To Sum It All Up...

23 Days

10 Cities

9 Countries

10 hotel rooms

22 Taxis

13 Trains

11 Tours

9 Buses

5 planes

1 bicycle

2 beds with no sheets

Many miles walked

1 missed flight...

After all that, not one lost item of consequence (I left my shampoo somewhere).  No incidents with crime.  We never got lost.  Most people in most of the places we visited were pretty nice, especially in Ireland.  There was beauty to be found in every place we visited.

Day 22 - Dublin

Well, we were supposed to be on a plane right now headed for home, but we missed the flight.  So we are here for another night.  We decided to walk around the shopping area for a while but it was so crowded with tourists we could only take it for about 30 minutes.

We then walked to this area called Temple Bar, which is generally a tourist area, unless you know the bars to go to.  We went to this place called 'The Auld Dubliner' and we watched the Argentina-Germany football match and also a sport called Hurling.  The Irishmen around us helped us to understand Hurling and we really got into it.  It is sort of a mix between football and soccer and baseball and golf (how I see it anyways).  Mom and I stayed there for around 2 hours and I had a Guinness (which I have had a lot of since being here) and I tried another Irish beer, Murphy's Stout.  It is dark like Guinness, but sweeter and just as good.

We are going to dinner at this place that was recommended to us called The Bank then we are going to bed so we can stay awake as long as possible tomorrow.

On a side note:  Our cameras are packed and we don't want to unpack them, so no pictures today.

Day 21 - Gotta Love Guinness!

Originally, our plan for today was to take one of those tourist "hop on/hop off" buses around Dublin to see the city, but Kate decided she would rather walk, because nothing we wanted to see was too far away. 

So we crossed the street to Trinity College and arrived just as they were opening the doors to the "Book of Kells" exhibit. First, I want to say the campus is so cool, not very big, and it has some really old buildings. The school was established in 1592.  

The exhibit of the Book of Kells (which dates back to the 9th century) was very good with enlarged photos of the illustrations and text from the actual book (since it is a glass case).  For more information, check out this link:    http://www.tcd.ie/about/trinity/bookofkells/.  The school has had this book in their possession since the 1600s.  Upon leaving the exhibit, the visitor is led to their library of old books. This library is absolutely beautiful and brought to mind the library at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.

Then we proceeded a little further to Grafton Street which is a pedestrian mall. We walked past all the stores down to the end of the area to St. Stephen's Green where there is an indoor mall. 

We left the mall and just started strolling around, turning down one pedestrian mall after another and...lo and behold in front of us we saw the Louis Vuitton store. I am convinced I could find that store in any city without looking for it ;-).  There was also an Hermes store and a Chanel store. We didn't bother entering any of those though. 

We got a bit of lunch and set out for the Guinness brewery.  That walk was a little longer than we thought, but once we were on our way, we decided to stick it out. It's a good tour, but of course what everyone looks forward to, is the end when your ticket stub allows you a free pint of Guinness in the circular bar at the top, which looks out over the city. (the picture is of Guinness settling before he tops it off)

We then walked back to the hotel to let our feet rest up for the pub crawl.

This was billed as a Musical Pub Crawl. Two musicians took us to two pubs where they entertained us with Irish folk music. They explained a lot of the customs of Irish singing and songwriting. This was different from the other night in that these musicians only sing traditional folk songs. It was excellent and I would definitely recommend it. 

Tomorrow we fly home. We are both looking forward to being back in the USA.

Day 20 - Blarney

We are so tired. This will be succinct. 

We took "Railtours Ireland" tour to Cork, Blarney Castle, and Cobh.  The train trip to Cork took about 3 hours.   I recommend this tour company if you ever come here. They do tours all over Ireland.  Blarney Castle is the second most popular tourist spot in Ireland.   

We walked up 123 steps of Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone. Including standing in line and walking back down, about 1 hour total.  We were then given time to have lunch and shop.   

Then we rode in a bus through the town of Cork, which looks like a pretty cool place to hang put for a few days (second largest city in the Irish Republic).  

We then proceeded to the town of Cobh (formerly Queenstown), which has the distinction of being linked to two shipping disasters. It was the last port of call for the Titanic before it sail for New York in 1912, and the Lusitania was sunk by a torpedo just outside the harbor (in 300 feet of water) in 1915. A cemetery there has three mass graves with the bodies of victims, many of them American.  There is an interesting shipping exhibit right next to the train station, where we boarded our train to return to Dublin. 

This tour took an entire day (left at 7 am, returned at 8:25 pm) and totally worth it. 

Actually rode the trolly (Kate calls it a tram) back to the hotel and had a quiet dinner so we could do this blog and post our pictures. 

David and Sarah, I hope we can all get the same vacation some time in the future and return to Ireland and spend more time. 

Love to everyone back home.

