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Note to those of you getting emails: Sorry about the multiple posts in a row. Blogger managed to first go offline for a day and then post all my drafts when it came back online.

Day 22 (May 12, 2011)

Itinerary: Fly home

Today we fly home. Tomorrow we get to wear something else other than the 3 shirts we travel with. But, today, we must say goodbye to each other and to our time off.

Mark's flight was at 6:40am, so we had to wake up at 3:30am to catch the train to the airport. I have never seen London so completely void of people! On our walk to the station, we saw one car and only a couple other people all hauling baggage as well. I guess the only people up this early are those of us tourists who are heading to the airport. Luckily our train started running at 3:30am.

I booked our flights so that we were both flying out of the same airport, London Gatwick. London has 5 airports, so at the time of booking that wasn't so easy a task especially since most flights to the States seem to leave out of Heathrow. We had no problems checking into our flights. British Airways was easy. Mark will fly BA to Marseille and then change airlines to Air Algerie to get to Annaba. Checking in at KLM/Delta was a little more time consuming. First I had a passport check where they asked me about 10 or 15 security questions. This early in the morning it is hard to hear the meaning of the question to know if the answer is yes or no because they change it up on you. One of the questions I was asked was if any of my electronics had been repaired past their original function or something like that. I had to verify my electronics were in my carry on as well. The 4 people ahead of me in line at the bag drop all had complicated issues that took about 5 minutes each.

Finally, I met Mark again on the other side of security. His gate number was not announced yet, so we stopped to eat breakfast at a place properly named Eat. We've been seeing Eat at other place in London, but hadn't stopped in yet.

I am sad to say goodbye to Mark. We will next see each other in July for our planned African Safari. That will be a very interesting trip and we can start counting down the weeks. All my faithful blog readers will be disappointed to learn that we will not have internet access on that trip and you'll have to wait until the end of our trip to hear about our adventures. It will be a truly off-grid vacation.

My plane to the States left at 9am and was operated by Delta instead of KLM. This disappoints me especially when I got on the plane to find out that we don't have individual tvs! I was looking forward to seeing some of the movies I didn't see on the way to London. I don't think I've been on an international flights without the individual tvs since before our Singapore trip in 2007. Oh well. The plane is completely full as well, so I am not lucky enough to get an empty seat next to me. Thankfully the flight has gone pretty smooth and fast. I slept for the majority of the flight to Atlanta.

In Atlanta I will need to pick up my checked luggage to go through customs and then wait for about 3 hours before my flight to Houston. I will be arriving in Houston later than normal at 5:15pm and in the middle of rush hour traffic. Hopefully it will not rain on my for my walk home from the light rail station.

And, now several hours later, I am on my flight home, to arrive about 3 hours late. As soon as I sat down on the original 4pm flight from Houston to Atlanta, a member of the ground crew came on the PA and announced that we should all leave the plane. I have to say that it sounded like a bit of a joke since we were just getting on. However, it was not a joke. "The plane broke" were the exact words to describe the malfunction that forced us off the plane. I didn't want to fly on a broken plane anyway.

Eventually, we were told to move to a new terminal and new gate where a new plane was sitting waiting for us to board so we could get to Houston. At the new gate, the one member of Delta staff told us that the new plane was different from the first and we would need to check in again and get new seat assignments. The new departure time was 5:15pm, but I couldn't see how we could possibly leave them if we all had to get new seats.

I sat down and waited for the masses to clear before I got in line for my new seat. The line to get new seats did not shrink until 5:30pm and by now we already knew that the first real Houston rain of 2011 had forced a shut down of the airport and delayed our flight to 6:05p. Just as I was to get to the counter for my new seat, the amazingly patient one staff member said we were going to board and if we didn't get new seats yet, it would just print out as we boarded. Well that sounds easy.
The new plane is a major upgrade from the old plane. It's nicer than my international plane as we have leather seats, padded seat belts, and personal tv screens where we can watch satellite tv or pay for a movie. I did not partake as I brought my own entertainment, but I have to say the flight has been very nice so far. We finally took off around 6:30p, but I believe the pilot plans to "fly real fast" and "make up time in the air" as pilots are known to do. We might arrive at 7:45p or maybe later.

In any case, waiting extra time in the Atlanta airport was not a problem for me at all. It felt downright luxurious because I was already in the States, I had a cell phone with internet, and a seat with an outlet to charge my electronics. After sleeping on a cold concrete floor outside the terminal at CDG in Paris, this was a treat. I'll get home eventually.

We've had such a good vacation. 3 weeks is a long time. We are so happy that Mark's family was able to join us for the first week and travel in Ireland with us. Mark will not be back in the States again until December, so he was so happy to be able to spend time with his family. Traveling as a group of 5 people certainly made vacation more interesting. With 5 people, we had varying interests and probably visited some places that Mark and I would not have visited on our own. Plus there are more people to talk to and lots of conversation. I haven't planned a vacation for a group of people since 2006 when I planned a trip for 9 of us friends to go to Glacier National Park.

Ireland was everything I imagined it to be and more. 2 weeks was not enough and I want to go back to the green rolling hills and Irish music again soon. We had most excellent both in Ireland and in London. We came prepared for chilly rain every day, but I would say at least 3/4 of the days were gorgeous and sunny. I can only thing of about 2 days where chilly rain changed any of our plans. We are looking forward to coming back to London as well since we really didn't hit up all the must-sees and must-dos in the area. We put in a bid a couple weeks ago for London 2012 Olympic tickets and it'll still be a couple months before we hear anything. We hope to be back here in 2012, though it will be amazingly crowded. It was interesting to read all the London news about the complications even the Brits are having with getting tickets to the games. Apparently 4 times as many people entered the ticket lottery than there are tickets for. and that's just out of the EU allotment. I'm curious how lucky we will end up being.

Thanks for reading and commenting on my vacation blog. I had gotten more behind than usual this trip, but I am all caught up now. I'm sure the bunnies and my friends are looking forward to seeing me again. I know I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Until next time,
=) Joanna

So Wicked

Day 21 (May 11, 2011)

Itinerary: Shopping, Wicked, The Comedy Store improv

Today is our last day of vacation. As I'm typing this, I think I might have gotten off in my numbering of days. Today should be day 22, I think, not 21. I might have doubled up somewhere, or maybe I'm just confused. In any case, I'll leave it as is.

