Birthdays abroad

I'm trying to think if I've ever been away from home for my birthday before. I think once when I worked for the bank I had to travel for business. It's kind of a strange feeling being away from home and the girls for my birthday.

We woke with no particular plans for the day. Tony kept asking me what I wanted to do. After breakfast I decided we should go out for a walk and head for Trafalgar Square. It is one place I don't think I really enjoyed as much as I should have last visit.

Tony didn't have his handy dandy map book and we wandered around a bit before we got our bearings. We found the square, watched the street entertainers, and then  looked at each other to say "Now what?!" The tour buses all leave from there so we decided on that.

We took the bus around to the other side of the city and then got on the tour boat that was part of the tour we bought. While it was a beautiful day, it was getting a little chilly once evening settled in. It was fun, but we were glad to be heading back toward the hotel.

We ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant Tony frequents awhile he's here. The waitress knew him and was especially nice to us. She gave us some Italian liquor on the house that tasted like liquid lemon drops. She asked to take our picture as I had my camera with us. Tony told her she must have known it was my birthday since she was being so nice. She smiled and wished me a happy birthday. She was very sweet.

We came in for the evening and Tony is getting ready for a week of work after being gone for two weeks. I don't think he's quite looking forward to it. Hopefully everything will go well, and it will be an easy day back for him.

It's supposed to rain heavy here all day tomorrow. I plan on a very low key day ending with a great massage. I found a great upside to being in London on my birthday. Downton Abbey has started its new season here already. It's been a stupendous day, and one I'll remember for quite some time.

End of the road

After 15 days, 2,886 miles, a million castles, a million and one churches, a bazillion cows, and a bazillion and one sheep, we decided to call it a successful trip and head for London. We weren't due back here for another day, but after our wonderful stay at Lake Vyrnwy, neither of us could bear the thought of searching for a place to stay tonight.

We stopped in Shrewsbury today as the last little town to see before heading for the city. It's the birth place of Charles Darwin. We didn't pick it for that reason, we just discovered it when we got there. It seems all of these places have some celebrity associated with it. I guess that's what happens in countries that have such long histories.

It was a nice sized town with neat old streets and shops. Of course I had to take pictures of the castles and churches and cobblestone streets. The collection wouldn't have been complete without it. At the castle there was a wedding going on. I got a picture of the bride and groom during their photo shoot. Last trip I had gotten a bride and groom at a castle, too.

After seeing it though, I programmed Heathrow into the GPS and instructed James to make a beeline for the rental car return. I told Tony they were going to have a field day cleaning off the sheep and cow shit, bug guts, leaves, and mud we traipsed through. We also drug in quite a bit of dirt and sand. Oh, and don't forget the food crumbs from our various indoor picnics along the way.

On our way back, we thought of all we've seen and done in the last two weeks. It's been an amazing trip so far. I have London exploring to do this week and then we have to plan our adventure for this coming weekend. I have already scheduled a massage for Monday. I told Tony you know you're spoiled when you have a massage therapist on your FB friends list while you're on vacation in another country. I saw her last time and she was great. My body is sure looking forward to relaxing.

Monday I don't plan to do much of anything. Tony said he's going to call all throughout the day to keep me from resting while he has to work. I'm sure they're going to keep him there all day and night after him being gone for two weeks. He'll be too busy to think about me.

The unpacking has begun. There are a few things I'm going to hand wash to see if I can generate some clean clothes. I've pretty much gone through all of my clothes once. It hasn't been too bad yet as far as me being grossed out about rewearing dirty clothes. I haven't become European in that regard yet!! Let the last week of vacation begin!!

Self induced timeout

You know you're getting old when you need a vacation from your vacation. Today was a much needed timeout from the mad dash through the UK that we've been making. We had to move rooms because the one we were in was taken for the night because we didn't book our room for two nights when we checked in. Tony thought we were just gaining a balcony from the looks of the outside and the price increase. But oh was he wrong!

