Tripping, Part 4; Wales, Germany and Holland

We took a ferry from Ireland to Wales. We had to get up really early in order to get to the ferry on time so Dennis booked us a berth. It was nice to be able to get a little more sleep before our day of driving.

On our way back to the London area (about a five-and-a-half hour drive), we made several stops in Wales. The first was to Tinturn Abbey. It was built from 1131-1301 AD and what is left of it is such a beautiful and impressive structure.



We saw this cow not far from the Abbey when we went with the married kids a couple of years ago. It is the only one like it that we have seen. It was fun to be able to see it again.


We stopped at Avebery (Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain.) It was rainy and windy so we didn't stop for long.


The next day, we flew to Hamburg, Germany. Dennis had meetings there for four days so we were excited to stay for a while and have some time to split up and do what we wanted to do. After being together 24/7 for 2 weeks, it was good to have opportunities to see and do the things we wanted to do at our own pace.


We went shopping and took a bus tour of the city. We spent a day with our friend, Anja Kreienbaum, shopping and going to the zoo. We had a wonderful time.

We spent the weekend in Holland, visiting our friends, old neighbors and ward members.

It was a wonderful trip.

Tripping, Part 3; Ireland

We took a two hour ferry ride from Scotland to Northern Ireland. After driving up to the North coast and checking into our B & B, we headed out to Giant's Causeway. We were able to spend about an hour climbing around the amazing rocks and enjoying the sound of the ocean and beautiful sunshine (notice no jackets!) .

"The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 39 ft. high."

Then we drove further down the coast to experience going across the Carrick-de-Rede rope bridge. It spans 20 meters and is 30 meters above rocks and the ocean and goes out to a little island than was once used by fisherman. It was quite a thrill.

The view from the island was pretty spectacular also.

The next day, we went to Belfast where we toured the Parliament Building, the Botanical Garden and the Ulster Museum with the Book of Kells.

That evening we drove down to a town closer to Dublin and stayed in a hostel for the night.

We made a quick trip to the Hill of Tara..

"The Hill of Tara, known as Temair in Gaelic, was once the ancient seat of power in Ireland – 142 kings are said to have reigned there in prehistoric and historic times. In ancient Irish religion and mythology Temair was the sacred place of dwelling for the gods, and was the entrance to the otherworld. Saint Patrick is said to have come to Tara to confront the ancient religion of the pagans at its most powerful site." http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/irelandtarahill.htm

Spent the next day in Dublin mostly riding the city tour bus and seeing the sights around town.

We found the Molly Malone statue was unveiled by Lord Mayor Benjamin Briscoe. (Not related but interesting.) A cute old guy was performing at the statue.

Jessica and I went out to walk on the peat but made a wrong turn and never found it. We got lost for a bit and had to go through some thick shrubbery but had a nice walk along the coast.

That evening we went to eat at a pub and listen to some live Irish music.

Attended church and then headed out to see some more of the countryside. Found a really nice cottage to stay in for the next three days outside of Kilkinney.

Monday morning we went down to Waterford but everything was closed due to a bank holiday. We finally found the crystal factory and were able to do a really interesting tour through.

Jessica shows off a world tennis championship trophy

Alyna with the Superbowl trophy

I found a really great piece that would look great in Dennis' office that I could have gotten him for Father's Day but he didn't want a $2000.00 crystal globe. Oh, well. It was a good offer.

We found a very picturesque bridge

Kilkinney Castle had closed before we got there but were able to get close.

It was still a fun place for a couple of pictures.

Ireland was a great place to visit and we got enough of a taste of it to know that it would be fun to return and spend more time. Now it's time to pack up and get ready to catch the ferry back to England and our flight to Germany.

Tripping, Part 2: On to Scotland

We did survive the KFC ordeal and woke up Monday morning ready to head to Scotland. We made a quick stop before we got to the border in the resort town of Winemere in order to see the famous (or not) ....

It was all booked up so we couldn't see inside but talked to the owners. The town was really interesting and picturesque. This house was about the narrowest house I've ever seen.

This big, beautiful building turned out to be some kind of church

- although it didn't look very churchy. It was fairly a typical look for the area.

There were all kinds of nice spots that worked great for photo shoots but

since they are mostly all of Alyna, this is the only one I will post.

While there we stayed in a nice little cottage on a farm near Loch Lommond. After the noise and business of London, it was a welcome change.

There were lots of sheep, which is probably why Scotland is famous for it's wool. It was very cool (as in damp and chilly) while we were there so we made a stop fairly early in our travels to buy some warm sweaters.

We spent 3 days seeing as many things as we could in Scotland.

Sunset on Loch Lommond. (About 10 PM)

Dennis and Jessica walked into an old castle ruins.

We hiked up to Bracklinn Falls, okay it was more of a walk, but there was a hill.

Then on to Stirling Castle, one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland. One of the historic events that occurred here was the crowning of Mary, Queen of Scots.

We drove over to see the Miekleour Beech Hedge which was planted in 1745 and is the world's tallest, averaging over 100 ft. tall and is 580 ft. long.

"The Queen's View" over Loch Tay. It wasn't a great time of day to try to take pictures of it but it was very picturesque.

Jessica has really liked old stone bridges lately

and we saw many interesting ones throughout our travels.

We went to tour the Duke and Duchess of Argyle's home. It was very interesting because they actually live in the home but let tours go through the more formal half of the house while they and their three young children live in the other half. Of course, for most of us, living in half of this house wouldn't be that great of a hardship.

In my next blog, we will board the ferry and head over to Northern Ireland.