Last weekend in London

“You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London.
No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life;
for there is in London all that life can afford.”

- Samuel Johnson, 1709

London has been a brilliant city to us. Living here this summer has taught us so much. Every night we pray to say thanks to God for this experience.

We have learned so much about the history and culture of England and Europe. We have learned so much about each other as a couple--how we react in stressful situations, how we travel, our cultural interests, and our favorite climates & vacation types.

Baby Featherstone has grown so much while we've been here, and again we thank Heavenly Father that I have been so healthy throughout all our adventures, including taking the tube to work every day (which is an adventure itself). Only once I almost fainted! That's an accomplishment. Our English friends we've met here have been so helpful in suggesting names, including: Rupert, Tristan, and Basil. One of them even suggested Elvis!

We leave London on Saturday. We can't believe it's gone so quickly. Here are the pics from our last weekend in London. We tried to hit all the remaining places on our "Must See" list.

TOWER OF LONDON

The Tower of London is worth every bit of the 15 pounds entrance fee ($30).

It was particularly fascinating to me since I just finished reading the books "Innocent Traitor" (about Lady Jane Grey's 9 day reign as queen before Bloody Mary), and "Princes in the Tower" (about the two princes imprisoned after Henry IV's reign).

Here is the inner tower green where Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII's second wife), Lady Jane Grey, Katherine Howard (Henry VIII's fifth wife), and others were executed. Both Anne and Katherine are buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula just behind the green, along with Sir Thomas More.

Here is the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist inside the White Tower--the oldest chapel in England. When showed up for a tour of the White Tower we were the only ones there, so we got our own private tour.

Here is traitor's gate where the prisoners were brought by boat into the Tower.

CAMDEN & CAMDEN HIGH STREET

Who doesn't love Camden?!

Honestly, I don't know why Mike didn't let me buy these glasses. They are SO worth 5 pounds!

We had lunch outside Camden Lock. We watched the locks in action raising these two barges so they could continue their journey up Regent's Canal.

Here we're thinking "We can't believe it's our last Saturday in London!"

KENSINGTON PALACE & GARDENS

I also had to see Kensington Palace since I read "Diana: The Chronicles." It is the official residence where she and Prince Charles lived. It's also where all the royal extended family lives.

My absolute favorite garden in London is the sunken garden, which we stumbled upon trying to find our way out of Kensington Gardens. It was planted during the reign of Edward VII. You can't actually walk through it--you have to peek at it through the arched bushes.

We found this fabulous little hole in the wall Chinese place that Mike just loved. I made him pose in front so we could capture the moment.

THE REST OF LONDON

On Sunday we went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey at 3:30pm, and then to Evening Service at St. Paul's Cathedral at 6pm. We hadn't been inside either yet--it was a spectacular experience. We figured out that between our church meetings in the morning and our cathedral visits, we attended almost 6 hours of some kind of church that day!

Of course, Globe Theatre.

Here is the picture of Mike's pilgrimage to see the Economist building. Along with Foreign Affairs, he is a loyal subscriber to the Economist.

Thanks London, we'll miss you!

Weekend #7: Valencia & Denia Spain

This weekend we went to the Costa Blanca region of Espana.

It was amazing that we actually made it. They wouldn't let us on our flight Friday night since I didn't bring a doctor's "it's okay to fly" note. I didn't know I was supposed to have one this early. So we flew out Saturday morning instead (after I went home and got the note).

Saturday around 11am we arrived in Valencia and had an hour drive to our hotel in Denia. The drive was spectacular. We kept seeing all these old villas, castles and fortresses on the hillside.

Around 1pm we finally made it to our hotel! We were so happy but so exhausted after getting up at 3:45am to catch our new flight. We just slept at the pool the rest of the day.

See below for the new belly pic of how baby Featherstone is growing. He keeps getting bigger. He was kicking a LOT on this trip. I keep telling Mike that means he likes warm weather (as opposed to our rainy 60 degree London).

Saturday night we went to this sweet Spanish restaurant where we ate outdoors. Mike was elated that we found good Spanish food -- and that we saved money by not eating at the hotel.

Our tables were under a canopy of grape vines (the grapes were covered with paper for some reason--maybe to help them ripen?). Steve - you are our Spanish expert - help us out here.

Of course we ordered Paella since we learned it is a regional specialty. We had no idea what it was until it showed up on our table.

Here is a shot driving back through the tiny city of Xara.

Sunday morning we headed out to find church as always. We were praying that we'd be able to find one this time. We found a church...just a tad bit more elaborate than ours...

Then we found our church. Hallelujah!

Here is Mike with his happy "I get to go to church!" face.

Next we checked out of our hotel and headed out to take some pics of the beach.

More pics of the beach town of Denia...

This was our favorite signpost of the trip.


On the drive back to the airport we took a few more pics hoping to capture what it looks like to drive through Spain.

This one is my favorite. We saw about three of these giant bulls on the side of the highway.

And eventually it was time to say goodbye to Spain, and hello again to London. It's hard to believe we only have two weeks left. At least we were able to get some sun before the end of our summer!

Weekend #6: Ireland

This weekend, Erin and I headed north to see Éire. I want to go back...