This morning our goal was to find an inexpensive piece of luggage for Mark to take to Algeria with the recent purchases we've made. Since I didn't bring an action packer full of food this rotation leave, we ended up buying food and beer in London to take. We ended up at an interesting store called Argos. The goal of this store is to have a small front for customers and a huge warehouse of stock. It is an interesting business model and certainly works here. Inside, a table with many paper catalogs was available to us for shopping. We simply browsed the contents of the store via the catalog. Once we found a suitably inexpensive rolling bag, we made note of the catalog number and then went to the front desk to order and pay for it. Once the item was paid for, we moved to the waiting area set up very similar to DMV in the states when you have to wait in that ridiculously long line to get a driver's license. We were the only order being processed at the time, though, so in about 3 minutes, our order came down from wherever the warehouse was. I'm thinking they store the stock vertically on floors above the storefront. Out popped our suitcase, and we picked it up and walked back to the hotel. It was a very simple, easy process. It only works for us because we didn't care what we got. Our 69cm piece of luggage was all of 16 pounds, but it only has to last for one flight.

At the hotel, we started the process of packing. It is time to split up all the belongings and make sure all the right things go to Algeria or to Houston. I'll spare you the boring details of packing. =) Once done, we traveled back to the Texas Embassy Cantina for one last tex-mex lunch for Mark. We really are happy with the food there and out order again today came out great. We also learned that the actual Texas Embassy building to the Republic of Texas was actually at another location closer to Buckingham Palace. Originally we thought this might be the old Texas Embassy turned restaurant. Later on we'll go find the original building.

We made it just in time, after lunch, to get in to see Wicked. We found out the secret to getting good seats is to arrive about 2 minutes late so they seat you in the easiest seats instead of your actual seats. We ended up in a price level higher than what we had purchased and we were happy with our new seats. This probably doesn't always work of course, but we felt lucky with our timing. The performance was fantastic as expected. Amazingly, neither of us has seen Wicked before, so we both enjoyed the introduction to the storyline as well. The set mechanics always interest me and I thought they did a marvelous job with the set design and easy changes. We were both confused by the large model of a dragon above the stage that didn't really do much throughout the show, but it did look cool.

After our afternoon show, the sun came out, and we decided to walk to Piccadilly for our evening entertainment. It helped that it was rush hour and once again they had closed the Victoria Station Underground due to overcrowding. This time, however, we were on the outside unable to get in. It did look quite packed full of people and we had the time to walk, so we did.

Once again the Will and Kate souvenir shop was closed, but we did get to see Buckingham Palace in the daylight. We were amused at two of the Royal guards standing next to each other that had about a foot and a half difference in height. The walk to Piccadilly was very pleasant. We stopped in a tea shop for Mark to find some good English tea to take back to Algeria.

Mark had time for some Ben and Jerry's before it was time to get out seats for our evening comedy improv show at The Comedy Store. We watched many of the same comedians that we saw at the utterbelly festival a couple days ago. The show was very similar with the same games, but because the audience suggestions were different, it was a very different show. We were nearly rolling in the aisles laughing at the routines. What a great night of British comedy and a great way to end the vacation in London.

Tonight we finished packing, and finally got to bed. In 3 hours we'll be waking up to head back to the train station to get to the airport where we will say goodbye to each other and to London. This has been another most excellent vacation.

To be or not to be

Day 20 (May 10, 2011)

Itinerary: Hamlet at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Tate Modern,
walking in London

Vacation is starting to wind down. Today we realized that we only
have a few more days together before we have to go out separate ways.
We plan to get as many shows out of London as possible before we
leave, so this afternoon we headed to Shakespeare's Globe Theater to
see Hamlet.

We booked ahead online to be groundlings at the show for only 5 pounds
each. It is certainly the cheapest show in London. The groundlings
stand around the stage and to get spots along the edge of the stage,
we needed to line up about an hour in advance. In the area, we had a
leisurely lunch before we got in line. We at at a place called Pizza
Express, but it was actually the same restaurant as Milano that we
visited in Ireland on the first night we were there. We remember the
food being excellent and it still was even in England. Actually,
contrary to popular belief, all the food we've had in England has been
great.

Shakespeare's Globe was rebuilt as the original does not exist any
more of course. The first version burnt down, the second was
eventually torn down, and now this one, the third, I think, was
finished in 1997 on the bank of the Thames River. I always pictured
it in a more rural area, but we were still in central London
surrounded by buildings and skyscrapers. Down low, The Globe Theater
is hard to pick out. The inside was just as you would picture it.
The area is small as the actors do not have microphones. There are 3
or 4 levels of seating on balconies vertically stacked. We stayed on
the ground floor in an area that would hold up to 700 people, though
that would be a tight fit. We got in early enough to grab a spot
along the edge of the stage, though it was off on the side rather than
the front. This meant that some of the view was obstructed by a large
column holding the roof over the stage, but most of the action
occurred in plain view. The stage was probably just over 4.5 feet
tall as I could just barely rest my arms on the stage to watch.
Standing for 3 hours of Hamlet would have been tough without the stage
to lean on.

The show was well done and it was quite an experience to see the play
as it was meant to be seen. There was a short intermission between
acts where all of us groundlings were able to sit down and take a
break. It was certainly interesting to see the same actors play a
variety of characters. A change of coat or over-shirt made the
difference between the characters. All the changing took place in the
wings on stage as I can imagine it would have been done in
Shakespeare's time. This did not detract from the action out front,
but it does make me appreciate all the modern technology in today's
theater.

After everyone died, and then took their bows, we wandered next door
to the Tate Modern museum. We only had time to visit one floor of
this free art museum, so we viewed modern art on the 5th floor made of
every day materials and generally from the 1960s. This is the kind of
modern art similar to putting a broom in the corner of the room
upside-down and calling it art.

At 6pm, the museum docents kicked us out and we made our way back to
the hotel to change for the evening. We had dinner reservations at a
steak restaurant that Mark found and picked out. This place was
certainly focused on cow. I'm sorry to all my vegetarian friends for
the description of the restaurant. We walked into a meat-eaters
wonderland. The walls, stairs, and chairs all had the black and
white cow hide. Before we ordered, the waitstaff brought out a tray
of the uncooked meat and pointed at and explained each cut so we could
see what we would be eating. We could see exactly how it was marbled
and the size. The menus were long and thin, about 2 inches wide, but
opened up in accordion style to reveal all the different meats to
order. First pick a cut, then pick how much you are going to eat. We
had to do a little conversion from grams to ounces to make sure we got
the right amount. The entree was just the meat, so we ordered a
couple sides to go with it. I certainly do not go out and eat steak
on my own in Houston and Mark doesn't get good steak in Algeria. So
we both enjoyed the treat as the steak melted away in our mouths.

Okay, veggies, you can start reading again. The weather had been
gorgeous all day with blue skies, sun, and a few clouds during the
day. Tonight was clear and pleasant again, so we walked along the
Thames River near the London Eye again and around Westminster before
heading back to the hotel for typing and bed.

Tomorrow is our last full day together and the last day in London.
We've got some more shows lined up and some final shopping for Mark.