Day 19 - Edinburgh to Dublin

We got up this morning with a plan.  We were going to find a small suitcase to bring on the plane with us, so we could make our suitcases lighter.  Well, we had to make a short detour to a convenience store, then, we walked to the suitcase place.  The lady at the first place we went to, didn’t know how to use an American credit card on her machine, so we went to this department store and bought a suitcase there.  Mom introduced me to the store Boots.  She says it is her favorite place in Europe.  I had to agree it’s pretty cool, a little like a cross between Ulta and Target. We weren’t ready to walk back to the hotel yet, so we kept walking further into town, me dragging the empty suitcase behind me.   We went into a few stores just browsing then I realized that I needed some books to read, so we found a bookstore.  They didn’t have the book I was looking for, so I decided to buy “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and the 2 sequels, because I heard that they were good. 

We went back to the hotel and packed up our stuff and headed to the airport.  We got one last glimpse of Fetter’s College as we left.  We can’t help but think that we just got the hang of this town and we have to leave.  This was by far my favorite place that we visited and I definitely would like to come back to Scotland very soon.  

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When we arrived to Dublin, our cab driver to the hotel pointed out places that the IRA bombed.  The cab driver who drove us to our dinner show told us that he drove Mel Gibson around for 3 months whilst they were filming braveheart here.  I think there might be a rivalry between scotland and ireland.  

Well we went to a dinner show and they called it an Irish House Party.  It consisted of a meal followed by performances by a musician, singer and dancer of authentic Irish folk music.  It was a lot of fun and they had sing a longs which made it that much better!!!  

We didnt really get a chance to take that many pictures and those that we did take were only at the Dinner we just came back from, so we decided that it wasnt all that important to post pictures tonight.  Plus the fact that we are exhausted.  We hope yall are doing well and we will post tomorrow with more exciting things....like kissing the Blarney Stone!!

Day 18 - Loch Ness (or all over Scotland)

We haven't had Internet for several days as the hotel has not acknowledged the problem until the morning we are to leave. I hope to be able to post this when we get to Dublin. 

We joined our tour guide Allie (a guy - I'm sure it's a nickname) and got on the van for our "small group" tour to Loch Ness in Northern Scotland.   

 

He pointed out various points of interest around the area as we were leaving town.  A castle that was built on top of an extinct volcano, which is around 400 million years old, dominates the view of the city. It was Interesting to learn that Scotland is made up of volcanic soil. There are lowlands and highlands divided by a fault line. There are actually two fault lines running through Scotland, but they haven't had an earthquake in millions of years. Also, it is home to a so-called super volcano (Yellowstone Park also).   Fun Fact: If both of these super volcanoes erupted at the same time, human life on earth would end because of the ash dispersed from the two volcanoes.

 

He stopped several times at scenic points to allow us to take pictures. Scotland is a beautiful place and there are miles of open spaces, mostly because of the moor, which is uninhabitable, and the mountains.  We also stopped in a couple of towns for breaks and we had a chance to do a little shopping.  

We had a long stop at Loch Ness. I was interested to learn that the Loch has a lock system to lower boats entering it to its level.   The locks are right in the middle of the little town so it quite interesting to see. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and walking around.  We even saw Nessie and we have the pictures to prove it!

On the return trip, we took a slightly different route and found other scenic places to take pictures. We even panned for gold in a river. 

Kate was very happy that our guide also pointed out places that were used as scenery in the Harry Potter movies.  One of which is Fetter’s College in Edinburgh. They use it as the outside and entrance of Hogwarts.  The guide made an extra stop on the way back so that we could all get pictures of it.  Along the way, he also pointed out an area that is used for external photography of where Hagrid lives. 

It was a long, but fun day. 

Once we found a fan to cool off our room, we got a good night's sleep and are ready to visit our last stop, Dublin.  Hope everyone is having as great a summer as we are!  Cheers!

Day 17 - Photos

Day 17 - London to Edinburgh

So this morning we got to sleep in a little bit, which was nice.  We had some time before our train to Edinburgh, so we decided to go on a walk around London a bit.  We found this beautiful pedestrian bridge, which we walked across and it had the most beautiful view of Parliament and Big Ben and the London Eye (the ferris wheel).  For those of you who saw the last Harry Potter movie, this bridge was depicted in the opening scenes as the death eaters were terrorizing London...they made it break and fall.

Anyways, after our walk we got a cab to KING'S CROSS train station for our train to Edinburgh.  We had to go to the ticket counter to get our tickets, which we reserved online, however because dad made the reservations with his card and we didnt have it with us, they couldnt give us the tickets.  So we had to buy two more tickets, but they agreed to give us a refund for the first ones we purchased.

