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The British Isles, Summer 2015

On the road again! Summer is here and it's going to be hot at home in the U.S. So it's a good time of the year to escape to someplace that's going to be cooler. As far as travel in the British Isles goes, up until this point I've only been to London and a few other not-too-distant parts of southeast England on multiple occasions. For further travel in the British Isles I've long tended to look upon the United Kingdom and Ireland as being very expensive, culturally similar destinations that are easy to travel about and better left for later in life. There have always been other places that are more exotic and interesting to me or seem like more challenging travel destinations better tackled while still relatively young. So I'm not sure what it is that got me interested in Scotland and Ireland for this year. Yes, they are cool places for a season of the year when most places I could visit are miserably hot. Yes, the dollar is up substantially (especially against the Euro) which makes them less of bad travel deal financially. Yes, they are places from which I can easily get back to the U.S. if I need to if my mom's health condition suddenly worsens. More than that, though, an easy travel destination where things are relatively familiar, the scenery is beautiful if not stunningly alpine, and the cultural heritage is interesting is very appealing right now. I am often inclined to somewhat "wing it" when I travel independently, leave things fairly open to be planned in more detail as I go along. My trip ahead in Ireland and Scotland is somewhat more carefully planned ahead of time, though, for a number of reasons. I am committed to be in Albania on August 23 (that will be another blog) which sets a definite end to my time in the British Isles. Summer is also high season so auto rental and accommodation are best booked ahead of time to avoid having to sleep on a park bench or pay even higher rates for things. So, the plan is for about a month in Scotland including some time in Glasgow and Edinburgh, hiking the West Highland Way for a week, and renting a car for two weeks to tour the highlands, islands, and border country. Then it's almost three weeks in Ireland with my friend John joining me for two weeks of that to make a big loop of the island after spending a few days in Dublin. Finally I'm taking the ferry back across to Wales for about six days in North Wales and the Liverpool/Chester/Manchester area of northern England before flying to the Balkans from Manchester. I expect it to be fun and quite different from other places I've traveled and trips I've taken in recent years.
Planned Dates
Jun 28, 2015 to Aug 22, 2015
Countries
2
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