On our way home

Well after a crazy few weeks (and an even more insane past 36 hours) we are on our way home - we are currently in NYC and waiting for our 10:45pm flight out of here. Thanks for all your comments - see you all soon!!

London in a nutshell

Today has been a crazy day! We got up at 7:30, got ready and headed out to Paddington Station to catch the underground to Piccadilly Circus. By the time the train reached our destination it was 9:55 and our walking tour left at 10, so we had to run to make it as it was about 10 blocks away! Luckily we made it there with a few moments to spare, and we took the opportunity to catch our breath before embarking on the 2 hour tour.

The tour was amazing! We started from Trafalgar Square and headed to Waterloo Place. Here we heard about the battle of Waterloo and George Wellington's late nights at the Gentleman's Club (there were two mounting blocks on the square that he had ordered to be put in place so that he could get on to his horse more easily after his nights out!). From there we went to see the statue of King George and then down onto The Mall - the major street heading down to Buckingham palace where all the processions are held. Our first major stop was St. James' Palace, the former official residence of Prince Charles. It was here that the first official part of the changing of the guard was to occur.

There was no one there when we arrived, other than a couple of police officers - but minutes later the first guard came out. He barked out an order, and the whole band of guards who were going off duty entered the courtyard. They played a couple of tunes and then presented the flag and began their march to the palace. We marched along side them up to the palace gates as the crowd grew larger and larger and then veered off to the left to take in a view across St. James' Park of the horse guards and top at Wellington Barracks. Once again we were one of the first people there to view the second stage, the entry of the the new guards. A similar set up took place - with the band playing a couple of songs and then the flag being brought out and them marching out past us to the palace. This was a guest regiment of the Royal Air Force, so they were not wearing the red uniform or the bearskin headdress - instead they had what looked like a marine corps uniform with the addition of a light blue beret. Again we marched along with them to the palace gates, the crowd was insane! A police officer told us that the crowd had been gathering since before 7:30am (the changing of the guard was at 11:30) and that there were over 5,000 people there. We stayed back on the lawn where we could see the processions, but getting close was futile considering every gate was crammed. From there we walked down to the entrance to the Queen's Gallery and the Royal Mews (where the cars and horses are kept), and then we dispersed. It was a great tour, and we got a ton of really close-up photos of the guards!

Next we grabbed some brunch at a little cafe, and then walked back to the palace to take some photos of it, as we hoped it would be less crowded by this time. There were still alot of people hanging around on the grass and side gates, but the worst of the crowd had moved on, so we took some photos and then headed to Westminster Abbey. No camera's were allowed inside which was a bit of a disappointment, but it was enormous and beautiful. We saw the coronation chair - which is still used to this day to crown the King's and Queen's of England, and the tombs of many great King's and Queen's, as well as poet's corner where Geoffrey Chaucer, T.S. Elliot, Shakespeare and a host of others were honoured. It took us about an hour to walk through all the various chapel's and chambers, then we headed back to the underground to make our way to the Tower of London.

The Tower of London was bigger than you can even imagine.. the outer wall ran further than you could see, and inside were a whole host of Tower's and a second perimeter. The moat (though now empty) was wide and very deep, and there is talk of filling it back up as soon as the excavation work is completed. We walked through the original tower - The White Tower - which was built in 1097 and is the center of the complex, also the Beauchamp Tower, where the prisoners were held. Then we went through the Bloody Tower where the two Prince son's of Edward IV disappeared mysteriously after being placed there by their uncle Richard III who was crowned later that year. By far the most impressive tower was the Jewel Tower where the crown's of past King's and Queen's were held as well as the Crown Jewel's and along with them the Sceptre with the cross which now contains the world's biggest diamond. I have never seen so many diamond's or so much gold! The crown's were breath taking in person and we went through several times!! We walked past Tower Green which was the execution site for prisoners such as Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard (two of Henry VIII's wives). Traitor's gate was not as visible from the inside as it had been from our cruise the day before, but we did take a look, and managed to be back up on the wall walk just in time to see the Tower Bridge raised for a procession of boats!

Next we went to the London Dungeons for a horror tour through the black plague, London fire (that destroyed over 80% of the city in 1666), jack the ripper (who was renowned for killing and butchering 5 prostitutes in 1888 and never caught) and Sweeney Todd (between him and his wife killed over 160 people people in his 'trap door' barber's chair in 1785), it was basically a very bloody version of a horror house - except that all the stories were true. Geoff even got to experience what it was like to be hung on a free fall ride!

Then it was a quick couple of stops over to the London Eye. It was pretty empty as it was dusky outside, so we went through the line fairly quickly and then took the 30 minute ride. It was pretty cool to see all the places we had been, and aerial views of Buckingham palace and the houses of Parliament gave you a better idea of how big they really were! It was great way to round up the day, and we headed back to the hotel at about 8:30pm ready to sleep!