"I'm just a mad man with a box"

Day 19 (May 9, 2011)

Itinerary: Buy discount tickets at the tkts booth for a show tonight, visit the Doctor Who Experience at Olympia, see the Tower Bridge open for a large ship, eat Thai for dinner, go see Billy Elliot

I stayed up too last last night trying to catch up on the travel journal and then this morning Mark woke up early and typed up the last 2 days. So this morning we were all caught up! Amazing! I can actually type up today's experiences tonight. Thanks, Mark, for your help.

So after all this work, we got a slow start to the morning. Luckily after our grocery store visit, we had breakfast in the room consisting of muffins and peaches. This turned out to be our only meal until dinner, but that's later on. Our first stop once we got moving was at the discount tkts booth similar to the discount tkts booth in Time Square. Here you can pick up half price tickets for broadway shows going on tonight. We opted to see Billy Elliot since it originated here rather than one of the more long-running classic broadway hits. Also, we did pass up Shrek, the musical, and Legally Blonde, the musical, as well. Maybe next time.... We were able to get our half price tickets for the 4th row from the front.

Satisfied, we headed off to the Olympia Exhibition Center to visit the Doctor Who Experience. This really was our main attraction for London. For the uninitiated who might be reading, Doctor Who is a long-running tv series dating back to the 60's. In 2005, a new Doctor Who show started up again and we've been watching every episode.

We had a bit of a confusing experience using the Tube to get to the right place, but eventually with the aid of Google Maps on Mark's phone, we found it. The Experience was awesome! We both had a great time and spent several hours here, much more than the suggested 90 minutes. There was no need for advance tickets as we were the only ones there for a large chuck of it. First, we passed through a series of rooms that put us inside of an episode of Doctor Who. With Matt Smith, the eleventh Doctor leading the way, we got to stand inside the Tardis, operate some controls. We fought off several Daleks, and passed through a dark and foggy wood full of the weeping angels. We finished with a 3D experience inside the pandorica saving the Doctor so he could save the world....again. Though the staff tried to wait for more people to arrive, we ended up going through the experience on our own.

After we saved the world, we entered the free-flowing part of the exhibit. We saw costumes from all the Doctor Who companions from the current season. Both Mark and I think Rose was the best companion. We got to see costumes from all the Doctors as well starting with the first Doctor from the 60s. We went inside the Tardis from the 9th and 10th Doctors. This was really cool. Definitely an experience. Finally, we walked through the monster section where a model of all the various monsters/aliens from all the episodes were on display. Most interesting was the progression of Daleks from the 60s to today. They really haven't changed much. The Cybermen, though, have changed a lot from the 60s version to today.

With the power of video screens located through the whole event, we learned that this whole experience was built over 2 years!! And of course there was so much more. I don't want to give it all away. If you are a Doctor Who fan, this is definitely worth the trip. =)

We purchased some Lego figurines and Tardis at the store. We also tried to get tshirts, but all they had in stock was XL and no more shirts until Friday. Dude, this is the second time I've tried to buy a cool London shirt and been denied. Yesterday the Texas Embassy only had small shirts and nothing for me to buy. So, needless to say, I'm very disappointed. =( Boo.

Next stop was the Tower Bridge, usually known as the London Bridge, and a major London icon. We arrived in time to see the 5:30 raising and lowering of the bridge to let a large ship through. Ships need to schedule in advance when they need the bridge to open and then all the times are posted online.

Oh and did I mention that today was an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day. The clouds today are classic, puffy, cumulus clouds and my photos look like I photoshopped in a fake sky. We sat outside in the grass before we had to high-tail it back to eat dinner and make it to the showing of Billy Elliot. On the way back, we were interested to see them need to close Victoria Underground station due to over-crowding. They actually close the gates and didn't let anyone else in until it cleared out. Wow.

Billy Elliot was a very cute play that I would see again. There are a lot of kids in the production, as the main character is a 12-year old boy of course. There was one adorable 4 or 5 year old that stole all our smiles as well. The actor who played Billy was excellent and deserved the standing ovation we all gave him. He sang, he danced, and he did it all with great style. Awesome show and seats so close to the stage that we felt the need to back up as we were almost underneat the actors. Victoria Palace was a small theater, but had the classic feel of a Phantom of the Opera type theater. During intermission, we were surprised to see the vendors selling ice cream and soda in the aisles.

Today was another day that didn't feel too touristy, but we had an absolutely great time. We are already planning to catch several more shows and theater performances before we leave London. Tonight we are booking tickets for Shakespeare's Globe to see Hamlet, a performance of Wicked, and also another turn at improv with The Comedy Store guys. We might not get to all the London must-see sights, but we sure are having a great time here.

Local for a day

Day 18 (May 8, 2011)

Itinerary: Stop being a tourist for a day.

Now that we're in the 3rd week of this trip and after a busy few days in Dublin, its time to take a break from being a tourist for a while.  There is just too much to do in London, so we already know we're not going to be able to see everything and we're tired of fighting the tourist crowds for a bit.
After sleeping in a bit and researching a few things we'll want to do later in London we head out on the town in search of lunch and internet.  Mark really likes having internet on his phone so we searched out a  Pay-As-You-Go SIM from the 3 store.  For only £10 Mark was able to purchase a SIM and feed his internet addiction a bit longer.  It's nice to have a phone with a constant internet connection for maps and the random questions that come up every day.  I'm still sad that my iPhone is too old for a sim card.

On the way to the 3 store we found brunch at a lovely outdoor cafe in Chelsea.  The weather was cooperating and it was a beautiful and warm sunny day outside.  The wind picked up a bit near the end of the meal and a nearby tree started raining down pollen and little seed pods everywhere.  The air was a bit thick with pollen and we were both sneezing at the end.  The food was great up until then between some eggs Benedict and a tuna melt, but the pollen dusting put our noses into overdrive, and it was time to make a quick exit.  Next we hit the grocery near our hotel to pick up some breakfast supplies and stock up on food for Mark to take back to Algeria.  This recent trip has reminded Mark of all the good beer that *isn't* being served in Algeria so we picked up a case of Guinness and a 4-pack of Duvel.  Without a car there's definitely some limits on what you can buy at the grocery, between the beer, sugary snacks, Oreos and breakfast food it looked like a lot in the cart, but it actually packaged up rather nicely into just 5 plastic bags.  Our walk back to the hotel loaded down with groceries was rather easy actually.  Our hotel room is already rather cramped as there's no dresser or closet so the groceries are stacked in a few corners until we can figure out a container to pack them in for the airline.

