the UK

I went to London and Dublin with Kari and Erica. We were on a mission to see everything the two cities had to offer, and my stamina (not to mention legs and feet) was put to the test. I took almost 250 photos, but i am not going to post them all. Eventually, I may put up a few of my favorites, but most are just pics of buildings.

here's the blow-by-blow. don't feel like reading everything?, just know that we did it all.

Day 0 - meet the gals at Boston airport and fly to London.

Day 1 - wake up incredibly early, gather our "free" continental breakfast and get moving. Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, London Eye, River tour (Thames), Tower of London, tour of the London Underground...we didn't stop until dinner. It was neat/surreal getting to see the place Anne Boleyn lived while awaiting execution. Before dinner we drank a bottle of wine and after dinner we split a 4-pack of giant Stella's; needless to say we slept like babies...very drunk babies.

Day 2 - wake up at a more reasonable time. Off to Windsor Castle! The queen was "in residence" while we were there, so we didn't get to see the state rooms and all that, but it sure was neat. Then we went to Kew Gardens and saw all kinds of neat flowers, plants and water fowl. We couldn't even begin to cover all the ground there in the amount of time we had, but we gave it a good go. For dinner we went to this awesome little Italian restaurant. We split a bottle of wine, and we each had room for a spectacular dessert (I went for the millefoglie).

Day 3 - We decided to take a tour. As luck had it, the pick up point was outside our hotel, so we didn't get lost or anything. They took us to Winchester, Stonehenge and Bath. Having heard so much about Stonehenge I was expecting to be totally mystified, but the touristy feel of the place sort of takes away from the mystery. I think I enjoyed hearing all the theories about its purpose and construction more than walking around it (being sure to stay outside of the roped off perimeter). Bath was neat, too. I got to thinking about what it would have been like to be a rich ancient Roman who had nothing else to do but lounge around in hot pools and saunas...and I actually relaxed a little. I was even able to sleep a little on the 3 hour bus ride home. The bus dropped us off in the middle of the city, and we walked through Hyde Park to get back to our hotel...beautiful. I had been seeing a the "Physical Energy" statue on the map of Hyde Park all week; imagine my disappointment to see that it was just a statue of a guy on a rearing horse. Yeah, that's physical energy, but I was expecting something more...subtle.

Day 4 - Despite the fact that we were leaving London in the afternoon we managed to make the trip to Buckingham Palace and Harrods (never go there, it's chaotic!). Poor Erica was feeling sick, so Kari and I sent her ahead to the train station while we gathered the luggage and joined her on the train to the airport. In Dublin we checked into our hotel and then went out to grab dinner and visited our first real live pub. It was a pretty fun night considering how cranky we all were after the flight.

Day 5 - Start the day at Kilmainham Gaol. This is a jail that was used in the 1800s and early 1900s. It was probably one of the most interesting places I've been; we got to see the evolution of the jail system from cramped, damp, dark cells and halls to the more open setup. Also, a lot of very important Irishmen were imprisoned and executed at the Gaol. The place still felt very much alive. Then we shuffled on over to the Guinness Storehouse to learn how the "ruby red" miracle is made and even enjoyed a free pint. Next we went to some big church; I think it was called the Christ Church. They kicked us out cause they were about to have services. The Dublin Castle was next on our whirlwind tour. This is still a "living, working" castle, and the lady giving the tour walked so fast that it was hard to keep up. She would be behind us one second, and then standing in the next room (impatiently) waiting for us the next, it was creepy. At this point we were very hungry so we stopped at a little Bistro and had probably the best vegetable soup I've ever had and little cream filled pastries for dessert. The last stop of the afternoon was St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was beautiful! That night I stayed in while the girls went out. I think we all thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Day 6 - In the morning we rushed to get a shuttle to Newgrange. We got to see neato burial mounds and even go inside one. This is another one of those neolithic sites that is extremely large, hard to build and we have no idea why it was built or by whom...there are, of course many theories. The thing I thought was the neatest was that hundreds of years ago the tops of the mounds slipped and covered the entrance and front of the mounds and preserved it for us to see today. They had to reconstruct the front, but they did so using only material found on-site. If you ever get to Dublin, I suggest making the 45 minute trip up there to check it out. After we got back to town we visited Trinity College and hopped on the bus to visit the coast/Malahide Castle. The castle was closed and in the middle of a beautiful park. We probably would have enjoyed the park more if hadn't taken us 20 minutes to make our way through it to the castle (thus arriving 10 minutes late).

Day 7 - fourteen hours of traveling home to Tammer...I missed him a heap!