Iniitial blog posts

content/blog/begin.md

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+---
+title: 'It has Begun'
+date: 2013-06-07T14:29:36+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## It has begun!
+
+It's Friday June 7th and about 10:30pm. I just made my way from Bruttisellen, Switzerland to the beautiful and entirely unknown village of
+Tengen, Southern Germany. In fact it's so far south that I still have 4 bars of Swisscom 3G reception, as the border is probably about 550
+meters from where I am sitting.
+
+I decided to start the journey today so that I can avoid the rather horrible traffic situation around Zurich (yes, also on Saturdays), and
+make good time to get to Almere, The Netherlands, by mid day when the sun is still warm and bright.
+
+I did my due diligence and reset the odometer - of course this is of pivotal importance during road trips. Paul and I love grabbing
+statistics to see just how many trees we have to plant in carbon offsite (yeah, like that's going to happen). With our 2010 Jeep Compass we
+guzzled gas like bosses. This time, the guzzling will be of Diesel fuel. We're hoping it doesn't bankrupt us :-)
+
+In the car I called Paul to ping him "It has begun!", but he was having absolutely none of it. So I'm now going to hang loose at my
+campingsite in Tengen until tomorrow morning, and then go straight to his house. I hope he picks up the phone at least tomorrow.
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 11:00 PM**

content/blog/booking.md

@@ -37,11 +37,8 @@ Then, when our roadtrip is over (and if we still have a vehicle ...), we take th
 
 The total costs for water-transit: 168.30 (chunnel) + 112 (to belfast) + 112 GBP (to holyhead) == 463 EUR == 576 CHF. We decided to chop up the trip from Folkestone to Edinburgh on the way up - we have about 450 miles to drive, it looks a bit like this:
 
-{{< image src="/img/booking-map.png" width="600px" >}}
+{{< image src="/img/map-booking.png" width="600px" >}}
 
 Finding marker-B was some puzzling. On the one hand we land at 4pm or so on Sunday and we'll probably have reasonable driving up North, but on the other hand if we want a B&B we don't want to drive that far up north lest we are too late to check in. And we do want to check in, don't we? Yes, we do! So, I stumbled-across a well known PoS hotel in Doncaster UK: A Campanile! And the best thing is, a room with two single beds will put us back GBP 29.75. That's going to be fun, and split our trip nicely in half, so we can get to Edinburgh at around noon on Monday.
 
-Starting to look forward to our trip!
-
-
-
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 2:23 PM**

content/blog/day1.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 1: Almere NL, prep work'
+date: 2013-06-08T14:31:01+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Day One - Almere NL, prep work
+
+On Friday June 7th the road trip started, but Paul was unaware. I drove from my house in Zurich Switzerland to the picturesque town of
+Tengen Germany where I have a weekend retreat camping site and a happy RV unit full of RC units to play with. At around 9:15pm I left and at
+some 10:15pm I arrived at a rather calm campingsite.
+
+This morning, I got up at 7:00am (which I normally don't do), and I made it a point to go to the reception to pick up a mail package that
+was delivered to us this week. Unfortuantely last night I got there at 10:15pm and it was closed, but low and behold it was closed also this
+morning (opens at 8am). To make a decision, and to further my happy-time in Almere, I decided to pick up the package another day and drive.
+
+I drove an average of 123km/h through Germany and The Netherlands. It was a great trip and I landed at Almere NL at around 2:15pm. I had
+gained some time and thus when I hit Ede NL (where I used to live and work at BIT), I went to the Mac Car Wash (a hard core car wash), and
+got the full nine yards on the Merc. The rims were white again, in a somewhat presentable state for Paul who hadn't seen them yet. Of course
+I'd have to show him also the rather significant scratch in the Left Rear wheel, all my fault, from parking in the garage in Bruttisellen.
+
+We went shopping, we got Chicken, a staple food while roadtripping (we got a mere 16 chicken leg+breasts - hope it will be enough). We also
+went to Albert Heijn to cop some groceries, mostly fresh fruit to eat underway. Also some chips, drinks and other necessities.
+
+Because we can't go with damaged rims, we went to Halfords. Of course because Halfords are kiddie wannabe idiots, they had no idea what we
+were talking about and everything was "moeilijkleverbaar.nl". So we went to Brezan which is a profi car repair/tools shop, and doshed out
+11.20 euro for a black gloss repair paint bottle. I promptly cleaned and repaired the rims. You can't hardly see how hard I fucked up, which
+is nice.
+
+Now that the rims looked nice, we must of course also see to it that all the chips and Gipfli that Alexis almost finished, but didn't quite
+finish and thus lie in the car in various stages of decomposition, would be cleaned. We took out, once more, to a car wash with industrial
+vacuum cleaners, and Sucked The Crap Out Of The Car (STCOOTC). Result was a lookin-as-new! vehicle. I was very proud.
+
+When the topic of dinner came up, I mentioned Rodizio, but our place in Almere had shut down (possibly because they serve insane amounts of
+meat for insanely low prices!), but Paul had an idea along these lines. We went to Zaanstad. While driving there I got somewhat confused
+because I don't know this city as Zaanstad but as Zaandam. Paul enlightened me - it's the same thing. Consolidation drove several
+communities to form one City (Stad), one of them being Zaandam.
+
+The place we went to was [Castell](http://www.castellzaandam.nl) - and they have a meal for 2+ called Cote de Bouef. It was very tasty
+indeed, and the owner Ozgur came and said "Hi" as well. But I save the best thing for last -- really one of those things that touches the
+heart[tm] while in itself being quite easy. So, the netherlandics really like their rules and in particular fines. We parked the car around
+the corner of the restaurant on a public parking lot and paid until 9:23pm. At 9:30pm (just before the desert which was a delicious cheese
+platter), I ran out to extend our parking for half an hour. But then we chatted with Ozgur, paid and rocked up to our car at 10:15. The
+parking guard was still there and he walked up to me, so I asked him "hey what's up do you have a question?". He said "you guys are kind of
+late, so I have to give you a fine (60 Euros typically)". I said hey that's kind of sad cuz we've been here for a few hours and I actually
+even went back to pay twice and extend. I showed him both parking receipts, and against all odds he replied "you guys came a long way (ZH
+plates!) and obviously did the right thing having paid twice and applying yourselves. I'm going to delete my report. Have a good night!".
+
+And with that, I leave you - ready to trip the road, and with a great Zaanstad^W^W^W^Wdam memory (of ~1000gr steak and parking guards). Good
+night!
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 2:17 PM**