Satisfied we had enough to keep Mark going for another 8 weeks it was time for a night on the town.  Using Rick Steve's guidebook for London we found Westminster Abbey had a free 30min organ recital on Sunday evenings so we headed into Westminster to stand in line.  The line was longer than we would have guessed and the seating  area was full with still some people standing in the back by the time the recital started.  While it was only a quick 25min concert the organ music was beautiful in the large hall of Westminster.  The high ceilings and hard walls gave the organ a large chamber to reverberate around in and the larger organ pipes filled the space with sound.  Using the opportunity for a free look around the Abbey we found a stained glass wall dedicated to engineers on the north side of the Abbey.  In particular across from our seating area was a window dedicated to Civil Engineer Sir Benjamin Burke who designed the first Aswan dam and the Forth bridge.  Mark used his  new cellular internet access to look up Benjamin Burke on Wikipedia, and was later warned by the priests to please put away his mobile phone.  During the whole ceremony they were prowling the aisles looking for people using the cell phones or recording the performance.  It felt like school again with proctors scanning the students for cheaters during a test.  We were then quickly ushered out for the prayer service starting shortly afterward.  A free organ recital is a definitely a cool way to experience Westminster Abbey for the first time.

Moving back into modern times we walked to a nearby cinema and just barely made it in time to see the movie Source Code.  The A/C wasn't working in the theater so it was a bit warm, but just short of being uncomfortably so.  No free drinks from the theater in compensation for the warm theater.  Boo!  London can't quite accommodate the sprawling mega-plexes we have back in Houston, so they solved their problem by stacking the seven movie theaters vertically.  Our particular heated theater was up on the 4th floor.

After the movie we visited the Texas Embassy in London.  This restaurant tried to bring the Tex-Mex experience to London, and they actually did a pretty good job.  Mark had fajitas and Joanna the sour cream enchiladas.  The rice and beans were a bit off, but overall it was decent Tex-Mex food.  They hit the decor of an old Mexican building spot-on so the atmosphere was right too.  The waiter speaking in a French accent broke the spell though.  :-)  So if you're missing out on your Tex-Mex  food while you're in London, like Mark was, the Texas Embassy does an excellent job of filling that need.  We finished off the night with a trip to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream and people watching on a fountain near Piccadilly Circus.

It felt good to do some non-touristy stuff and just live in the city for a day.  We're looking forward to seeing the Dr. Who exhibition tomorrow.

London, after the wedding

Day 17 (May 7th, 2011)

Itinerary: Pack for the flight to London, fly to London.

After a late night of bar-hopping in Dublin searching out traditional music players we were tired and like all good procrastinators packing in the morning sounded much better than packing last night. Since we're traveling light we were able to shower, pack, and have a leisurely breakfast before our 11:30 flight from Dublin to London.

We dutifully arrived 90min early per airport recommendations using the Dublin City bus system, but it only took 9 minutes to get from the bus stop through checked luggage drop off and security. This is was a rather nice and painless airport travel. With the extra time we dropped off our receipts the VAT refunds and poked around in the airport stores on the way to our gate. Mark finally found a Nintendo 3DS to play around on. They have remarkably few demo models to play around with in Algeria. The demo system had no games of course, but we had fun taking pictures of the cute puppies on the Nintendo dogs poster using the 3D camera.

The Ryanair flight uses first-come first-served seating like Southwest used to, but our fellow passengers weren't interested in queuing early like we used for Southwest. It was only about five to ten minutes before they opened the gate when we moved to stand in line and we were second and third in line. The flight was quick and the transit through London Gatwick was easy as flights from the Republic of Ireland don't need to pass through passport control. There were three lines, UK/EU passports, non-UK/EU passports, and then hidden in the corner were the Irish flights which skipped passport control altogether. So no new stamp on our passports for this flight. After a quick train ride and a short walk we were back at the same hotel we used on the way to Ireland. It was rather relaxing to land in a new country and already know where your hotel is and how to easily get there. Almost like being at home again.

After a quick unpacking session we headed out for a late lunch in a nearby cafe. On the plane we only had a rather unhealthy, but tasty, lunch of gummi bears and cheesy Doritos. :-D We found a nice little cafe to eat lunch at 4 in the afternoon. London is so different from small-town Ireland as we can pretty much find food at any time of day! It seems as if the locals dine here and we weren't surrounded by tourists. We've been tourists for 2 weeks now and it's time to mix with the locals for a while.

Our next stop was at the underground ticket station to get some 7-day passes. We are only here for 5 days, but there isn't a 5 day pass. As it turns out, we might not have even needed 7-day passes because later we will walk almost everywhere instead of taking the tube. With no destination in mind, we boarding the District line headed towards the Thames River. Apparently the track was closed after the Embankment stop (we were going to continue to the Tower of London stop), so we ended up getting off at Embankment. We poked our heads above ground to find ourselves across the river from the London Eye.

We chose a direction to walk and just meandered about. Eventually we found ourselves in some sort of South Bank Festival. The festival held a mix of tourists and locals alike. Along the shore was a small sand beach, complete with children building sand castles. We also found a huge model of a fox built out of straw on top of a building. Lining the festival walk were several little huts each housing a different exhibit having to do with South Bank. One of the huts described several machines located at some other South Bank location probably on a boardwalk of some sort that were the old style coin-op types. For instance there was a coin-op machine with giant robot arms in oven mitts that would frisk you. Our favorite was the dog walking machine. You walk on a treadmill with a machine dog. In front of you was a video screen showing where you were walking and down below was one that showed what the dog was looking at.

Then, we found the giant purple cow. This giant purple cow, or the utter belly, was lying on her back, feet and utters in the air above the tree line. It is a tent with stage hosting various events over the course of the festival. We went ahead and purchased tickets to the Comedy Store improve show tonight. It will be very similar to Whose Line is it Anyway?

With 2 hours to kill before the show, we continued to wander aimlessly. We crossed the river again and found Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and several other nice looking buildings. For dinner we ate in the beer garden outside the utter belly and had some good Mediterranean style food. The Comedy Store act inside the giant purple cow was hilarious. If there was room, we might have been rolling on the floor laughing. The place seemed to be full of locals, too, so we felt satisfied we were staying off the tourist path.

We managed to walk all the walk back to our hotel, even though it wasn't the most direct path. On the way, we saw that Trafalgar Square held a large countdown clock to the 2012 Olympics. We plan to be back for that. I was also surprised to see that our roundabout walk took us to Buckingham Palace. This is how I knew we weren't taking the most direct route, but it was neat to see it lit at night. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera gear and tripod with me tonight, so no good night photos for me. The grounds of the Palace have been stripped of all the flower beds I saw 2 weeks ago when I visited before the Royal Wedding! That is a little disappointing. In any case, from here I knew my way back without the map and soon we were back in the room staying up too late to try and catch up on blogging.

Maybe tomorrow we'll figure out what we want to do in London. Or maybe we'll just take another day off from vacation and be a local for a day again.

