Heathrow and home

After 3 rental cars and 1 train, we headed to our 4th airport of the trip for our flights home. We had long waits, but luckily we had passes for the United Club. Mei's family took off first so I said goodbye until my own flight.

By the time I got home, it was around 5:30p. Turns out my original connecting flight from Dulles was delayed by 2 hours. I saved 4 hours just switching to the non-stop flight and the flight delay would've cost another 2 hours! Best $75 I've ever spent!

Photos from Ireland are here

Photos from England and Scotland are here.

Last day in England

In the morning, we headed to Sherwood Forest to take a nice walk to Major Oak, which is a giant oak tree which is supposed to have been a hiding place for Robin Hood. The tree is massive, with a lot of supports needed to hold up it's branches and is supposed to be almost 1000 years old!

After a long day of driving it was nice to take a quiet stroll through this famous forest and get our picture taken with the famous tree and hear more about the Robin Hood legend. Mei and I did our best imitations of the Robin Hood characters from the Disney animated movie.

On our drive south, we stopped at a rest stop for a quick lunch. Meanwhile, we also checked into our flights the next day, and at Stephen's suggestion, I was able to book myself on a non-stop flight to LA for a change fee.

Continuing south, we stopped at Bletchley Park, which is where Alan Turing worked on the first modern computer to break the German Enigma code during WW2. While the originals were all destroyed after the war, there is a recreation of Turing's office and of the famous computer.

Our last stop is at a hotel near Heathrow. Dinner ended up at a hotel next door where we could get our final English meal.

Back to England

The next day, after a very short visit in Scotland, we drove back towards Edinburgh, to the suburb of Leith. Stephen was told of a bakery, Mimi's Bakehouse, that we wanted to pick up some pastries at. The selections were all very tempting. We got a giant pavlova and a few other things. I picked a jammy dodger slice, which I had no idea what it was, but it looked good. Turns out 'jammy dodger' is what the English call sandwich cookies. While Mei was settling up, I took the kids outside (the restaurant was very cramped) and we found there were swans in the river, including a mama with some babies! There were also two swans in the distance doing some kind of spinning dance. Turns out they were males doing a territorial display. Leave it to swans to turn fights into a dance!

We headed out a ways on the road before pulling over to eat our treats. They were all ridiculously good, and the pavlova may have been one of the best I've had. We all really liked the jammy dodger slice too!

We crossed back into England shortly after, taking a detour to get our pictures taken with the signs. Our first stop in England is Alnwick Castle, pronounced 'ah-nick'. This castle is the home of the 12th Duke of Northumberland, who still lives here in winter. It is also the site of filming for the broomstick training scenes for Harry Potter and played Brancaster Castle in Downton Abbey! We didn't have nearly enough time to explore the castle, and had to skip the gardens entirely. They had a whole lot of activities on site, including several HP themed events (broomstick training, owls), several medieval themed (pillories, knights activities, dragon quest, archery) in addition to seeing the palace rooms where the family actually lives. Their artwork included paintings of the children (now adults) and their main sitting room is a library with very old books but also a flat screen TV and a foozball table! I'd been wanting to visit a lived in castle so this fulfilled my final check list for this trip. We all had a great time, and I hope to some day come back to visit the gardens.

We continued our drive south passing by English countryside that looked like it hadn't changed in hundreds of years, if you ignore the power lines and the modern windmills. We saw mostly rolling hills, lots of sheep, stone walls, no modern buildings. Our stop for the evening is in Nottingham. The main entry to the hotel were guarded by a flock of Canada geese, so we had to gingerly step around goose droppings. We found a local pub, The Nuthall, for a nice dinner.

Scottish countryside

The next day was a big castle day. We started out at Stirling Castle, only a short drive from our hotel. The castle is beautifully situated on a hill overlooking Stirling bridge, site of the battle depicted in Braveheart. In fact there is a monument to William Wallace visible from the castle. We had a great guide who told us all about the castle history in his melodious accent. The castle had several fun places to explore, including a great hall, a recreated kitchen, palace rooms with costumed actors telling us about life in the castle as a servant or noble woman, and beautiful unicorn tapestries that had just recently been restored.

The view from the castle is spectacular, and we had the typical crazy Scottish weather (dramatic clouds, wind, occasional rain) to make it even more dramatic.

From Stirling we headed to Doune Castle.This is a very old building, in slightly downtrodden condition but it's been used for filming Monty Python's Life of Brian as well as more recently, Game of Thrones and Outlander. The audio tour is narrated by a Monty Python alum. I loved the ancient feel of the place, with the giant fireplace that could fit many people, to the crumbling stairs and drafty giant rooms. It's hard to imagine people living in these conditions.