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Well, Best Western has been a bit of a disaster - our first room was 27C (which is the equivalent of around 86F) and had no AC or fan, so we got moved, second room reeked of smoke (we had booked a non smoking room) so we moved again, third room seemed great until 6:30am when remodeling was being done on the room directly above our heads and the bed and window began to shake, we moved, our current room you cannot close the bathroom door and the shower leaks - but by this point we have given up!!!

Today we headed out to the tourist information office to find a tour bus. They were selling tickets to everything in the city, but we decided to by on an as visited basis since there was no discount and everything was $$$ ! We jumped on the big bus and headed to the roof - the basic tour was 2 hours, and the package included extra options for two walking tours and a river cruise from Westminster to the Tower of London. It was alot of fun, and there was so so much to see - we went past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, BA London Eye, Florence Nightingale's Museum, Lambeth Palace, Covent Garden, Royal Opera House, St. Paul's Cathedral, Swiss RE Tower, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Trinity Square Gardens, Marble Arch, Hard Rock Cafe, Trafalgar Square, the River Thames, and more! It was crazy to see so much and we were so overwhelmed! We rode half of it over again just to make sure we had seen it all!

Next we went on a river cruise on the River Thames from Westminster up to the Tower of London - it was a great way to see some of the huge buildings from a more visible point, as when you are too close you can't take them all in!! We also saw Cleopatra's Needle which was a column of hieroglyphics with a Sphinx either side... but they were facing the wrong way, because when they were set down no-one realized that they should be facing out, not in, and the cement had already dried by the time it was pointed out! At the Tower of London we walked around the outside and then since it was getting late we hopped on the underground back to Paddington and got some dinner before heading in to type this up!

Knight's and Royalty

We got up this morning and headed out to Canterbury, when we got there we did a little bit of shopping at Marks & Spencer. The center of town was really quite amazing as it was surrounded by old fort walls that were still higher than all the buildings and it had tower turrets every couple hundred yards! After shopping we walked up to the Cathedral - it was really big, and you could get quite lost in it. The resting place of Thomas Kent and the tomb of the Black Prince were held there, and it was so fun to walk around through all the chambers and various chapels. We left Canterbury at around 1pm and headed to Windsor.

Windsor Castle is ENORMOUS. There is no other word for it, if you haven't seen it, then you can hardly imagine its size, but it truly is just.... enormous. We walked up through the grounds, and made it to the chapel about 15 minutes before the admittance to it closed, and we were so glad we did! It was beautiful, so ornate and traditional. It was crazy to be walking where King's and Queen's have stood. We visited the burial tomb of King George and Elizabeth, and also Princess Anne. It was quite surreal to be staring at them. We continued on out of the tomb and onto the Dolls House display and the State rooms. The dolls house really should not be called a dolls house as it was the size of a small room!!! It had cars parked underneath and all the walls folded down, floors pulled out to unfold into yet more rooms and ceilings were painted with golf leaf, it was quite a sight! The state rooms were all very grand, we only walked through what was a small small portion of the castle, but it was easily the size of two large houses, and each room had so many things to look at that your head was spinning! Outfits, furniture, portraits, swords, shields, tapestries and so on. It was fabulous and by far the best castle we have visited!! We finally walked through the gardens and back down to King Henry's gate - where Geoff got his photo taken by a beefeater (guard). We came to the conclusion that he must be a guard in training as he was a little fidgety and kept running his drills. It was fun to watch though!

Now we are in London, we just had some great Chinese for dinner and we have checked into a very small room in a best western, and feel a little like we took a detour to Hong Kong or something!!!

Travelling back in time

Word of Warning - this may not make too much sense to the Americans reading this!

Today was a quick sweeping day through my past! I took Geoff to Marlborough first, which was the nearest town to where I grew up. It was pretty weird to see the old place's like Duck's toy shop (where we stopped in and bought a mini diabolo for old time's sake!), and the India Shop down by the duck pond! I bought a fountain pen in WHSmith's and poked my nose into Polly Tea Rooms. The fairy shop is gone, but Monsoon is still there by Woolworth's - it is all such a trip! We had lunch in Calne, and took a quick look into St. Mary's (my secondary school) and then headed to Avebury. We spent a while walking around Avebury stone circle, and watching two old hippie ladies 'be one with the stones' to try to 'absorb their power', it was freaky but very amusing watching them try to nestle into the nooks and crannies that they could find! Then we headed off to Pewsey - we turned down the wrong road by mistake and ended up in the West Woods - we decided to see if the old picnic spot I used to go to was still there, it was, and so we got out and took some pictures of the bluebells that were out in full bloom in the forest. Then it was back on the one lane road - we had a couple of close calls with the mail man, but Geoff worked out the pull-offs and we survived!

