#lighthouse – ourhoppytravels

Take a break from Dublin city and head over to Howth, a picturesque little fishing village in Dublin county offering gorgeous panoramic views of the Irish sea.

Two weeks ago, we visited Howth (pronounced Hoth). It’s just 30 minutes away from the Dublin city centre and makes for a great break from the city. We hopped on a DART and took a short ride along the Irish coastline.

As we stepped out of the station, we saw that the Howth weekend market was on. We wandered in to find something to fill our hungry stomachs.

It was a lovely little market with jewellery, some handcrafted items, freshly baked bread, dried fruits, candy and lots of other delicious little bites. They also offered an interesting variety of cuisines for the ones craving bigger bites. Being a fan of Mexican food, we packed ourselves a Quesadilla and Burrito and headed over to the pier to find a cosy spot to have our lunch by the sea.

Having stuffed ourselves happy, we were ready to start exploring little Howth. We walked around the harbor for a bit. It’s a pretty little harbor with plenty of sailboats docked at the harbor entrance and a few spread around the bay.

IMG_9813 (5) — It was good weather the day we visited Howth – sunny and dry

Perfect weather for a great cliff walk. The Howth Cliff Path Loop is a 6 to 10 km walk that will take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours depending on which loop you take. There are 4 loops; some are longer and more difficult. We opted for the easier one as it was our first cliff walk in Ireland and we were setting off on our walk in the evening.

Head towards the east side of the promenade for the cliff walk. You’ll see rocky shores just before you begin the steep climb up Balscadden Road.

There’s a bunch of lovely houses along the way, all boasting of stunning seaside views and beautiful courtyards. Wouldn’t mind waking up to this view!

IMG_9826 (2) — See the guy on the little rock luring in a catch?

Howth seems to be a popular spot for the angling enthusiasts.

The island you see just ahead in the picture above is the Ireland’s Eye and the one further ahead is the Lambay island. Ireland’s Eye is home to a variety of sea birds and in a short 15 minutes, you could be in the bird sanctuary. On the island is also an old Christian monastery. The island is fairly secluded and has a nice little beach from what we hear and it could be a good spot for an afternoon picnic. We were unable to visit Ireland’s Eye this time but plan to make it there on our next Howth visit.

As you approach the end of the short ascent on Balscadden Road, you’ll see a car park and just ahead of that a gravel steep path. This is the starting point to the Cliff Walk. If you are unable to make the cliff walk, you can just park your car here and go on a short 5 min climb up the gravel trail. This will lead you up to the cliff top where you are rewarded with breathtaking views of the Irish sea.

It’s a beautiful trail! The sea is just 50 metres below you and looks utterly fascinating as you walk along the cliff edges.

As you continue your walk, you’ll see plenty of jagged rocks where someone’s jumping off for a swim or fishing for a big catch.

IMG_9916 (4) — The views are mesmerising and all you’d want to do is stop and stare

The trails weren’t crowded as you can see. We did the walk later in the day and so we escaped most of the tourist crowd and ran into just a few locals. The trail gets narrower in some places but you should have enough room to allow a fellow walker to pass by.

Do take care as you walk though – you are after all walking on the edge and there’s nothing but the deep blue ocean below you. The terrain is a bit rugged but is a well-worn trail popular with locals and tourists alike.

It can get mucky and slippery when it rains so make sure you have the right footwear! And, may not be a wise idea to do the cliff walk on a bad weather day.

The cliff path takes a whole bunch of turns through the 6 kilometre walk and as you move further along the loop, the views change as well.

The Baily Lighthouse on Howth Head comes into view as you near the Howth Summit. The mountains you see in the distance are the Wicklow mountains, known for its stunning scenery and pristine lakes.

You can continue your cliff walk and do the full 10 km by heading towards the lighthouse. We decided to take a turn towards the uphill path that leads to the Summit car park area.

IMG_9988 (3) — View from the Howth Summit

At the car park, you have the option to continue on the loop and take the path running parallel to the uphill path to return to the Howth station. We decided to take a break and grab a pint at the Summit Inn.

It was well worth the stop as this pint of Guinness is an excellent pint of the delicious dark beauty – it had a great creamy head that stayed all the way thru to its last drop!

We headed back to the Howth Harbor by bus and got off at a stop close to the East pier. We arrived in time to watch the sunset and it was just spectacular with dramatic clouds looming above.

The Howth East Pier walk is wonderful, especially at sundown. The tourist crowd was long gone and except for a few locals walking their dogs, we had the whole pier for ourselves to explore.

Colorful little sailboats dot the bay on one side and the beautiful Irish sea laps on rocky shores on the other.

At the end of the pier, you reach the Howth Harbor Lighthouse. There’s some interesting history behind this fine structure that was also used for defensive purposes.

Further ahead, you’ll find this little beacon tower – it is a great spot to take a break and admire the magnificent Irish sea before heading back.

We stopped for dinner at The Bloody Stream, a lovely pub although the name might indicate otherwise. It’s right at the station so quite convenient to head straight to your train. We finally got our craft beer pint in this little pub and were ecstatic. They serve just the Hope beers (one of Dublin’s good craft breweries) and of course the traditional Irish beers were also on tap.

