We're Home!

Great flight, even the food was better.....already planning for next year...possibly Morocco?

Day 14 - London, England

Final day....we fly out tomorrow. Good weather.

We took the tube and train to Windsor and found out more than we ever wanted to know about royalty and the palace. We had a personal guide, we're not too sure if it was a good value. Oh, but we also got to see the changing of the guard at the Windsor Palace!

We did the usual tea time and evening champagne.....dinner was a big disappointment.

Now we're ready to return to our homes, eat way less, do some exercise, and see the rest of you!

Day 13 - London, England

Started with sunshine but chilly weather...then things turned. Not the weather, but we got stood up for our tour! The major bummer is this is the only day we could have seen the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace (they only do this on even numbered days in September) and we missed that because we were going on the tour. So now what do we do? Shop!

We learned how to manage the Tube and buses....people are so helpful and pleasant here.

We did make it back to the hotel in time for tea, which is just so civilized, with our cottled cream, scones, and whiskey.

Got a great recommendation for dinner and had a fabulous meal. The entertainment was the two older Japanese gentlemen at the table next to us wearing wedding rings and dining with their two young "nieces".

Off to Windsor!

Day 12 - London, England

Okay, now you know how we hate to complain, but the weather took another turn to the cold side! One of the locals said "we have all four seasons in one day"! So out came the sweaters again and the socks. We did leave the umbrellas in our rooms, but it did sprinkle today.

We did the hop on/hop off bus tour through the city and saw all the big things.....Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower of London, Parliment, and a river cruise. Boy, are we tired.

We had tea with scones and cottled cream and whiskey again....took a nap/read again....and regrouped at 7 for champagne and little bites to eat....then off to dinner where we talked to a couple and may have a scenario for next year.

Tomorow we tackle the Tube!

Street vendor that Edie bought a stamp for crafting, the others were kind but were really not that interested in looking at every one of his many stamps, go figure. Odd thing, Sabrina has not purchased a thing....yet.

Picadilly

Guard at Buckingham Palace

Michael and Sabrina in front of the gate at Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

There is so much to do and so little time so we're using cabs sometimes. They are quite reasonable, very clean, and the drivers are so professional.

Day 11 - London, England

Okay, you are not going to believe this, especially after the wettest week in Ireland history, but it is so hot here! First, everybody is wearing shorts and tank tops and the men are walking around with no shirts!

We checked in to our most favorite hotel, ever. This place is so cute....a boutique style hotel located in Kensington. Good beds, turn down service with chocolates (unheard of in most of our travels). We took off to find Harrod's, took a wrong turn and went out of our way by 2 miles (in the heat....did we tell you how hot it is here?), back tracked, found Harrod's, we were covered in sweat (we did tell you it was hot, right?), used the bathroom, figured out we can't afford anything (although Sabrina did look at a couple of MOTB dresses but Megan still hasn't picked out her colors), and then decided to go back to our hotel (we did tell you we love our hotel, right?) via taxi because the girls had headaches from heat stroke (because you know it is really hot here).

Came back to the hotel and had afternoon tea, showered and took a nap/read and then met at 7 for champagne to discuss our dinner plans. We ended up dining at this really cute restaurant just past the Ferrari and Maserati dealership. Edie didn't eat because she had a horrible headache from the heat (it was at least 85 degrees, but we are not wimps because we did just arrive from the wettest week in Ireland history).

Our first stop...Harrod's

The girls can't take the heat

Complimentary Afternoon tea, scones, cottled cream (which we all adore) and whiskey

Complimentary Evening champagne and canapes (salmon, capers, cream cheese on rye crackers)

Day 10 - Dublin, Ireland

After a good night of sleep we were so pleased to wake up to partly cloudy skies. It just was a bummer to spend all the days in the country and not be able to hike around and enjoy the beautiful scenery because it was pouring down rain with gale force winds. But with the new day and sun we rebounded nicely and adjusted our attitudes and decided to walk all day.

This being Monday, the museums were closed, so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and walk around and perhaps find Dave a replacement double D black leather belt. No luck but he did find a shirt. We then heard about the street market, but it ended up being produce, flowers, and meats.

We toured around on the double decker buses with live commentary. The Irish are witty and love to spin a yarn. We heard many versions of the same story. The Irish are also a fiercely independent people that are still battling to maintain some independence.

We ate a fabulous dinner at Marco Pierre White, he is the chef that made Gordon Ramsey, Hell's Kitchen chef, cry.

YEAH! A sunny day!

Paddy, a true Irish man....he sold us tickets which was like a whole comedy show and he made sure we got on the correct bus.

We spent the day on the "hop on hop off" city tour bus. Very entertaining.

We've been seeing people with Penneys bag on our entire trip so we went in to take a peek. Not sure how to describe it. The quality is like Banana Republic but at Target prices, or Ireland's H&M. Dave bought a shirt for 3 Euro.

You wouldn't see "oriental" in the States

This is what we found in the street market. What you can't see is the fly!

They don't change diapers, they change their "nappy"

This is another Irish cathedral

A walk around Christ Church looking for Carolyn's fish and chips joint which was not to be found anywhere so we ate at O'Neill's. They had a black light in the ladie's toilet! And then the guys told us they had a black light in the men's toilet at Burger King (no we didn't eat there, just used the facilities). We're dying to know why they have a black light in the toilet. On second thought, maybe we don't want to know. We continue to find clean toilets readily available.

R & M Treated us to Starbuck's with the international card.

Michael ran a 10k on the treadmill while the rest of us napped/read.

Here's one more look at a sunny day.

This is how we end our day....the guys have an Irish coffee, the girls drink tea and blog...the guys do some dictation and we type.

Day 9 - Dublin, Ireland

Our dinner restaurant

Grafton Street for a wee bit of shopping. Please note that there are no umbrellas! The sun actually came out for a few moments.

Today is not a blog worthy day. We drove in the pouring rain for four hours to Dublin. We ran in to a 45 minute traffic delay on the freeway due to a Rugby match, got honked at twice, and received the international single digit salute once. Had a rough time finding our hotel, but finally stopped for directions at a gas station...we started with asking an Asian woman who worked at the station for directions but she referred us to an Asian guy who got confused and then enlisted the aid of an Irish man to tell us how to get to our hotel....Real Men do ask for directions.

Our hotel is like the Winchester Mystery House. You have to walk through the bar/restaurant and go to floor two, then go down a flight of stairs to get to room 400 & 401 which are located in the "attic". But it is a really good location to things.

We're getting a little tired of pub food so we found an Italian restaurant with Irish flair??? It was probably the best meal we've had so far.

Early to bed for the seniors.....