Hi all, I am starting my Ireland/Spain trip report though the trip has only just begun.

I'll be in Sligo, Ireland staying with the parents through Christmas then the family is heading to Malaga, Spain for 6 days. I'll post pictures and more info over the next few weeks.

Some of you may remember the Ireland report from August:
texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?forum_id=54&topic_id=923254

Well, this trip is a little different, here it goes.

Purchased round trip tickets from Houston to Dublin on U.S. Airways for about $655, which was about $300 less than everyone else, including Continental, which I normally fly.

I left Houston at 1pm (Central) and arrived in Philly at about 5:30 (Eastern). The flight to Dublin left at about 9:30pm (Eastern) and arrived in Dublin at 9:05 am (GMT).

From Dublin airport I took the Airlink bus to the Central Bus Station in the city center (about 30 minutes travel time) and walked to Connolly train station (about a 5 minute walk). A roundtrip ticket from Dublin to Sligo cost E36. The train was about 35 minutes late and left at 11:40, but no big deal. Plus I got a voucher for a free trip because of the delay. I arrived in Sligo 3 hours later at around 2:45pm.

It was frosty with clear blue skies in Dublin. Sligo was a bit warmer and sunny. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same.

That is it for now.

Just your opinion, but what is the best hotel in Sligo?

Hey GCR! We'll be keeping up with you on here. Have a wonderful Christmas with your family. See you in January...

kramer, it depends what you are looking for.
Markree (sp?) castle is good if you want something different in the country.
The Glasshouse (aka The Swan) and the Clarence are in town and more modern. The Clarence was just remodeled and the disco is now reopened....finally.
The Radisson SAS is new and is out of town towards Rosses Point beach and yacht club.
There are also loads of B&B's around town.


Thanks Kristin. Merry Christmas to you too. see y'all soon. keep me posted on the skiing stuff.

Have fun GCR, and tell the folks hi for me.

GC,

I ask because when we stayed in Sligo, we stayed at the Southern (prebooked, package deal...not our choice). I was wondering how it rated.

I found almost all our accomodations to be...meager...but I didn't know if that was cheap booking on the touring company's part or just the state of the country.

The Southern has been around forever but hasn't had any major updates in a long time so it is probably average or below average compared to most of the nice places in town.

I've never stayed at any of the hotels but I've been to most of the bars or restaurants in the hotels.

I went to Ireland and Spain this past summer. My favorite part of Ireland was Doolin. Just a small city but well known for their music. Three pubs with live music every night, easily within walking distance of each other. Also, it's a great hike up to the Cliffs of Moher (you can hop the fences and take the much more scenic route, too).

The past few days have been fairly uneventful. Mainly staying in Sligo, running errands, hanging out with the parents and relations.

We drove out to Leitrim the other day to visit my cousin Barbara and the kids. Here are some pics from the Lough Key area off of the N4 in Roscommon.


Lookout


Lough Key


The N4


Benbulbin mountain from the parents house.

Hey GC! Hope you had a great Christmas! We're waiting for some more pics...

While you are in Malaga, do yourself a favor and take a day trip to Granada to see the Alhambra... you won't regret it!

Well it's been a rather quiet time here in Sligo. Had a couple nights out, but basically been hanging out with the family. No site seeing this time. The weather has been great. It was sunny and clear for the first week, but it's been rainy but warm (lower 50's) since Christmas Eve.

More pics as requested...

OConnell Street, Sligo


Jazz Lads at The Harp


Sligo Rugby Club city vs country match out at the Rugby Club in Strandhill, Knocknarea mountain in backbround.


DJ at The Clarence, which reopened a month ago after a huge renovation. The place is awesome now, but the DJ wasn't great that night.


The dance floor at The Clarence.


The walk home at almost 3am.



Here are four generations of my Irish family. Granny (great grandma), Uncles and Aunt (now grandparents), first cousins, and first cousins once removed (the babies).

Apache, we are heading to Alhambra on Wednesday. I can't wait to see it.

We are heading to Dublin on the train early tomorrow (Saturday) morning then we fly from Dublin to Malaga on Ryan Air. Get the rental car then drive ~30 minutes to Torrox Costa.

I may not have internet access in Torrox so I'm not sure when I'll post more pics. It will probably be after I get back to College Station on the 7th.

Happy new year everyone!

Hi all, sitting in a nice little cyber cafe on the beach in Costa Torrox. I am looking at a beautiful sunny Med, watching Spanish merchants sell fruit, and listening to a German radio station while loads of German pensioners sip coffee. It is very interesting here.

So far I give Spain a big thumbs up. Beautiful, easy to get around, easy to communicate, and cheap.

I will have lots of cool pictures and stories when I get back.

Happy new year.

2000th post from Spain! Woo Hoo!

Thanks for adding more pics! Happy New Year!!! See you soon...

Babies everywhere

Can't wait to see the pictures from Spain.

We flew from Dublin to Malaga, Spain on Ryan Air (about 2.5 hours there and 3 hours return) late on a Saturday. We rented a Ford S-Max wagon car suv thing. This car was awesome. It was a 2.0 liter turbo diesel 6 speed standard, sat 5 comfortably and another 2 uncomfortably in the third row. It handled great on the twisty roads and had great accelertion and was quiet and smooth at high speeds on the highway.

Speaking of highways, the Spanish know what they are doing. The A-7 from Malaga to Torrox is smooth as ice and well marked. The Spanish government is spending billions putting in new highways and upgrading old roads. Apparently they are also putting in a high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona to Malaga. The engineering and constuction is superb for the terrain they are working on. Also, the drivers there stay to the right, pass on the left, use their blinkers, and get out of the way of faster drivers, it was a great experience driving there.


So here is the begining of many many pictures from Spain. We'll start at day 1 in Torrox Costa then drive up the mountains to a lake near Venuela then back down the A-7000 to Malaga.

View from our patio


View from the beach up the road towards our flat, which is about 100 yards up the road on the left.


Looking southwest down the coast to Torre del Mar


Looking northeast up the coast to Torrox Costa Point


Looking southwest from the point


Lighthouse at the point




Now for some pics of our drive up to Vinuela and the local reservoir.

First a map of the area.


















Now for the twistiest road I've ever been on, the A-7000. The road stretches 30km from a small town in the mountains down to Malag on the coast. The journey takes you through the Montes de Malaga national forest. Most of the north half has no barrier and you could drop hundreds of feet off the side. However, the road is nice and wide and very smooth. It was one of the most thrilling and beautiful drives I had ever taken. Near the south side of the A-7000 the road does a double corkscrew through the mountain. I'll post the video of that soon. Motorcycles were flying all around this road, very cool.





This restaurant is near the top of the drive. We turned a corner and there it was.




At the bottom looking down at Malaga and the Med.



more to come tomorrow...



[This message has been edited by GCRanger (edited 1/9/2008 12:43p).]

[This message has been edited by GCRanger (edited 1/9/2008 12:50p).]

Here are picturs from Nerja where we spent new years ever in the town square. Nerja is only 5km up the coast from Torrox Costa.

Looking down from the point at the hotel restaurant/reception area.


NYE in the town square. There were a ton of people partying similar to NIOSA in SA but friendlier, safer, and more fun. Beer, wine, liquor, and bottles of Spanish champagne called Cava were all sold for very reasonable prices. A live band played music and everyone young and old danced and had a good time. Nobody got out of hand.




Can't have new years without fireworks.


The church rung the bells for the countdown to midnight. Everyone has a handfull of grapes and eats all the grapes with Cava up until midnight. It's badluck not to finish all your grapes.