We went up to St. Francis school (my primary school) - it has added lots of new buildings and the old tennis court has turned into parking spaces which was kind of sad, but still interesting to see. We drove through past Martin's (the old news agents) and the best take-away Indian restaurant ever (okay so I am biased), and went up into the old Church to look around - it was pretty much the same except the pews were replaced with wooden chairs (sad!) Then we headed for Wooten Rivers to see Oak Cottage (the main house where I grew up.) The roads were much smaller than I remember, and it was an interesting drive... we stopped at the canal to take some photos of Geoff on the locks, and then parked by the house and walked down to the allotments. It was really weird to see because nothing has changed at all! Then we drove over to Bottle Farm (the house I lived in before I moved to the states), we went down the driveway but there were quite a few cars there and we didn't want to get yelled at so we took a quick peek through the hedge and moved on. (Mr. Vigor's is gone.) We went up past the white horse on the hill, and past Pewsey Vale riding center, and on back to Bath.

The reason we headed back to Bath is I found the piece of paper from Mum with the road names on it, so we wanted to make a last attempt to find my Great-Grandparent's grave. (We already had searched Haycombe cemetery and gone back the following day to the info. office to try to look it up with no success.) We followed the directions to the intersection written down, and found a little church called Bath Abbey, sure enough - there it was - I cleaned it up and arranged the flowers I had bought, spent some time there talking and then we headed towards Medway.

Lions, Tigers and Lords? Oh My!

We headed out early this morning to Longleat. We started off with the safari park and it was a ton of fun! Geoff was amazed that you could drive through all the cages, and we took our time making sure we spent long enough in each enclosure that the animals came close! We first went through where the giraffes, zebras and camels were kept, then onto the monkeys, rhinos, and deer (which we got to feed as they scrambled to get in the car window!). Then we went onto the tigers, unfortunately we couldn't get too close to these as they were three new ones from France and were in quarantine. Next were the lions - this was the best part, the male lions were all sleepy, but the females were playful and we came around a corner to see one jump into a tree, as we snapped photos we realized there were about 4 or 5 others in the tree already! We spent a good half an hour just watching them as we were parked right next to the tree. It was really cool, just like being on a real safari! Next we saw the wolves, flamingos, gazelles, and vultures, and then headed onto the next part of the park.

We took a safari boat along a river in the park and went past gorilla island to see their old silver-backed gorilla, at the same time a bunch of sea-lions were swimming along-side the boat begging for food. We went past a couple of sleepy hippo's and then headed back to shore.

Next we went to pets corner to take in the parrot show. This is where the 6 parrots show off their skills by talking, driving mini cars, rollerskating, playing basketball and a variety of other tricks! It was fun, and we got front row seats so the parrots were right up close! Then we headed onto the steam train ride around the house grounds, saw some pelicans and pretty gardens, this ended up at the butterfly house which we then walked through before heading to the old Joe's mine. This was something I don't remember from past visits, it may be new, or maybe I blocked it out... you walk into a room filled with fruit bats flying over your head and are told not to scream.. YUK. Needless to say we didn't spend too long in there and we jumped on the flight simulator on the way out to 'visit' gorilla mountain. Then we went to the hedge maze.. the largest hedge maze in the country, Geoff said he had heard you take all right turns to get out, he proceeded to do this and got out in under 10 minutes and then was disappointed so went back in to get lost!!!

Longleat house was our final stop, we walked around the big manor house and saw all the paintings and state rooms. It was mainly all pictures of Lord Bath, and not that interesting, but Geoff enjoyed seeing the staged rooms!

We started heading towards our hotel and on the way realized that we were 30 minutes from Stonehenge, so we made a quick detour to take a look around. It was nice as there were not too many people there as it was the end of the day, so we snapped some pictures and walked around, and then went to the hotel. We had some really awful Chinese food at a small place in town, and attempted to find somewhere to get online, but no-one's Internet was working.. we ended up spending $10 (5 pounds) for 15 minutes to jump online and book a hotel, then we came back to the hotel and are about to hit the hay for the night!

Scrub a dub dub

This morning we woke up a little late, so we headed straight to the Roman Bath's, it was a beautiful, we took an audio tour around all the chambers, and looked at the original baths, mosaics and statues. It is really amazing to see how much has survived! The bath's were right next to Bath Abbey, so we walked around that afterwards and then had lunch at a local cafe.