It was the perfect end to a perfect day. Howth is a little hidden gem in Dublin that is well worth a visit!

Lake Constance or Bodensee (as it is popularly known in Germany) is a beautiful lake that borders Germany, Switzerland, and Austria near the Alps.

It is the third largest lake in Central Europe and was formed by the Rhine Glacier. There are many lovely cities, little towns, and islands in Bodensee.

Our first stop was Friedrichshafen, the capital of the Bodensee district. This is an industrial city famous for the Zeppelin, an airship that was launched here in 1900. It flew for the first time over the Bodensee and was used for commercial air travel until the 1930s.

img_3507-2 — A much smaller replica of the Zeppelin offering rides in the Bodensee region

We would have loved to visit the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen but unfortunately couldn’t make it during this visit. The city itself seemed nice enough; we had time to just visit the harbor front which was right opposite the train station. The place was filled with people just strolling around and lying on the grass enjoying themselves in the sun (it was the first month with proper sunshine after a long winter in Germany). We couldn’t see much of this lovely city and definitely want to go back here someday soon.

Our next stop was Lindau, one of the larger and more picturesque towns in Bodensee. We approached Lindau in a train and all you could see on either side was gorgeous blue water with pretty little yachts sailing lazily. It is nestled on the lake in front of Austria’s Pfänder Mountain and you can see wonderful views of the Alps. It is especially known for its harbor entrance with the Lighthouse and Bavarian Lion sculpture. The harbor view is as beautiful in the night as it is in the day.

img_3387-2 — Lindau Lighthouse (at night)

Lindau is such a cosy little town. Not too far away from the Lighthouse is the town hall, displaying some intricate and interesting paintings.

And in the area around there is a fountain with some nice sculptures. We enjoyed our little walk through the town and were ready to fill our hungry stomachs. The little town has some wonderful restaurants that plate up some delicious meals and serve some of the most divine wines. We ate at the Hotel Reutemann, the orange building you can see in this picture below. Sitting here and watching the sun go down and the lighthouse lighting up not so far away made for a very special evening.

View of the Mangenturm Tower (Old Lighthouse)

We headed back to Markdorf, another little town in Bodensee where we were staying through our trip. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Markdorf. It’s a nice little town with a beautiful church, some cute fountains, and some of the loveliest houses with gorgeous views of the Alps and the lake. We stayed at one such house that we had found via Airbnb and this was our first Airbnb experience and we absolutely loved it! The host was friendly and the house was simply perfect – it had a wonderful sit-out where we spent many an evening gazing at the star-lit sky with a glass of wine, just enjoying the silence of the mountains and the lake not so far away.

The next day, we visited Insel Mainau or more popularly known as Flower Island. It is one gigantic gorgeous park that’s got the prettiest and most varied collection of flowers I have ever seen and a well-done landscape with interesting art as you can see in the image above. It’s got a bunch of other attractions including a butterfly house and castle. The best time to visit would be in spring, for the tulip blossom, which finishes off by mid May. We got there just after and they had the summer bloom which is just as lovely with a wide variety of roses and other flowers on display. It takes a few good hours to walk through the island but it’s totally worth it and you can take a quick pause and sit at one of the many benches you’ll find by the shore, offering you wonderful views of the lake. We left the island on a boat and saw beautiful little towns pass us by before we got off at Konstanz.

The Imperia is one of the most famous landmarks of Lake Constance and is in Konstanz, possibly the largest city on the Bodensee. This statue is 9 metres high, weighs 18 tonnes, and stands on a pedestal that rotates around its axis once every four minutes. The statue was erected in the late 1900s and created a huge controversy and you can see why. The story revolving around the statue is interesting.. It’s undoubtedly an admirable piece of work making a bold statement!

We walked around the city a bit and grabbed some dinner and finally had some good beer – and we had a huge stroke of luck as we ended up finding some craft beer! Maisel & Friends brew some amazing craft beer and we are glad we got to try out some of their ales in this little beer bar/restaurant in Konstanz. Their Stefan’s Indian Ale is highly recommended – a wonderfully citrusy, hoppy Indian Pale Ale. You know every time we find great craft beer in Germany, we are just super kicked about how well this country (that has been the pioneers in beer and has been stubbornly brewing its Pils and Weizens for centuries) is embracing new forms of brewing.

We spent all of the next day in Meersburg, best known for its vineyards. Although we love our beer, we indulge in wine every so often and the Bodensee region has some of the best wines southern Germany has to offer. We had a mouth-watering meal with a few glasses of their finest red wines at one of the lake-side restaurants.

img_3533-2 — View of Meersburg from our boat

We then lazed around in the sun on one of the benches near the Magische Säule or Magic Column, created by Peter Lenk – the same guy who created the Imperial statue pictured above at Konstanz. The sculptor seems to be well-known for his controversial bold sculptures.

7803106319848369006-account_id2 — Intriguing art by Peter Lenk

We walked around exploring this beautiful medieval town adorned with pretty vineyards and a lovely castle. We took back not only some good bottles of wine from Meersburg but also some good memories from a lovely day spent in this gorgeous town in Bodensee.

All these little towns and cities in Bodensee are so wonderfully unique and amazing – it’s hard to pick a favorite. We fell in love with every one of them and cannot wait to visit some of these again.