Ireland: Blarney Castle

We flew into Dublin and then rented a car. Our journey took is south through Kilkenny and down to Waterford. This is the Kilkenny Castle built in the 1100's. We didn't have much time to stop, so we didn't go in.
It's a little dark, but this is just an ivy covered church and a graveyard we saw along the drive. Mom was fascinated with the Celtic crosses in the graveyards. We finally got to Waterford and went to the Waterford Crystal factory. Only Mom went on the tour to see the crystal being made. Mike and I just perused the gift shop and munched on a cookie in the cafe. Mike took this picture of me next to a giant crystal glass. It's taller than me! (But I guess that's still not all that tall...) Disappointingly, everything in gift store was still expensive. We had hoped it would be more of an "outlet", but that was not the case. Then we drove on to Cork and about 10 kilometers past to get to our B&B in Blarney. The place I had reserved flaked out on us, but thankfully they had made arrangements for us to stay just down the road. The lady was super sweet and to top it off, she had a friend that knew Maureen O'Hara (starred in the "Quiet Man" with John Wayne and is set in Ireland). The next morning we got up and set off for the famous Blarney Castle. Above and left, is the watchtower. Right is a creek that runs around one side of the castle. Then, of course, there's Mike and I.
In the next picture, I don't know if you can see that little piece of light in the very middle right above the highest window, but that's where the Blarney Stone is and you have to put your head down into that little hole to kiss it. Scary!
Right above the entrance was the "murder hole" where they would throw rocks or hot tar on any unwanted guest. There was a teeny, tiny, winding stairwell that took you all the way to the top. I can't imagine how they made that climb with long robes on. As you can see the step is only as wide as my size 5 1/2 feet. Once at the top, the view was amazing. Oddly enough, the kitchen was at the top too.
This was a mansion not too far from the castle. We walked over to it after we were done at the castle.
This is the top of the castle. Right above that window is where you have to lay down (yes, lay down) to kiss the Blarney stone. This is me kissing the yucky Blarney stone. Mike got a good picture. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as quick and didn't really get a good pic of Mom and Mike kissing it. Oops. It was so gross. I'm honestly not sure if it was worth it.
Back outside, with our feet on the ground, we walked along a path that led by these old, old trees to the mansion. This tree had like 4 trunks. Then, it looked like a branch had grown about 10 feet over and started another whole tree. It was crazy. This is Mom and I standing under the branch between the two trees.
This is the mansion we walked over to see. We don't know much about it, but it was pretty.
And my personal favorite, a giftstore just for me. Jennifer, I know you're jealous. ;)
Ok, one more Ireland blog and then I'm done. I can start blogging baby news as we probably won't be traveling for a little while.

London has fabulous parks, and everyone hangs out there. This is one of the entrances to Hyde Park. We passed by it on the way to Hard Rock Cafe.
I think the Hard Rock we visited was the first one ever. The gift shop was across the street and in the basement of the gift shop was the Hard Rock vault. We went on a "tour" with a crazy, enthusiastic, and entertaining tour guide. In the vault are some of Hard Rock's most prized possessions. The best thing about it was that we could touch everything. Mike is holding Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar. In my first picture I'm sitting on a couch that belonged to Jimmy Hendrix and holding his guitar valued at over 3.5 million pounds (7 million dollars!) The tour guide said that they had had the couch cleaned to be sure that no one received an acid trip from sitting on it. (ha, ha)
This is the trumpet belonging to the legendary Miles Davis.
The other picture of me documents the single most memorable thing about my trip to London. Not only I'm I holding Kurt Cobain's guitar, but I'm wearing his sun glasses. Much to my husband's embarrassment, I shed a tear or two. It was very intense. The other picture here on the right is the snowglobe that topped Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's wedding cake. It was amazing. Not just the snow globe, but the whole experience.
Next is a picture of the entrance to the Royal Academy of Art. In the plaza there was a giant statue of a pregnant woman. Half her body was covered with skin and the other half revealed muscle, sinew, and her unborn child. (Guess that's what I'll look like in a couple of months--hopefully with my skin on though.)
Left, is Piccadilly Circus. Fun, but much less impressive than Times Square. This is the Mall. Very much like the one in Washington, DC. At the end is Buckingham Palace.
This is Trafalgar Square. The picture shows St. Martin in the Fields church. We went and sat in the church and got to listen to a small orchestra rehearsing for a concert including Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was free! It was quite nice. Also in Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery. Admission was free! In my opinion, that makes it the best thing to do in London. There were so many great works of art. We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we sought out some of the most famous by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Michelangelo, and my personal favorite, Botticelli.
When we returned to our hotel (which was really a dorm for King's College built in 1829), we saw a group of chaps playing cricket in the park across the street. It really added something to our whole London experience.