content/blog/day10.md

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 10: Cork to Dublin'
+date: 2013-06-17T14:57:08+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Oh, I'm soooo elegant!
+
+This morning we woke up at our Radison Blu hotel in Cork, feeling somewhat .. strange. A feeling of shortspokenness came upon us. Our
+breakfast was consumed at high prices and low enjoyment value. Something was wrong, but we couldn't put our finger on it. We felt somehow
+in-eloquent and this needed to be addressed. A sudden feeling of guilt and humility came over us. What were to happen in this state of mind?
+We would likely speak to the locals in the wrong tone, risking to be arrested, our skulls bashed in by hoodie-bearing hoodlums, or worse, we
+may make an error in our use of English grammar. Our language has to be up to snuff in order to write our blog, you see. But what to do when
+one is in such a state, you might ask? Get gab. According to legend (as passed down to us by the great muses of Wikipedia), kissing a
+certain stone in the Castle found at Blarney, endows the kisser with the gift of the **gab** (great **eloquence** or skill at **flattery**).
+
+The castle grounds are large - plenty of walking in the meadows, fern forest, over paths and down a lake shore.  The castle itself is
+beautiful, somewhat decayed, but still accessible. One can walk around it a bit, through the windy staircases and overlooking the various
+old rooms where people cooked food, slept, and made merry [or, alternatively, scrambled and fled to the safe haven when the lands were under
+attack]. At the very top of this castle, there was a huge queue, which surprised me (even though I knew there would be a stone of some sorts
+here). There was a long list of rather, well, let me just say, interesting characters. One of them was so "into" the stone that she
+constantly asked her friends if they agreed that it would make her more _elegant_. Then when it was her turn, she asked the guy taking
+photographs of the tourists if she could have a before and an after shot, to see if she got more elegant. Bitch, please! Get your Canadian
+pea-sized brain into gear and read the booklet or something. My dreams were shattered. The stone does not work, or at least, it does not
+work with bloody foreigners.
+
+Paul, and also I, kissed the crag. Our feeling of eloquence was once again restored. The rest of this paragraph shall reflect the regal
+dignity which was bestowed on us. True it is, that when the Sun first shone her warm rays of happiness on our beautiful Inn and the day
+commenced, I and my Brother did not possess the required vocabulary to partake in civil conversation, our minds restless, our gastronomical
+needs forcing a countenance which was not at all pleasant to the eyes and ears of the other guests, and although the reek of our perfume
+evoked sympathy in our caretakers, I and Paul did not return the favor, as we could not savor the basking of the foodstuffs that were
+prepared for us, particularly more so considering the remuneration for said services was overly steep, to the point that we could not, nee
+would not be able to precisely articulate what the matter, which was frustrating the both of us (_our breakfast sucked and was overpriced_).
+But then, later on this sacred day, blessed were we by the amazing gift of adequacy - yes, by caressing the time old stone with the outer
+parts of our speech and food intake organs, we ensured the safe return of the gab - and although previously I and Paul were not able to put
+forth a choice of words such that our conversational partners would appreciate our points of view, let alone avoid being manhandled, all of
+these difficult distresses were melted away by merely one carefully planned and executed kiss on the Blarney Stone (_kissing the stone made
+it all better_). And, as a plus, our game of Wordfeud improved in a most stellar fashion.
+
+We then made our way to Kinsale, our southern most point of our journey. In Kinsale there is a really classic example of a pentagon shaped
+castle, called Charles Fort. We took our time to walk around it, and take some pictures, enjoying the non-rain (for a change) and having a
+sandwich for lunch. We then drove the rather long distance to Dublin (about 250 kilometers as-is). In the car, we looked up a final
+destination in Ireland - the Newgrange monument, a Stone Age passage tomb. It would be open until 7pm and if we punched the gas (which is
+very doable on the M8) we would be there by 5pm. That's good because it's open until 7pm. So we did exactly that, punch it, and we made good
+time. When we stopped for gas, I noticed that there was a car wash there too. Considering I'm very keen on keeping my bright white rims
+bright and white for a while still, I took it. The carwash boasted rim-cleaning facilities, but I noticed that the brushes were puny and
+little, and were obviously not made for 22" SUV rims. So after doshing out 9 euros, we came out with a somewhat less dirty (but still quite
+dirty) car, and gray rims. I would not take "no" for an answer, and so I took some brushes and washing cloth and made the rims shine good as
+new. Great stuff, and it didn't even take that much time ...
+
+At about 5:10pm we arrived at Newgrange, looking forward to immersing into the cultural aspects of the Stone Age temple builders and
+figuring out what they were up to. When we went into the visitors building to fetch our tickets, we were explained politely that the last
+tour had /just/ left, and no we were not allowed to run after it, and that we'd best come back the next day. Le Sigh, but tomorrow it shall
+be, because it looked great and we were both very curious to see it.
+
+Well, we drove back to Dublin then, and parked the car at the hotel and checked in. It was in the "right" part of town, by which I mean the
+part of town that I actually know a little bit about. Most of the time when I visit Dublin, I see the grand canal hotel, the canal and the
+Google office across the street. My favorite restaurant is a fish and chips shop across the road, mostly because it's open at all weird
+times of the night [and we all know how hard that Jetlag can hit when traveling from Switzerland to Ireland!].
+
+What to eat? I remembered a place and knew exactly where to go. Kind of - we walked down the canal to Haddington Road. I had been here
+before with some coworkers. The sun was still shining bright so we decided to hang outside for dinner. The staff there was again very nice,
+and it turns out on the menu there is something well known to us road-trippers, and much loved: Côte de Boeuf The nomming ensued, we had a
+wonderful meal with a great bottle of Rioja wine for me, and then we made our way back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, we
+shall have to make good on our tardiness, well bespoken and all, and visit Newgrange!
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 11:00 PM**

content/blog/day11.md

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 11: Dublin (IE) to Holyhead (UK)'
+date: 2013-06-18T15:00:46+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Dubbin' in Dublin
+
+Our last day on the Irish isle was planned to be spent in Dublin. However, since we missed Newgrange yesterday, we'll try that again today.
+Sure, it means paying twice for all those toll roads and more driving around but what is a roadtrip if you're not driving?
+
+We get up around 9:00 and make our way down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Turns out, it's not as good as we had hoped so after
+quickly stuffing down some bacon and eggs we check out and jump in the car. Newgrange isn't very far away so about 45 minutes later we
+arrive at the parking lot. Turns out, there's two sights to be seen here, we're assured (by the sales lady, surely she has no interest in
+upsales!) that Knowth is at least equally as interesting as Newgrange. We agree ("we zijn hier nou toch"), so we get tickets for both: we're
+on the 10:45 Newgrange tour and the 12:45 Knowth tour.
+
+Newgrange is a man-made construction measuring about 75 meters in diameter, consisting of bigger and smaller rocks, covered with dirt and
+grass. Our tour guide Gerry explains there's a 20 meter tunnel on the inside that aligns perfectly with the winter solstice sunrise. At the
+end of the tunnel the roof is about 6 meters above us, made up from nothing but rocks covered by a layer of dirt. Some pretty cool
+construction work went into this thing, especially considering it's age: more than 5000 years old (predating the pyramids of Gizeh by some
+400 years).
+
+After Newgrange we head back to the visitor centre for some lunch, to prepare for the Knowth tour. There we find another one of these tombs,
+almost as big as Newgrange, surrounded by many smaller "satellite" tombs. Frances takes us around the site and explains what we now know
+about the history of these mounds. Knowth, it turns out, has been 'recycled' quite often since the first farmers constructed the site five
+thousand years ago. Farmers and kings built houses on the mound, but it's still very well preserved.
+
+At about 14:00, we are back in the car and on our way to Dublin again. The plan now is to visit Guinness brewery in the middle of the city.
+Interestingly enough, the process of brewing beer is quite similar to that of distilling whisky. Simply replace the distilling with adding
+hops and you're (roughly) there. Other than that, there's barley, grist, wash, wort, fermentation, casks and all that good stuff. We end the
+(self guided) tour of the Guinness storehouse at the 7th level giving us a great view over all of Dublin, giving us a good view of some of
+the things we've seen last night (Lansdowne stadium (or Aveva, as it's now called), the Spire, etc). Of course, there's the all important
+beer at one of the bars. Since you get a complimentary beer with your entry ticket, we can't leave the storehouse before Pim downs two pints
+of stout.
+
+After the Guinness experience, we have to start thinking about getting back to Great Britain. Our Stena Line ferry leaves the Dublin port at
+21:15 and we still have to eat. We park the car somewhere in central Dublin and continue on foot in search of feeding grounds. We find a
+nice little restaurant in the basement of The Merrion hotel where we have a pretty good rib-eye. There's still a little time left, so we
+walk around the shopping streets of Dublin for a bit before making our way to the port.
+
+We get there easy enough and without much hassle queue up for the boat. The boat trip is rather uneventful, save for a very pretty sunset
+(or, two pretty sunsets). It lasts quite a bit longer than the trip from CAIRNRYANNNNNNnnnyyyYYAH! to Belfast and we arrive at Holyhead in
+Wales just before one o'clock. Fortunately, the Travelodge we booked is basically next to the dock and without much further ado, we fall
+asleep.
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 10:30 PM**

