Beaches, Hikes, and Pubs, Oh My!

Hey, Laura here. For those of you who don't know, we are in Ireland with.....
Fiona. (This is Fiona saying hi!!) p.s. If you don't know I am one of Laura's friends.
Laura: We're going to do a commentary between us on our trip so far, so you will be hearing from both of us about our time here in Ireland.
Fiona: This is my house that was built by my grandparents. It is in county Donegal right next to the Atlantic Ocean.

Laura: We got here Saturday evening and after a nice dinner went to a local pub that Fiona's cousins own. We played a game of pool while the adults played darts. We also found a cute dog that just hangs around the pub, and I named it "Bubba." 

Fiona: Later we played soccer or "football" outside in the back of the pub with 5 of my cousins.

Fiona: The next morning we had a lovely hike up to "the hut." It is a tiny, as you can guess, hut on top of a small mountain. My great grandfather built it.

Laura: There was an amazing view from the top of the mountain, and we played around inside the hut.. 

Fiona: Our last day was a fun one . First we went to this awesome castle. Then we came home and Laura, her mom and I went to this beach that we go to every time we go to Ireland called Murder Hole....DUN DUN DUUUN. Its name came from a long time ago when pirates came to stash their booty which they would fight for.

Laura: When we got there, I followed in the Dolan tradition of running down this huge sand hill at Murder Hole. It was a workout climbing up, but it was worth the run down.

Fiona: After the sand hill we went to these really cool caves.(And if you are wondering this beach is right down the street.) The caves were really big.

Laura: After the caves, we went in the waves and got soaked! The water was really cold. We made up a game where you have to jump when the waves come. 

Fiona: After one more run down the sand hill, we walked home and on the way`met some friendly cows. We fed them and they let us pet them. From left, we named them: Boogy (because she had snot hanging out of her nose), Spotty (because she had spots), Sassy (because she was pushing the other cows), and Hungry, because she was the only one who was actually eating the grass that we gave her.    

Laura: We had a really fun time with the Dolans in Ireland and I hope we can come back soon!

Fiona: Me too!

Abbey Road

Beatles fans, this post is for you!

This picture was harder to get than you would think. Even in the evening there's a fair amount of traffic, and we weren't the only ones who had this brilliant idea!

The walls in front of Abbey Road Studios.

One of Laura's favorite songs from the album is "Come Together."

Changing the Guard

Everyday in the summer a Changing the Guard ceremony takes place at Buckingham Palace. It took us three times, arriving earlier each time, to find a spot where we could see. There are several different regiments, including the Irish, Welsh and Scots, but we were too far away to distinguish the difference.

The ceremony begins outside the palace gates with a parade.

Buckingham Palace with the Queen's guards (only 2 when she's away) in place.

All the regiments have marched in through the main gates.

 Changing of the Queen's guard.

All the troops parade out and down The Mall and it's over. 

About 30 - 45 minutes total.
Laura may have switched her allegiance. ;)

A very long day!

We left Llandeilo Sunday morning and drove along the coast looking for access to the water. We found it and proceeded out to the Bristol Channel.

It's very cold and windy, and yes, those are surfers you see.

Next, we stopped in Bath. Crowded, touristy and we blasted through it. We may have enjoyed it more if we had allowed more time to see the Roman baths. This building is the Grand Pump House: baths inside through massive crowds.

Every tourist city has its share of street performers.

And finally, early in the evening, we make it to the mysterious Stonehenge. An impressive engineering feat built around 5000 years ago. It really is something to see live!

Wales

Saturday morning we set off on our drive to Wales from the Cotswolds. Wales looks different from the English countryside: greener and wilder, sometimes with dense forests, and more mountainous than the rolling hills of England. 

We drove for several hours until we reached our destination of Llandeilo, a little town near castles (three of them) and "Black Mountain" (looked more like a large hill to us; the real mountains are in northern Wales, apparently).

We stayed in a hotel called the Cawdor.

Wales is a land of magic and mystics. Who is that mysterious figure in the alcove of our room?

Sounds like getting along with English kings could have been a hit-or-miss proposition

(a few beheadings along the way).

We went out to one of the castles, stopping first to tour the main house of an estate whose ancestors had been there since medieval times.

We hiked through open meadows and woods to the castle. It was late in the day by then and we had the entire park to ourselves, making it all the more impressive when we rounded a corner and finally saw the 1000-year old castle looming above us.

It was even better once we got inside. This was truly fantastic, to be clambering along ancient castle walls, through narrow alleyways and up winding staircases inside towers, looking out over the valley spread out before us, hearing only the wind and the occasional bird.

Back in town, we looked for a place to eat. There wasn't much to choose from, but we finally found a pub. Soon we noticed that several groups of people around us were speaking Welsh. Prior to this we had heard only English (although spoken with a thick enough accent it was hard to tell); but this was definitely not English -- it sounded more like something from Middle Earth.

The Welsh seem to favor long words with lots of Ls, Ys and Ws. Here's a crossword puzzle we found in a local publication. Looks like doing one of these may take more patience than doing one in English.

Cotswolds

Kevin took Friday off and we headed west out of London in a rented, manual drive Passat. Thus began our adventures. Kevin did incredibly well considering driving on the left, stick shift, London traffic and not knowing the city's streets. I navigated and he tried not to hit the left curb! It was tense, but we got out of London and onto the motorway in about 45 minutes. 

Our destination was the Cotswold region, an area in the English countryside that has small villages, quaint thatched roof homes and lots of sheep. We stopped in Stow-on-the-Wold for lunch and a walk around. We read that "wold" means exposed to the wind.

Lunch out on the patio of The Queen's Head. Laura wondered about so many restaurants named after the Queen's body parts.

The queen got wind of Laura's curiosity and locked her up in the town's stocks. ;)
Cute little hobbit.

We checked into a hotel in a nearby village called Chipping Campden.
We had an entry to our room in an inside hallway, but we could have used these stairs to climb in through our bathroom window!

One of our favorite experiences was going horseback riding.
Here we are at the stables all geared up.

Our guides took us through the very pretty, idyllic village of Stanton. We walked down the main street, past ancient homes built in the typical Cotswold style.

The view from the top of the hill was amazing!

Laura's guide was pointing out that in the distance we might be able to see Wales... maybe.

Bournemouth Seaside

Monday was warm for England (mid 70s) so Laura and I took the train to the beach. It was a two hour ride south from London's Waterloo station. 

We heard that most of the beaches in England are rocky beaches; this is one of the few sandy beaches.

It reminded us a little of Santa Cruz, on a very small scale. Laura noticed this booth right off.; we didn't test for authenticity though.

We took a walk on the pier, saw some beach huts... so English,

and went in the water. It was a little cold at first... but it didn't take Laura long to get waste deep in the English Channel!