After lunch we jumped on the city sightseeing tour bus to see all the hot spots in bath including Pulteney Bridge, Royal Victoria Park, the Jane Austen Center, the Heritage Vaults, Prior Park, and the Royal Crescent. All of the parks were in full bloom and the buildings were gorgeous. We got off at Pulteney Bridge at the end of the tour to take some closer pictures and walk along the river bank. We stopped at an Internet cafe and booked our hotel for the evening and then headed out for the half hour drive to Frome to find it. Once we were there we discovered that the only place to eat was the restaurant hotel, so we ended up heading back to bath to grab some pizza - since neither of us was hungry for a big meal.

When we got back Geoff had a temperature and was not feeling well at all, so we pumped him full of water and sent him to bed with two aspirin. Luckily he is feeling better this morning, so we think it is just dehydration.

Drivin' drivin' drivin'

Today we had to make the trip from Edinburgh area in Scotland down to Bath area in England. It is about a 5 and a half hour drive, so we decided to take it slow and not rush to fit anything else in. We woke up around 9, and had some breakfast with Gran and Grandpa, relaxed for a while and chatted about what route to take, packed up the car and by around noon we were on the road. We were planning to drive down through the lake district, but when we saw the signs for Hadrian's Wall we decided to detour and go take a look! Hadrian's wall is the wall that was built to separate Scotland and England. Along it at one time stood at least 17 fort's which guarded it to make sure people did not pass. When we got to it we visited one of the old roman forts that had been uncovered - it was little more than some stones on the ground outlining where things used to be, but it was still really neat to see.

We later headed back onto the motorway, and after many hours of driving reached Stratford-Upon-Avon. As it turns out we managed to stumble into Shakespeare's birthday weekend celebration, we didn't arrive until 6pm so many of the places were already closed and the crowds were moving out, but it gave us a great opportunity to wander around the town without too much insanity! We went and viewed William Shakespeare's birthplace and the place where he bought his first house. We saw his death place and the church where he is buried. We also saw Anne Hathaway's house, and the Avon canal. All in all it was amazing wondering through the streets where such a legend once roamed! Many of the buildings are old Tudor buildings, and cobblestone streets are predominant, it is a beautiful town, and celebration is everywhere!

Walking down main street every lamppost has a shield attached with one of his plays en scripted on it, and flags from every country adorn signposts and poles. There are statues of jesters and pretty shop windows filled with bright colors. We had a fabulous time just getting lost in the middle of it all.

When we had circled the town twice we decided to grab some dinner before hitting the road again. We turned down the first alley we saw and found a tiny little hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant and walked in. It was incredible!! We stepped down into the small, brightly adorned dining area, and were led to a table in the corner. Once we had picked our dinners, we were given some free poppadoms to snack on, and we sat there taking it all in. The kitchen was upstairs, and they sent the food down on a little elevator, there was an old fireplace where they kept heating trays which were made for the tables, and an entire silver bin full of poppadoms! When our meal was ready three waiters came over (this happened for every table) and folded our naan and put it on side plates, then they dished up our rice for us, put a heating tray in the middle of the table and put two steaming hot pots on it and whisked the serving plates away.

When we had finished talking about how cool the service was we dug in.... and wow... yum! We didn't leave a bite! We thought we were completely stuffed, but when they brought the dessert menu (all in pictures) we couldn't help ourselves! Geoff ordered an orange sorbet, served in a frozen hollowed out orange, and I got a frozen Irish coffee. We finally left (much later than anticipated) and are heading another hour to our hotel for the night in Chippenham.

The hunt for the Loch Ness Monster

Our first (and only) goal of the day was to find the Loch Ness Monster, so after breakfast we headed into Inverness to find out where we could get a boat! We passed by the Inverness Castle and ran in the tourist information office, grabbed the addresses we needed and went on our way.

Our Jacobite cruise left from about half way between Inverness and the Urquhart Castle, and we had some time to kill before our departure, so we perused the gift shop, and then sat on a driftwood bench by the water. We were two of about 7 people waiting at the dock, until 5 minutes before leaving a group of 16 frogs joined the boat (frogs for those of you who don't know, are the french). The first half an hour of our hunt was a little insane, the tour bus group broke out the bottles of champagne before we even left the dock and were dancing and taking group pictures every moment of the way. The other 7 of us non-frogs (all American and English people) all migrated to the front of the boat and enjoyed the gorgeous surroundings. The tour group had signed up for the sightseeing trip on the castle grounds, so they departed on the far shore, at which point we all spread out and began to hunt more diligently. As you can see from our photo, it paid off!!!!!

Okay... so maybe not, turns out the Loch Ness Monster must have been on vacation, but it was still lots of fun!

Next we headed south, back towards Edinburgh. On the way we saw a sign for a Highland Animal Park, and took a detour to check out some buffalo and horses! The park turned out to be pretty huge, hosting a drive through section to see reindeer, bison, wild horses, blue mountain sheep and a few other things. Then there was the wildlife hike, where you could see a red fox, snowy and tawny owls, lynx, wolves, arctic foxes, elk, beavers, otters, and many other birds and small mammals. We ended up spending a good 2+ hours here, before looking at our watches and realizing we better get going!