content/blog/day12.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 12: Holyhead (hiking Snowden) to Crickhowell'
+date: 2013-06-19T15:01:49+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Cymru
+
+There's a funny thing about Welsh. It seems most words in this language have at least one of 'c', 'w', 'y' or 'll'. Some words are just
+(seemingly) random permutations of these four options. And we figure the remaining words are borrowed from foreign languages or something. I
+mean, who comes up with a town name like 'Mawddwy' and how on earth do you pronounce that ? Or, worse still,
+'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch' ?
+
+Anyway, that is our first stop today. We'll just refer to it as 'DEST' from now on, to save on bandwidth. We leave our Holyhead Travelodge
+pretty early and drive to DEST. Of course, the requisite pictures are taken of the train station's name sign but after that we are mostly
+just very hungry. A quick visit of the local supermarket to replenish our supplies later, we leave DEST and head for more sensibly named
+places. Like Snowdon, something we (think we) know how to say.
+
+Pim finds an interesting trail head in yet another unspeakable place ("Rhyd Ddu", if you must know), so we program the satnav and start
+driving. Pim makes a nice sandwich and before we know it we're in Rhyd Ddu and find our trail head. However, while ascending, we grow more
+and more skeptical about being on the right mountain. Looking around, we see many hills that seem to be higher. Right, that's because we
+wanted a proper look at Snowdon from another hilltop! This was planned all along baby. It's a pretty tough trail, so we progress rather
+slowly. The local sheep run away when approached, so we can't ask them for easier accessible paths either. When settling down at a local
+maximum, we snack on some cheese and take photo's of what we now know is Snowdon, spotting what is probably the Rhyd Ddu trail we were
+looking for in the first place. We also decide to go up there by train after we get back to the car.
+
+Unfortunately, after we descend the hill and drive to Llanberis, we find a sign that tells us the next train leaves at 16:30. Since it's now
+just after two, we decide against waiting around for two hours and visit Caernarfon castle in the mean time. It's all quite close anyway.
+
+Turns out that Caernarfon castle is absolutely huge! After walking around (at high pace) for more than an hour, we still haven't seen half
+of it. But, we have to get going if we want to make this 16:30 train up Snowdon, so we head back to Llanberis to find that the next
+available train is actually at 17:30. Sigh. Just our luck. Should've bought those tickets when we were in Llanberis the first time around.
+Oh well, we'll snack on some fast food and hang out in the sun while we wait, not too bad! Before we know it, it's 17:30 and our train is
+about to leave.
+
+We go up in a car pushed by a pretty good looking diesel engine. The ride up takes approximately one hour and the scenery is beautiful. We
+have a nice view of the mountain we climbed earlier and Caernarfon (although we can't make out the castle from the distance). When the train
+arrives at the top, there's a few more meters to climb on foot to get to the actual peak. Using the GPS in my phone, I confirm that we're
+almost 1100 meters high: the highest point in Wales. Some pictures and looking around later and it's time to take the train back down. It's
+the last one of the day, so we better not miss it. One hour later and we're back down in Llanberis, and it's still sunny!
+
+OK, so it's now 20:00 and we still have to get to our hotel. We found a place in Crickhowell called 'The Dragon Inn' which is pretty close
+to Big Pit (our first stop tomorrow). Unfortunately, that's about 93 miles crow's flight and roughly a 130 miles drive. All very windy
+roads, with lots of construction going on. Fortunately, the drive is through a beautiful part of the country, we're treated to some very
+nice scenic views. Anyway, it takes us about three hours to get there, after which we're pretty much done with driving for the day and in
+desperate need of something liquid.
+
+We come to the Dragon Inn with little difficulty but find the door closed and nobody answering the doorbell. We try calling the phone number
+listed on the signs next to the door but there's no answer. However, from a bar across the street where live music spills out onto the
+street comes a man in our direction asking if we've booked a room in the inn. Turns out this is Pedro, the innkeeper, who was just having a
+drink in the bar while waiting for us to show up. He's very welcoming, lets us into the hotel and shows us our room. In fact, he gives us
+two rooms for extra privacy and less snoring! He also invites us to the bar for a much needed drink, making sure with the owner of the bar
+that it's cool we come in after closing hours.
+
+Over a couple of beers (both for Pim), we discuss the day: that was pretty awesome! Four activities in what has been the best weather so
+far. Cool!
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 1:00 PM**
+

content/blog/day13.md

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 13: Crickhowell to Swindon'
+date: 2013-06-20T15:03:23+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## The Big Pit
+
+Waking up in our separate Dragon Inn hotel rooms in Crickhowell is less of a silent blessing than we may have hoped. The snoring or
+showering noises are replaced with the clattering of another downpour and the local traffic. As agreed, we're in the hotel restaurant at
+8:30 for some breakfast. I sample the traditional Welsh breakfast (which includes 'laver bread' and 'glamorgan sausage') and Pim has the
+traditional British breakfast (with black pudding).
+
+Over breakfast we discuss today's plans. First up is Big Pit, an old mine that is no longer actively being mined but is still in use and is
+open to visitors. After that, we'll head down to Cardiff to see what the capitol of the Principality of Wales has to offer. We thank our
+friendly Portuguese innkeeper Pedro, check out and are on our way. It's a short (and cloudy) drive to the mine; within half an hour we're in
+Blaenafon parking our car at the Pit. One nice aspect of this particular trip is the cost: entrance to the mine is free of charge.
+
+An old miner, Peter, takes us down in the "cage" (what miners call the lift or elevator) and tells us all about life in the mines. From his
+own experience (with more modern equipment and better working conditions) and from his ancestors' experiences. Amazing how poorly workers
+(children aged 5 and up) were treated (exploited) as little as one hundred years ago!
+
+After our short stint in the mine we come back up to the surface and survey the rest of the Pit. There's a bunch of canaries at this
+coalmine, we visit the explosives warehouse (sadly, none were left) and generally scope the area. Time to leave for Cardiff.
+
+Cardiff, too, is pretty close by. Of course, we're pretty hungry again so we find a place to have some lunch and then walk around the city a
+bit. There's another castle, surprisingly called 'Cardiff Castle', but entry is 11 pounds and we've been pretty much castled out by now. To
+prevent overdosing on castles, we decide to skip this one and instead visit Bute park next to it. In the end, Cardiff doesn't really do it
+for us so we get back into the car and get going again. We cross the bridge over the Severn river and we're back in England. Within less
+than 90 minutes, we get to Swindon where we rest our wary legs in another Campanile hotel and spend some time writing blogposts.
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 11:29 AM**
+
+## The Magic Roundabout
+
+Have you ever heard of the Magic Roundabout in Swindon? I have, as it is often on display at the Google office lobby, where there's a
+looping Earth presentation where it takes you to strange places on the globe. Kind of cool - and that's where I picked up the 'Swindon Magic
+Roundabout'. It is a very confusing place, to quote the Source Of All Truth Wikipedia:
+
+In 2005, it was voted the worst roundabout in a survey by a UK insurance company.[4] In September 2007, the Magic Roundabout was named as
+one of the World's Worst Junctions by a UK motoring magazine.[5] In December 2007, BBC News reported a survey identifying The Magic
+Roundabout as one of the "10 Scariest Junctions in the United Kingdom".[6]However the roundabout provides a better throughput of traffic
+than other designs and has an excellent safety record, since traffic moves too slowly to do serious damage in the event of a collision.[7]
+
+Well well well then. WE'RE THERE, DUDE!!!!1
+
+So, after dinner tonight (in a somewhat sketchy italian joint called Fratello's - the food was not bad but just.. not... good... enough),
+Paul and I decided that it would be absolutely fan-fucking-tastic to crash the Merc on the Magic Roundabout, and I had purposefully avoided
+drinking any alcohol to make it even more likely that I would freak out on the pavement.
+
+With great deliberation, we turned on the GPS logger for this wonderful journey over the Swindon roads. We also took pictures, made film,
+and have the dashboard cam files saved [for future uploading to Youtube, I am now typing this on a 3G tethered Android, perhaps not the best
+use of our data plan :-]. But I will show you this:
+
+{{< image src="/img/swindon.png" width="600px" >}}
+
+Absolute hilarity ensued as we boldly entered with our Swiss plated, right-hand-side driverseat vehicle, because honestly - if the Brits
+vote this the scary-shit, how could we NOT drive on this beautifully architected street? Proudly, I first gave it a go, entering from the
+NorthWest, driving all sorts of clockwise and counter-clockwise directions, only slamming the brakes once after finding that I was more than
+entirely disoriented and generally not knowing what the hell I was doing. Then I drove off to the NorthEastern corner and gave Paul a go.
+He, too, had fun consistently scanning all around "look left? look right? Damnit, just look in ALL THE DIRECTIONS!" and making his way
+around the small roundabouts in the big roundabout in a rather roundabout fashion. We giggled like school girls. Oh boy, so much fun we had.
+Then I dropped Paul off and he decided to commit this act of driving to film. He took out his Android, started filming while I went over the
+northern loop, and just as I was about to go into the southern loop, a cop car drove past me and ogled me, with a grin on his face of the
+sorts "don't screw around here, son", so I quickly bolted off of the roundaroundaroundaroundaboutaboutabout (what's all this about?) and we
+called it a day.
+
+Swindon, we love you. You make roadtrippers happy!!
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 2:54 PM **