Guinness is good for you

Day 16 (May 6, 2011)

Itinerary: Shopping, Kilmainham Gaol, Guinness Storehouse tour, pub crawl

There was no alarm clock going off this morning since we were out pub crawling until 1am last night. I spent the morning catching up on this journal. I'm almost 4 days behind now, but I am starting to catch up. When I get far behind like this, I remember how important it is to keep a journal at all. I would never be able to remember a 3-week vacation when I went home otherwise. =)

The bus into the city center from our hotel is very easy and soon we were roaming around looking for lunch. The Bagel Bar provided us with very tasty bagel sandwiches and then ShakeAway provided us with milkshakes. ShakeAway advertises 150+ flavors off milkshakes and they weren't kidding. It took several minutes just to read through all the options and then several more minutes to even decide. They had things like muffin milkshakes, cucumber milkshakes, and of course more common flavors like a variety of candy bars, cookies, and cakes.

The bus out to Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced jail) was easy to catch as well and soon we were on the doorstep of the jail opened from the mid/late-1700s to about 1921 when it finally closed. Our tour guide started us off in a chapel that looked more like a lecture hall. She delivered all the information off the tour without ever taking a breath and I felt as if we needed to memorize it all for a quiz later. Unfortunately her delivery method meant that it was too easy to forget just about everything that was said. She encouraged us to take lots of photos throughout the tour as we passed through first the old wing and then the new wing. The jail was built to hold about 150 prisoners each in a cell by themselves, but ended up holding even up to 800 at a time. When the jail was open during the potato famine, some people would commit crimes just to get thrown in jail where they would get 3 meals a day. The conditions were just awful with all the overcrowding, no glass in the windows, only a candle for heat (the candle had to last you 2 weeks!), and cold limestone walls. Disease ran rampant here. Before about the mid-1800s or so, several hundred hangings took place for public entertainment outside the jail. Eventually public executions were banned and took place quietly behind the walls. In the late 1800s and early 1900s the prison held a number of well-known political prisoners. Some of the well-off prisoners would pay off the guards to have almost similar accommodations to their home life with a large room, their own furniture and clothes, visitors, and of course good meals. The new wing was modeled off of a Victorian prison. The room allowed the guards to see all the cell doors and acoustics were such that a whisper could be heard across the room. Amazingly, this meant that recently the venue has held public events like an opera, music videos, and other entertainment.

We were impressed with the wealth of information in the museum attached to the jail as well. Mark, unfortunately did not realize there were 4 floors and I was sitting on the top floor watching a video of the restoration of the jail from the 1960s. After a while, I realized I hadn't seen Mark in a while and started wandering around looking for him. Meanwhile, Mark couldn't find me on the first floor and had walked outside to wander around looking for me. It took a while, but eventually we found each other.

Our next stop and main reason for coming to Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse. The storehouse was home to the main Guiness brewery until it was deemed too small and had to be moved to a different location. The tour was well laid out and filled with information on 7 different floors. We followed the arrows on the ground to learn about the ingredients, the methods of brewing, the transportation, the advertising, and much more. We even learned the multi-step process of pouring a Guinness. It takes 119.5 seconds to pour. Mark took a turn pouring his own pint from a tap. The top of the storehouse featured a bar with free Guinness (with ticket) and a 360-degree view of Dublin. Overall, the tour was a bit gimmicky, but fun.

It is hard to believe that today is our last day in Ireland. Tomorrow we fly back to London for almost a week before going our separate ways. We've really enjoyed the country. This Irish really are friendly folk. It does help that we speak the same language as them. We don't have much conversation with the locals in other countries mostly because we can't understand them. I could easily spend more time here, but it's time to do the final souvenir shopping before heading out.

Tonight is Friday, so I'm looking forward to a plethora of music options in the pubs of Temple Bar area in Dublin. First we ate dinner at Gourmet Burger which actually cooks the burgers to order. This is the first place we've been able to get anything other than beef well-done. With some fantastic onion rings and burgers almost too tall for my mouth, we were very satisfied with our dinner choice. There will be a few more necessary types of meals before Mark heads back to camp, but we hope to find them in London.

At 9:30 we started our pub crawl. Tonight is the first night in Dublin that it isn't raining so the tourists are flooding the streets. Unfortunately we could not seem to find any traditional Irish music at the first 4 pubs or so. Finally we found the same guitar player we watched last night at a different pub. After a while though, we decided that we were pretty tired today and we had too go home and pack. Our flight isn't until 11:30am, so we'll have time for breakfast at the B&B before we take off. Farewell Ireland, we will be back.












Probably only my family will get the significance of the Button Factory. "I work all day in a button factory."

Old books and harps

Day 15 (May 5, 2011)

Itinerary: Laundry, explore Dublin on foot, tour Trinity College and the Book of Kells, visit the National Archeology and History Museum, dinner and show at the Merry Ploughboys Pub, pub crawling at night

We are getting into a pattern of enjoying the free wifi in the mornings and doing the touring in the afternoon after lunch. It's a pretty good pattern now that we have fast wifi. By the way, we still want to pronounce it weefee as it was pronounced in Spain. This morning it was time to visit the laundromat and get some real washing done. We travel lightly with ony 2 or 3 pairs of any piece of clothing. Most of it I wash every other night in the hotel sink, but some of the larger items are better done in an actual machine.

Our B&B host helped me find a self serve laundromat and in under an hour we were back in our room to get ready for the rest of the day. In the city center, we found a decent place for sandwiches and then set off on foot to explore Dublin. The day is gray, chilly and threatening rain. This is fairly typical weather, but it is always disappointing to have to keep my camera in my backpack due to rain.

First stop was Trinity College. We found out that we missed the student-led tour of campus, so we headed directly to the library to see the Book of Kells and it's exhibit. The Book of Kells is or is one of the oldest books in the world. It was written at about year 800 or slightly before and contains mostly Gospel from the New Testament. The exhibit had a good information and history section before we actually got to see the book displayed in a dim room in a case of course. No photos of course. The book was in amazing condition considering how old it was. I'm sure parts of it have been restored to an extent, but I just couldn't get over how well it was preserved. One of the more interesting exhibits before we found the book was a video on how they used to bind books back in the day. After the Book of Kells we were able to view a portion of the library holding very old books. The books were roped off of course. I would have loved to reach up and flip through one, but several were in display cases for viewing. The bookshelves themselves with the old leather-bound books were straight out of a Harry Potter movie. In addition to the books, one of the only 3 remaining original Gaelic harps from the 14th or 15th centuries is housed here at Trinity College. This one is called Brian Boru's harp and is the symbol of Ireland. One of the other two remaining harps is housed at the Guinness Storehouse. As it turns out, I managed to exit the exhibit before seeing the harp. Boo. But Mark got to see it and I'll see the one at Guinness instead.

Dublin is a bit gray and drizzly today, and with the combination of the exhibits that don't allow photography, I did not take many photos at all today. After Trinity College we hit up the National Archaeology and History Museum down the street and stayed until closing time. Apparently the peat bogs in Ireland were once used as places to store artifacts and preserved those artifacts more than just regular ground would, so many items were on display.

