The recent collapse of Stobart Air (which had taken over Aer Arann a few years back) reminded me of how much I loved Aer Arann back in the day.  I had the good fortune to fly into and out of some of Ireland’s tiny regional airports with Aer Arann and remember well the wonderful service they gave.  There was something magical about checking in for those little turbo-prop planes, checking in your luggage and seeing it being brought across the tarmac to the cargo hold of the plane on a trailer, having only one air steward who welcomed you on-board with a smile, did the 

I’ve always been fascinated by historic places. I can almost hear the resonance of footsteps and voices of those who have walked those paths before us.  In 2001, (I can’t believe it’s 20 years ago!) I decided to go see the Holy Land and Egypt with Peggy and chose a cruise on-board the Olympic Voyager.  Sadly, after booking, we were informed that the itinerary had been altered due to tensions in the Middle East so the Holy Land was taken out in favour of an extra night in Egypt.  We were still excited to be heading off to see the Pyramids and Sphinx of course. 

I remember so well that when we finally got to Giza (and got past the hassle of the hawkers), it felt very surreal to be finally standing beside these ancient man-made constructions: the Great Pyramid of Khufu (constructed c. 2580-2560 BC) and the Sphinx (built  during the reign of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, Khafre c. 2558-2532 BC!!). 

As we stood there in awe, we were greeted by a local man of indeterminate age and very few teeth.  He took a shine to Peggy and offered me seven camels for her as he needed a wife.  Having considered briefly how I could house 7 camels in the underground carpark of my Gardiner Street apartment…not to mention what to do with all that camel dung….I had to politely decline his generous offer.  Peggy’s response was “at least find me a fella with his own teeth”! 😊
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So this blog covers where we went and what we saw.  I hope you enjoy!

So in Sept 2002, I spent a glorious week in Tuscany (Italy) with my buddies Ailish and Aideen. We took an early morning flight from Dublin to Bologna with Air 2000 which took only 2 ½ hours.  There we picked up our rental car, with Ailish being the driver and me being the navigator!  We had all been pretty busy at work so this trip was intended to be relaxing with a bit of sight-seeing thrown in for good measure.  We had picked a farm stay way out in the country but within easy reach of beautiful cities like Florence and Siena.

As we belted down the autostrade that first afternoon heading for our accommodation for the week, the gorgeous Fattoria di Nerbona, I think we fell in love with this region instantly.  Olive groves and vineyards as far as the eye could see, rolling hills and picturesque towns: Tuscany is home to some places that are too beautiful to be true.  The remains of fields of sunflowers were still visible but had nearly all been harvested by that stage.