TRAVEL

Home & Away with Robert Walshe

Home and Away Extra

Air Canada has announced that as part of its continuing inter-national expansion strategy, it will increase its services between Dublin and Toronto from six flights per week last year, to daily from 30 June 2011. “Toronto is a growing business and leisure destination from Ireland, and Toronto is a major hub for Air Canada, offering a large network of onward connections across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Robert Atkinson, General Passenger Sales Manager UK, Ireland & the Nordic Countries. Air Canada is the largest full-service airline and the largest provider of scheduled passenger services in the Canadian market and between Canada and the U.S. The airline has won a number of awards over the last year for the quality of its services and has more daily flights to Canada than any other airline in the UK and Ireland. Dublin-Toronto flight schedule with prices from Euros 728.00 return including taxes. www.aircanada.com The ever splendid Four Seasons Hotel Prague has created a unique art lesson for women. The subject and aim of the Women and Flowers course is to compare the energy and shapes of the female body and flowers. Participants will have the opportunity to identify their individual attitude, and under the creative guid-ance of Lucie, learn to work with a model. Lessons are scheduled based on bookings and access to the Botanical Garden. Each lesson includes a three-hour painting session with a model and flowers, painting equipment and transfers to and from the Gar-den. The cost of the lesson is EUR 600.00 for up to two persons, and can be booked through the Hotel concierge. This property is a must see and stay experience. . www.fourseasons.com

LivingTRIPADvISoR has launched its flight search engine in Ire-land. It was already available to customers in the UK and the US.

Travelers can find flights from hundreds of carriers including Aer Lingus, British Airways, bmi, easyjet and vir-gin Atlantic, plus flights listed by travel companies including Expedia, lastminute, edreams, Bravofly and Wegolo. The search engine features a Fees Estimator, designed to help travellers better understand the true cost of their flight with airline and credit card fees included, in a single dis-play. It also offers thousands of airline ratings from real fli-ers, so travellers can compare airlines across eight flight experience categories. www.tripadvisor.ie

Weekend HotspotThe Bayview Hotel sits ma-

jestically in one of the islands most stunning settings, over-looking the Atlantic ocean in the picturesque harbour village of Portballintrae. The azure colours of the bay water if the sun is shining transport you to more exotic places! There are some beau-tiful buildings in this sleepy village, especially the original thatched cottages, the old Coastguard Station and Sea-port Lodge an excellent exam-ple of Ulster’s Architectural Heritage was built in the 1770’s by the Leslie family as a bath-ing lodge. All the bedrooms at The Bayview are en-suite with everything you need, large comfortable beds, high pow-ered showers, CD player, di-rect dial telephone, hairdryer, trouser press, wi-fi internet and flat screen tvs.Accomo-dation options include of su-perior or standard bedrooms but if your feel you want to splash out a little more try the premier style with floor to ceil-ing windows overlooking the bay. The Porthole Restaurant & Bar is a very popular meet-ing place for both locals and

visitors and my dining expe-rience was of a capital city standard! The property is right on the Co Antrim coast-line known for its three beau-tiful beaches, White Rocks, East Strand and West Strand. There is extensive lovely coastline to visit and at one time it was possible to visit all of the beaches on the Gi-ants Causeway tramway. The Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge is situated between Ballycastle and Ballintoy and is one of the most famous things to do in Northern Ireland is to walk across this narrow swinging rope bridge hovering 80 feet above the sea. The nearby old Bushmills Distillery is the World’s oldest licensed Whis-key Distillery. King James I granted the original License to distil ‘Aqua vitae’ in April 1608 and since then Bushmills has been making the finest Irish Malt Whiskey here for almost four hundred years. Guests at The Bayview also qualify for a free tour here. Some of the other local attractions in-clude the Royal Portrush Golf club that is considered one of the world’s greatest courses. This course is considered very challenging as it is rough greens with unpredictable weather. The Coastal Zone is part of the Portrush Nature reserve and contains chang-ing exhibits during the year. It focuses on showing how the marine environment has influenced the history of Por-trush as well as the present and future of the community. You can visit the rock pools at low tide and walk the rocky seashore. Dunluce castle is situated further up the Antrim coast. This spectacular spot was sculpted by the sea. You can visit the castle ruins as it has not been inhabited sine the British besieged it during the 16th century. A popular spot for families during sum-mer is Barry’s, Ireland’s larg-est amusement park in nearby Portrush. There are a variety of rides available both for

those looking for a thrill or others who just want to relax. Special offers for June at The Bayview include Two Nights Bed & Breakfast including one Evening Meal from £119.00 per person. Midweek - £119.00 per person or Weekend - £129.00 per person based on two adults sharing a standard dou-ble/twin room. Trevor Kane a local Co Antrim man bought this property in recent years transforming it into one of the most wonderful boutique ho-tels in Northern Ireland. His passion and sense of style is seen throughout and I worry about telling too many people about it because I want it all to myself!! www.bayviewhotelni.com

