here we are to almost mid-September and my car’s thermometer still routinely reads over 35 celsius when I leave work in the evening (that’s 95 farenheit for you folks following along at home). In order to beat the heat, I try to ride Amay before 8 am and am home from the barn by 10 am. Apart from that, we don’t do much of anything outside during daylight hours because it’s just so damn hot. So when selecting our vacation destination, Severin’s main criteria was to head due north.
Scotland was Sev’s choice. Scotland represented redemption for me, as we had intended to go in 2014 but I had a severe panic attack on the airplane and we ended up taking the most expensive trip ever taken to New Jersey. (It all worked out though, we went to the Outer Banks instead and Severin proposed to me anyway!) Ireland was my choice, because I had originally wanted to do a little riding vacation when we were there but couldn’t get it together in time to actually make the arrangements. The other option was Copenhagen, but I’d heard it’s best to do Denmark-Sweden-Norway in a loop by train, so I wanted to save that all for next summer.
Severin’s other criteria for the vacation was that we stay in two hotels max. Due to our gross lack of planning (do you sense a theme here??), we ended up staying in six hotels in two weeks. Apparently you need to plan like six months ahead of time if you intend to go to Europe in August, unless you want to stay in overpriced or not-so-awesome places. Fortunately, we ended up doing all right throughout the trip but in order to find the good hotels we went to places we probably wouldn’t have otherwise (such as Connemara in Ireland).
The itinerary:
- Leave Nicosia around 6:30 pm, connect in London Gatwick, arrive in Edinburgh around 2 am Nicosia time (Marriott at Edinburgh Marriott)
- Drive 45 minutes to Stirling; visit castle; continue 90 minutes further (scenic route) to Pitlochry
- Four nights in self-catering cottage at B&B recommended by Mom, near Pitlochry
- Return to Edinburgh, spend two nights
- Depart Edinburgh at around 8:00 pm ert Dublin, arrive Dublin 9:00 pm ish
- Overnight in Dublin
- Drive three+ hours to Connemara, spend four nights
- Day trip from Connemara to Aran Islands
- Drive four+ hours to Athy via Rock of Cashel
- Two nights (one day) in Athy with side trip to Kilkenny
Overall, consensus was liked Scotland better. It was touristy, but felt a little less crass than a lot of the places in Ireland. Connemara was an unexpectedly rugged and beautiful– a lot of U.S. tour guides said if you’ve been to the Dingle peninsula or the Ring of Kerry it isn’t even necessary to go to Connemara. We didn’t make it to either of the other places, but found Connemara to be striking. Also, we just narrowly missed making it a very horsey vacation! Two weeks after we left Scotland, there was a big horse event at the Blair Castle in Scotland, and the day we left Ireland it was the big annual Connemara Pony Show. I would have loved to have gone. (Side note– I bet it would be a decent if not fun business to start a boutique travel agency that specializes in horsey vacations. There are lots out there that offer trail rides, etc. but I am thinking about something a little more serious.)
Lastly, this was the longest vacation I had ever taken, and I’ve decided that if we ever do a two-week vacation again (Scandinavian train trip excluded), I think it would be better to do two week-long vacation rentals. By about day ten, I was ready to not be on vacation anymore. Shorter breaks are definitely more my speed, but unfortunately they make it so hard to get time off work it’s almost always easier to get off once for a longer period of time…