May is full of bank holidays in the U.K. so first one up and it was off to Ireland to explore the Emerald Isle. My favourite part of Ireland though was getting out into the country-side, plenty of rolling green hills and ridiculously old castles…and American tourists everywhere!
It’s been almost 2 years since I last stepped foot on home soil and some good friends getting married was a great reason to make the gruelling trip home for a 2 week visit.
While not as easy as heading to Mt Ruapehu for the weekend, flying to the alps for 3 days snowboarding is a pretty good option. Staying in Sauze D’Oulx (Jouveneaux to be precise) in the Italian Alps is a great spot for endless terrain, fantastic off-piste and top-notch pizza, pasta and espresso.
We decided to finish off 2012 with a trip to the French Alps, and a week over Christmas at Tignes (pronounced Teen-e) sounded like an awesome idea. We were lucky enough to get great weather, great snow and an almost limitless resort to explore.
London 2012 was probably a lot more fun if you could attend the events instead of going to work on the train every day with other people who were going to attend the events. Instead, we filled our time with other things. Like country walks. And weekend trips. And deer stalking.
With our party of four reduced to two, we slowed down a little – swapping big city excitement for mooching around the beach. Cape Cod was incredible, but we had to swing by Boston for a history lesson before we flew home.
Although this probably wasn’t the summer holiday we would have chosen if it hadn’t been for a certain wedding, with day after day of heat and sunshine we had nothing to complain about. Here are the highlights from Week One: The Road Trip.
Everyone likes Prague. When I’d tell people I was going there, without fail, everyone who’d been there said they loved it. There’s good reason for that too, there is heaps to see and do in a typically compact European city layout, it’s relatively cheap and the beer is amazing. Add me (and Mum, Dad and Anna) to the list of people who recommend the Czech capital!
In a grand show of patriotism we fled the country for Jubilee weekend, as did about six million Brits. Bratwurst and Kolsch in Cologne seemed like a far preferable option to tea and bunting, and the extra days off meant we had time to visit Dusseldorf and the picturesque town of Aachen on the side.
As we’re finally inching our way out of winter, we thought it was time to get out of London and head up north to Manchester for Easter weekend. People in London like to give northerners a bit of a hard time, so I went with low expectations. All in all though, I was quietly surprised.
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