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London, Ireland, Madrid & Nice

Doug Mahugh

• 5 min read
London, Ireland, Madrid & Nice

We've never taken a full 3-week vacation before. This could get addictive! This post includes a few favorite photos from our trip.

We flew from Seattle to London, where we spent the night of our 13th wedding anniversary in a hotel with a spectacular view of Tower Bridge. Unexpected bonus: we arrived during the London Marathon, and watched it from our room.
Next stop was Galway, Ireland. I'm not saying it's a party town, but this was the only hotel we've ever stayed in that had complimentary ear plugs in the room.
We took a day trip from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher. It was a rainy day, but we saw many castles and other sights from the bus.
Next was Cork, Ireland, where we visited spectacular St. Colman's Cathdral on the island of Cobh.
On the bus to Glenbeigh, we passed Carrauntoohil, Ireland's tallest mountain.
Glenbeigh is on the Ring of Kerry along the southwestern coast of Ireland. It was by far the smallest town we stayed in. 
A clear spring night in Glenbeigh
A couple of miles down the Kerry Way trail at Rossbeigh, we had a great dinner and watched the sunset over the North Atlantic.
Our first stop on the continent was Madrid, where we spent four days in the Centro district walking, shopping, eating, drinking, and visiting friends.
The view from our room at the Albert 1'er in Nice, France. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and had to wait for the yellow vest protest march to pass before we could get to our hotel, then a loud AC/DC cover band played in that park late into the night. Perfect.
Nice, France
A day trip by train to Monaco and then into Italy, where we had a quiet drink and an octopus appetizer along the beach in Ventimiglia before heading back to Nice for dinner. Ventimiglia was the least tourist-oriented place we visited, a sleepy little town on the Italian Riviera.
for our final night in Nice, we had dinner on the beach at Neptune Plage.
We wrapped up the trip with a flight to London, the Paddington Express to South Kensington, dinner with friends at Kitchen W8, then a quiet day of wandering the Hyde Park area before checking out the Twilight Zone play. (Recommended!) 
A few of the many spectacular meals we enjoyed!