content/blog/day14.md

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 14: Swindon to Folkestone'
+date: 2013-06-21T15:04:04+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Summer solstice
+
+For quite a few years already, summer solstice has been happening on either June 20th or June 21st (usually the 21st). In fact, it is
+believed that somewhere between 4000 and 5000 years ago people already knew about this event (see also our post about the Newgrange and
+Knowth visit, a couple of days ago). Not too long after Newgrange and Knowth were constructed, some ancient guys in prehistoric England
+built this other thing we now know as Stonehenge, to celebrate the longest day of the year.
+
+Unbeknownst to us, however, this celebration is still (or more likely: again) happening in modern days. And to this end, a gazillion hippies
+show up in Amesbury, pitch up their tents and crowd the site. Of course, full is full, so if you show up at 10 am on a cloudy Friday morning
+after driving for 3500 miles to get there, you're waaay too late: access is blocked by local police. On the one day that we decide to visit
+Stonehenge, they close off the site! Just our luck...
+
+We rethink our approach: the stones can be seen from the road, the Merc has a sunroof, our little Canon camera has a 12x optical zoom and
+traffic along the A303 is pretty slow because of the police blockades. Righto! As Pim slowly drives along Stonehenge I stand on the
+passenger seat and shoot as many pictures as I can. Fixed :) For good measure, we also drive up to Woodhenge (not as interesting, sadly) and
+then we're off.
+
+Our next stop is London! Of course, it's quite busy in the city but we arrive without any damage to the car and go to the Google office for
+some lunch and to catch up with a couple of Dutch Googlers. Then we're off, on foot, to check out the various highlights London has to
+offer. We first see Trafalgar Square. Next up are Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, St Paul's
+Cathedral (no Whispering Gallery, as access was blocked for some event), The Tower and Tower bridge. We walked quite a bit, and are not
+looking forward to walking back. Next London experience: the tube!
+
+We take the District line from Tower Hill to Victoria station (where we parked the car). Hungry as we are by now, we're looking for some
+good food. Eventually we end up at Ristorante Santini. Pim has the Vitello Tonato and I have the Proscuito for starters. We both have a
+Filetto Santini. Very nice! Some cheese to finish a great meal and we're ready to get driving again. We have one less pleasing surprise
+waiting for us as we get back to the parking lot. All in all, we left the car in the car park for 7 hours and 5 minutes. At 5 pounds an
+hour, that comes down to 40 pounds please. That beats Amsterdam!
+
+
+Anyway... We get going and program the satnav for Folkestone: we have an early train to catch. The drive is pretty uneventful, except for
+crossing the Prime Meridian pretty early on (although nobody else on the road seems to care; quaint!). We once again make good time and get
+to our hotel just after 10. The hotel is a bit shady, but it'll have to do. We're not here for long anyway. So tomorrow is at least my last
+day of roadtripping, when we drive back to The Netherlands. We'll have some dinner and then Pim will continue to his parents so he has a
+little head start for the drive back to Zurich on Sunday. It has been epic!
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 3:52 PM**

content/blog/day2.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 2: Almere (NL) to Doncaster (UK)'
+date: 2013-06-09T14:32:52+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Four (or Six, depending on who you ask) Countries!
+
+We've pretty much closed out our first Real Day[tm] of travels. This beautiful Sunday morning we left Almere NL at 9:19am, a car packed full
+of goodies (food and otherwise), and we were destined for Doncaster UK. The first part of the trip was to Calais FR. Getting there was okay
+except for a weird 45min complete stand-still near Jabbeke BE.  There were construction works on the road there, and I think maybe a car had
+broken down on the one-lane passthrough, so folks had to manouvre around it, or push the car suitably far into the shoulder for the other
+traffic to pass. As soon as we passed it though, it was smooth sailing to Calais.
+
+We got there pretty early, as we had a 3:50pm train. When we rocked up to the gates, the LCD screen flashed 'Welcome Mr Van Pelt!" which we
+both thought was pretty awesome - they have cameras reading the license plates and retrieving the reservations that way. We were offered a
+choice to go on an earlier train if we wanted to, so we moved our departure time back to 2:50pm. We ate some chicken (3 "halbe hendl" each),
+and then made our way onto the train. It was very very (very!) tight, with less than 50mm on each side of the tires, and a metal ledge which
+I tried very hard not to hit, so as to not damage the rims even more :) It was OK.
+
+Then came the exciting part. England and driving on the Wrong Side[tm]. Actually it wasn't that bad. I trailed a guy from Berne for a few
+miles on the high way and then decided to overtake him and go for it. The drive itself was pleasant and no major traffic, despite having to
+go all the way around London. In total it would be some 240 miles from Folkestone UK to Doncaster UK. Easy peasy! Paul and I switched
+drivers after about 130 miles, and he took the second part. Just before we hit Doncaster, we hit 1024 miles on the trip odometer, which of
+course we had to take pictures of.
+
+{{< image src="/img/map-day2.png" width="600px" >}}
+
+When we arrived at our Campanile, the room was ready, already paid for, and checkin was easy. We bashed around a bit with the Savage [Paul
+and I both made a little movie of it], and then went for dinner. The place Google Maps suggested had been since closed, so we drove into
+town to find some grub. After walking up and down the main street, we settled for a Tex-Mex joint. You may ask: why would you eat
+texan/mexican food in Doncaster UK? I may say: good fucking question.
+
+It's now 10:10pm and I'm beat. I will take a shower and pass out in this overly squishy bed. Tomorrow, we go to Edinburgh.
+
+*   Pim has now been in: CH, DE, NL, BE, FR, UK.
+*   Paul has been in: NL, BE, FR, UK.
+
+By the way: in further posts, we are _so totally_ calling Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland out in an ever growing list of countries
+we're visiting on this roadtrip!!
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 2:10 PM**