Our new room is amazing. We have a sitting area, a fireplace, a monster sized bed, and a bathroom to die for in addition to the balcony. I don't ever want to leave!! We did drive around the lake today and explore the couple of buildings that make up the town. Once we came back to our room, we completely vegged and didn't have a guilt in the world. We went down to the tavern for a late lunch and made it last for dinner.

It's just past 9 here and we're ready for bed. Our rejuvenation time was much needed and appreciated. Tomorrow we are headed out in the direction of London. We'll stay somewhere in between here and there tomorrow night. Who knows what fun we'll find. I don't look forward to the hunt for a bed routine, but it will be the last night of that for sure. In London we'll stay at the hotel he always stays in.

I still have another week and a half, but he has work to contemplate starting Monday. We've covered a lot of territory and seen some amazing sights. I've been talking about this trip for months now and it's hard to believe I'm over half way through it. But that's just like time, it travels far too quickly.

Rejuvenation is necessary

Oh, what a night!! I had posted from the ferry last night before we got off of it. What was supposed to be a great time saving idea cost us dearly!! When we tried to find a place to stay in Fishguard, there was nothing. There was one place that had two twin beds, but it looked really rough and there were people outside cat calling and such at 12:30 at night. I wasn't too fond of that, so we looked elsewhere. BIG mistake.

We drove around until 3:30 trying to find a place up the coast of Wales. We finally hit a town that had a parking place right beside the beach. Really, I needed a bathroom and Tony had seen a sign for public toilets. It had no light and to say it was a little scary is an understatement. But I survived and told him we needed to stay right there for the night.

I can't remember the last time we slept in the car, if ever. It was not a fun experience!! It was about 40 degrees outside, so Tony left the car running. That totally freaked me out, but it's a diesel so there are no toxic fumes. I had bad dreams for the couple of hours we did sleep. I was awake for the largest portion of the time we spent there. NOT PLEASANT!!

Tony finally woke up around 8. I swear that man could sleep standing up if he had to. He said he didn't sleep well, but he slept nonetheless. We set off to find a place for breakfast. The little town we stayed in was actually very pretty. It had brightly colored buildings on the harbor and sail boats in the bay. We woke to see it had all sorts of hotels and bed and breakfast signs. None of them were welcoming us at 3:30 in the morning, however.

We found a place that had American breakfast. We both had French toast. Once we got a little bit of food in our bellies, we decided we could attempt to sight see for the day. We thought about just getting a room and sleeping all day, but it seemed like such a waste. So, off we went.

As we drove, we just weren't seeing anything that caught our eye. We both soon realized that sight seeing wasn't going to cut it today. Fortunately Tony had gotten an iPhone for here in Europe as we don't have international plans on our phones. I started doing some google searching on nice places to see and stay in Wales. I found the perfect place for us.

After we typed in the address and started driving in that direction, it felt like another wild goose chase. We drove, the roads got narrow, and it seemed like we were going nowhere anyone wanted to be. But then out of the blue, we came upon a dam and a beautiful lake. We had a bit of a problem finding the hotel, but we finally did.

Lake Vyrnwy is the name of this place. It's like an old country house on the first man made lake. It has what looks like a castle on the lake right out our window. We came in, showered, and then slept for 3 or 4 hours. It should be interesting to see if we can sleep tonight. I'm betting we won't have any problems.

I had suggested we spend two nights here and Tony took the bait. I'm so glad! I think we'll be plenty busy tomorrow exploring around the lake and seeng what is here. It's not a big town, but there is a lot of nature to see - just what we like.

We've had a wonderful vacation, but both of us have somewhat reached our limit. We've gone over 2600 miles so far and the night in the car put us over the edge. Hopefully a couple of days in one spot will rejuvenate us for the home stretch to London.

Gift of gab

It seems we're beginning to run out of steam. We visited Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone. After that, we went to Cork to see the English Market. We weren't really impressed and decided to head for Rosslare which is where we'd catch the ferry to Wales. Tony suggested we take the 9 p.m. ferry since we'd make it on time. We did that just that.

Our ferry ride nearly didn't happen. We didn't know we had to have a ticket beforehand. We drove up to the gate where we waited for over an hour only to be told we had to park and go back for a ticket. We originally thought it left at 7 instead of 9. Tony was able to buy the tickets and we got into the next line to wait to board. Then they chose us for a security check point. Thank goodness all was ok on that front.