We got back to Gran and Grandpa's at around 7pm and all sat down for a dinner of beef pie, which was followed by trifle. Then we all headed into the living room to look at photos and relax. Geoff and Grandpa had a nightcap of molt whiskey, and we all talked about the days to come. It was a fun evening, and before we knew it time had whizzed by and it was almost midnight. We said our good nights and headed to bed.

"But they will never take our FREE-DOM!"

Well we got up early this morning, re-packed all of our bags, had some brekkie with Gran & Grandpa - made our plans to be back on tomorrow for dinner and headed out for a long-ish day of driving and touring.

Our first stop was Sterling, we took a drive around the historic town and castle, and then followed the road down to William Wallace's monument. We parked at the bottom of the hill and hiked up the steep incline. It was a beautiful hike, and a clear warm day so you could see for miles and miles around. When we reached the monument we suddenly realize how big it was. It was beautiful, there is nothing surrounding it other than forest trees, as it is the only thing on the hill. As we walked around the outside we noticed a shuttle bus that drops you off at the front door instead of having to climb up the hour hiking path - it made us laugh, but I guess that's what happens when you don't stop in the tourist info. center first! As it turned out the hike was much more enjoyable though so we were glad we did it. The monument was quite expensive to tour so Geoff went in and I stayed outside to explore. He climbed the 246 steps to the top, and went through the information rooms. William Wallace's original sword was housed inside which was pretty amazing to see, but other than that it was just a history gallery. When we were done we hiked back down to the car and headed out.

Loch Lomond was beautiful, the was miles upon miles of rippling water surrounded by mountains and forests. We got out at several points to go down to the waters edge and see the views of the loch and waterfalls. It was a fun and very scenic drive, we took it all the way to the end, and continued on through the mountain range past Ben Nevis and on to Inverness.

We stopped for the night at 'The Old North Inn' a B&B just a few miles from Loch Ness, had a lovely dinner and now we are just re-capping before catching some Zs since it has been a long day!

What DO they wear under those kilts?

Well we haven't been brave enough to try to find out what they wear under the kilts, but we are now in Scotland! We arrived just over an hour late and had some problems finding the grandparents house since we arrived and realized we had forgotten to bring their phone number or house number.... whoops... but we made an emergency call to my parents and got the info we needed and then we were on our way! We arrived at their house around 7:45pm and promptly all hurried out to the local Indian for some curry - it was fantastic!!!! (I have missed 'real' Indian food and poppadoms SO much!) We had everything from onion bahjis to chicken jalfrezi and naan. All of the food was excellent and there was so much of it we just couldn't get through it as much as we tried!! After a couple of hours of gorging ourselves we stumbled back to their house and stayed up until 1:30am talking and planning, before collapsing.

This morning we headed out to Edinburgh after a late breakfast. We navigated our way to the city center and parked by the train station, this turned out to be not too too far from the tourist information center, so we headed in to figure out the best plan of attack! Edinburgh is pretty huge, so we ended up buying a 24 hour bus pass and taking an open top tour of the city - it was beautiful. The palace and castle were huge and impressive, and there were so many famous spots (the place where Sean Connery was born, Greyfriar Bobby's Bar and Graveyard, the coffee shop where J.k.Rawling wrote the first Harry Potter book and the school that she based Hogwort's on, the home of Alexander Graham Bell , and so on... The tour guide was great, and we were amazed and overwhelmed! The only surprisingly hideous part of Edinburgh were the houses of parliament which were a fairly modern disaster!!! After the hour tour we jumped off and grabbed sandwiches and tea, and then got back on the bus on a later trip. We got off at the bottom of the hill near Edinburgh Castle, and headed up to explore. It is HUGE. We walked around for hours in an attempt to see it all, it really is a vast and impressive castle with building upon beautiful building, and of course the crown jewels which were stunning! Finally we headed down to the car, passing by the gardens and princess street.

By the time we got back it was about 7pm and Gran had cooked lasagna, so we ate dinner and then headed to Asda to pick up some essentials (Asda we discovered is walmart incognito - a little scary, but more affordable than other places!). When we got back we all watched a video of the military tattoo that is held at Edinburgh castle every year - it looks incredible, and apparently the tickets sell out the day they are on sale every year, but it was really cool to see past highlights, especially after walking around where it takes place!

After making a hotel reservation for tomorrow night in Inverness we are heading to bed so we can get a reasonably early start in the morning!

Rain rain go away!

