I started this site back in 2013(ish!) to keep track of places I’ve visited which I want to either remember or pass on as recommendations. Over the last ten years, I’ve done road trips across the US, visited some fascinating places in Asia and got to explore more of Europe. Since 2019, travel has been somewhat slower with thanks to Covid and also growing our family! In the last couple of years as we’ve gone through a pandemic, we’ve had two new additions to the family – so traveling is now somewhat more complicated (for the time being!).
China
China has never been a place that was high up on my bucket list, or was somewhere I gave too much thought to. Earlier this year, my niece moved to Shanghai to complete a semester at Fudan University so I started looking at potentially going to visit. Irish citizens also have 30 days free travel…
Hangzhou
Hangzhou was the capital of the southern Song Dynasty between 1138 and 1276, and was also noted by Marco Polo as being the most magnificent and prosperous city he had ever encountered, far surpassing anything in Europe at the time. Hangzhou is home to a couple of Unesco World Heritage Sights, most notably The West…
Suzhou
Suzhou is an historic city about 30 mins on the train from Shanghai, known as the “Venice of the East” for its ancient canals and waterways in the city. It was founded over 2,500 years ago and is famous for being a UNESCO World Heritage site and also for it’s traditional silk production. There are…
Shanghai Food
I’m a big fan of Chinese food, but this will be a mixed bag of a review – mainly because I didn’t try too much local food while I was in Shanghai – it was either fried chicken feet or exceptionally greasy. I also feel like I didn’t actually eat that much as I was…
Shanghai
I had the day to myself to explore Shanghai as Lucy was in Uni, so I rented a bike using the AliPay app and spent the day cycling through the city. This is the route I took on the Monday. On Tuesday, I got a bike and cycled to sights north of the city (1933…
Must-Visit Cocktail Bars in Shanghai.
As with any new location I go to, I tend to research some great cocktail bars that I want to check out. I made note of a couple of bars that I wanted to see while in Shanghai, but I hadn’t expected to visit as many as I did.. oops! Bar Eirekey Back in February,…
Sérignan, France
We had a week off in mid June so decided to booked a ‘camping’ holiday in France. This was initially due to be our first holiday in Europe with Eoin so we thought going camping would be a good week away for him (and us). Logistics We looked at airports that had a relatively short…
Ibiza
The last couple of years have been a bit quiet travel wise thanks to both covid and two kids! Due to a very last minute booking (4 days before leaving!) we decided to attempt our first flight with two kids (4.5 and 1.5). We got good flights with Ryanair for Sunday – Thursday, so decided…
The Cocktail Tourist 
WWII done Avril
From all at Whitehall Cross
Keep it going
PG
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