At this point, we just had about 90 minutes to kill before our shuttle to the Merry Ploughboy's pub would pick us up, so we walked along Grafton Street and eventually ended up in a pub for a pint while we waited. Oh, we did stop at Butler's Chocolate Shop to find some chocolate while we walked. I saw they had a Cookie Hot Chocolate on their menu, so I asked what is a cookie hot chocolate. Well, the guy said, it's a hot chocolate with a couple oreos thrown in. I said, inside the hot chocolate? He said yes. I then said, I'll have one cookie hot chocolate. =) It was indeed very tasty with two full oreos inside the hot chocolate cup.

The shuttle driver to the Merry Ploughboy's pub was very lively and friendly. (Nosy, not friendly, I hear.) A couple from Lebanon and Saudi that have lived in Houston before joined us. Between their oil/gas connections and middle east connections, we had a lot to chat about. They were here for a conference. Also a group of three Russians joined us as well, but they did not speak much English. Eventually we made it to the pub that featured a music show including Irish dancing. I came to Ireland to see Irish dancing and have yet not found any. I had really been hoping to find some at the Pan Celtic festival in Dingle, but that didn't happen. Anyway, though this pub was extremely touristy, it did feature the dancing I craved, so I was happy. The dinner was good and the musical performance was really mostly crowd pleaser Irish tunes that we've now heard time and time again. I could have done with some other tunes as well thrown in there. After all, there are about 6000 Irish tunes, but this was okay. I didn't expect anything else. The dancing was decent and the evening was over too quickly.

Back in the city center, Mark and I went pubbing to find more trad sessions. It was raining on and off again which makes pubbing rather difficult, but we managed to find music. At one pub, the one the Dubliners (a group of popular musicians) started in, we found a real trad session going on. I say real becaue it consisted of about 8 or so musicians in a group with no microphone and just playing along to any tune they felt like. Several of the group members were obviously new to their instruments or maybe just lacked confidence because they would just listen for many tunes. While the music was good, the pub noise itself was too loud and the musicians could not combat. Eventually we decided to head back to the Palace Bar only to find that once again, the upstairs section was not open and no music was going on. We walked along the street and ended up back at Gogarty's pub where we started last night. This place is most certainly touristy and filled of tourists. Oh how I miss the little town pubs full of locals. The music was good, lots of crow-pleasers of course, but it was blaringly loud on the speakers. We stayed here until nearly 1am when we finally took a cab back to our B&B.

I certainly do prefer the small towns to Dublin and I would have loved to go back to The Grand in Killarney for a trad session there. But we are still having fun in Dublin. Tomorrow we'll hit up the Guinness Storehouse as it will be our last full day in Ireland.

The Irish are nosy

Day 14 (May 4, 2011)

Itinerary: Depart Wicklow, Powerscourt Estate, Dublin, Traditional Irish Music pub crawl

The morning started out sunny again and we looked forward to the return of the nice weather. Today we would drive out of the Wicklow Mountains and in to Dublin.

I stayed up too late last night typing up the journal and starting to catch up to real time. So this morning we slept in before packing up to head out. This bed and breakfast was different from others because the house was separate from the breakfast. Instead the breakfast was down the hill at the family restaurant. All worked out fine, though and we got our full Irish breakfast at the restaurant before heading on our way.

Both Rick Steves and the Lonely Planet tour books described the Sally Gap as the best scenery in Wicklow. So of course we had to go check it out. We climbed up to the gap and drove the tops of the mountains to find the only brown landscape in all of Ireland. I dont know if usually this area is green like the rest of the country, but there wasn't very much to this scenic drive.

We had planned to find a place to hike, but not here. So we ended up driving towards Powerscourt Waterfall. Well, Powerscourt Waterfall charges 5 Euro per person to view it. Hmmm, we'll just look up some photos online. So, on with the driving. At this rate we'll be in Dublin before we know it.

Luckily the next stop at Powerscourt Estate was a worthwhile stop. In order to access the popular gardens, there is first a one mile drive through the estate passing through the gorgeous Wicklow scenery we've been reading about. We spent a little over an hour wandering through the gardens. There were several separate gardens including a very picturesque Japanese Gardens. It is a little nerdly of me to say that one of our favorite parts of the visit was watching a machine essentially mow the bottom of the lake on the estate. Literally this machine motored around the top of the water with an arm extending down into the lake mowing the bottom. We stayed for several minutes watching and figuring out how the machine worked. Another popular attraction was the Pet Cemetery holding several of the Powerscourt loving companions. This included some horses, dogs, and even a cow. Many of the gravestones had very touching memoriums on them. The whole area was full of various beautiful flowers as expected.

The drive to Dublin at this point was just a matter of catching the motorway in. For the first time on this trip, we found an actual multi-lane highway! It is a little sad entering a large city after spending several weeks in the country-side. But Dublin is a good start to the hustle and bustle we will see when we visit London. Of course we arrived during rush hour. The motorway did not have enough traffic on it to slow it down, but accessing our B&B was complicated due to restricted turns and lots of cars making right turns difficult.

This B&B (ABC Guesthouse) had more of a hostel feel to it with lots of rooms and a community breakfast area. We are located several miles north of the city center, but an easy bus ride from both the airport and the city center. It was easy to drop our car off at the airport and take the bus back to the B&B. Wow, it feels so strange to be car-less again. We were used to it by the end of the day, but for now it is strange to consider carrying our duffel bag and backpacks any long distance. I'm happy to not have to worry about driving on the left anymore. I did pretty good overall. Only on 2 occasions did I find myself in the wrong (right) lane, but they were in remote areas of Ireland when it was easy to correct my mistake. I'm glad to be a pedestrian again for sure.

Tonight we took the bus to the city center and Temple Bar district to find dinner. As it turns out, we were just in time for a Traditional Irish Music Pub Crawl that started at 7:30 out of the Gogarty's pub. The night consisted of following 2 musicians around to 3 pubs and listening to a history and introduction to various aspects of the traditional music. Of course they played tunes along the way as well. At Gogarty's we ate dinner and met our two friendly musicians. One played the fiddle and the other the guitar and voice. Our guitar player for the evening has been on tour all over the world playing Irish music for various audiences. Both worked well together mixing music with information. We learned the chorus's to the typical crowd pleaser songs as well as where and when to clap. We also got information on the instruments and the history behind some ballads. My favorite part of the evening was when our fiddle player told us that the Irish aren't friendly, they are just nosy. They want to know who you are, where you are from, why you are here, where you are headed, how long you are staying, your social security number....etc. =) You know what....this is very true. All through the country that's what we are asked everywhere we go. (Well, sans the SSN of course, that was just a joke.) Now Mark and I joke that the Irish aren't friendly, they are just nosy.

