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| 2010 Calendar
Israel-May 21-June 2
Ireland - Mid Summer
Maui - Early Fall
Italy - Late Fall |
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Second Issue of Newsletter
Didn't receive the first BookLover's Travel newsletter sent out in December? That's probably because we were in trial mode so our distribution list was limited. We received lots of great feedback from our readers, so from now on we will be sending the monthly newsletter to our full distribution list. To see Issue #1 focusing on our Israel trip, click here.
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Update: Israel 2010
Is Israel on your list of must-see places? Now's the time. Join us. We still have space available for our Holy Land Tour. If you are interested click here Israel 2010 Tour
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From the Celts to the Celtic Tiger
Experience the Ireland of today in the context of the rich history and stirring words of the indomitable Irish.
Our 15-day/14-night odyssey begins and ends in Dublin with additional overnights in Cong, Clifden, Inishmore, Galway, Dingle, Kinsale and Glendalough.
Visit prehistoric sites, see remnants of the 1,000-year culture of the Celts and learn about the 700+ years Ireland was under English rule.
Learn about the plight of the Irish Catholics and the Irish rebels who fought their English landlords.
Hear about Irish pirates and priests, martyrs and monks, and the writers who fought injustices with their pens instead of with swords and guns.
Explore all aspects of Ireland: bogs, cliffs, mountains, valleys, islands, gardens and the bleak Burren.
Visit famine cottages to ancient castles to the "Big Houses" of the Anglo-Irish landlords.
Have opportunities to buy Irish arts and crafts, sample Irish cuisine, and of course explore the Irish pub culture, with its traditional songs and dances.
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"Ireland is where strange tales begin
and happy endings are possible." Charles Haughey
Local Irish Links
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Who does what?
During our sojourn around Ireland, Connie provides mini-lectures about the people and places and the literature and history. Des, our driver-guide, fills in with stories, songs and other Irish tidbits. And Cynthia makes sure everything runs smoothly: where we stay, entrances to sites, specialty tours, places to eat, and all of the logistics. |
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BookWoman Column
Each month, the BookWoman column features one of the books we've suggested for our tours. In addition to being an excellent way to prepare for travel to places like Israel, Maui, Ireland or Italy, the booklists are a good place for armchair travelers to begin their own book-loving journeys. See the full booklist for the Ireland tour on the website. |
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Travel Tips Column
Each month this column will highlight a travel tip about such topics as safety, security, packing, and staying healthy while traveling. Some travel tips may serve only as a reminder while others may be new to you. Send us your best travel tips and we'll include them in one of the newsletters.
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| Ireland Fall 2010: Two Weeks on the Emerald Isle |
From the Celts to the Celtic Tiger, BookLover's Travel's tour of Ireland in May 2009, was a great success. We were a small group of Wild Irish Rovers who journeyed around Ireland for two weeks in a luxury van with our delightful Irish driver/guide. We've tweaked the itinerary a bit and are ready to offer another Irish sojourn in 2010, this time in the mid summer. Think about joining us: there's still room and we'd love to have you.
The trip will start in Dublin, where we'll plunge into Irish history with a walking tour and a visit to the illuminated manuscript of the Book of Kells at Trinity College. We'll attend evensong at St. Patrick's Cathedral, tour a remarkable exhibit on the life and literature of Nobel Prize winner W.B. Yeats and enjoy our first of many wonderful Irish meals in the lively Temple Bar area. Then we'll begin our journey around Ireland. We will walk in the footsteps of the early Celts at their passage graves and stone forts; visit sites that were part of the pilgrimages of several Irish saints, especially St. Patrick; hear about the struggles the Irish have had through centuries of British rule; see reminders of the devastating famines of the 1850s; and tour castles, Big Houses, churches, graveyards and gardens.
Reading the books on the suggested reading list will prepare us to walk in the footsteps of these real and fictional characters. We will visit sites related to several writers, such as Yeats and James Joyce, but it won't be all history and literature. We will shop, take a boat ride in a loch and a ferry ride to the Aran Islands, visit dramatic scenery, formal gardens, and pristine beaches, and experience Irish camaraderie and lively music in the pubs throughout the Emerald Isle. And of course we will meet lots and lots of Irish sheep!
For more info or to sign up go to www.bookloverstravel.com
See photos of our last tour of Ireland in a blog written by one of our tour members: Garnet's Travels
Cynthia and Connie
BookLover's Travel |
| "Dessing" Around Ireland |
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After two trips with Des Murphy, our Irish driver/guide, we have coined a new word: "dessing." The definition is to "take the high road, or the low road, or anything in between, except the main road." In planning the trip to Ireland, neither one of us was brave enough to drive on the "other side" and public transportation often doesn't go to the wee Irish villages and certainly not along the colorful back roads. So, our self-proclaimed leprecaun Des chauffered us around Ireland in a luxurious Mercedes van, and in the process he came to epitomize the best of Ireland for us.
Born and bred in Ireland and now residing on the scenic Dingle Peninsula, Des provided the personal side of Ireland, all too often missing from big tours. He knew all the best places to stop for authentic pub grub, steered us to the best venues for traditional music, and regaled us with stories of the people and history of the places we were visiting. He taught us Irish words and phrases and delighted us with his traditional and contemporary Irish songs, sung in his lilting tenor voice. He even called his mum and got her personal recipe for soda bread for us.