Well we got up bright and early to drive up to the Cliffs of Moher, it was grey and drizzly when we left, and by the time we got there the wind was insane and the rain was so harsh that it felt like hail - being the oh-so-smart people we are we decided to head up to the cliffs anyway and see if we could get some photos through the rain. We layered up with winter hats, scarves and coats under our rain jackets and went out.... by the time we got to the walkway our jeans were already soaked through, but we decided to climb the steps up to the top of the cliff anyway! We got a couple of somewhat viewable photos of the castle, (and some not so good ones of the cliff) and then ran back to the visitors center at the bottom of the hill. By the time we got back to the car my face was pretty obviously wind-burned, an we were both drenched, but it was fun, and worth the view!

We headed out for the long drive up to the tip of Northern Ireland. The drive was long and bumpy, but the moment we crossed over the border it improved drastically. The only problem we encountered was that the road signs looked exactly the same, but they had switched to miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour with no warning! We didn't figure this out until the way back into the Republic of Ireland - when it was sign posted.... DOH!

Northern Ireland was beautiful, we took a coastal tour route that stretched for miles and miles around the top of the country, we stopped at Giants Causeway first, got out and took a few miles walk along the mountain side. It was a really gorgeous place, and a great setting for an early evening hike. After returning to the car, we continued along the coastal highway through the Glens of Antrim - it was breath-taking, and the setting sun only added to the dramatic views. We passed a huge waterfall cascading down the side of a mountain and several mountain goats on the side of the road, but the most impressive part had to be the shoreline, with its steep cliffs, green fields, and powerful waves.

It was a perfect end to our Ireland tour this week. (Aside from our Dublin day coming up on May 6th!) Our drive back to the hotel in Dublin was a long one, but once we figured out the speed limit and realized we could go 120kph then it was smooth sailing! We got sandwitches and soda for dinner in a Spar stop, and kept going. We passed Belfast at night and it was quite a sight to see with all the lights and bridges lit up. We didn't hit the hotel until 1 am, because we got quite lost in Dublin, but we slept in this morning so all is well!

It is now Tuesday and we have returned the rental car and hopped our first flight to London, the flight was nearly empty so that was quite nice! Our next flight is in just over an hour and then we will be in Edinburgh! Thats all for now folks - we will update you again in Scotland!!!

Frights and Feasts

We started off with an early morning, a quick breakfast and we headed out to drive around the Ring of Kerry. Let's just say small windy roads and rain storms with alot of fog and low visibilty do not mix!!! The ring of Kerry is a 4 hour drive around the whole county of Kerry (which is on the coast). There were some pretty coast lines, but not four hours worth, and in the rain... well... it just wasnt really worth it. We had fun, and did snap some semi-respectible photos - but all in all it was pretty stressful trying to stay on the road and not bust a tire on the worn down roads! After leaving the Kerry we headed to lunch at a local pub and then up north to Bunratty. The castle was pretty impressive from the outside, but very much a tourist trap inside, with staged gated rooms and plentiful souveneer shops! It was still fun to look around, and we even ran into some chickens and peacocks! We hit the 24 hour grocery store this afternoon also to stock up on snacks for our big drive tomorrow, hula hoops, lion bars, buttons, aero's and I even found a bottle of bitter lemon!!! YUM!

We decided to sign up for the Medeval feast in the evening since our hotel was nearby (we prebooked the Travelodge, as all B&B's here charge per person, not per room, and end up being more than the Travelodge internet rate! The feast was pretty funny, lots of harp playing and singing and a crazy four course meal to be eaten with your hands (I did however manage to snag a fork since I was offered melon instead of ribs by a merciful girl!). We met a great couple from around the boston area and spent the dinner and entertainment hours talking to them. When all is said and done it was a bit of a loopy day, but ended on a high note!!

Crystal, Castles and more.

We woke up this morning and headed over to the Waterford Crystal factory, they had a little cafe where we had breakfast and then we met up with our tour guide Olive - who took us to the actual factory by bus. There were only about 7 of us which was nice, and the tour was about an hour in length. It showed everything from mold making, to glass blowing, marking, cutting, sculpting, and quality control rooms after every junction. It was really amazing, and we learned so much about it! (For example: Each piece goes through quality inspection after every station, and if it fails inspection then the station that it fails does not get paid AT ALL. So at the end of the day noone is salaried and they only get paid for the pieces they make that pass! The fail rate coming out of the glass blowing area is as high as 20% some days, so the glass blowers have to work really hard to make sure each piece is perfect so that they don't lose their pay. All of the different jobs have a minimum of 8 years of training, with some having as many as 15 to become a master craft, so the workers we met had all been there for around 30/35 years! Also we saw the only other copies of all the waterford custom made pieces like the millennium ball and about 30 different sports trophies. They only make two copies of each piece like these, one goes to the person/company that ordered it and one stays in the factory on display, and then they burn the birch mold that they make them with so that they can't be reproduced! All in all it was alot of fun!