Weekly Best BuyMarriott Hotels, so it is giving

a third night for free for stays until May 31st when you book online. The offer is valid for its JW Marriott, Renaissance Ho-tels, Marriott Hotels Resorts, and Courtyard by Marriott ho-tels or Marriott vacation Club resorts across Europe. The offer is valid for stays from Thursday to Sunday, with a minimum of three consecutive nights stay required which in-cludes a Friday or Saturday night stay over. Rates at the Courtyard Paris Arcueil start from €99 while rates at the Rome Marriott park hotel start at €140 per night. Rates at the

Renaissance St Petersburg Baltic hotel are from €147 per night. www.marriott.com Abbey Travel has just an-nounced details of their brand new Senior Travel programme - ‘Spain for over 50’s’. In their new brochure you will find great value 7 & 14 night FULL BoARD packages to popular 4* hotels in Costa del Sol, Ma-jorca and the Catalan Coast. 7 night packages start from €475 per person including direct Aer Lingus flights, transfers & 7 or 14 nights hotel accom-modation on a full boardbasis - B&B plus lunch and dinner with wine and water included plus a1 full day sightseeing tour at each resort. www.ab-beytravel.ie

Robert Walshe is a free-lance contributor / broad-caster and guest travel writer for River Media newspaper titles across the island of Ire-land

Pet’s Corner... with Kathleen Murray: Animal Behavioural Therapist

with Kathleen Murray

n The Giants Causeway Co Antrim.

n Bayview Hotel Portballintrae, Co Anrtim.

n Bayview Superior room.

Thinking about getting a cat?AT some stage in their lives people think about getting a cat. The reasons are many, sometimes a child wants a kit-ten, or memories of a cat in our childhood sparks the thought or someone offers us a kitten.

There are, of course, peo-ple who would never get a cat because they hate cats or are afraid of them but they are the minority. Having a cat nowadays is very different from having a cat years ago.

Years ago cats had kittens and homes were found for them or they just ran around with the other cats and no-body batted and eyelid. Right now in our county the cat

population has gotten out of all control. Homes are not as easily found and the need to neuter cats is very high on the priority list. Bringing home a kitten or an adult cat is a big responsibility. Cats and kittens are very easily toilet trained and make very good pets. They are easy to look after because they love routines and show up at the same time for feeding every day if they get used to a cer-tain lifestyle.

You can get them to return home every night at about 9pm so that you can take them indoors and not have every dog in your neighbourhood

barking all night, or to save your cat from being blinded by headlights and killed on the road. Cats eat anywhere so if your cat doesn’t come back at the normal feeding time then someone else is feeding it also.

Cats like to wander so if you live in a built up area your cat will be visiting the neigh-bours... and the neighbours may not appreciate that.

Cats tend to go in bathroom or bedroom windows and make themselves comfort-able on a bed or sofa. Cats like to nap and they always look for a quiet place, usually somewhere soft and warm.

Anyone that has a new baby, or a young infant sleeping needs to make sure that the door and window to their room is closed so that a cat can’t venture into the room and curl up on top of their chest. Cats like lying on chests because of the heartbeat, warmth and breathing. It is very relaxing and soothing for a cat, not good though for a baby that can’t get the weight of the cat off it’s chest while it is sleeping. Cats can be vacci-nated and wormed to keep them healthy. Cat poo needs to be lifted and disposed of in a proper way especially

where children are playing, and if you are pregnant then wear rubber gloves.

If you have a dog also then keep the cat litter tray clean... as the dog will if you don’t.

You can also have your cat micro chipped, so that if it goes missing and is found by someone else, then your name and address will show up on the scanner.

In the interest of neigh-

bourly goodwill it would be good to have no more than two cats (both neutered) so that neighbours are not pulling their hair out in frustration and complaining about a load of cats going to the toilet in their garden or going in their windows. Think about the people around you when you get an animal. Your neighbours will appreciate it.