After our first journey with Des, we attended a play in Dublin and were pleased to find we could understand the Irish vernacular and could laugh right along with the locals. Just one of the many advantages of "dessing" in Ireland! |
| From the Road |
| I Took My Grandmother Back to Ireland
Last May, when I went to Ireland with BookLover's Travel, I took my grandmother along, but she had to stay in my suitcase for the two weeks we traveled. The trip was the fulfillment of my lifetime dream. We saw breathtaking sights, amazing structures and beautiful rolling green countryside.
On our trip to Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, everything shut down so that the whole town could attend the funeral and wake of a local man. Tradition and honoring the dead in Ireland is as important today as it was over 5,000 years ago when the burial sites at Newgrange and Carrowmore were built.
Unfortunately, all I knew from my grandmother, who was born in County Cork in 1876, was "we were poor." End of discussion. If she could rise from the grave, she would have a different view of today's Ireland, especially the rich countryside of Derryvillaine, where she was born. She would enjoy the family style pubs and traditional Irish music as well as the beautiful cathedrals.
Searching for my grandmother's birth certificate was not a part of the tour, but the group of wonderful women I traveled with agreed to make a few detours. In Dublin, while the rest of the group toured the Yeats exhibit at the National Library, Cynthia and I combed the records looking for my grandmother's birth certificate, only to find the record book we needed was missing. The library clerk suggested we telephone the parish where my grandmother was born. With the help of the secretary of a Catholic priest, I finally obtained a copy of this document in Cork City. Everyone waiting in the van cheered when I arrived with birth certificate in hand.
At our farewell dinner, I surprised everyone by producing the colored tin plate of my grandmother's wedding picture which had traveled with us snugly in my suitcase. I set the picture on the table and introduced my grandmother to her fellow travelers. Since coming home, I have applied for Irish citizenship, so a piece of Ireland will always remain with me.
Mary (Seattle, Washington) |
| BookWoman |
Ireland by Frank Delaney
I admit it: I love to get my history lessons in story form. The people, the interactions, the telling details of fiction all grab me more than lists of facts and figures about historical people and events. If you're like me, then pick up Frank Delaney's Ireland and be transported through Irish history with your own private tutor.
The framework of this novel is the story of an itinerant storyteller, wandering around Ireland and paying for his bed and board by telling stories. During a visit to a small town, this storyteller so captivates the mind and imagination of 9-year-old Ronan that the boy spends much of his life pursuing this teller of Irish tales. Within this framework, we hear the storyteller's tales encompassing much of the history and many of the names long associated with Ireland.
In his author's note, Delaney says, "Beneath all the histories of Ireland, from the present day through her long troubled relationship with England and back to the earliest times, there has always been another, less obvious reporter speaking--the oral tradition, Ireland's vernacular narrative, telling the country's tale to her people in stories handed down since God was a boy...to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough; this is a country that reprocesses itself through the mills of its imagination."
Several of the storyteller's tales focus on famous sites in Ireland, including the building of the passage grave at Newgrange, the Battle of the Boyne, and the myths related to the Rock of Cashel. Other tales present the people who figured prominently in Irish history: such as St. Patrick, St. Brendan, Brian Boru, Strongbow, Jonathan Swift, Daniel O'Connor and W.B. Yeats. Battles, rebellions, the famine, the myths and legends of Ireland all come alive through the words of Delaney's storyteller.
As I read the storyteller's first-person narratives, I felt like the young Ronan, listening to these fascinating tales of the men and women of Irish history, and at the end of each story, wanting more. Ireland by Frank Delaney is a perfect book to read before traveling to Ireland or for the armchair traveler who has a hankering to hear the stories of Ireland.
Connie |
| Travel Tips |
| Travel Insurance: Don't leave the country without it
When I left my purse in a taxi on my last night in Bangkok, I had broken several of my own travel rules by keeping my money and passport in my purse instead of under my clothes. Gone were my passport, airline ticket, credit cards, traveler's checks, and money! Filing the police report did nothing but confirm that I would never see my belongings again. Returning to my hotel, I telephoned my travel insurance company and was assured that to the extent of my coverage I would be reimbursed for hotel and meal expenses while I waited in Bangkok for passport to be reissued. Any fees associated with changing my airline ticket would also be paid. Fortunately, my travel companion had some money; otherwise my insurance company would have needed to arrange for a bank wire transfer as well.
Over the 35 years that I have been traveling, I have seen everything from the loss of a passport, to serious back pain requiring chiropractic care (just about any flight these days can cause that one!) travelers' tummy, kidney stones that wouldn't pass requiring surgery and a 7-day hospital stay, broken eardrums, death of family member, not to mention the common lost or delayed baggage scenario. This is why I strongly recommend purchasing travel insurance if you are leaving the country. Look for a plan that covers trip cancellation and interruption, baggage loss and delay, emergency medical care, and emergency medical transportation, and has a 24-hour helpline to assist you with your problems. Today, there are plans that will even allow you to cancel for any reason!
Protect yourself, as well as the time and money you invest in your trip. BookLover's Travel includes insurance for all of our tour members. Here is a link to a very good company with whom I have personal experience!
Cynthia |
| BookLover's Travel |
Adventures fueled by books to destinations around the world
We explore the art, history, and culture of destinations around the world, having read novels, mysteries, and non-fiction books set in the places we visit. BookLover's Travel tours contain something for any booklover and every traveler.
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." St. Augustine
Cynthia van de Erve and Connie Freeland
BookLover's Travel | |
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