*Blarney House, Ireland. September 2020*

Blarney, Ireland

September 26, 2020

I took an afternoon trip from Cork and headed out to Blarney, a solid eight kilometer drive-slash-walk, to visit it’s eponymous castle (I hope I used that word correctly. I saw another travel blog that used it no less than twenty times in one post, so I figured I’d give it a shot.)

Walking up the claustrophobia-inducing staircase was almost as big of an adrenaline rush as leaning backwards over a 90 foot drop to kiss a rock. But the Blarney House and all of the surrounding gardens and forests were a very welcome surprise. And I think this picture of the Blarney House outshines any of the shots I took of the actual castle. In fact, I almost had the entire castle to myself due to the Covid tourism factor. The only other soul in the castle was Patrick, who was tasked with sitting beside the Blarney Stone all day and sanitizing it after each kiss. What a guy.

Blarney is absolutely worth a visit. The town is lovely, the castle is impressive, and the forested grounds are perfect for wandering. Plus they have a poison garden AND a carnivorous plant garden.

Blarney Castle

Butterfly

Church of the Resurrection

Leiden, Nederland

November 7, 2019

Welcome to Leiden. I had been trying for over a month to coordinate a trip to Rotterdam and using my friend Carolien as a guide. We finally found a day on the weekend that we both had available and the weather was nice and decided that would be the day. But as you can see from the title of this post, we ended up in Leiden instead.

There is a direct route from Utrecht to Rotterdam by train, but on the weekend we chose the way was shut due to maintenance on the tracks in Gouda. For no particular reason, we settled on Leiden. Leiden is a smallish city in The Netherlands northeast of The Hague.

Hartebrugkerk

Gemeente Leiden

Neiuwe Rijn

Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk

Leiden is a very interesting city. The Hooglandse Church is built with a variety of different bricks, making for very appealing visuals. The nearby hill is topped by an old stone circular wall that offers excellent views of the city from all angles. We even stopped in an old record shop for a quick browse. If you are in need of a peaceful city with some amazing architecture, look no further than Leiden.

Hooglandse Kerk

Zijlpoort

Abandoned

Kerkbrug

*On the Docks of the Herengracht. October, 2019*

Haarlem, Nederland

November 7, 2019

Pick a number, end up in Haarlem.

With no plans for the weekend, I decided to hop on a train. Armed with my trusty OV-Chipkaart, I headed to the central station. I picked a track at random and boarded the next train. After passing through Amsterdam, I arrived in Haarlem and jumped off, my camera in tow.

*Sint Bavo Kerk ("Saint Bavo Church") from the Grote Markt, Haarlem's Central Square.*

A beautiful Dutch city, Haarlem sits about 20km (12.4mi) west of central Amsterdam. The only attraction I knew of in Haarlem was the large church in the middle of the old city. It was hard to miss. the church is tall and beautiful. Inside the spectacular organ was playing. The grote markt outside was bustling, and a very nice contrast to the towering old building.

After visiting the church and the market, I wandered around the canals. The buildings lining the canals are colorful and interesting. I even found a sailboat. After wandering for several hours, I finished the trip off with some bitterballen and a crazy strong smoked Russian Imperial Stout at the Jopen brewery on the west side of the old town (at the recommendation of my friend Carolien). A solid end to a random Saturday in the Netherlands.

Hope you enjoyed this small tour of Haarlem.