content/blog/day3.md

@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 3: Doncaster to Livingston'
+date: 2013-06-10T14:37:15+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Scotland at last
+
+On to Scotland!
+
+So, Doncaster is nice and all, there's uhm .. "food", sort of a bed, uhm. Yeah. Let's get rollin'! Onwards, to Scotland!  We get up around
+8, I hit the shower (careful not to bump my head against the showerhead) and go for some breakfast. We've already lowered our expectations,
+so we'll be OK. With some calories down the hatch, we quickly jump in the car and program the car for Scotland. Only 240 miles, a piece of
+cake after yesterday. And since it all went so well driving on the left side of the road yesterday, we start of on the right side for good
+measure... Luckily, that oncoming bus turns left so we avoid some damage and quickly go back to the "proper" side. Pim orders my iPod
+connected and we start today's drive with some Nederhop from our Opgezwolle friends.
+
+We make excellent time; there's some great scenery and we don't have any horse drawn carriages slowing us down like there are in the
+oncoming traffic. We cruise up the M6, despite our initial plan of taking the costal route (thanks, Mercedes!), pull up for some more
+diesel, switch from Dutch hip hop over to some rockin' Tenacious D and arrive in Edinburgh at 14:00. Having no clue where to go (we've both
+been here once, a lifetime ago), we drive around without a real goal for some time. Eventually, the decision is to park "somewhere" and do
+some sightseeing around the big castle.  We grab some grub and get going. Somehow, it's really a beautiful day: sunny, not too cold, a
+slight breeze .. perfect! We decide against actually forking over the dough for a couple of tickets and just walk around a bit more. A bunch
+of postcards and stamps are acquired, souvenirs are checked but dismissed, sights are seen: true tourists! Before we know it, it's time to
+head back to our car (hoping we can still find it). Time for more hip hop!
+
+{{< image src="/img/map-day3.png" width="600px" >}}
+
+Before we know it, we're in Livingston at the Travelodge hotel. There's still some time left, the sun is still out, so after checking in to
+the hotel (with Rachel, who has a true Scottish accent!), we decide to drive around with the RC car a bit more. There's a really nice field,
+just perfect for racing the car, next to the hotel by some college. On the way there, there's a couple of speed bumps in the road that make
+a very nice ramp for jumping around. Pim does one jump, two, three .. he circles back for another and then, as the car touches down again,
+one of the wheels flies off! Oh noes! Slight damage to the chassis of the car, the wheel has rolled away 50 meters (or should I say, 55
+yards) but some of the bolts and nuts have fallen off and those are pretty hard to find. We spend about 45 minutes trying to find these
+parts, but unfortunately come up empty. No more RC car driving this trip :( After the remaining parts are stowed safely in the trunk of our
+'real' car, we're ready for some food. Now luck has it that the hotel we're staying in is right above an Italian restaurant. And not just
+any Italian restaurant! This place is called "Toni Macaroni" (we are not making this up, I promise!). Just HAS to be good. And, in fact, it
+actually is pretty good food. Soup, salad, focaccia, steak and pasta .. all pretty tasty.
+
+We show our friends and family we think of them after dinner by writing those postcards we bought in Edinburgh. I try to drop them off at
+reception but we're directed to the local shopping mall where we should be able to find a letterbox ourselves. Excellent, some excercise to
+help digest Mr. Macaroni's meals. The mall is really close by the hotel (our room has a view of the mall parking) but the place turns out to
+be quite big. We manage to find a way inside with whatever I could understand / remember from the directions I got at reception. Now all we
+really need is that letterbox. Some guy is walking around with two girls and a boy and we ask them if they happen to know where we could
+deposit our postcards. They have some clue and try to give us more directions. According to one of the girls it's "a wee bit away", which
+turns out to be at the other end of the mall. Then, like a jack-in-the-box, the other girls runs off. We check with the guy if everything's
+OK and he thinks she's just checking to see if there's a letterbox somewhere closer. After a small lap inside the mall she returns:
+apparently not. Eventually, he offers to drop off those cards for us. We gladly accept Danny's (as we learn his name is) offer, leaving the
+fate of our postal greetings to a complete stranger. The Scots are really great people!  After having dispensed with the formalities of
+ensuring postcard delivery (delegating works for us! If you're reading this and are expecting a postcard from us, blame Danny if you don't
+receive anything), we still cannot let the letterbox mystery go so we set out to locate it. Circling the mall, we come across another
+friendly Scot, a cleaner this time. He speaks the magic words: near Starbucks, next to Mellie's cookies. And indeed, in the corridor where
+the toilets are located, there's also a big red letterbox: mission accomplished! We treat ourselves to some severe back and leg injuries
+(and cartman style probing) in the massage chairs available and limp back to the hotel. Hoping to recover from this onslaught during a good
+night's sleep...
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 3:50 PM**
+
+

content/blog/day4.md

@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 4: Livingston to Inverness'
+date: 2013-06-11T14:40:44+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Glenmorangie and Nessie
+
+Our departure from Livingston was smooth. We got up at around 8am, and after the customary showering ritual, we went to the Mall to handle
+some errands - specifically we needed some more fruit and good stuff for the road ahead of us, and I wanted to top up the SIM card I
+borrowed from Todd, so that we could Inter the Nets en route.
+
+So we went to this mall (the same one we were at yesterday night in search of a letterbox). It was more lively now, and stores were starting
+to open up. We got a sandwich at Baguette Express, and we went to the Iceland store for some groceries, and finally to the phone shop for a
+pay-as-you-go voucher. This was easier said than done, largely because the computer system was busted and the guy couldn't log on. So
+instead of topping up, he just got me a new SIM card and a 2GB data plan for 30d. We figured 2G would be more than enough, but who knows, we
+may actually run out tomorrow :)
+
+Then we set off to Tain where sixteen wise men make whiskey. We got there at about 1:45pm after a leisurely 220 mile drive through the
+Scottish highlands. We bought tickets for the distillery tour starting at 2pm, which was enjoyable. Rachele (our tourguide0 told us a bit of
+the history, the current ownership, production volume (6Mio liters per year), and that they were a sisterdistillery of Ardbeg (also very
+yummy!). They have 12 beautiful copper stills, 6 for the first distill round and 6 for the second distill round. Rachele dispelled a long
+standing urban legend, in that the shape and dents in the stills are allegedly very important for the taste, but she wasn't having any of
+that jazz, smart girl, and said it was just the master distiller's personal taste talking. Speaking of taste, we had a dram (or in my case:
+two \o/) in the tasting room and then went to browse in the shop. I made my choice rather much quicker than Paul did, so we had a
+salesperson explain the differences to us. Striking was, that she asked "Do you want something to enjoy or are you looking for an
+investment?" -- it turns out that if you buy certain bottles now (which will only be sold from one batch that they made 10-12 years ago), it
+can very well be that this becomes a collectors' item in 30 years. But alas, a bottle of Glenmorangie will not last 30 years in my cabinet
+as I'm too thirsty, too often.
+
+After the distillery we went back down to Inverness and through to Drumnadrochit (Bless you!), where there is the Loch Ness visitor center.
+I must admit I found Loch Ness itself somewhat disappointing, perhaps also because it was not swarming with monsters. I'm a sucker for lakes
+with monsters in it. So we went to the visitor center and the last shred of hope I had that Nessie existed was crushed like a ripe cherry
+under large leather boots. The exhibition there was a series of 6 chambers where the story of the lake was told - and it ended with a
+fine-tooth-comb fleet of boats armed with sonar gear, scanning every square meter of the lake from north-eastern side to the south-western
+shores. No monster. Proven with science and data. I now think that science owes me an apology because of all the childhood dreams it killed.
+I picked up a Nessie for Alexis!
+
+We then made our way back to Inverness where Paul had booked us a room at the Travelodge. Upon arrival, the woman said his name rung a bell,
+which did not bode well, and she said that she remembered we were registered for a room yesterday, and we were a no show (obviously, because
+we were at the Travelodge in Livingston ...). Oooops, Paul had booked for the wrong date. So we had to go again, but for some reason or
+other it was cheaper at the desk than it was on-line [which is generally exactly the other way around]. We asked Karalyne, the clerk, for a
+recommendation restaurant-wise and she offered Cafe1 on Castle Street. Right across from the castle we found it, a very nice place indeed.
+Not too fancy, not too cheap. Just right! We pigged out - fresh bread with evo/balsamic, and then an apple/brie/walnut salad for Paul,
+shredded beef springroll for me, followed by Sea Bass with spring vegetables and deep fried [as I write this, Paul and I have a complete
+blank what the thing is called again - Marina knows, because I don't like it. Not couscous, but the other thing, often in triangles and
+fried, .. damn what is the word]. I had a bottle of Pino Griggio and it went well with the fish. For desert, Paul had Scottish cheese
+platter and I had a 40yo (!) Glenfarclas whiskey. I've only once drank a whiskey older than myself (With Lissi). This was very special
+indeed - I counted 18, maybe even 20s of sensation while tasting.
+
+After dinner we went up to the castle for a quick few pictures and to enjoy the view of the river Ness and the surroundings, and I got the
+brilliant pim-idea to go touch the water. Paul reminded me that I had just cracked a full bottle of wine and a scotch, so perhaps my balance
+was not perfect? But I thought quite the opposite: I had just drank a full bottle of wine and a scotch, so my balance felt perfectly
+wonderful to me. We went over the bridge and down some stairs, stood on the bank of river Ness, and pictures were taken of each of us
+touching the water [which was nice'n'cold]. Then from above on the Key, a man started asking us questions. We stood and chatted with this
+elderly couple for a few minutes - she was born dutch (and still had it in her!) and he was born italian. They live in Australia, and come
+to visit Europe on occasion - quite enjoying the fact that in Brittain you can drive on the left side of the road :-)
+
+We made our way to the car and then to the hotel. I watched some TV and snoozed, then just decided to fall asleep right there, for the third
+night in a row before midnight, it's 22:30 and I'm going to bed! Tomorrow we go to Oban and Cairrrrrnrrrryyyyyan *FGGGRSFFT*!
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 8:00 PM**
+
+

