NYR: Didn't post weekly updates for 2 weeks but I lost 3 lbs on the trip. Between being sick for several days when we landed and all the walking we did, I'm not surprised at a bit of a loss. No complaints on that!
Ok, look for more info coming soon!
Our flight left London around 12:55pm local time and things were mostly smooth. Lunch was decent - lasagna or bbq chicken, then pizza just before landing around 4pm Raleigh-time. The "fun" began after landing.
RDU's idea of international arrivals is a nightmare. After deplaning, there are two lines - non-US passports and US passports. For whatever reason, the US passport line was slower even though the other line was requiring digital fingerprints and photos. Once we were finally through that line, we grabbed our bags from baggage claim to go through Customs. It took all of 30 seconds for the Customs agent to ok us and send us on our way. This is where it gets ridiculous. ALL passengers, even if Raleigh is the final destination, are required to RECHECK their bags and go BACK through security. WHAT?!?!? So after thinking we were done, we had to take off all of our shoes and coats and put our things back through x-ray. All of this because for whatever reason, RDU routes all passengers back past open gates instead of into the main terminal. By the time we collected our bags the second time, we had spent over an hour getting through Customs. I'm glad it was nowhere near a full flight! At least we were coming home and not rushing to catch a connecting flight.
Around 5pm we caught a taxi back home where we were greeted by two very friendly kitties. Their new kitty sitter, Liza from Piper's Pets, took great care of them (and the house). She even sent us photos of the fur-monsters while we were away. What a relief, especially since the pet-sitting service we had used in the past was unavailable last-minute (even though they'd said we were set a month ahead of time). We ordered a pizza, stayed up until about 9pm, and finally collapsed into bed.
Mike and I set out for St. Paul's Cathedral, site of many royal events including the wedding of Prince Charles & Princess Diana. The enormous cathedral is amazing inside. As you enter, things are very plain. Towering light-colored pillars, clear glass windows, and wide open space. As you move forward towards the dome area, it becomes much more ornate. Stained glass, gilded fixtures, tiled mosaics in the ceiling. The price of admission includes climbing to several floors above. We went up to the Whispering Gallery level. After climbing over 150 steps in narrow, dark, winding passages, you arrive in the dome area. I felt quite shaky up there and while the view was amazing, we were actually above the tiled mosaics and couldn't view them. Mike wanted to keep climbing to the Stone Gallery but I wasn't handling the heights very well so he took me back down to ground level before climbing it all again (some 350 steps). While he was at the Stone Gallery (which is on the exterior of the building, viewing the City), I observed 12:30pm mass back inside.
Once Mike returned, we visited the crypt below (including Christopher Wren, Florence Nightingale, and Churchill's Gate) before leaving the Cathedral.
Next we viewed the Cabinet War Rooms. This was Churchill's underground command center during the attacks on London during the war. Some rooms have been left in place for all this time while other's have been reconstructed after serving other purposes after the war. We had time for a quick visit to the British Museum. With only an hour, we weren't able to see much but we did see the Rosetta Stone before it closed. We stopped into Starbucks before calling Chris and making plans to meet at the Black Lion Pub (near Queensway Tube) for dinner (MORE fish and chips for Mike, steak and ale pie for me)and pints. We finally made it back to the room around 10:30.
The bus picked us up at our hotel just after 8am and we departed Victoria with our group of 13 (led by Leslie and driver Pat) at 9am. The drive to Warwick Castle took about two hours but Leslie gave us a lot of history as we watched fields of sheep pass by.
We arrived to Warwick Castle around 11am and spent 90 minutes enjoying the beautiful castle. It was bought by Madame Tussaud's and they've filled the castle with wax figures. They're amazing to look at - very lifelike. Since we didn't take the time (or money - it's almost $50 each) to go to the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, this was a nice way to view some of their work. We viewed several areas within the castle before climbing the mound at the far end for the view of the grounds. It was stunning.
Our group opted to spend our extra time for lunch in Stratford-upon-Avon so as soon as we arrived there, we toured Shakespeare's birthplace. The tiny rooms in his family home were well-preserved. Mike had visited there when he spent his summer studying abroad nine years ago but crowds made it difficult for him to enjoy. No crowds this time of year! Afterwards, we found a cafe for lunch - hot sandwiches and wine - before heading back to the bus.
The bus then drove through the area known as the Cotswolds and while it was beautiful countryside, I feel like I might've missed exactly what we were supposed to be seeing. Maybe because my full belly, combined with the wine and warm bus, made it almost impossible for me to stay awake. This resulted in me missing most of Leslie's information about Oxford University. Once at Oxford, she led us around for about 30 minutes pointing out buildings and landmarks before cutting us loose to shop and have coffee.
Traffic back into London wasn't as bad as they were expecting considering Sunday night is usually a bad time to be returning to the city. We arrived around 6:20pm and took the advice of Peter, our hotel concierge, to try the nearby Hereford Arms pub for fish and chips. Excellent advice as dinner was great. I think this was Mike's third or fourth serving of fish and chips but only my first. And it was a good one. We then took the laptop downstairs in the hotel to use the internet connection for planning our next day.
