Dublin, Ireland

This weekend I was off to Dublin on Sat morning. Stayed at the Merrion hotel for one night and explored Dublin. Walked to Grafton Street which is the pedestrian shopping street, lots of people and shops. Visited Trinity College did a tour there which was lead by a professor of the college, he had sense of humour the tour was great, it ended the Book of Kells, which we then toured on our own. Amazing!
Then boarded the tour bus for an overview of Dublin, good tour, went by all the important places, say the Guinness Storehouse, a number of churches/cathedrals, the River Liffey, O’Connell Street, then had dinner and back to the hotel for the evening.
Sunday, took a free three hour walking tour of Dublin, this was great was lead by a young lady who was from Ireland and she showed us all the sights and told us lots of history, saw Dublin Castle, Christ Church, Chester Beatty Library, the Norman ruins, thru Temple Bar, O’Connell Street, the bank of Ireland, over the Ha’penny bridge, Trinity College. It was a very informative and fun tour, really gave you the overview of the history of Dublin. Did a little shopping and took some pictures of the river, then back to the hotel to collect my bag and board the bus back to the airport for my flights home.

Saturday, the 14th of March
Went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is huge, but very interesting, had a great exbihit on fashion thru the years. Enjoyed it. Left there and went to visit the Original Twinings Tea Shop. Twinings have had a shop on the Strand since 1717! Twinings Strand Shop also boasts a small museum, which charts the history of the Twinings family, along with some fabulous examples of tea caddies and more unusual items from the world of tea. Of course I bought some tea. Then back home.
Sunday was a day of rest stayed in all day - worked on my scrapbook.

Saturday the 21st of March
Great weather this weekend, I know you don’t hear that very often from me. However the sun was shinning and it was about 65 degrees outside only needed a sweatshirt-no coat!
Keiron came up to see my place, we wandered around Hampstead had lunch, then headed down to explore The Harvey Nichols department store, was fun, but nothing we could afford. Then went for a drink at a bar/restuarant that floats on the Thames, we sat outside and enjoyed the setting sun with great views of the London Eye, Big Ben and the Thames. What an enjoyable day.
Sunday I headed off to see the town of Moreton-in-March, which is located in the Cotswolds. Great old town with really old buildings, explored the town and shops, then headed back stopped off in Oxford for a couple of hours to explore a little on my own. Then back home.

Company from Kansas City

Friday the 6th Laurita arrived from Kansas City. We explored some of the sights of London on Friday. Took the tube to Leicester Square, checked out Piccadilly Circus and then Trafalgar Square. Walked down Whitehall Street past the Royal Mews (horse guards) and Downing Street, arriving at Big Ben and Parliament Square. Visited Westminster Abbey, then on to Buckingham Palace, then took the tube to Harrods’s (a must see). Then back to my place to relax and put up on aching feet. Saturday morning we had an early start to Gatwick for our flight to Inverness, Scotland. This supposedly easy journey became a little complicated due to signal failures on the northern line, so had to change our route. We did make it and arrived in Inverness to the cold and rain, we took the local bus into town to our hotel The Royal Highlands Hotel. Out we went to explore the city, then back for dinner, then out to St Mary’s for evening mass. On Sunday we ventured by city bus to Culloden, the site of the last battle between the Jacobite’s and the English government. It was a very good and informative exhibition centre. We ventured out to tour the battlefield, but not for long as it was snowing and the wind was blowing a gale, we were very, very cold. In the afternoon back in Inverness we explored the views from Inverness Castle and visited the Inverness Cathedral along with taking in the sites of the River Ness and doing some shopping. On Monday we went on a tour of Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. It was a coach tour to Loch Ness, then a cruise by boat across Loch Ness to the Castle. No sighing of the Loch Ness monster were made! Laurita brought back a Nessie, tho. Really enjoyed the Castle was very impressive, then back on the coach to Inverness. We then checked out the Victorian Marketplace and headed back by local bus to the airport for our return flight to London. On Tuesday we did some more exploring of London, started by going to Victoria station then walked toward Big Ben, stopped to check out the Westminster Cathedral – what a wonderful church, all marble and beautiful. We actually enjoyed it much more than Westminster Abbey. We checked out the London Eye, but decided against doing it as was a cloudy rainy day. We took the tube to the Tower of London, spent a number of hours exploring the tower and grounds, we walked the south wall; saw the crown jewels and the white tower. OK enough history for now. Then walked over the Tower Bridge, stopped for dinner at a local pub, then hopped the tube to Leicester Square to finish up Laurita’s souvenir shopping. While walking thru Leicester Square, there was a red carpet movie premier of Duplicity staring Julia Roberts – we saw her going into the theatre. Pretty Cool. Then it was home to relax. Wednesday it was back to work for me, Laurita did a tour with Greyline to the Cotswolds, and on Thrusday she did one to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath. On Friday it was off to Heathrow for her return flight to the states. We had an awesome visit and got to see lots.