The Temple Church and Tower of London

The Knights Templar built this church in the 1100s-1200s. It sustained heavy damage during WWII, but has been repaired. It is one of the few circular churches in England. It is believed that initiation ceremonies for the order took place in the crypt of this church. In the round part they have 13th century "effigies" on the floor. I guess it's where these famous knights are buried. Below and to the right is the inside of the Temple Church. The "Master of the Temple" had just finished giving a lecture on the fact and fiction of the Da Vinci Code. We were disappointed that we missed it.
Next, we visited the Tower of London. Among other things, this is where the crown jewels are housed. We did see them, but weren't allowed to take pictures.
You've probably heard that it's rainy in London. This (right) was an umbrella and pancho vending machine. The panchos were all sold out though. How funny is that?
This is Mike and I inside the Tower of London with the Tower Bridge behind us.
This is called the White Tower (right). It was completed in 1097 and was the tallest building in London at 90 ft. high. It is the oldest surviving part of the Tower of London. It served as an armory for centuries and is currently an armor and weapons museum.
This (left) is the Traitors' Gate. Many prisoners on their way to die, entered here. This (right) is one of the royal guards. True to everything you've always heard, they don't move. If it starts to rain, he goes in his little house behind him. We couldn't actually mess with this one, because he was behind a fence.
The Tower of London also houses these huge ravens. One king of the past said if the ravens were ever to leave the Tower, the monarchy would fall. So, ravens are kept here in the Tower and their wings are clipped so they don't fly away. This one with Mike walked almost right up to him and then followed him down the sidewalk about 10 yards. Awww, Mike made a friend.
Here's us with another friend we made. A friendly, neighborhood Beefeater.
Ok, maybe one more London blog.

London

We took so many pictures that I'm going to have to break it a couple of blogs. Our first several nights in London, we stayed about an hour north of town near Cambridge. We stayed at Mildenhall RAF. It was definitely super nice and super cheap, but the expense of getting in and out of town nearly killed us. This was the rose garden right next to our building at Mildenhall.
We were eating lunch at Mildenhall and I saw a girl with a shirt on that said Mind the Gap and it looked like the London tube (subway) signs. None on us got the joke, but our first tube ride gave us a clue. Apparently, there is a small gap between the train and the platform. I guess there have been several mishaps concerning the gap, because they were sure to make you very aware of it. Before we would come to a complete stop at the platform, a voice would come over the speakers in the station and on the train that said, "MIND THE GAP!". It was so crazy, but we were sure not to fall in.
The Westminster station lets out right at the foot of Big Ben. On this day, we were headed to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. While we made it in time, it would be more appropriate to say we were present at the changing of the guard more than we witnessed it. There was already such a large crowd gathered that we vertically challenged folks didn't have a prayer of seeing anything. The band's music was fun though. There was 2 different bands and one was more like a drum and bugle corp. There were also marching military guys and a group of horse guards.
The first time we walked by Westminster Abbey, we were rushing to make it to the Palace in time so we really didn't have time to stop. After the changing of the guard we went back and visited the gift shop. It was 10 pounds per person, which converts to 20 dollars per person, which made it 40 dollars for Mike and I to go in. We enjoyed Westminster Abbey from the outside.
Although these signs were everywhere, only a couple of them were defaced by the "I" in the middle making it "toilet". Mike found these signs particularly funny.
Here's Big Ben again. It's so impressive and you can see it from almost anywhere.
Ok, I think that's it for this blog.

Friends Forever

Strangely enough, four of our closest friends were in Italy at the same time. Shelah and Michael Clonts were taking another European vacation to Greece and Italy and Matthew and Cathy McMichael were finally going on their honeymoon after getting married in Jan..
The McMichaels flew into Verona where Mom and I met them and we spent a few hours sightseeing. Then we all took the train back home and we hung out for a couple of days before they left from Venice on their week-long cruise to Greece, Corfu, and Turkey. This first picture on the upper left was taken at a restaurant near our house "Al Giardino" (The Garden). Mike was at his exercise in Maniago while they were here the first time.
The Clonts' flew into Greece and spent about a week vacationing there and in Santorini. Then they flew to Rome for a couple of days and then flew into Venice to spend a few days visiting with us and seeing some of northern Italy.
We picked the Clonts' up from the airport and then met the McMichaels at the train station. We rented a 9 passenger van that was the object of constant scorn. It was so ghetto. But it did get us up the mountain to some castle ruins near our house. The second picture is all of us at Lake Barcis. (I love this pic!) It was a little chilly so we just stayed long enough to snap some pictures and enjoy the scenery. Look at that water!
The 3rd picture is all of us in the little square by our favorite pizza joint, Vecchios. We are sitting on a wall and directly behind and below us is a rushing creek. It's a great little place to enjoy some pizza, grab some gelato across the street and listen to the water. The other picture is the same place. It's just us being silly. Although, when Shelah grabbed me, I was pretty sure we were both going in. :) As if you can't tell by the look of terror on my face. :)
The last picture is us in front of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.
We had such a great time, and it was so good to see faces from home. And for all of us to hang out in Italy? That's not something everyone gets to do. We were so blessed to enjoy this time together with our friends.