We hopped on a Ryanair flight to Dublin on Friday night and upon arriving at customs, met the nicest immigration officer we have ever dealt with. She was sad to hear we were only staying for a weekend, but then brightened up when she saw our UK visas and decided since we were so close we could come back! That seemed like an auspicious start to our trip...

We picked up our rental car--which was in pretty bad shape. We found out pretty quickly that Éire is tough on cars--and headed to our hotel for the night. The next morning we made a quick stop at the local Tesco for some breakfast and supplies, and headed off to Western Éire!

On our way through the countryside we stopped at this cool lake in a tiny town...

It was great to get out and stretch our legs. The drive was quite beautiful--like the Cotswolds except more real and much less touristy--the roads would often be empty except for our little car.


On the road we would regularly see something cool, stop, pull over and take a picture and hang out for a few minutes. Here is Cloghan Castle, built around 1239 AD, which we almost drove right past until Erin said, "STOP! We've got to turn around!" It was quite stunning...

There are these castles/manors that you can stay in, rent for weddings or other events EVERYWHERE in Éire. Erin and I decided that most of Éire's GDP is tourism...

Every town we drove through seemed more quaint that the last...

We stopped for lunch in a little town called Gort.

We ate at this little cafe, O'Connors, and the sweetest woman served us. It was definitely a local's joint--the type of place where you order, eat, then walk up to the till and pay--no need for a check...

We got back on the road and after driving past The Burrens, an incredibly cool Irish national park, we happened upon the "best collection of monastic buildings in all of Ireland," a little place called Kilmacduagh...

The oldest building is the Church of St. John the Baptist, which dates from before the 12th Century. The tower was a place where the monks stored grain and hid from attackers. It was incredible to see--the hills are impossibly green and the contrast with the stone was beautiful.

*Warning: Mike reveals that he is a nerd below...

As we drove around, I started thinking about two things: Tolkien and Led Zeppelin. Why Tolkien? Because the Irish landscape is very Middle Earth-esque: the hills and mountains made me think of the Shire, the Riddermark, Gondor...

Led Zeppelin? I had "The Battle of Evermore," and "Ramble On" lyrics running through my head as I thought about Tolkien. I started thinking back to the last time I read the Lord of the Rings and decided I needed to read the books again. Here's picture of me looking for the Fellowship on their way to Rivendell...

Ok, enough of that. After a couple of hours' driving, we finally got to...

THE CLIFFS OF INSANITY!

Ok, well, the Cliffs of Moher (called "Cliffs of Insanity" in Princess Bride). The views were spectacular. We made sure to keep away from the edge...

This lookout point provided a perfect photo opp...

The signs were very instructive...

This guy was playing some really beautiful music on this Irish harp.

These people clearly don't speak English, French, or German.

Here the travellers pause for a portrait...the key is look for people with really nice cameras. There's better chance they actually know how to take a nice picture. (For a bad example, see the crappy, off-center picture of Erin and I recreating the Abbey Road cover from last week's post)

Back on the road, we stumbled across the cool little town of Kinvara, where Erin found her favourite bag (the brand was "Erin Knitwear").

Luckily, the signs in Éire are simple and easy to follow...

We stopped for dinner at a little town outside Galway, where we stopped at Moran's--a 6-generation seafood place--for smoked salmon and crab. Mmmmm. I did my best to avoid driving into the bay when I parked the car...

The restaurant...

After dinner we got back on the road to Connemara to get to our hotel for the night. This is officially the scariest bridge I've ever crossed--no guardrails or walls of any kind on either side.

We drove to our hotel for the night--the Zetland Country House Hotel, and the sweet owner informed us that she didn't have a room for us. After a few awkward seconds of us trying to figure out what she meant, she told us that a child had left the water running, causing some damage in other rooms, including the one we were supposed to be in. "God bless children," she said in her thick brogue. She booked us a spot 10 minutes away at...

The Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel. It is right across the Lough Inagh (lake) to Connemara National Park and the 12 Bens (12 rather beautiful, rounded mountains). I didn't want to leave...

The view out the front door was spectacular...

We stayed in the James Joyce room, which felt a bit like sleeping at Grandma's house. In the morning the breakfast they had cooking down the hall made it REALLY seem like we were sleeping at Grandma's house.

Here are two of the 12 Bens as seen from the lodge. Someday very soon I'm going to come back here, stay for two weeks and hike, fish, read, think, and relax. I love Western Ireland...

We reluctantly bid farewell to Connemara and headed back to Dublin for the afternoon. Our plan was to get to church in Galway on our way back. We had a map, an address, and we were dressed and ready to go. Unfortunately, the map led us here:

"Where are the Mormons?"

So, after ONCE MORE crashing and burning in our attempt to go to church in a random European city, we headed to Dublin.

DUBLIN

Here is a pic of an arch at the corner of St. Stephen's Green. We decided that every city in Europe must have the requisite arch in a park to be complete.

Dublin is great--however, since we don't drink we probably didn't have as good a time as everyone else there.

The flower stalls were particularly cool...

Temple Bar was definitely a highlight--although it's not as crazy on a Sunday afternoon as if you were drunk and it was nighttime, I'm sure.

Dublin's got some great musical history, and in the Temple Bar area there were a TON of vinyl shops. I probably could have found some really cool LP's if we had the time.

Thanks Ireland, we'll be back soon!