It is sparsely populated and very quiet. The ride is just over three hours. It should be interesting to see what time we find a hotel, let alone get checked in and asleep. Tomorrow may be our latest yet in getting started.

We've had a wonderful time in Ireland. We have seen the island from top to bottom, side to side, and quite a bit in the middle. Castles, sheep, cows, mountains, coasts, green grasses, cliffs, rainbows, and clover. We didn't leave a stone unturned. It was wonderful to visit the homeland of both of our families. We didn't see any Given or McCann signs, but there were times where it definitely felt like home.

We plan to explore some in Wales and try to fit Hampton Court Palace in before going to London. I need to start figuring out my tourist plan for next week while Tony works. I'm thinking Monday may include an entire day of horizontal activity with me looking at the inside of my eyelids. I may even try to track down a massage. We've run and explored to the point my body is begging for mercy.

No room at the inn

We followed the best night ever with the most difficult night of finding a place to stay so far. We begrudgingly left the castle this morning and headed for Dingle Peninsula. Our waitress suggested it instead of The Ring of Kerry. She said it was just as pretty and smaller from a time perspective. We took off and were on our way yet again.

The beginning was by the coast. We made our way around the edge following the coast line for quite a while. We saw a beautiful double rainbow that was brighter than either of us have ever seen. We ended up seeing numerous rainbows throughout the day.

Before we knew it, we were headed up the mountain on what looked like a goat path. The mountain turned into sheer rock and there were streams rushing down the sides of it in numerous places. We came to a point where there was a parking lot. Tony realized there was a mountain lake at the top of a short climb, and he wanted to see it. There was a fine mist and I wasn't looking forward to getting wet. He insisted.

I knew climbing up was going to be easier than the climb down. The rocks were slippery and wet. Some of the rocks were bigger and we had to pull ourselves up and over them. But the lake at the top was gorgeous. And looking back down the gauley from the top was so pretty. There were three our four pools of water that were below. And I was right, the climb down was more difficult. But we made it injury free and continued up the goat trail.

When we topped the mountain and headed down the other side, the rocks were covered with green grass. We are always so amazed at how one side of a mountain has one scenery and just as quick it changes. We headed to the coast on the other side and found cliffs again. Not as impressive as Moher, but beautiful nonetheless.

We wound around to a seaside town where they drive right out onto the sand. There was a fishing competition going on, but we never saw anyone catch anything. We saw surfers in wet suits in 60 degree weather. We ate at the restaurant our morning's waitress had suggested. I had mentioned to Tony that we could stay there for the night, but he didn't take the bait.

We got in the car and drove on. We headed for The Gap of Dunloe. When we got there, they had the road closed for repairs. Tony was not happy. He wanted to stay until they were done for the night, but it turned out a piece of equipment broke down and it wasn't in the cards. He was NOT happy yet again.

It took some convincing, but he agreed to drive on to the next adventure. We headed to Cork to find a room. I thought for sure we'd find a place easily. That didn't work out. We finally came to a town that had a hotel. We passed it on the first go round so we had to make our way back. Tony had some sort of brain fart and decided to drive on the right side of the road at an intersection. Fortunately, he realized his mistake quickly, and we avoided any calamity. We're happy to be in our room even if it isn't a castle!

Tomorrow we go to kiss the Blarney stone. I'm sure we'll find yet another adventure and beautiful view. It's seems there aren't any shortage of those here even if we couldn't find a B&B tonight.

Super Spectacular

Super spectacular. My description for the day. Even those words don't properly define my mood right now. More to come on that.

The hostess from our last B&B obviously isn't a morning person. Her chipper and spunkiness was spent last night. She was all business getting our breakfast on and didn't have much to say this morning. We set off earlier than we probably have on any morning so far.

We saw yet another castle ruin and then headed down the coast. I forgot to mention that this is the Atlantic coast. I wanted to get a sunset picture since I have so many sunrises from back home. But our location last night wasn't truly on the ocean, but a bay. It didn't work out.