We had some coffee at a place called "Insomnia", bought some souvenirs and headed back to the Roxford. We collected our bags, sent some postcards and caught the Aircoach back to Dublin for our flight to Heathrow.
The flight left around 5:40pm so by the time we took the Heathrow Express back to Paddington and reached our hotel, there wasn't time to do much else that evening. We ate dinner at the restaurant downstairs in the hotel (Consortia) and then went to bed.
We walked down Grafton Street which is a major shopping destination, stopping at a Starbucks along the way and also passing by St. Stephen's Green. Starbucks is the only US chain we allow ourselves to stop at when we travel to Europe.
Next, we took the Dart back to Grand Canal Docks station to meet with Simon and Emily at the Google IE office. Long story but Mike was put in touch with them through a cold contact he found in the Duke alumni database. They showed us around the facilities - we ate lunch in the cafeteria before touring the office areas which include an onsite gym, game rooms, break areas with free snacks, open desks and a very laidback atmosphere. Emily and Simon had only been in Dublin for about two weeks after spending six months setting up teams in India.
After lunch, we took the Dart back to Pearse and walked to Christ Church Cathedral. We visited the Dublinia exhibition first which was all about the Vikings in the ara. Once we finished in the Cathedral and its crypt, we walked a few blocks to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We only had a short time to view it because we wanted to go to the park outside to view the well where St. Patrick converted people to Christianity.
We ended another full day with a recommendation from our hotel for dinner. Ouzo's Bistro was only a couple of blocks away and it was delicious. We started with mussels, which neither of us had eaten before. Mike really liked them. I liked the taste but the texture was kind of icky. I had sirloin steak with fries and onion strings while Mike ate herb-crusted cod. We split a tiramisu for dessert and then headed back to the hotel for some jacuzzi time before bed.
We took the Dart to Pearse St and picked up the hop on/off bus tour. We've found this is a really great way to get acquainted with any new city and this tour didn't disappoint. We rode the bus until we reached the Kilmainham Gaol (jail). Timing was perfect as a tour was leaving just as we arrived. We really lucked out on that because we didn't realize that you couldn't really see anything if you weren't on a tour. The tour itself wasn't the most flashy presentation but it was very well-explained and appropriate to the circumstances. The jail was the site of retention for a lot of uprisers during various rebellions and many executions took place there.
After we left the Gaol, we had a really subpar lunch at a pub. It was the first time since landing I had really felt well enough to eat so it was a letdown. The General Post Office, site of the Proclamation of the Irish republic, was nearby so we stopped there before heading to what must be the #1 Dublin attraction: Guinness Storehouse. The Storehouse has a really great display explaining how Guinness is made, the history of the brand and its place in Irish culture. My favorite section was the history of advertising. "Guinness for Strength"! After the self-guided tour, you redeem your token for a free pint upstairs at the Gravity Bar. This is also a great vantage point for seeing Dublin as the bar is a 360 glass enclosure.
We finished out the day with a musical pub crawl that Mike had booked in advance. Reviews were good though I had no idea what to expect. We started upstairs at 7:30 in a pub called Oliver St. John Gogarty's. Our tour leaders, Anthony and Eugene, then led us to private rooms in two other pubs (Ha'Penny Bridge Inn and the Bankers), playing music and telling us about the history of Irish music over the course of the evening. We finished up around 10pm.
This was a really great day and I highly recommend all of these things to anyone visiting Dublin.
The train portion of the trip was around 3 hours each way. Other than fields of sheep (including a lot of little lambs), there wasn't much to see. The Irish countryside is beautiful though, and very relaxing. Once in Galway we joined another tour group and went by bus to Doolin for lunch at Gus O'Connor's Pub. From there we went to the Cliffs of Moher but a heavy fog had set in and we couldn't see anything. We joked that we went to the Cliffs of Moher but we didn't actually SEE the Cliffs of Moher. It was probably the biggest disappointment of our entire trip.
After leaving the cliffs, we drove to the Aillwee Cave. It was cool but not really that different from any other caves we've seen. In all, it ended up being our worst day. By the time we reached Dublin again around 9pm, I had such a miserable migraine that I wasn't able to sleep.
The high point of the tour was definitely our guide. Vincent was such a wealth of information for us when it came to things to do or avoid in Dublin. He also gave us some really valuable insights into what it would be like to live in the area.
We took the Heathrow Express train from Paddington Station to the airport and then flew on BMI to Dublin. The flight was less than an hour and we arrived around 2:40pm. We ate lunch at the airport, bought a new card for the cellphone, and took the Aircoach bus to our hotel, the Roxford Lodge in Ballsbridge. Mike found great reviews for the Lodge online and they did not disappoint. We found Madigans Pub nearby for dinner - it was very quiet which was great. Mike had his first fish and chips (and Guinness, of course) and I had chicken and chips.
Since I still wasn't feeling well and we had a long day planned for Wednesday, we went to bed early that night.