content/blog/day5.md

@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 5: Inverness to Cairnryan'
+date: 2013-06-13T14:42:28+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Polenta!
+
+While walking through Oban, I remembered what that dish was that Pim got with his sea bass during dinner last night: Polenta!
+Just thought I'd share that with you really quickly while we drive from Oban to Cairnryan...
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 9:03 AM**
+
+
+## Ain't that quaint
+
+Well, well, ain't that quaint. There's something about bed and breakfasts that creeps me out. I'm not accustomed to going to a "hotel" to
+find the door locked and a sign saying to ring the bell of the door of the house behind the building, but I get ahead of myself. You can
+read all about it later.
+
+This morning, we got up in our doubly-booked Travelodge hotelroom in Inverness. We passed on breakfast (mostly because it is advertised to
+us as "a breakfast box" which reminds me of airplane food in a non-memorable way). Instead, we went to the Morrissons (supermarket) in town,
+and perused the aisles. When we were ogling a pack of olives, a lady who worked there offered that they have a fresh olive bar - so we went
+there instead. We bought Parma ham, cheese, garlic butter, salad, hard boiled eggs, herbs-in-ham, a bottle of milk and a bottle of orange
+juice. I was planning on making a set of prime baguettes, to make the Baguette Express look bad. And I did. In the car, driving 55mph down
+Loch Ness.
+
+Now Paul will have to attest to the utter quality of the grub - the sandwiches were wholesome, subtle (well, his was anyway, mine had 200gr
+of ham and 150gr of cheese and two eggs in it). So here we are, nomming these car-made french bread sticks, and to our left we see a castle.
+We're like: WOW and it is such a beautiful castle that we decide to take a look. It's called Urquhart castle in Drumnadrochit (bless you)
+and it has a significantly large parking lot that I immediately thought "oh, right, we stumbled-upon a landmark here". The dutch couple who
+rocked up in the parking lot next to our car was very surprised "you're dutch but in a swiss car, explain yourself!", so I answered calmly
+and collectively: "I live in Zurich Switzerland". I'm very happy that I was able to explain this mystery to the poor elderly countryman. He
+deserved to know The Truth, you know?
+
+So this castle (ruin) was cool. It had first been built in the 12th century but over time had been conquered and rebuilt a few times. The
+ruins we visited were from the 1500s, and quite a large castle. I much enjoy walking over the grounds, looking at the remaining structure,
+closing the eyes and imagining the buzz in the days of lore. It was a gem which we had not anticipated on finding at all!
+
+Our trip then took us to Oban [which I now know is pronounced "Oh-bun"], arriving there at around 1:30pm. The distillery there is smack in
+the middle of the town, we learned that the town was actually built around the distillery, and as such it can not really grow that much
+anymore - it only has two stills (one mash still and one spirit still). We got a tour at 3pm, so we killed time in two ways; way-one: we got
+fish&chips. Paul got some Haddock+Chips, and because I was feeling somewhat nauseous in the car earlier, I got just a pack of chips with
+lots of vinegar and lots of salt. That was great, but it took us only 15min. So in the other 75min, we hiked up the hill to McCaig's Tower.
+It's a circular structure overlooking the Oban bay. I took my first Little Planet picture there (see my Google+ post). The tour was nice,
+specifically to see the differences between Oban and other distilleries - it's funny because the process is roughly the same for all, but
+each distillery will have a quirk or a different way to handle the barrels.
+
+After Oban, we drove the ~160 miles to Cairnryan. That trip was largely uneventful. We got there at 8:10pm, drove to the next village which
+had our 'Thistle Inn'. Now, holy shit, I don't feel at home here at all. And that's sad, because when we went out back to ring the door bell
+of the house behind the Inn, nobody answered but we heard a man yelling at somebody. Great, we are a party to domestic squabbles... but then
+the guy opens the door and I say I'm here for the inn and I have a booking (oh, please, don't yell at me!). He gets his wife, a wonderful
+smell of their evening dinner wofts through the door, and she goes with us to open the door. We're the only ones in the house at this point,
+in room 3, a family room that reminds me somewhat of the Cheshire Cat from the Gilmore Girls. When we park the car, the guy comes back
+outside to pay compliments to the vehicle - wow that is a nice mercedes car, and oh my, look at those rims, well oh well what a wonderful
+machine. Yeah yeah, STFU, I'm hungry and not in need for your chit chat.
+
+Then here's the problem - these guys are superbly awesome. They interrupted their dinner to let us in, made sure we felt at home, asked when
+we'd like breakfast (well, you're going to leave for Belfast at 6am, so let's skip that shall we?). But still, I'm not necessarily the B&B
+type, so luckily we'll only do the B part and skip the B part.
+
+I made greek salad (red onion, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, cucumber, peppers and olives). We ate it and it's now 9:30pm while I write
+this. I guess I'm going to hang out on the internet for a little bit, take a shower and head off early so that I can actually be awake and
+alive at 5:45 when we wake up to go to the Stenaline docks.
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 1:34 PM**