The Burren was the next sight to see. These are truly the "Rocky" mountains. They are nothing but layers upon layers of rocks. And in one picture, we captured a rock fence that went up and over the top for the cattle. I asked Tony how a cow could manage to make it up the rocks without a broken leg or four, let alone come down the other side. Crazy!!

We found a chocolatier and of course I had to buy some. The building it was in was so adorable. That's what we've found about all of these buildings here. The outsides look plain and simple enough, but when you go in them, the wood work and decorations are gorgeous. We've decided we like Ireland.

We wound our way through the rock mountains back to the coast. Tony wanted to stop and look at this one grouping of rocks along the way. We got out, walked out, and realized it was cliffs on the ocean. The drop was about 75 feet or so. He was all nervous, and I think I may have found another one of his Achilles heels - heights! He doesn't like burning fires either (well, outside of small campfires). I kept messing with him and would get close to the edge. One time he held on to the back of my pants as I took pictures. Funny.

We continued to drive and weave through the small villages. We saw another castle ruin, took another picture, and kept going. I've finally given up on trying to keep track of the names of them. It's a hopeless cause. We finally made our way to the Cliffs of Moher. And OH WOW!!!!

I really got to make him nervous a few times there. On one particular ledge we saw a guy sitting with his feet dangling over the edge. I didn't go that far, but I laid on my stomach and looked over the edge. It was crazy. My Mom would have shot me for sure on that one. She seriously disliked heights. It was about a 150 foot drop. So cool.

We walked and walked and finally turned around to head back. We had taken the "up" route and on the way back Tony asked if we were walking out to the other end. I knew that was his opening for me to say "No" and take the blame for skipping out. I gladly complied. He was relieved and agreed immediately. It would probably have been at least another 2 and a half hours of walking out and back. There was more to see.

We drove to a little town called Limerick. It was too populated and we wanted to drive out of it right away. I've been the route planner since the first day of Tony planning the crazy flight/drive to Edinburgh. We've hit pretty much every major attraction along the way and then some. At one of our B&Bs, another guest mentioned they were going to stay in a castle. A light bulb went off, and I started planning when we could do the same.

I researched all the castles that you can stay in in Ireland. A castle called Ballyseede in Southern Ireland looked like the best bet based on pricing and scheduling of sights. I had put it on today's schedule if it happened to work out. Once Limerick turned into a dud for us, I called the castle. They had an opening and we could get to it by 6 p.m. - our usual stopping time. I said "sold" and off we drove.

I wasn't very good at hiding my excitement. I think Tony knew how excited I would be to stay in a castle. I mean really, what little girl doesn't dream of living in a castle at one point or another as a child?! The thought of living in one for a night sent me over the moon!!

As soon as we checked in, our bellhop brought us to our room. This place is gorgeous. We've stayed in another place back home that's similarly nice, but this one is nicer. The room is huge and in one of the round turret corners. I oohed and ahhed and then it was picture taking time.

Right before Tony snapped a picture with his phone for us to send to the girls, I said I hope our room has a ghost. I took a picture with the big camera and then grabbed his phone to send the text. In looking at the picture, I swear I see a face in one of the windows and an orb in another. We're on the second floor! GHOSTS!!!!

After dinner I saw one of the waiters outside and of course had to ask about ghosts. I love ghost stories and wouldn't you know it, our castle has a ghost. Her name is Hilda and she supposedly appears on March 24th. That just so happens to be our anniversary!! There are NO coincidences!!

I told him about my picture and he said if I'd like he could tell me more about the castle and ghost a little later. We met him and a few other guests at 9:30 downstairs. He gave us a little more information and showed us some pictures previous guests have shared. I told him about my picture but that she was a young girl, not an older lady. I don't think he believed me. Maybe I'll have to find an email address for them and send it. She's there!!!

I'm writing this from a window seat looking out the window. I don't know that I'll sleep a wink tonight. For what we paid for this place, I'm thinking I need to stay up and enjoy every last second. It really is a cool experience, one that I won't forget any time soon.

So, super spectacular!! It's gonna take a lot to trump this day. I don't know that I'll even try.