| Ireland |
The day after we arrived in London, we flew to Dublin and began a counter-clockwise tour of Ireland. Louise had arranged for a series of AirBnB accomodations for us. These were reasonably priced and generally worked out very well for us. Airbnb is a great system - we will sure use it again.
We spent the night and the next morning in Dublin, and then took a taxi back to the airport where we rented a car. We set off, with me driving (the first time on the wrong side of the road), Laura in the passenger seat navigating with our "HERE WeGo" app on my Android (and telling me everytime I wandered onto the right hand side of the road) - and Louise in the back seat, doing the back-seat driving.
I can't possibly tell you the entire story of our trip here. Louise and I will be creating a photo book of the holiday (I am sure it will be over 200 pages), so here I will just touch on the surface. After editing all of our photos and weeding out only the best, I was left with 2,893 photos..... Oh No! Where to start... How do I get it down to 20 or 30.... oh well - I'll give it a try....
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Laura wore her Canada Shirt, so we could find her when we arrived at the train station in London
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Downtown Dublin was full of pubs and music!
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We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, but the line up was around the block, so we gave it a miss.
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Artwork at Trinity College.
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Louise in Downtown Dublin
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St. Patrick's Cathedral |
A tribue to the famous scientist Richard Boyle
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Jonathan Swift |
The Rock of Cashel
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Looking out from the Cashel Cemetary |
Louise and Laura at the entrance to Charles Fort
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Laura at Charles Fort |
Curious Horse at Carran Church
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Poulnabrone dolmen... portal tomb |
Laura at Poulnabrone
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Lou and Laura at the Cliffs of Moher |
Typical Road in Ireland - 80kph, two-way traffic, sharp corners, but only room for one vehicle.
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Bike ride from Westport to Newport and back. |
Louise enjoying the ride!
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Laura doing all the work! |
Holy Trinity Church in Westport
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In Westport, we rented bicycles and rode a portion of the "National Cycle Network" to Newport where we found an ice cream shop.
After returning our bikes, we were walking back to get our rental car when we passed the Holy Trinity Church. It was open for tours so we went inside and had a look around. It was beautiful, like all of the other churches we had been in.
When we were finished inside and starting to walk away, Laura turned to us and asked us to wait. She went back into the church. Later we found out that she went back into the church to sing. She was all by herself and enjoyed the wonderful sound.
I wish we had known what she was going to do, so we could have snuck in to listen.
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| Next we had a travel day, to go up the west coast to meet my Cousin's in Northern Ireland. I had a bit of a moment when the speed limit changed from KPH in Southern Ireland to MPH in Northern Ireland. I wasn't expecting it, and found myself going much slower than the other traffic until Laura and I figured it out..... tourists....
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On the way we stopped at another church. St. Columbas in Duncliffe.
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Laura was excited to find the resting place of W.B Yeats, the famous poet. In my research after getting home, I found out that my Grandfather's older sister Margret Cousins, and her husband were friends of W.B Yeats, and took holidays with him. |
Louise really wanted to see Benbulben - a large rock formation in County Sligo
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Unfortunately, we never saw the top.... |
We found a beach! Mullaghmore. It is a holiday resort!...and known for Big Wave surfing. It was a bit cool, but that didn't stop us from exploring the beach.
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Mullaghmore Harbour, apparently at low tide. It made a nice view for our lunch! |
| In Northern Ireland, we visited with my cousin Desi and his wife, Janice. They welcomed us into their home like long lost friends, and gave us a whirlwind tour over the next couple of days. We saw many beautiful historic sites, many of which had been used as sets for the Game of Thrones show. There were bus loads of tourists, just wanting to view the sets and read the "Game of Thrones" Plaques. We really enjoyed our time with Desi and Janice. They are wonderful people. I hope we get a chance to host them in Camrose sometime.
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Another 80km road..... |
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Interesting sign - still not sure what it means..... |
Bangers and Mash at the local pub! |
It was windy and raining when we toured the Giant's Causeway, but that just made it more fun. |
We had to hike down all the way from the top.... |
Interesting rocks... |
Windy - I should have been windsurfing... |
Natural arm chair? |
| On the way back to Dublin to catch our plane, we stopped at Monasterboice, a ruined monastic site. The moastery was originally founded by St. Buite who died in AD 521, however none of the original buildings survive. The oldest structures were three High Crosses and a round tower all dating from the 10th century. It is interesting that because there are no records, there is no way of really knowing the early history of the site.