After Doune we headed to Loch Lomond for a late lunch. The area of the loch we ended up at turned out to be a little touristy, but we managed to get a hearty meal, friendly service, and I was able to pick up a tartan blanket, which was the one thing I wanted to get for myself.

After lunch, we were able to find another spot, Balmaha, to view the lake that was more picturesque with ducks and a boat launch.

As we headed back to the hotel for dinner, we decided to just stop at whatever pub we could find in Dunblane. I remembered a place called The Riverside on our way out of the town. This turned out to be one of our favourite meals! All of our food was top notch, and they had some fantastic desserts but all in a cozy pub atmosphere.

Exploring Edinburgh

After breakfast at the hotel (where they were a little snooty to be honest), Mei and the kids and I went to Edinburgh Castle while Stephen had a speech to give at The Balmoral hotel. We could've spent much more time here! The outer entrance to the castle was set up with bleachers, which we found out was for the Military Tattoo in August. Apparently this is a major event! As we explored the castle, we found that it was a good idea to ask questions of the red jacketed people stationed around because they had some great stories. One guy told us about a 70 year old man who came to him asking about the prison (which we were also looking for), turned out the old guy had been imprisoned in the castle in WW2, had escaped, got drunk, couldn't climb back in, napped outside the castle, and knocked on the gate to be let in the next day! Told with his expressive face and fantastic accent, the story was captivating! We walked around the battlements (with lots of canons), explored the prison display, a few military museums, and looked out over Edinburgh and into the former gardens.

After our morning at the castle, we headed to The Balmoral to meet Stephen. Instead of going out for lunch we ended up grabbing a light meal of the food provided for the speech attendees! Thanks to Stephen's local contact, we were able to arrange a visit to JK Rowling's suite at the hotel. It's got a purple door with an owl knocker, her books are in the shelves and an old manual typewriter on the desk. This was a very special treat!

In the afternoon, we got tickets for the hop-on hop-off bus to get a view of more of the city. We stopped at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the Queen's official residence in Edinburgh. We lucked out in that she was planning a visit the next week, and we wouldn't have been able to visit. The rooms are of course spectacular, but the palace also has a very old abbey in ruins which was really cool. After our palace visit, we got back on the bus to see the rest of the city, but missed a stop we should've got off on and had to make a mad dash for the hotel for check out! From the hotel, we took a short walk to the tram that would take us to the airport for our third rental car of the trip. This time, a short drive took us to Dunblane, where we stayed at a beautiful old hotel on a hill that used to be a Victorian Spa.

After a long day, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which boasts a celebrity chef (Nick Nairn) and farm-to-table local fare. Stephen and I had old fashioneds with a whiskey, Talisker, that tasted like charcoal! It was delicious!

Heading to Edinburgh

The next day, we drove to Heathrow, returned the rental car, took the tube to Kings Cross station to catch a train to Edinburgh. We had a long wait at Kings Cross, so we grabbed some meat pasties for lunch (really good!), ogled the line at the Platform 9 3/4 display (which we didn't have to wait in having seen the 'real' platform) and finally hopped on the train.

The train was zipping along quite nicely, until we ran into locomotive problems. Unfortunately, we had to transfer trains and we lost a lot of time so didn't end up getting into Edinburgh until quite late. Luckily, it's the solstice and this being a very northerly city, sunset is at 10p. Mei, the kids and I went out to find a bite to eat. We decided on a place called Bread Meats Bread just because it was close to the hotel. We lucked out in that the food was really good! We ordered a plate of poutine (yay, Canadian food has come to Scotland!) and each got a different burger with amazing toppings.

We finally turned in quite late, the sun was barely setting but the hotels here all have blackout curtains.

Harry Potter Studio Tour London

The next day, after a nice breakfast at the hotel, we drove to Stephen's home town, where the family paid respects to his mom. After a detour through Amersham (from 4 Weddings & a Funeral fame) to stock up on provisions (mostly English biscuits and the like), we headed to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. We got there early for a quick bite at the cafe before heading into the tour. The entire experience was amazing! They did a spectacular job of recreating the feel of the Hogwarts environment while at the same time revealing some of the inner workings of making the movies. We spent almost 5 hours there, and could've spent more! I loved all the recreations of settings like the common rooms, potions class, etc, but I also really loved the piles and piles of props and all the costumes. In an outside area, they had the Knight Bus, Dursley and Potter house and the famous bridge. Of course we had to stop for butter beer, but they also had butter beer ice cream! The train is set up so you can walk through it and see different compartments, as well as take a picture at platform 9 3/4. The newest attraction is Forbidden Forest, where you can bow to a hippogriff and walk through the forest of spiders (or take a detour and just see them from a distance). I absolutely loved the display of cardboard models and I admit to getting all verklempt at the giant Hogwarts model, beautifully lit to show it in various settings.

