Forty Shades of Green: Kerry & Connemara, 11 Days

You arrange your own way to the ferry port in Rotterdam. Boarding is in the evening and the ship sails around 9 pm, your machine lashed down on the vehicle deck while you take an inside cabin with shower and WC. The night is spent on the North Sea, and the English coast is there in the morning.

Around 350 kilometres west across England to the Welsh coast. If you have time, turn into Snowdonia National Park, where narrow roads run between slate slopes and mountain lakes. The night is spent in Conwy or Caernarfon, both with a castle standing right at the water.

The morning crossing leaves from Holyhead and you roll off in Dublin around midday. From there the route runs west across the quiet Midlands. Galway on the Atlantic still carries traces of its old trade with Spain, which is why the Spanish Arch and the Spanish Parade sit by the harbour. You stay two nights here.

A day with no luggage. The loop passes the Twelve Bens range, Kylemore Abbey on Pollacappul lough and Killary Harbour, the only fjord on the island, with the village of Leenane at its head. By evening you are back in Galway.

Heading south the coast turns steep: the Cliffs of Moher drop more than 200 metres straight into the Atlantic. Right behind them the Burren begins, a treeless karst plateau of bare limestone. Add the loop out to Loop Head if you feel like it, before carrying on to Ennis.

The coast road around the Dingle peninsula runs along the cliffs at Slea Head and past the Gallarus Oratory, a dry stone building from early Christian times. Irish is still spoken in the town of Dingle. Via Killarney and the Muckross estate you reach Kenmare.

Another day without luggage. The most famous panoramic road in the country runs between the Atlantic and the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, past Sneem and the Staigue Stone Fort, then along the Skellig Coast Road to Portmagee. The way back to Kenmare leaves plenty of room for stops.

Heading east the land flattens out. At Cashel the ruined cathedral of the Rock stands on its limestone outcrop, with the remains of Hore Abbey below. The day ends in Kilkenny, where the castle, the cathedral and the medieval lanes sit close together.

The last riding day crosses the garden of the island. First the early Christian monastic site of Glendalough with its round tower and two lakes, then the old Military Road over the ridges and the wide park of Powerscourt House. Dublin comes in the afternoon.

In the morning the ferry takes you from Dublin to Holyhead, and after that some 350 kilometres across Wales and England lie ahead. Boarding for Rotterdam is in the evening at Hull, and the last night is spent back in the cabin.

The ferry docks in Rotterdam in the morning and the loop ends here. What stays with you is around 2,200 kilometres, two nights at sea and a coast that looks different in every light.