After a quick lunch we headed on to Blarney Castle, a couple of hours away near Cork. This was an un-restored castle (unlike Kilkenny), and offers a gift of life-long eloquence for those who dare to kiss the Blarney Stone at the top of the tower (this involves lying on your back and shifting down a hole to kiss the stone upside down - while hoping the staff member is strong enough to pull you back up) Geoff and I decided we are able to hold a decent conversation and bypassed this coveted opportunity! However we did hike to the top of the very high Tower and look into all the remaining rooms. Then we went to explore the surrounding grounds. There was a huge Druid influence - the remains of which we saw in the form of a Druid circle, a sacrificial altar and a head Druid's cave. They were beautiful and at the same time very creepy. However the further we ventured into the forest the more beauty there was to see including a Fairy's Glade and the Wishing Steps, where people have to walk backwards with their eyes closed both down and back up in order for their wish to come true! (Geoff did try this, but opened his eyes at the bottom because he couldn't get a good grip on the walls!) We also saw a Witches Kitchen, and close by was a witches stone and hat! It was a great place to visit, with so much to see that we spent a majority of the day there before heading to Killarney for the evening. We are now in Killarney for the night and planning to head out to drive the Ring of Kerry in the morning!

Fun day!

The past 24 hours have been AWESOME! The hotel we stayed at last night was fabulous, we got a three course insanely good dinner included in our stay. We had fresh fruit for starters, then Geoff had steak and I had roast lamb, - they were honestly the best meals ever - and we ended with creme caramel and warm brownies with ice cream. About 15 mins after this extravagance we both passed out in our room, and woke up at 8am feeling sufficiently better!

We went to the breakfast buffet (also included in this crazy place!) and Geoff got a full Irish breakfast while I opted for cereal and croissants and a good kettle of tea. Then we headed out for our mourning hike through Glendalough - it was SO beautiful... the weather was sunny and warm, with clear skies for as far as we could see! We started right by the hotel and headed into the valley which was a Early Medieval monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century.

It included the original gateway, St. Kevin's grave, a round tower, a cathedral and a Priest's house. We spent quite a few hours walking around, taking pictures and walking a trail to one of the two lakes Glendalough is known for.

Glendalough

Next it was off to Kilkenny to lunch and visit a castle! We had lunch in a small cafe, and it was really good homemade sandwiches - then we walked around the town until ending up at Kilkenny Castle (see right) for the last tour of the day. (luckily for us, we stumbled in 5 mins before the tour started and they let us join the group!) It was beautiful, and interesting - with many ties to British royalty dating back past the 1400's. Our tour ended at 5pm and we headed onward to Waterford - our final stop of the day!

We are now here, checked in to a Travelodge for the night right around the corner from the Waterford Crystal factory which we are touring at 9am tomorrow! The weather still is nice, and we just got back from a fabulous dinner at Fitzpatrick's, where we got a ton of hints about our upcoming travels, and learned that 'West Kerry has great crack' ! (NOT drugs - apparently crack means fun here, as was explained to us after we looked sufficently shocked!)

Kilkenny Castle

Geoff's Driving

For all those who say driving on the opposite side of the road is difficult, then they just must be driving manual cars. We have been going around Ireland in a automatic and it has been easy. The roundabouts are fun and the only time it gets a bit nerve racking is when a LARGE lorry (truck) is coming down the road. The crazy thing is the speed limits never really change. If you're going slower then the others, they WILL pass you. As stated before Gisseppi has guided us very well. There were a few times today that if it were not for him, then well....let's just say that we would be lost in the green pastures of Ireland searching for civilization. -Geoff-

(Lydia's response: Okay, can I please add here that I fear for my life on a near continuous basis?! 100 kilometers per hour is the key number here... it is almost the only number I have seen, granted this is only like 65mph however on these very skinny roads with signs like 'very dangerous bend ahead' and '56 people killed on this road since 2004' and 'DANGEROUS bridge ahead' and yet no changing speed limit and locals still passing on illegally going double your speed it is TERRIFYING! Geoff is doing a great job, but even on day two is already passing huge lorries and zooming around corners that I can only close my eyes for!)

Here are some cows watching Geoff try to turn around in a muddy pull over on the wrong side of the road in the Wicklow Mts.!

We have arrived!