Of course we spent a good deal of time in the shop but I got a discount to the cafe, shop and for the tickets. For any HP fan, this is definitely worth a trip.

Our evening meal was at Royal Saracens Head in Beaconsfield with Stephen's brother's family. We think they must have forgotten us half way through as there was a long wait for our meals and some of them seemed over done, although the food was delicious despite that. They had a fancy chocolate bomb dessert where the server pours hot sauce on a golden chocolate ball that melts.

Next stop: England

After some fun filled days in Ireland, we said goodbye to Grandpa O'Sullivan and headed back to Dublin to catch a short flight to Birmingham. We rented a car there and drove down to Bracknell, outside of London and near Ascot racecourse. We happened to be there during Royal Ascot, and we did see people in fancy hats and morning coats, with fancy cars lined up in the morning to take them to the festivities.

The hotel is set on several acres of open land, and we saw bunny rabbits on the lawn pretty much every night.

Our dinner spot for the evening was at Milton's Restaurant, at Cantley House Hotel. The restaurant was in an old barn, the food was delicious, and the service was friendly, although our waiter didn't seem to know much about the dishes.

After a long day of travel, we were all excited for tomorrow.

Kilkenny and Dunbrody

On our last full day in Ireland, Stephen and the kids and I headed to the Dunbrody Famine Ship & Emigrant experience. They tell the story of the Great Famine in the late 1800s when a disease killed the potato crop and many people died or left Ireland. They do a great job on the tour from the beginning when you get your ticket, which has the names of actual emigrants. A short movie sets the scene and then we are taken on the ship as if we were emigrants. The guide tells us about the kinds of people who emigrated, what the ships were like (they were cargo ships bringing lumber from North America back to Ireland and could carry people back in the empty holds), and the conditions of the crossing. In the hold, actors portray a peasant as well as a more well to-do emigrant to colour in the story. They had fake food laid out on the tables as well as giant rats! As you get off the ship, there is a display of some famous Irish people who had emigrated to America. In the shop, you could have them look up your Irish name to learn a bit about your family history.

As we finished up our tour, Mei arrived with Michael and we all headed to Kilkenny, which is a medieval town. This was a great place to visit, and we probably could've spent more time there. Our first stop was the Visitor Center to get the lay of the land. The tourist part of the town has two main medieval streets with the castle on one end and St Canice Cathedral on the other. First we had lunch at Kytler's Inn, which is famous for a 13th century proprietor who was accused of witchcraft. She was able to escape however her maid was not so lucky.

After lunch, we headed to Smithwick's to get a tour of the brewery. Unluckily, just as we were about to start the tour, the power went out! The entire area was out, so we decided to head to St Canice's to check out the church (no power needed). The church had some beautiful stained glass, a very old cemetary, and a round tower. We headed back to Smithwick's as the power was coming back on. The tour was very informative, although the beer is not brewed at that location anymore. At the end of the tour, we all got a pint or half pint of choice of ale or lager, or non-alcoholic for the kids. The ale was actually not bad, although I'm not a beer drinker. Definitely not as bitter as American beer.

From Smithwick's we headed up the High Street stopping at a few shops and checking out the old medieval lanes. The other end of the street was the Castle. This was quite an impressive structure with one of those giant great halls lined with paintings. There was a small garden next to the castle with roses. After the castle, we popped into an ice cream shop. It was a branch of a shop in Dingle and had just opened here. I had gin ice cream with black current-delicious!

Our drive back wound through some beautiful picturesque countryside with green fields and a lot of very relaxed looking cows. The roads are very narrow, lined with hedges right up against the side of the road, and people drive way too fast! There were a lot of modern wind mills as well. After we left Dublin, the weather had warmed up and every time someone learned we were from California, they thanked us for bringing our sunny weather to Ireland!

Before going back to Michael's we stopped at Stephen's Uncle Pat and Aunt Kathy's place. She served tea and soda bread. Her accent was hard to understand, but I got a kick out of her. She seemed kind of mischievous and a bit of a character. After her soda bread, none of us were very hungry for dinner.