The other great part of the evening was when the fiddle player asked what the difference was between a fiddle and a violin. Mark answered: the person playing it. Both musicians thought this was a most excellent answer as there is no difference between the two other than it is called a violin when played in a classical orchestra, and a fiddle when played in a small group like this. At the end of the evening we asked for recommendations as to where to go to find more trad music and we were told to head to the Palace Bar. Of course it was raining out and the Palace Bar was not playing any music. We wandered around in the rain a bit, but finally just decided to head back and call it an evening.

Tomorrow we will tour more of Dublin and visit a pub featuring Irish Dancing in the evening.

The deep, dark woods

Day 13 (May 3, 2011)

Itinerary: Another lovely breakfast at Joy's Rockside B&B, visit the Bru Boru National Cultural Center, drive to Kilkenny, drive to Carlow for lunch, drive to the Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough Visitor's Center, check into Trooperstown Wood Lodge, hike 9km around Upper Lake

We woke up early again for another great breakfast at Joy's Rockside B&B at the base of the Rock of Cashel. We had our choice of breakfast here and while Mark feasted on the traditional Irish breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast, I ate my fruit and yogurt. Yesterday, being May Bank Holiday, meant that the Bru Boru National Cultural Center was closed. This morning we arrived at opening time after packing up our stuff. We had to wait for them to turn on the exhibit, but soon we had the whole musical history of Ireland exhibit to ourselves. It took about an hour to visit and listen to all the audio and video displays giving us the general musical history of the area. We saw the origins of the oldest instruments and viewed how the dance master went around from town to town teaching the Irish dance.

At the end of our visit we found a small shrew scampering around the floor. He almost looked like a fake wind-up mouse the way he was moving about. Mark thinks he was partially blind. Mark alerted the staff working there so they could capture the little guy.



We were glad we stayed to see the center, but now it was time to start driving towards the Wicklow Mountains and our next stop. The Wicklow Mountains are south of Dublin and actually quite close to the city, so this will be our last long drive today. There are plenty of walking (hiking) trails for us to choose from and scenic drives. Mountain is of course a loose term, since they aren't much higher than 900 meters (about 3000 feet). But for this area they are called mountains.

On the way, we stopped again in Kilkenny and the souvenir shop was open this time. We also visited the tourist information desk to get more maps and recommendations on the best driving route to Wicklow. In Carlow we stopped for a really tasty lunch. We randomly picked this town, and randomly picked a restaurant, but we ended up in a local hangout. A large group of men next to us were having some sort of social lunch and a group of women on the other side were discussing their work woes over lunch as well. I had an amazing roast of chicken and potatoes. Mark was happy with his lunch too, though I forgot what he had.

On the road again, we took many turns on country roads to reach County Wicklow and the Wicklow Mountains. There wasn't a sign when we entered the park. Mark and I both noted that National Parks here have free entry and seem to have less organization than the US National Parks. But then we wondered how they funded the parks if they didn't charge for anything. I guess it all comes out of tax money? Then we got on a conversation about the differences in conservation efforts between the US and other countries, especially Europe. There are certainly differences and it will be interesting to read about them later.

In Wicklow, we made a stop at the Glendalough (glen-da-lock) visitors center for a hiking map, then visited the family restaurant that owned our B&B for the key to our room. Trooperstown Wood Lodge B&B is different than any other we've stayed at. The building that holds the rooms is not a residence for the family as far as we can tell. It is much more formal more similar to a hotel. The family owns a restaurant about a mile down the road, and we are to drive down to the restaurant for breakfast there. It loses the homey feel of a B&B, but it was a nice room, good breakfast, and perfect location for us.

There are certainly many walking routes through the park, and after staring at the map for a while, we opted for a 9km hike starting and ending at the visitor's center just a mile away from our B&B. The trail would overlap with a small portion of the Wicklow Way walk that traverses the whole park and circle both lower and upper lakes. Half the hike is on a ridge line overlooking the lake, and the other half is on the shore of the lake.

This was indeed a great hike with hardly any people at this time of day. We started around 5pm and brought along a picnic dinner. Sunset is around 8:45 here and it doesn't get really dark until after 10pm, so we figured we had plenty of time for an evening hike. The weather that had started off cold and cloudy this morning changed to a slightly warmer and sunny evening. It was a beautiful hike with good weather.

The hike took us past an old mining village. The descendants of the goats the miners brought in for milk and food were still hanging around and at several points we stopped to watch them graze. The little ones were cute, though not as cute as the lambs we've seen on previous days. We climbed up out of the valley after hiking past the lakes and had many gorgeous views back down into the valley. The sun stayed out and warmed us as we climbed the many stone steps. We stopped at several spots looking for a good picnic spot, but ended up moving on instead. The ridge line hike was especially interesting. The ground up here was so soft and wet, that the park staff had built a boardwalk along the whole entire path. I can't believe so much effort went into this path. The most hilarious part was the sign we passed telling us that we needed a good compass, map, and navigation skills to continue. For the next several kilometers, we stayed on this boardwalk. It would have been pretty hard to deviate from the set path. We laughed and joked about it all the way down. The boardwalk consisted of two railroad ties lined with a thin metal mesh and littered with raised, curved staples all to provide traction in wet weather. It looked like a lot of work went into this construction. We hiked through the golden hour (one hour before sunset) past several herds of deer. At one point we stopped to watch a herd of at least 20 deer graze. They were not bothered by us and it was very relaxing to watch them.

Just as the sun was starting to dip towards the horizon line, we found a perfect picnic spot complete with viewing platform and railing at the perfect height for a dinner table. We munched on our sandwiches and fruit while we watched the light dim over the valley below. The sun dipped behind the clouds and colored them with an assortment of reds and oranges as we took our last bites. Without the sun, the temperatures dipped to around 45 as we continued on with the hike. With several kilometers more to go, we descended into a dark forest of trees. We were very happy for the boardwalk steps showing us the way in the dim light. The metal still shown enough to guide our way since we didn't bring any of our own light with us. However, even by the time we reached the car close to 10pm, there was still enough residual light to find our way. Overall a great hike and a perfect end to the day.

Tomorrow we'll see about doing another hike before heading back into civilization and Dublin City.


Our little Nissan Micra

The king's pierced foot

Day 12 (May 2, 2011)

Itinerary: Rock of Cashel, lunch at Ryan's Daughter Restaurant, history of Cashel at Tourist Information, drive to Kilkenny, tour Kilkenny Castle, walk the town, drive south of Kilkenny to Kells Priory, dinner in Kilkenny with music

I've become hopelessly behind in my journal entries and I'm tying this several days later. Somehow there just never seems to be that extra hour every night I need to type and look at photos. I guess we are just having too much fun on vacation.