Our flight took off around 10:15pm, it was long and smushed but we did both manage to get some sleep when we finally resorted to earplugs after 3 hours of crying babies! We landed in Dublin and Geoff went through customs (I didn't have to on account of my European passport), then we headed out to get our luggage. Once we were done with all the flight stuff it was off to get our rental car, we officially have one of the smallest cars I have ever seen! (See below) One more bag and there is no way we would have been able to pack it all in! It is four doors - just - but is so Euro looking with the flat short back and the skinny frame! Gisseppi (this is the name we have given our GPS), then directed us to Dublin.... Dublin... what to say? It is huge, insanely packed, has no parking, scary driving, and the people are mean - all in all it is New York! We drove around in search of food - and when we found food places we drove around in search of parking - this is when we got pulled over by the police. A very nice young Irish man directed us to pull into the bus lane and wait for him.. we did of course.. and he came over talking about a right turn being illegal - we were very confused since we had driven straight through an intersection on a red light (not having a clue that it was red since there were about 10 yellow and green lights facing us!) and had not taken any turns for quite some time.. as it turns out the person in front of us and behind us had taken an illegal right hand turn into our lane and he stopped our car instead of the person in front of us by mistake! But we had a very nice chat about crazy Irish drivers and what to look out for and then he sent us on our way.

We found parking around the next corner, parked our car, got our garage ticket, and went out in search of a place to eat. We first stopped at a pub - sat down for a little while and the waitress came to take our order. We were not ready so asked her to come back, we waited, and waited, and waited while all of the 4 staff chatted behind the bar (we were the only ones in there to eat as it was 2pm), over a half an hour later we still had not ordered drinks, so we gave up and left.

Place #2, there was another pub in the middle of town which we thought we would give a shot since it seemed to be in a more popular area, so we went in and sat down - there were two people at the bar and then the bar tender and a waiter - they only served food until 3 and it was 2:45 so we wanted to check to see if it was too late to order - so Geoff went up to the bar and asked the bartender, first she ignored him and went to talk to her friends at the bar, and on his second attempt she said 'the kitchen is over there go find out for yourself' and walked away... needless to say - we left.

Finally we settled on Quiznos and got a burned sub and some lettuce with a slice of Kraft cheese and 3 pieces of sandwich chicken on it - we ate quickly and decided at this point that maybe Dublin was just not the place for us for today.. we wanted to brush our teeth, take a shower, change and relax in a place where people at least pretended to be happy and nice!!

We headed off - Gisseppi directing - to the Wicklow Mountains. It was a beautiful drive, with some great stop off points and some good picture opportunities. We spent a good couple of hours driving through unmarked back roads just enjoying the beautiful sunny weather and the rolling Irish landscape. We passed through Hollywood, Blessington and around the shores of the Poulaphouca reservoir, and we decided when we were at the end of the road that we would find a place to stay and wash up and eat. The end of our road brought us to Glendalough - a beautiful little town within the mountains that hosts a vintage hotel (our abode for tonight, photo below) and pub as well as a 12th century round tower and 11th century St. Kevin's Kitchen which we will be exploring tomorrow. We are all checked in, cleaned up and soon to head to dinner! It has been a fun and educating day - we will post this when we are back in a populated area!

Still in Chicago...

Well, we are still here! Our flight has been delayed two hours so we aren't leaving until 9:15 Chicago time (10:15 home time). We found an amazing extravagant dinner of... McDonald's, but on the upside I did get Starbucks! It seems like about 75% of our flight are Irish, so its lots of fun listing to them talking to each other about heading home. We got $20 in vouchers to spend on the flight due to the delay, so that is kind of fun! Anyway, just wanted to update you all!

In Chicago

Well we are in Chicago right now, it has been an 'interesting' day so far....

We got to Dulles airport early, and found out that the American Airlines schedule had changed and we had no flight, **insert panic here** after half an hour of the lady telling us there was nothing avaliable to get us to Chicago in time for our Dublin flight we got booked on an earlier flight on the last two seats and ended up flying out at 2 instead of 3:30.

Security was intense. They sent me to the foreign peoples line and I was wedged between some fairly sketchy looking men... the line took about 40mins, after which I was put in the air blasting machine and then screened for everything they could think of, but I finally met up with Geoff, we grabbed a bite to eat at Moe's Grill and Bar and then headed to the gate.

The flight was pretty small to say the least - it was three seats across the whole plane... and shook like an old car! It was an hour and a half and had one air hostess and fasten seatbelt signs the whole way over.

We arrived, had to take a train to the other end of the world and then ... wait for it ... go through security again! Luckily it was a little better apart from getting Geoff's backpack searched due to too many electronics!! Right now we are trying to figure out how to eat since all the food is back in the other terminal, but luckily we have about 3 hours before our next flight - which looks like it is leaving early.

Thats all for now! We will probably be on again later since we bought a wifi pass for 24hours.

Quick Intro.

We decided to set up this blog so that we can record our travels through the U.K. It seems to be a good way to keep in touch in the next few weeks, as well as record our daily activities while they are still fresh in our minds! Hope you enjoy travelling with us!