Waterford and Hook Lighthouse

After our usual breakfast at Michael's (eggs, bacon or what we would call back bacon, tea), we headed to Waterford to tour the crystal factory. On the way, we took a car ferry across the river Suir (rather than drive around). To get on the ferry, you wait in the lane of the street (there is no pull out) for it to come back to your side. After it arrives and the cars from the other side all have driven off, we drive onto the ferry. The attendant comes around to your car for you to pay your fare. We saw little translucent jellyfish in the river as we crossed. They looked just like the ones I saw snorkeling in Jamaica. On our way to the Waterford building, we passed a Viking round tour and replica viking longboat. There were Vikings in the general area a long time ago. 

The Waterford facility here in Ireland only makes specialty products. Most of their manufacturing is in eastern Europe. However on the tour we were able to see the whole process from the molds (including some wood ones), blowing the molten glass into the molds, cooling down, and cutting the design. They had samples of their special products, like trophies & awards, a 9/11 memorial piece and a replica of a castle all in crystal! The shop had a crystal Irish harp, football trophies, chandeliers in addition to a selection of Christmas ornaments, glasses, vases and other items. On our way out of Waterford, we stopped at the Castle Arms for a quick pub lunch before heading back to Michael's.

In the afternoon, Stephen stayed home and we went with Michael to Hook Lighthouse. This was a great stop, the lighthouse is one of the oldest in the world and still operating. The building is about 800 years old! You can see the old building techniques on the tour along with the very narrow stairs. The views from the top are quite magnificent. The site includes some of the old walls of a monastery that used to be on the site. There were on-site lighthouse keepers until 1996, when it was automated! At the base of the lighthouse, we walked among the rocks that the light was warning the ships from. There are small fossils and tiny living critters in the tide pools that form in the crevices. On the road to Hook Lighthouse is Loftus Hall, which is supposed to be the most haunted house in Ireland. We didn't have time to see it, but were told that the tour is not at all scary and is actually quite entertaining. Well, next time! We got some ice cream before heading home.

Dinner was a traditional Sunday roast by Stephen, along with traditional potatoes and all the fixings. 

Enniscorthy , Wexford and fish & chips

Our first excursion in southeast Ireland was to Enniscorthy, which is the town depicted in the movie Brooklyn as Eilis' home town, and where the author of the book, Colm Toibin, came from. We were there on a market day. The streets were very quiet as we walked around. We found the church that was depicted in the movie, toured the castle and got some beautiful views from the roof. They had a small Eileen Gray exhibit, and it turns out she was from this area. There were posters on various buildings touting the movie and the town's roll in it. One of the castle attendants told us that towns people played extras in the movie and if you weren't an extra, you brought a folding chair to watch them shoot it.

For lunch we headed to Wexford to eat at the Nosh + Coffee, which apparently is a tradition for Mei's family when visiting Michael. We walked around Wexford after lunch, ran into a couple of stormtroopers raising money for children's cancer research, found a cute little open air market, and various statues of a US Navy officer (who was born there), a famous Irish hurler (a team sport played with a wooden paddle), and a peasant representing the Irish in the 1798 Rising.

We rested in the afternoon at Michael's before heading to Kilmore Quay for fish & chips at Little Saltee. The restaurant is right near a boat harbour and overlooks the Saltee Islands, which are privately owned but unoccupied islands that are bird sanctuaries. The fish & chips (and mushy peas) were delicious as was the strawberries and ice cream.

Dublin day 2

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel (which had a pretty fancy spread, although the food was so-so), we walked back to Trinity College to tour the Book of Kells and the library. It happened to be graduation day, so we saw clusters of young people in robes and caps. We were lucky to have got the tip about the tickets, because we breezed right in. Even with tickets the place was packed. The first room has a lot of displays about the book, illuminated manuscripts and some of the meaning behind the images. Finally, we are let into a darkened room with a case in the middle that held two books. The larger one was clearer and looked better preserved and was easier to see. The Book of Kells is tiny and quite faded. Several people tried pressing their noses into the glass and lingered to get a longer look, making them particularly annoying. The idea was that we would all slowly circle the case (like Emperor penguins in Antarctica) allowing everyone to eventually get a look at both books and those people were mucking up the works!

While the books were indeed impressive and beautiful, the next stop in the tour was the highlight-the famous library! You could hear audible gasps as we filed into the room. This was possibly the most beautiful room I've ever been in. It's a long narrow room with a vaulted wood ceiling, both sides lined double height with bookshelves. At then end of each shelf was a bust of a famous philosopher or writer. Near the other end of the room was an Irish harp in a glass case, apparently the oldest in existence.