Most of you know King's Cross from Harry Potter, and yes, they have a platform 9 3/4!!  I asked the ticket guy where it was, and he said that everyone asks where it is.  It is SO cool!  It was down platform 8 and off to the side.  They have a sign and a luggage card that sticks out of the wall.  So we definitely took pictures by it!  I put my backpack on the cart and made it look like i was running through.  I know I am a nerd, but it was so cool!

So the train was really fancy.  we were in first class and they asked us if we wanted coffee or tea every 15 minutes.  The train also had wifi which was awesome.  most of the way I read, but when we started getting close I looked out the window and saw the beautiful scenery.  There were cliffs over the water and rolling hills.  I only wish I had my camera out so  I couldve taken pictures.  When we got to Edinburgh we got a taxi to our hotel, which is not close to any of the tourist sites, but it is very nice and quaint.

When we got there, we realized that we needed cash so we walked to an ATM, about 15 minutes away, and back.  We then went to dinner at this place called Maxies and it was so good!  All the locals go there because they use fresh veggies and ingredients grown locally.  After dinner we got a taxi back to the hotel and are just going to go to bed.  We hope everyone is well and we love you all.

I realize this is late and im sorry.  The pictures are not uploading, so I will post them asap!

Day 16 - London

We woke up early today to catch a flight to London Heathrow from Amsterdam.  We landed around 10 am local time (we went backwards an hour).  Customs was a breeze and we finally got stamps on our passports, since no other country did it.  We got on the Heathrow express to the center of London and arrived at our hotel, which is right on Trafalgar Square, but they didn't have our room ready yet.

So we went to get some fish n chips that the hotel recommended.  It was about a 30 minute walk ( even though the hotel said it was going to be 8 minutes).  It was good!  I don't really like fish 'n' chips, but I guess that I have never had real fish 'n' chips before (mom was so excited to get her "mushy peas").  After we ate there, we walked back to the hotel area and got on the big red double decker tour bus to tour around the city.  Since today was our only day, we figured that this was our best option for seeing the main sites.

The bus was supposed to only take around 2 hours, but it ended taking around 4 (the traffic here is intense, even on Sunday).  It was also the hottest day of the year so far in London and after being in 40-50 degree weather it was hot to us.  I got a little burned from sitting at the top of the bus (which is open-air).  The big bus took us around all of London.  We saw the tower of London, the Tower bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and a TON of other stuff.  Most of our pictures were taken while on the bus, so it was sometimes difficult to get pictures around seats and other people.

When we finally got off the bus, we decided that it was time for a drink.  So we went to the hotel bar and ordered Gin and Tonic ( I got Hendricks, which was awesome - its cucumber based.)  while I uploaded and edited my pictures.  After that, we went to an amazing Indian restaurant, which I was skeptical about because they didn't have my favorite, but I tried something new and LOVED it!!  Then we shared a chocolate dessert that came with a shot of some special orange rum so we each had a shot.  It was good and added a lot to the dessert.

I hope everyone is doing well at home.  We love and miss y'all.

Day 15 - Amsterdam

Sorry we didnt post yesterday, we were having internet troubles and I (Kate) wanted to watch the soccer game.  So...We flew to Amsterdam yesterday morning and arrived around 1:15 or so, just in time to grab a quick bite to eat and meet our tour guide Bernie at 2:00.

Bernie drove us around the city which was quite crowded today because it was a Saturday.  He showed us some points of interest, the canals, and Ann Frank's house (middle building with the green door in the picture to the left).   The line for that was so long, we realized we should have made online reservations in advance.  We did get to take a picture of the front, however. Bernie explained to us that there aren't any really old buildings because there have been many fires that have destroyed most of the oldest parts of the city because the houses were all made of wood, most notably in the middle ages nearly the entire city burned to the ground.  We also saw a Catholic church that was hidden behind a facade because the Catholic church was banned here for 300 years.

In Amsterdam, everyone rides bicycles.  And I mean EVERYONE.  Right by our hotel there was this parking garage just for bicycles that was 4 stories tall.  It was completely full of bikes.  In a way it is really nice because it is environmentally conscious, but it is really annoying for the drivers in the city.  Then Bernie drove us out into the country where the Windmill farms used to be.  There are still some working windmills there, but not nearly as many as there used to be.  We visited one that makes paints, using the windmill to turn the stones that grind up the base into a powder.  There is a little village that depicts what life was like in the 18th century there.

We also visited a wooden shoe (or clog) maker and watched a demonstration showing how they make the shoes today, which is mostly by machine, with the finish out being by hand.  There was a display of some really elaborate clogs, some for "Sunday best" wear and even a pair of wedding clogs.  Driving back, we saw more historic sites and canals.  Some canals having people living in barges on them.

We found a sidewalk cafe to have some dinner and then went to a bar to watch the USA soccer match.  At half-time we returned to the hotel to watch the rest here.  Unfortunately, we lost, but it was a fun and exciting match to watch with some fellow american fans.