Posts in Category: Europe
-
Reykjavik – First Impressions of a Booming City
Alison and I have just arrived in Iceland on what I would hesitate to call an overnight flight from North America, but rather an inconveniently short half-hop across the North Atlantic that gets us in to Keflavik airport (which services international flights to Reykjavik), at the ungodly hour of 4:30 AM. Mind you, given the […]
-
Turnberry – The Ailsa Course.
Today we get to play the last of four current British Open venues on our tour of Scotland, the legendary Ailsa course at Turnberry. Golf Travel Northern Ireland has done a fantastic job of getting us on these prestigious courses as well as others like Kingsbarns, North Berwick and Prestwick. For comparative purposes, you can read my […]
-
Troon – A Great Open Venue
This is the sixth post on the 2017 golf tour of Scotland which was put on for eight Maritimers by Barry McGuigan of Golf Travel Northern Ireland, which Barry has subsequently sold. If you are wondering why we chose an Irish tour operator for a Scottish trip it was because Barry had done such a […]
-
Carnoustie – Is it Really Carnasty?
It’s the sixth day of our 2017 golfing odyssey to Scotland under the guiding hand of Barry McGuigan and his company Golf Travel NI, which he has subsequently sold. First we played Muirfield, where Frankie Duguay shot even par to the disquiet of the members, very few of whom have ever accomplished that feat. Next was the beautiful […]
-
Crail Balcomie – Quirky, Hilly and Historical
I’ve just finished a ten day nine course visit to Scotland playing Open venues Turnberry, Troon, Carnoustie and Muirfield. I couldn’t be more pleased with the courses, accommodation and the weather. The first two were the responsibility of the expert owner of Golf Travel N.I., Barry McGuigan with whom we toured Northern Ireland in 2015 […]
-
Kingsbarns Golf Links – Simply Awesome
Everybody knows that Scotland is the home of golf with the St. Andrews Old Course as the definitive predecessor to sixty million people playing on over 30,000 courses world wide. Ironically the seventh oldest documented golf course was Kingsbarns, not far from St. Andrews, dating from 1823. The reason it is ironic is that that […]
-
North Berwick Golf Club Hole by Hole
The North Berwick Golf Club was founded in 1832 and is the thirteenth oldest in the world. In complete contrast to Muirfield which we played as our first course on a nine course golfer’s holiday, North Berwick is welcoming and actually allows guests inside all parts of the clubhouse – and you don’t need a […]
-
Muirfield – The Augusta of Scotland?
This is the first post on the 2017 golf odyssey to play nine legendary courses in the home of golf and the ancestral home to at least half of the octet that make up the group. We have arranged the trip through Barry McGuigan who did such a great job on the Northern Ireland tour […]
-
Florence, Italy with Liberation Tours
This is the final reporting on the fall 2016 Liberation Tours trip to Italy which began in Sicily and progressed northward up the Italian boot with stops along the way in Anzio, Ortona, Montecassino and the Liri Valley. The breaking of the Gustav Line, in which the Canadians played a pivotal role, put the German army […]