Ireland
We spent five days in Ireland. Our first day was in Dublin where we spent the majority of our time exploring the Guinness Storehouse - learning a lot about how this mighty stout is made and even enjoying some in the process. We managed to see a bit of the town via a bus tour, such as the "ha'penny" bridge (so called for its 19th century toll)
We were joined by Ben's brother, Tom, and his girlfriend, Nic, and took advantage of their company for a road trip out to the west coast of Ireland - passing some beautiful scenery and resident donkeys on the way. We were lucky to make it out to the Cliffs of Moher for a bit of a (freezing) picnic watching a stunning sunset over the ocean (there's nothing quite like drinking red wine from a plastic cup!).
The next day we headed north of Galway to the Connemara peninsula, which was surprisingly scenic with rugged mountains, BLUE water, and striking yellow gorse-flowers scattered everywhere. It was lambing season - so we stopped often to ooh and aah at the cute little buggers...sometimes they stopped us with a true Irish traffic jam. The weather reminded us of Scotland, changing every five minutes from wind-driven rain to beautful sunshine, resulting in some stunning rainbows in-between.
Northern Ireland
After saying goodbye to Tom and Nic, we decided to head to Northern Ireland. We spent a night in Derry, sight of the infamous "Bloody Sunday" massacre. Murals have been painted on the walls to depict the experiences of the locals from Bogside during these troubled times.
We took a roundabout route getting back to Dublin by skirting the northern coast of the country. We spent some time out on the Giant's Causeway, whose hexagonal basalt columns are really quite remarkable to see. If you spend time in Ireland, we highly recommend a drive along the causeway coast as it is filled with spectacular cliffs, lovely Irish glens, and an abundance of very wooly sheep!
London
We traveled to London where we happily met up with Karen's mom and dad, and we all stayed with Karen's aunt, Karen. We set out on a busy tour schedule and were lucky to have Aunt Karen along as our personal tour guide (we were extremely impressed with her knowledge of English history and royalty).
Our first stop was the Tower of London where we became part of a massive "beefeater" tour group (they are the guys in red - the Yeoman Warders). We had no idea that there was so much to see at the Tower - we easily spent the better part of the day there and learned interesting things such as the distinctive size of Henry VIII's codpiece.
windsor
Home of HRH Queen Elizabeth II (who was in residence when we visited!!!!), Windsor castle makes for an enjoyable visit. The interior of the castle is even more impressive than the outside (unfortunately no photos allowed). St. George's chapel (home to the Knights of the Garter) and resting place of many royals, is as large and as impressive as many of the cathedrals we've seen in Europe.
Stonehenge and Bath
As a day trip out of London, the five of us somehow packed ourselves into Aunt Karen's car and traveled to Stonehenge and Bath. Unlike many famous landmarks, Stonehenge is impressively large in real life (but you don't need to spend much time there if you are not on a tour into the actual stone ring).
Bath is a world heritage city and considered very beautiful due to its Georgian buildings all constructed of the same material (though opinions on this varied within our group). The city was named for the Roman baths that were discovered here, still full to this day (though the green water doesn't look so nice for bathing now). The city also has a lovely abbey, complete with flying buttresses, for all you church fans.
Oxford
We took a bike tour of Oxford and didn't learn all that much except that most of us need more practice on a bike - our tour guide seemed a bit inexperienced. It is still an amazing campus, with great architecture and a sense of history (most of the pubs are older than our respective countries). We did enjoy the tour along the canal and the Thames river, which we probably would not have seen if we weren't biking.
Other fun notes from our trip to London was the time we spent with friends (Ian, Kerrie, Jacqui, Mike, Matt and Tash - it was really, really good to catch up with you! Thanks so much for your hospitality and generousity. Enjoy the coming English summer!) and our family trip to see Momma Mia (an excellent show, though the songs tend to get stuck in your head....for weeks - thanks for taking us, Aunt K!)
We are now in South Africa, and we are lucky to be hosted by our friend, Tracey, and her family in Jo'burg. We're sure to have some good photos for the blog soon as we head to Kruger National Park tomorrow!
