London, England

Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford Bus Tour

On one of our days we went on a bus tour which took us to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and to the city of Oxford. We had a great day and all of the stops were amazing. Oxford was a beautiful city and we got to see many of the different colleges at the university. Windsor Castle was also amazing. It was a huge castle, and it is one of the Queens Favourite houses. They say she uses it as a cottage in the summer and on some weekends! Stonehenge was great too. It was amazing to see as the bus road up near it. It is huge! Here are some pictures.


Oxford!








Stonehenge

Windsor Castle and Chaning of the Guards

London, England
Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, Tower of London, Millennium Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the best day ever…Aka Platform 9 ¾’s!

We were extremely busy on our four days in London. Here are a few pictures from our first few days!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Our Harry Potter stop. On the way to Hogwarts! Platform 9 3/4

Millennium Bridge

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Buckingham Palace (they wouldnt let us take pictures inside)

At the gates

The London Eye- At the top

Parliament

Big Ben!

Galway and the Cliffs of Moher

May 5th- 7th

So our last trip in Ireland before heading off on our travels was to Galway with the main stop being the Cliffs of Moher. Galway was such a cool little city. It is the 4th largest city on the Island and you can walk across the city center in about 5- minutes if you don’t stop to check out all the neat little boutiques, coffee shops, and restaurants. The town had a very hippy like style to it and was very easy going, friendly and full of culture. The main sights in the city itself were the cathedral and the pedestrian shop streets.

Our second day there, we took a bus tour out of the city and into the Burren country sides of County Galway and County Clare. The landscape was very different from the rest of Ireland as it was strewn with limestone rock. The first stop was to the Aillwee Caves where we took the tourist version of spelunking. In the Caves we got to see the remains of a brown bear which haven’t been on the island for 1000years. We also snapped some photos of the “Frozen Waterfall” (a limestone formation), eerie stalactites and stalagmites and an underground waterfall. The caves were really neat, but the main stop of the trip was the Cliffs of Moher…THE CLIFFS OF INSANITY (The Princess Bride). Yes these are the same cliff that Wesley chased Fesik, Iningo, and Vecini all the way up while trying to save Buttercup. The Cliffs are 214M high and are one of the most breathtaking views we have ever seen.

Next stop, London!


Galway Cathedral



Galway City Centre




The Burren Sea side


The underground waterfall at Aliwee Caves

The Cliffs of INSANITY...I mean Moher

Antrim Coast and the Giants Causeway

On the Sunday we drove from Belfast to the Giants Causeway. We took the long way up the scenic coast and had some of the most amazing views we have seen yet! We also stopped at Carrick-a-rede and went across the rope bridge which dangles across a 30metre high chasm between mainland and a small fishing island. I think the pictures do the talking for us! Needless to say it was all breath taking, and the Giants Causeway is one of the strangest sights to see.

On the Rope Bridge

The Giants Causeway

Dave annoying the cows

Belfast

May 2nd

This weekend was the May long weekend in Ireland, so we decided to go on a road trip up to northern Ireland with some friends we met from Australia. Our first stop was in Belfast where we went on a black cub taxi tour of all the areas of conflict during the troubles. We went through both the catholic (which is walled off from the protestant area) and the protestant area which was covered in Murals depicting the issues surrounding the conflicts. We also went on the Eye of Belfast (A.K.A the Belfast wheel) and climb to the very top of Cliff Hill and got an amazing view of the entire city.

Guinness Brewery Tour

April 29th

On Wednesday we went to the Guinness Brewery tour. It was a lot of fun. They tell you all about the five main ingredients, Barley, Hops, Water, Yeast and Passion! Haha. Apparently when Arthur Guinness first started brewing in Dublin he leased the area for 9000 years at 45 pounds a year! They have the original copy of the lease in the middle of the main room. At the end of the tour we got to head up to Sky bar, which gives us a beautiful 360 degree view of Dublin while we enjoyed a Guinness. (The picture of the piece of paper is the 9000 year lease!)