content/blog/day6.md

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 6: Cairnryan (UK) via Belfast to Sligo (IE)'
+date: 2013-06-13T14:45:12+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Eire
+
+Yesterday morning, we got up really (really) early. Way too early, if you ask me. If you ask Pim too. Even if you ask Stena Line: when we
+got to the dock, we had to wait for 45 minutes before we could board. Luckily, boarding went a lot easier than on the chunnel - a lot more
+room for maneuvering. We parked the car and went to the on board restaurant for some much needed breakfast. The food was meh, but it'd last
+us a couple of hours for sure.
+
+To our pleasant surprise, there was WiFi (from Norway) and GSM (from the USA or Canada) coverage on the boat, so we were online. Since we
+hadn't booked any hotels in Ireland yet, we decided the two and a half hours on the boat would be best spent organizing some accommodation
+for the coming nights. After a rather uneventful trip, we arrived at Belfast harbor at 09:50 so we got into our car and continued our
+journey into Northern Ireland. Our first destination was the third distillery on our list: Bushmills, on the north coast. We got there
+pretty early and did the 11:20 tour. With the Glen Morangie and Oban experiences under our belt, we pretty much knew exactly what was
+coming: Barley, Malting, Grist, Wash, Wort, Still, Cask, Whisk(e)y! The big difference is that Bushmills (like many Irish whiskeys) distills
+their product thrice whereas the Scots tend to have only two distillation runs for their whiskys. The extra still (between the wash still
+and the spirit still) is called the low wines still. We sampled the local cuisine in the on-site restaurant and left with a few bottles of
+whiskey.
+
+Next stop was the Giant's Causeway. We had heard this was a must see site, and since it's very close to Bushmills, we drove there to see
+what was going on. Turns out there's some interesting rock formations on the coast with about 40'000 interlocking basalt columns (these are
+four, five, six and seven sided prisms). It's a beautiful area - after climbing the columns and rocks and taking pictures (like everybody
+else there) we decide to hike up the path along the coast. There are some very impressive views so more photos are taken with Pim shooting
+panoramas and myself taking some nice shots down the steep cliffs. In total, we did a 7 km hike along the coast (doubling back the way we
+came so Pim could get a gps trail of our path with his android). And we got quite lucky with the weather too - dry and mostly sunny!
+
+We leave Bushmills and plot a course to Sligo where we've booked our first hotel in Ireland at the Best Western there. Along the way we come
+across our first real shower. But it doesn't last long and we are soon cruising along accompanied by a bright sun. With the Insane Clown
+Posse providing the beats we hardly notice crossing the border from the UK into Ireland. Really, the only indication is that we're back on
+the metric system when it comes to maximum speeds. But, we are in Ireland! It's a nice drive through a very green landscape and before we
+know it we're in Sligo searching for our Best Western hotel. After a wee bit of back and forth, we find it just outside the city center. The
+place is a bit older but there's two beds and a shower so it'll do nicely.
+
+After inspecting the room we check with Ania, our receptionist, where we can find some local specialties (i.e. lamb). She suggests we go to
+Coach Lane at Donaghy's bar. Another fine recommendation! Pim has a very rich Minestrone soup and I have the pasta with red pepper and
+garlic as a starter. Our mains are an Angus fillet (Pim) and trio of Lamb (me). Both are delicious! It's all so nice I decide to go all out
+and have the in-season fruit crumble with ice cream. Mjam! We're both quite full after this feast so we go for a walk around the town of
+Sligo. Eventually we end up at McGarrigles pub where there's live traditional Irish trad music played by a group of two guys and three girls
+simply sitting in a corner of the pub. There's a really nice atmosphere in the bar (and it's quite popular too, the place is super
+crowded!).  After we finish our drinks, we head back to the hotel - another excellent day has come to an end. Tomorow: Achill!
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 3:22 AM (next day)**

content/blog/day7.md

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 7: Sligo (via Inisheer) to Killarny'
+date: 2013-06-14T14:48:19+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Rain, rain, go away!
+
+There's something strange about Ireland. Yes, it rains, but this is a stereotype that I do not wish to enforce. Unfortunately, one does not
+always get what one wishes for.
+
+This morning we left our happy Best Western hotel in Sligo (which we now know is pronounced "Sly-Go", not "Slee-Go"). The same woman who
+checked us in now had the morning shift - Ania helped us a little bit also with the pronounciation of Achill (Ah-Kill) and did indeed make
+sure we understood the perils of the road ahead. More specifically, she explained that the fluffy white creatures called sheep would happily
+walk over the high way and you had to make absolutely certain that you would not hit them. I was just thinking about dinner, but hey, that's
+probably because I'm an insensitive chauvinist pig^Wsheep. Then also, she said to please please watch out for the sheer and steep cliffs. If
+a bus would come towards us, we would likely fall over the rim there, and drop ourselves miles-deep into the ocean. And all I was thinking
+is that bus best not touch my rims, or I would have my way with the bus driver.
+
+So off we went, to find some grub. That turned out to be remarkably hard in Sligo, but only if you are foreigners. I had looked up the
+address of the Three store because unfortunately, despite having a data plan called "All You Can Eat", yesterday I saw a quick succession of
+SMS texts from our good friend Three.IE saying "you have spent 6.16EUR in data fees", then "you have spent 11.54EUR in data fees", followed
+quite rapidly by a "15.72EUR" and then a "You have spent 20.00EUR, you have been disconnected."  Please for to come again! Jackasses. So off
+to the city center [sic] we went, only to not find either a food unit dispenser company, nor a telephone internet repair man shop. So I did
+a non-Pim thing and went over to some guys working in construction and asked them, only to be told they have no idea in some form of Irish
+dialect that sounded more like he wanted to bash my skull in. See, that is exactly why I do not do that type of thing. Le sigh...
+
+So we asked another person about the Three shop ("The whatnow?" - The phone shop, please?) and quickly got directed to "a" phoneshop, of
+course not Three, but O2. I thought fuckit, I'd just go ahead and buy myself a new simcard then - and as in Doncaster, it turned out to be
+remarkably hard for the lady at the shop to log in to the O2 system, and we loitered for about 20 minutes while she attempted to register
+the sale. Finally that worked, and we were back in business again, internet wise.
+
+As we turned out of the shop and back onto the street, the huge mall caught our attention. Of course nobody found it necessary to tell these
+bloody foreigners about the big-ass mall, which had ample food unit dispensing companies (I got a smoked salmon sandwhich, Paul got a
+Panino). Oh wait, "panino" - we had a discussion about that. I called it a Panini, such as I would figure approximately 99.73% of the world.
+Yet Paul loves being the minority somehow, and insists that the singular is Panino, plural Panini. I later that day giggled like a girl when
+I said the word Maffioso when describing Mickey Blue Eyes. I would never have said "Hugh Grant plays a Maffiosi". Damnit, WEiRD, I hate it
+when you're right!
+
+Our tour takes us to the perilous cliffs of Achill. It was a terrible drive, and I was not comfortable at all. This could have been the
+gushing rain, non stop, endless and mindnumbing amounts of water falling from the skies. But really, it was the puddles. The roads there are
+maybe 4.5m wide (two 2.2m lanes), no shoulder, and often bushes and shrubs which are acutely close to the roadside. The road, moreover,
+probably had its last service in 1608 [which, coincidentally is the founding date of the Bushmills Distillery company!!], and so it had
+rather large potholes. Which were filled with water, and overflowing into significant puddles [there are countries in which these things
+would be called lakes, I figured]. So what happens if you drive an SUV with 295mm tires through a puddle with one side, while the other side
+is on pavement? Yes. It pulls to the left like a boss. But on the left there is much bush and shrub. And on the right is that lorry that's
+passing you at also a delta-v of way over 120kmh. Did I mention that the puddle is deep, and therefor sprays a few buckets of water over
+your windshield. Do note, all of these things happen in the same 500-1000 milliseconds and honestly, my brain was failing to comprehend it
+all. I've had more enjoyable drives :-)
+
+When we got to the end of Achill, where the road stops, there is a rather beautiful beach, which was not necessarily beautiful today,
+because it was raining cats and dogs, and windy to the point that we could hear the wind howling over the car stereo. We hazarded to get out
+and we tried to approach the sandy beach, but honestly, the wind and sand and mud and rain and and and. So we went back to the car, and
+instead drove up to the dam. Many sheep again, we took some pictures, otherwise just retreated back inland where the wind was not so
+ferocious and the water not quite as wet.
+
+We had some lunch at a roadside place called Ostan Oiliann [www.achillislandhotel.com]. Somewhat excessive again, I had a vegetable soup and
+Paul and I both had a steak sandwich [which were actually two steaks on a garlic baguette with mushrooms and onions, and fries, and
+coleslaw, and a salad]. I felt stuffed like a turkey, so I snoozed a bit while Paul drove onwards to Galway. We had booked a cozy B&B again,
+Summerville, and it's just outside of the city, overlooking the Galway bay. Really nice house this time, friendly folks who let us in and
+showed us the room. We hung out a little bit and then headed into town for some dinner. We chose a place in the middle of town called the
+Malt House. It was very good, and I skipped the wine (and most of dinner) because I'm feeling increasingly guilty about eating so much food.
+I took two starters (a rocket [nee, arugula!] soup, and smoked salmon), while Paul took boneless pork ribs, then a ribeye steak, and then
+local cheese platter. I felt significantly less full now, which was good. It left room for two pints of Guiness, of which Paul made an
+#Autoawesome (see my Google+ post for that gem).
+
+After that we walked around a little bit, but the rain is just no fun, so we went to find our car and drove back to Summerville. When we got
+there, it promptly stopped raining. I think this is the cosmos trying to tell me something, but I haven't yet figured out what. As I write
+this, I've booked us a cozy unpronounceable B&B for tomorrow around Killarney (it's called "Lios Na Manach Farmhouse" for the terminally
+curious), and also a boat trip from Doolin to the Aran islands and the Cliffs of Moher. We have to be at the docks there at 10:30am, which
+gives us some 2.5hrs to have breakfast and drive the 80km via the windy coastal roads to there. Google says we can do that in 1h17m, which
+leaves plenty of time for breakfast. Oh my, oh my oh deary lordy my, I'm actually doing the B (laying on the B as I type this) as well as
+the B (I hope they have a good coffee) today.
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 3:10 PM**
+
+