We discussed getting back on the hop-on, hop-off bus which then made me regret not getting the two day ticket yesterday. Luckily, the bus we caught had the same driver that I had yesterday and the guide let me on for free! As we went around the tour (again for me), we planned to get off at the National Gallery, since it had only just been re-opened after years of renovation. Stephen walked to find lunch while Mei and I and the kids headed for the Gallery planning to grab a bite. We hit some bad luck because the cafe had closed early to set up for a reception prior to the opening tomorrow of a Vermeer exhibit. So, we checked in with Stephen and met him at the cafe he was at, in a hotel off St Stephen's Green. I had a tomato soup and sandwich. They don't automatically put mayonnaise on their sandwiches (yay!) and instead use butter (double yay!!).

After our meal, Stephen and the kids headed to the playground at the park while Mei and I went back to the Gallery to check it out. The layout is quite interesting, with many of the rooms painted in strong dark colours, and one room with chandeliers and a grand piano, looking more like a ballroom (which it may have been in an earlier life).

On our way back to the hotel, we ran into some people celebrating Blooms Day! This was another of our serendipitous occasions, as we happened to be in Dublin on June 16th. People were dressed in Victorian outfits and straw boater hats making their way around the spots that were depicted in James Joyce's book Ulysses, following the story of Leopold Bloom. Although I've never read Joyce (and have no intention of doing so in the future), it was fun to see these walking anachronisms. We took a picture of a particularly adorable and well dressed older couple.

By the time we got back, we had to check out of the hotel, grab a cab to the airport to rent a car to drive to Stephen's dad, Michael's place (or Ye Ye as the kids call him). On the way, we stopped at Jack White's for dinner. I ordered a lasagna which came completely drenched in cheese (and not mozzarella either), and a side of 'chips' or french fries.

By the time we arrived at Michael's house, it was 9:30, however it was still light out. Michael's house is small but cozy. He added on a large kitchen, indoor bathroom and a solarium after he moved back to Ireland. Mei, Neve and I shared the small second bedroom while Stephen and Mason bunked in the solarium.

Dublin day 1

My trip to Ireland and the UK started with an early morning flight to Dublin, stopping in Newark for 4 hours, and eventually landing at about 7a. The flights all went smoothly and my long layover in Newark was made more bearable by having a day pass to the United Club.

When I arrived in Dublin, it was quite chilly, colder than a typical LA winter day, but the sky was clear. I figured out the bus to the city, got off on O'Connell St as suggested, and made my way to the Morrison Doubletree in Dublin to check in and have them hold my luggage. The desk clerk suggested a hop-on, hop-off bus and the Teelings Distillery, which is the only working distillery left in Dublin. Since Mei and the family wouldn't get in for a few hours, I figured it would be a good way to kill time and try to stay awake. The distillery ended up being quite interesting and the flavour of the single malt had caramel and oak. You could choose to get the basic single malt plus cocktail, or a tasting with three types of whiskeys. They explained how to taste the whiskey (swirl, smell with your mouth open). Now slightly boozed up, I got back on the bus to make my way around Dublin and get the lay of the land. By the time I got back around to where the hotel was, it was lunch time and there would still be another couple of hours until Mei and gang arrived, so I popped into a restaurant that had a sandwich board advertising a prix fixe lunch. The place, called Winding Stair, indeed had a very narrow stair taking you above a bookstore. The dining room was airy and bright and the food was quite delicious. 

By the time I finished lunch and got back to the hotel, I had only a short rest in the lobby before the family showed up. After making arrangements with the hotel to get our rooms (and the famous Doubletree cookies) we took a stroll to Grafton St and Trinity College. While at the College, we went to check out the Book of Kells, but discovered that they were closing for the day but the door attendant suggested we buy tickets for tomorrow since the line gets really long. That was the first of many serendipitous turns for us on this trip. 

From the College, we walked over to St Stephen's Green to enjoy the lawns, trees and pond. Stephen and Neve had to go back to the hotel. Mei and I found a playground in the park and Mason spent some time there before we started walking back to the hotel, which was not far. Unfortunately, we got lost. The map we had didn't show the same street names as the signs on the buildings, plus Mei and I have terrible sense of direction. We had a very long but scenic stroll past some of the famous Georgian streets with their colourful doors. Some how we finally saw the river Liffey, headed for it, and made our way back. After a short rest at the hotel, Mei me and the kids headed to Temple Bar for dinner. We stopped at a sweets shop for the kids to get a couple of small sacks of candy. The area was definitely hopping! We tried to find an Irish food establishment but without reservations, the waits were too long. We ended up at a ramen place, Eatokyo, for a very satisfying dinner. I slept well that night!