Home -> Europe -> Ireland -> Travelogue 2002 -> Saturday 14 December

To Belfast and a drive through the dark

After a period of frost it has started to thaw today and we are being warned about slipperiness on the road, but we are lucky. Again, as so many times when we are going on holiday. This time we are on our way to the green island, Ireland.

I don't understand why Teije always has to take pictures of me while I am eating. Because we are in luck again with the weather and the condition of the roads, we are one hour early on Schiphol, the international airport of Amsterdam, and nothing tastes better now than a cup of coffee with a croissant.

I find flying still very exciting, well, just the lift off and touch down, but it won't keep me from getting into a plane. It is so easy and saves a lot of time to arrive somewhere far away (well, except the long journey to the airport, 2.5 hours for us, and the waiting on the airport itself, which often costs more time than the flying time itself).

Darkness has covered Belfast already and we don't enjoy our trip of 120 km., driving on the left side of the road. Most roads are narrow and not too well-kept. At some point we are almost driven off the road by someone who takes over and we hit a high pavement: a part of a wheeltrim is damaged, but nothing serious. The rented car is a Punto and very comfortably.

We don't notice anything of a border between Northern-Ireland and Ireland and around 9 in the evening we arrive at Clones, the only place where we have made a reservation for a hotel on this trip. This way we have the freedom to choose our own itinerary and December is a quiet month, so we think we won't have any problems finding places to spend the nights.

Travel through Europe and Africa

with Elisabeth and Teije