content/blog/day8.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 8: Killary: Aran Islands and Cliffs of Moher'
+date: 2013-06-15T14:49:53+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## Inisheer and pukie
+
+Our plan today was to go to the Aran Islands on a boat tour and take a good look at the Cliffs of Moher (preferably from the ocean-view, not
+from the land-view). That sort of, kind of succeeded, but not quite perfectly.
+
+After breakfast which Mary from Summerville B&B lovingly prepared for us, we took a short drive down from Galway to Doolin. We found the
+harbor just fine, there were several boating agencies happy to push us a trip, but I had already booked us a duo-package (once to the first
+Aran Island, called Inis Oirr (Inisheer in English, and once from that island along the coast line of the Cliffs of Moher).
+
+I had the foresight to turn on GPS logging this time, so you'll find a nice mytrack on my public Google+ page. The boat trip was not calm at
+all, there were reasonably high waves and we were cruising along at 10 knots (or 19 kmh for all you land-lovers out there). Our boat was the
+Doolin Discovery, a ~40 person small ferry. I stood on the top deck trying not to blow off of the ship, while Paul took a more leisurely sit
+in the cabin with the other non-crazy passengers. I just love the concept of "uitwaaien", but the spray was a little bit wet :-)
+
+When we got to the island, about 35 minutes along, we had a long time to hang out there (about 2.5hrs to be exact). We decided to walk the
+"green" trail (as opposed to the purple trail). The trail was about 8km long and we know we can ace that, hands down, blisters up. The
+island has three features that I could tell - on the top there is an old castle, called O'Brien's castle. It looked pretty busted up though.
+On the shore, there is a medium sized freight ship that ran into the island, a big rusty memory of more prosperous times (for the captain,
+anyway). And finally there's the mandatory light house.
+
+We walked over the trail through very wildly divided grass lands - there are these typical walls made of stones, and there were hundreds of
+small (100-250 m2) plots of land. Some had farm animals (cattle, horses, sheep), some had nothing but grass. I took many pictures of the
+ship, we then made our way up to the highest point of the island and the castle thereupon. It's a cube-shaped tower, run down but
+accessible. We hung out in and around it for a bit, and then made the rest of the loop back down, landing at the docks at just before 2pm in
+time for our scheduled departure. All this time during the walk the sun shone and it was rather pleasant, one might even say too hot for our
+coats! When we came back to the harbor, it began to rain, cold, thick and windy.
+
+Some sausages were consumed, some water was drank, and when a boat came, it turns out it was the wrong one, and we had to wait 20min for our
+Doolin Discovery. When she came, we quickly climbed aboard, anxious to see the cliffs, but more motivated, still, to get out of the rain!
+The ocean was not friendly this time. We all sat inside because of the wind and rain, and about half a dozen people had their little
+sickbags. Paul and I were not seasick, but I have to tell you, seeing this lady gush out vomit into her sickbag did make me burp a few
+times... I never realized that nausea and vomiting was transitive!
+
+But then came our surprise, we didn't actually go to the cliffs, but rather directly back to Doolin. We thought a bit about complaining
+about this fact, but at this point you could see no more than 100m, and the water was very aggressive, so we figured it would be our loss,
+if we insisted to go see the cliffs of Moher. So off we were to Killarney and the Lios Na Manach B&B for the night.
+
+We were greeted at the door by a young girl, maybe 10 years old, and she handled the check-in for us. She showed us our room, asked us if
+we'd like a cup of tea or coffee, and when we'd like to have breakfast (8:30 sounds like a good time), and then went back to watch
+Dragonball-Z on the TV. Cute! Perhaps her parents are training her up to take over the B&B later on, but either way, I much enjoyed to be
+lead to my room this way.
+
+We unpacked the bags and took off for Killarney as it was already 6:15pm. We walked around the town and saw the pubs, main streets and other
+features of the city, and then settled on a restaurant in a hotel, called Killarney Royal. My soup was great, but for some reason I decided
+to order Tagliatelli which really wasn't my cup of pasta. It was full of thick cream and I don't like that, I don't like it at all. Paul
+went for a more accepted steak, and had a cheese platter after - but to his disappointment only one cheese actually came from Ireland, the
+others were German, French and Austrian. Oh well, better luck next time.
+
+Back at the hotel - I'm going to update Google+ and share the pictures from today. Tomorrow we're going to drive the Ring of Kerry and end
+up in Cork. G'nite!
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 1:42 PM**

content/blog/day9.md

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+---
+title: 'Day 9: Killarny to Cork'
+date: 2013-06-16T14:51:14+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+## The watery ring of Kerry
+
+Oh, Ireland. Such diverse weather! A slight drizzle, standard rain, rain with wind, heavy showers .. and this is
+just in one day! When we got up this morning, it was actually almost dry. After a bit of a disappointing breakfast we decide to visit the
+Ross Castle (Caisleán an Rois in Irish) on the shores of Lough Leane. We're there before they open up, so we seek shelter from the rain
+while we wait the few minutes until the doors open up at 09:30 sharp. After purchasing two tickets for the guided tour (which is to start at
+10), we visit the exhibition room to learn a bit about the castle's history. At ten o'clock Tom the Tourguide shows up and shows us around
+the castle. There are lots of defensive mechanisms built into the castle, and we learn about some interesting history facts along the way.
+Must've been pretty tough living in such a castle back in the day, but at least the view over the lake is spectacular (must be even better
+when the sun is actually shining).
+
+After the tour, the rain has gotten worse, so we quickly jump in the car and continue our road trip. The plan is to drive around the ring of
+Kerry, which we've heard a lot about. We'll just hope the weather will improve. Our first planned stop on the ring (not counting the castle)
+will be the Gap of Dunloe. It's only a short drive up there from Killarney, but unfortunately it's still raining. We decide to skip the gap
+and look for better (or at least drier) sights to see. We continue along the ring and see many beautiful places, all covered in dark clouds
+and very, very wet. We stop in a small town along the ring on a foraging mission. Salmon, salami, cheese, ham, baguettes and milk are
+acquired and we drive on.
+
+Pim prepares our lunch as the kilometers (and liters of rain) fly by. At one point it seems to clear up a bit as the windscreen wipers fall
+back to interval mode. But alas, all good things come to an end and before we know it we're back in a proper shower. Just before Sneem (this
+is a town in Kerry county, Ireland, not a character in a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings book), we hit 4096 kilometers on the odometer!
+(the wonders of switching between the imperial and metric systems...)
+
+So, we've just checked into the Radisson blu hotel in Cork. Let's find out what we can do around these parts (preferably something that
+doesn't involve being outside, as it is still raining).
+
+**Posted by Paul de Weerd at 9:06 AM**

content/blog/the-idea.md

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+---
+title: 'The Idea for Ireland'
+date: 2013-05-22T14:24:13+02:00
+Tags: []
+Categories: []
+---
+
+The idea for Ireland - Arrive in Belfast on June 13. Leave Dublin on June 18th.
+
+1.  **Marker A**: Belfast
+1.  **Marker B**: Giant's Causeway
+1.  **Marker C**: Achill
+1.  **Marker D**: Cliffs of Moher (and the Aran Islands)
+1.  **Marker E**: Killarney
+1.  **Marker F**: Blarney Castle (and kiss the Stone)
+1.  **Marker G**: Newgrange
+1.  **Marker H**: Dublin
+
+{{< image src="/img/map-idea.png" width="600px" >}}
+
+**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 7:23 AM**