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One of the old crosses |
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The engravings on the crosses tell stories out of the bible. This one tells the story of Adam and Eve |
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| London and the English Countryside |
When we got back to London, Laura had to go back to work, so Louise and I were left on our own to do some exploring. We went on a river cruise and ended up at Greenwich where we toured the Royal Observatory Museum, and then found the Greenwich Market, and evenually made our way back downtown where we went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey.
Another day we went for a "Ramble" (a walk in the country side), with our AirBnB host, Ginny, and then attended the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, to watch the National Youth Choir.
We walked to work with Laura one morning, (a 45-minute walk, past Buckingham Palace and through St. James Park), and spent some time on Carnaby Street, where Laura was working at a North Face store.
I managed to get to a Royal Air Force museum in Hendon; and Louise and I also took a day-long tour to Bath, Castle Combe and Stonehenge. In the evenings, we were usually able to have dinner with Laura, so we could share our adventures with her. |
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Ted with one foot on either side of the date line at Greenwich. |
Standard Units of Measurement
Royal Observatory Museum |
We didn't get a chance to ride the eye.... |
The Tower of London - Pirates Gate |
Greenwich Market
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Parliament Buildings
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Westminster Abbey
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Louise
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Our Ramble. They have a group that have been "Rambling" for more than 29 years.
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They do two Rambles per week. You sign up on the internet. They have a different person take the lead for each one.
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We took the train to Liphook, and then walked 6 miles through forests to the Red Lion Pub where we had lunch.
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Then we walked another six miles, this time through mostly open meadows, to another town where we caught the train back to London.
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We were the youngest people in the group. Some of the old ladies were real troopers - it wasn't a particularly easy walk.
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Here Louise is at the Red Lion, after our lunch.
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On our walk to work with Laura we passed Buckingham Palace and went through St. James Park
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Laura
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Ted with a live mannequin |
another Live mannequin |
We didn't get in to the show, but we had to check out the theatre! |
Harry Potter |
Leti, Laura and Louise |
A london Street |
David, our tour guide.
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Bath
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On a chilly day in Bath - purchasing a scarf.
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Bath
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Bath
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Castle Combe
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Stonehenge
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Spitfire on display outside the RAF Museum |
English Electric Canberra |
Supermarine Stranraer general reconnaissance Seaplane
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de Haviland Vampire |
Street Buskers in London |
This guy was held up by his shovel |
| At the end of the week, we took the train to Brighton, where we spent a day touring their "Gravel Beach", Brighton Pier, Royal Pavilion and 'The Lanes'. |
Brighton Pier |
Walking on the beach - you could hear the gravel tinkling in the waves |
Brighton beach - riight at the end of their main street |
There were lot of people on the beach - all wearing jackets and long pants.... |
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The Royal Pavilion and museums. |
| Visiting Charles and Claire in Bournemouth |
| Next, we travelled to Bournemouth. Charles, who had rented a car, picked us up at the train station, toured us around the town and then took us to our hotel so we could get checked in. We then headed to his apartment where Claire was waiting. We had a great visit, including a day on the beach. The temperature was near 80c. Charles had rented a beach hut, so we had a place to keep our stuff, some chairs, (which came with the hut), and a home base. It was wonderful to just relax and sit in the sun. We were exhausted from all our travels and busy schedules over the past few weeks. It was so nice to visit with Charles and Claire, as they showed us around their town. What a beautiful place. |
Charles and Louise |
Laura, Louise and Charles in Bournemouth |
Charles and Laura at the Beach Hut |
Charles - Still the frisbee king! |
Ted and Laura after a swim |
Charles and Claire |
Believe it or not Charles managed to get into this parking space! We all witnessed it! |
Claire and Laura on the way to Brownsea Island. |
Brownsea Island |
Louise liked the perfectly formed tree |
Lord Baden-Powel held his first Boy Scout camps on Brownsea Island |
If you stood in exactly the right spot, the heart would appear from the markings on a number of trees..... |
Louise in the forest |
Just a swampl.... |
| After our stay with Charles and Claire, we took the train back to London. We had one day left, so we spent it in Hyde Park. We rented a boat and paddled around the lake, played frisbee between the trees, and generally just relaxed and enjoyed each others' company. |
Laura and I split the rowing duties |
Louise just told us where to row |
Louise and Laura after a wicked frisbee match. |
Louise at Kensington Palace Gardens |
| It was a wonderful trip! It was nice to see Laura again, and interesting to see a part of the world that we had never seen. |
