Once I could relax and calm down because I found my mother, we went out to dinner and afterwards I took her to some of the near by sights. We walked over to Big Ben and Parliament, then walked over the River Thames and saw the London Eye. That was about all we did though, because Mom was exhausted and we had an early flight in the morning to Ireland anyway.
And when I say early, I mean EARLY! We had to get up around 3:00am so that we could take a bus and a train to get to the airport. It was a pain, but I guess that's what you do for cheap flights...Anyway we made the flight (we got the timing a little wrong because we had to run, but its okay because we made it in the end) and we were on our way to Ireland!
Since our flight was so early this meant we got to our hotel really early so we were worried we would have to carry our bags around for awhile. But they let us check in and we got to eat breakfast, which was a pretty sweet deal.
Then since we were now both tired we decided to take a teensy little nap before going out. This ended up meaning that we slept for 2 hours and left our room at noon, but whatever. Once we were up and going we took a bus to the city center to choose what we would do for the day.
We had already gotten a bunch of tourist pamphlets at the airport, and we ended up picking a tour to Malahide Castle and the coast of Ireland. This turned out to be an excellent choice because it was really sunny and warm out so it made for a nice day.
Malahide Castle
The castle was pretty huge (no Windsor of course, but still big nonetheless) and we got to tour the inside, which looked like it would have in the 17th and 18th centuries. Apparently places like these don't believe in the phrase 'a picture is worth a thousand words' because they didn't allow pictures either. Boo. But it was still a nice place to visit and it was set on an amazing piece of land, where many families were playing or having picnics. So cute! Mom was also amazed at all the flowers that were blooming on the grounds and around Ireland, because that definitely isn't happening back home (way too cold!).
Bloomin' Flowers
The castle itself was great, but the views of the coast really made the day. It was sunny and nice. We were touring the coast from a double-decker bus, so we could see the coast really well and also people watch (or mainly dog watch!). I took lots of pictures of this (to make up for the lack of ones of the castle...) and it was just a really nice day.
The Coast!
The next day, we took a hop-on hop-off tour of Dublin. This just means our bus drove by the main sights in the city and the various drivers keep us entertained with interesting facts about the sights. It was really fun, mainly because the drivers are so hilarious. The first time we stayed on the bus for the entire tour, just to hear what we would be driving by. The next time we got off at St. Stephan's Green to look at the shopping available. It was a really interesting mall, the architecture was really unique. Glass made up much of the roof and decorations inside the mall, including a giant clock in the center of the building. We looked around for a bit and eventually ended up buying wool sweaters, which are so comfy!
The President's House
The Guinness Factory
The mall at St. Stephan's Green
We walked a bit more in the area, many of which is pedestrianized so you don't have to worry about cars. There were so many people, and it felt that you were running into people quite often. But we did get to see several street performers, including one guy with a puppet. It was really funny, the guy made the puppet dance to popular music and bother the people crowding around.
After we got our shopping fix we hopped back on the bus and took it to the Kilmainham Gaol, which is a large jail in the city. Unfortunately, by the time we got there all the tours were sold out. However, they did let us in to visit the museum for free, and this was pretty interesting by itself. Mom and I took an hour or two to read the info and look at the pictures and artifacts in the museum. It was crazy how many people were executed at this one prison from the 1600's to the early 1900's!
Sights of the Jail...
Then we took the bus back to Temple Bar, which is Dublin's cultural center. They had many places with live music, and there must have been a game on because there were many people sporting jerseys with their team colors. After we explored this area a bit and ate dinner we headed back to our hotel room to get some sleep before an early flight back to London.
Since we got back rather early on Sunday morning we had plenty of time to visit something in the city (which is good because Mom and I don't have much time together in London). So we decided to visit the Tower of London. First we got a tour by one of the Yeomen Warriors or Beefeaters. He was really funny and charismatic, cracking a lot of jokes at the expense of many people in the crowd. He mainly talked about the bloody history of the place, especially those who had been beheaded there.
The Yeomen Warrior (or Beefeater) who gave us our tour
Then we went into the Jewel House, where we saw the amazing Crown Jewels! Some of the diamonds looked too big to be real! In this area we also saw a short movie about the current Queen's coronation and the garments she wore during this time. They also had display cases of dinnerware, made out of gold, and this included a punch bowl that could hold over 100 bottles of wine in it! Apparently royalty know how to party.
Building where the Crown Jewels are kept
There were also several more buildings that you could tour. These mainly focused on what royalty wore in battle and the prisoners that were kept at the tower. We even got to see some of the torture devices used on the prisoners!
Some sights at the Tower of London...
The White Tower
Some interesting armor...
Next week its time for Rome...I just hope we're better rested for that trip!
Emily
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