Today started out cold, cloudy, and threatening rain. Oh, and windy too. It was just an ugly day overall. However, today was the day we had to tour the Rock of Cashel. Breakfast at Joy's Rockside B&B was the traditional Irish breakfast we are used to by now. Luckily I was able to get a fruit and yogurt breakfast instead. The Rock was literally on the doorstep of the B&B, so before long we were a the Rock of Cashel at opening time at 9am.

The Rock of Cashel is full of history dating back to the 4th century. First off, the main thing to note is that the Rock of Cashel refers to the limestone base that sits above the surrounding landscape and all the buildings are built on. Many tourists apparently come in and try to find the rock. From the 4th to 11th centuries, the Kings of cashel lived here in wooden houses that do not survive any more. They ruled all the land they could see from here as there is a great view. In the 11th century, the last king decided that he wanted an easy pass to heaven and decided to give the Rock of Cashel over to the church rather than let it be taken over by any neighboring kings. The buildings that we see today have roots back to the 11th century, when the church started building onsite. First was built a traditional Irish round tower. The door to towers like these were typically about 12 feet off the ground and the monks would use a wooden rope ladder to ascend. They did this as a security measure so no one could follow after the pulled the ladder back up after them.

The other main part of history is the baptism of the king by St. Patrick. St. Patrick first visited Ireland around this time in the 11th century to spread Christianity. He stood on the Rock of Cashel and baptized the king. However, legend (myth or truth?) states that St. Patrick accidentally pierced the foot of the king, pinning him to the ground. The king thought this was just part of the ceremony of becoming a Christian and suffered in silence. St. Patrick then had to assure the people that converting was not a painful process of being pierced in the foot, but only the water was part of the ceremony. Anyway, Christianity stuck with the people as we all know and the Rock of Cashel stayed a religious site for many more hundred years. To commemorate St. Patrick's visit, a deteriorated cross placed on a stone used by the early kings can still be viewed in the museum. A replica stands outside, but the original is inside in the museum room.

We arrived with time to tour the Rock on our own for about an hour before the first tour. Our first impression of course was that it was cold and windy. What a blustery and chilly day. The remains of the cathedral, chapel, round tower, and graveyard are all here for the viewing. The buildings were built at different times and mostly out of the hard limestone rock that could take the weathering of this normally cold, wet, and windy location up high on the rock. However, Cormac's Chapel was build out of sandstone from 12 miles away. It was said that they hand carried all the sandstone blocks to this location. Well, sandstone does not hold up very well in the cold and wet, and at our visit a conservation effort was in place to save the Chapel from further deterioration. Most important was the very rare and only frescoes in all of Ireland here in the chapel. Frescoes do not withstand humid weather, so they are rare for Ireland and just barely survive at the Rock of Cashel. The conservation effort is a 4 year plan. The first 2 years is just drying out the place. So scaffolding, a roof, and material has been placed around the chapel (making for some unsightly photos, oh well) so it would not get wet anymore and a dehumidifier has been running to dry it out. I can't remember the exact amount, but a huge amount of water has already drained off the sandstone in the past 15 months. The tour guides say they can really tell the difference because on humid days in the past, the walls inside would literally weep and now feel dry to the touch.

Our tour lasted about 45 minutes. We were happy to have had the time before to explore on our own before all the tourists arrive, because by now the place was becoming inundated with people. I'm sure it's still much less than in high season, but we had to wait in line to get into several areas. The tour helped us understand what we had just seen and gave us a chance to see it again. Overall we were very happy with our visit to the Rock of Cashel and would certainly recommend this site to anyone visiting Ireland. The depth of history dating back to this one place is almost overwhelming.

At the end of our tour the rain had started, the cold wind was blowing and the temps were in the 40s. We decided now was a good time to go back to our room to warm up and play on the internet. When we got hungry we walked to town and found lunch at a place called Ryan's Daughter Restaurant. If you haven't heard of it, the movie Ryan's daughter was filmed in Ireland, though I don't think at this location. The place was tiny with tiny tables, but with awesome food. After our mediocre dinner last night, it was good to have yummy Irish food again.

With a warm lunch in our bellies, we visited the tourist information center in town that boasted a history of Cashel exhibit. The exhibit was quite good and the history of the area was reiterated to us. This reiteration helps me remember most of it.

We've had enough of Cashel by now as it's a tiny tourist town mostly open during the day, so we hopped in the car and drove to Kilkenny, about an hour away. Kilkenny has a lot going for it with places from Kilkenny Castle to a Craft Museum. We decided to tour the castle first. This castle was heavily remodeled in the 17th and 18th centuries so that none of the original medieval gems remain. Instead this castle is more of a magnificent house with a gardens in front, and a huge park in the back. Hundreds of people were out playing in the park when we went in to tour the castle. The tour was self-guided and we strolled room to room to see the period furniture and paintings. I wouldn't recommend this castle on your trip through Ireland. It was okay, but I think our time would have been better spent somewhere else. My favorite part was a series of old and new photographs of various parts of the outside of the castle in a long hallway down t o the restrooms.

Outside the castle it was now about 5pm and things were shutting down. Our goal for this town was to find a Kilkenny shirt for Mark's brother, Alan. We walked the entire city center looking for an open souvenir shop, but we really only found one shop and it was closed. I don't know where the tourists do their shopping, but it wasn't here.

With time to spare before dinner, we went back to the car and took a short drive to Kells Priory just south of Kilkenny. This was a great place to visit. This huge ruins located in a sheep yard is open to anyone to come and explore. We had to scare a few sheep to get to the ruins. We were the only ones here and the experience was similar to an archaeologist finding a site for the first time. There were gates and restricted areas so we didn't go climbing in any of the existing towers, but just walking around the area gave a sense of wonder. Behind the priory a little stream with a bridge crossing created a neat little setting and we could have jumped into a fantasy movie.

As we were driving around in this general area of Ireland, we've been seeing these flower farms full of acres of yellow flowers. I thought they might be tulip farms similar to in Amsterdam. Today we were able to get close to one and they were not tulips, but another yellow flower. I don't know what the market is for these types of flowers, but the expanses of yellow we see on the landscape are a sight to behold.

We were driving along and one of the first times we saw one of these yellow flower farms, I yelled and pointed out the window. The most amusing part was that for some reason I yelled, "BLUE!!" as I pointed. Mark and I have been laughing for days now about this slip of the tongue. Apparently yellow and blue go together in my head.

We had dinner in Kilkenny at a hotel and bar serving food and Irish music. The food was great, the chairs were oh so comfortable, and the music was upbeat. I could have fallen asleep in the leather armchair I sat in, even. The musicians here included a group of 4 guys with a banjo, several guitars, and a bodhran. One of the guys switched to the flute or Irish whistle occasionaly as well.

Dinner in Kilkenny was so much better than dinner in the tiny town of Cashel and on the drive back we were greeted by a well-lit Rock of Cashel. What a great end to a good day.

Tomorrow we leave the area and continue east to the Wicklow Mountains.