Dublin for a Day and The Journey's End

Well, we have been home for almost a week and I am almost over jet lag, so that's good!

But before I get to deep into the groove of normal life I need to write down our last day of adventuring.
We arrived in Dublin around 8am and caught the first bus to the city center. We only had one thing on our "to do" list, which was Trinity College. In hind sight I regret not having a set plan for more things, but more on that later.
We took the tour of the old part of campus, which was led by one of the students. Our guide was great, giving us lots of fun and interesting history about the school. The campus is really lovely, I could happily loiter around there all day.

Our tour ended at the line for the Book of Kells exhibit, which was quite convenient. The exhibit was really neat, it lead you through the history and techniques that went into the book. In the final room you are able to view two pages each from two of the four books. I really can't imagine the care and man hours that went into this amazing book, which is really a piece of ancient art. (this is not my picture because pictures aren't allowed, but just so you get what I am talking about...)

After the Book of Kells exhibit you enter the old library- or in other words, my favorite room on the planet.

It is the largest one room library, with more than 200,000 books in one long hall.

The books are organized not by subject or author, but by size, which I am sure makes finding the book you want super duper easy, haha.

This room is just awesome, floor to ceiling books, some dating back to the 1400's, and it smells like old books- what could be better than that?!

The library also houses one of the oldest Brian Boru's Harps in Ireland.

I wanted to set up a tent in the middle and live in the library, but apparently they frown on that. Oh well, at least I have pictures!

After the library we went out and were able to catch a game of cricket going on. We still don't understand it, but it was fun to watch :)

As we left the college we headed out and started wondering the city. This is where I regret not having more of a plan- after 3 weeks of traveling and knowing we were going home the next day, we had mentally checked out a little bit. Not to say we didn't have a great time, we did! But I think we could have gotten more out of our time if we had planned more- or maybe I just like having a plan, lol.
Dublin was fun and vibrant and different than the other cities we had been to.

Proof that I drive the best car ever, they even have them in Ireland!

 We ate dinner at a great little pub called the Celt. What fun! It was incredibly loud, jam packed with people from ages 20 to 80+ , and bursting at the seams with activity. We loved it. (PS I stole this pic off the internet too...)

After eating we caught a bus back to our hotel and called it a night, it wasn't that late but we were SO dead tiered. Traveling is hard work, ha ha.
The next morning we walked to the airport, I got stopped at US pre-clearance ( not sure why, guess I look suspicious) and we got on our plane for the States. We payed to much money for food in San Fansisco and after arriving in Salt Lake, we drove home to Idaho slightly delirious. We worked it out that we were awake something like 29 hours that day.

And that was it! It felt strange to be home in a way, seeing how everything here was just the same as we had left it, yet it felt like we had changed so much. My amazing parents had driven up with our kids the same day we flew home, so they were already there when we got in. I was SO happy to see them again! I loved everything about our trip, but I don't think I ever want to be away from my kids that long again.

I am so glad we took this trip, this adventure. It was something I had dreamed of doing since I was a young teen, and actually going was incredible. Right before we left I had this fear that I had built it up to much in my head, that when we got there I wouldn't be as in love with it as I had imagined, that it wouldn't be as great as I thought- but my worries were in vain, It was better than I could have ever hoped for.
So here are my parting words of advise (because I am so wise now, ha ha)-
Go places- it doesn't have to be far, just go somewhere new, see something you want to see, enjoy this great planet we live on.
Try things- there are a lot of things I thought I didn't like or that would stress me out, and that I ended up really enjoying. You never know till you try.
Meet People- The places and things we saw were incredible, but it was the people along the way that made our trip vibrant and memorable. The more you learn about other people, the more you learn about yourself (wow, that was deep right?)
Don't loose it when things go South- Not everything went perfect on this trip. We got lost, we got hungry, we got confused and stressed. But who cares? Those things were hard at the time, but we made it through just fine and dandy, and we all know that when things go wrong, it makes a great story later :)
Soak it up- We did a few things wrong on this trip, but I feel like we got one thing really right; we gave ourselves time. Frankly, there is no way to see it all. You can't. we could have spent 3 weeks in London alone and not seen half of it. So find the things that are really important to you and then give yourself plenty of time to enjoy them. There is no point in running from place to place with a selfie stick if you don't remember those places when you get home.
Spend your money on experiences, not stuff- We only brought one small carry-on sized bag each- I could write a whole post on how much I recommend this, but I won't. That being said, small bags don't leave much room for souvenirs, bummer? Not really. We each got a small item or two to take home, but for the most part our souvenirs are our memories.

And we have  A Lot of great memories.

Well my friends, that is the end! That was our big adventure. It was everything I hoped it would be and  SO SO much more.

  Now, I hope to see blogs from all of you in the future so I can read about all the places you go! Go have an adventure, it'll be grand! 

Scotland Forever

Every once in a while in life, you have a perfect day. Everything goes your way, the sun shines, the birds sing, your heart is light- Friday was one of those days.

It was the perfect last day in Scotland. I am still on cloud nine about it.
So, we started the day by hopping on the bus and heading for Prince's Street. The National Gallery is free to enter ( so is the one in London), and absolutely wonderful. We really took our time and savored the gallery, that being said, there is no way to really see every painting.

I am not a huge art person, I like art, but until today I can't say I had a great appreciation for it. We were able to see works by Rembrandt, Monet, Van Dyke, Rafael, Van Gogh and so many more. It was overwhelming but so enlightening.

After our time at the gallery we had a little snack in the park, did some people watching and waited for the One O'clock gun from the castle. Then it was off to Arthur's Seat.
The Palace of Holyrood sits right at the base of Arthur's Seat and we were passing we noticed that there were buses of military men in kilts obviously getting ready for... something. My official Scotland Kilt Count had been at 55 but I completely lost count with all these guys! We were excited and hoped that we would get done with our hike before they finished what they were doing.

The hike was a little more intense than I had maybe estimated, but the Views were stunning. Scotland is a seriously beautiful country.

Making it up to the tip top was a challenge, I was huffing and puffing, but it was so worth it for two reasons-#1 We climbed to the top of Arthur's seat! Talk about bucket list achievement! #2 after all the stair climbing, walking and hiking I have done on this trip, my bum should be looking fantastic, ha ha.

So this is where the day really started being magical. We were standing on top of Arthur's Seat, about to come down, when we hear the pipers playing down at the palace. It was such a great moment, hearing the music, looking over city. Just perfect.

We made our way down the mountain, enjoying the natural high that comes from nature and exercise. When we got close to the palace we could hear music playing again and decided to check it out. It turns out that Friday the Lord Chancellor was arriving at the palace so the occasion was marked by performance of the military bands... and we got to be there, right in front! I absolutely love bagpipe music, it is so powerful and hearing it like that nearly had me in tears.

We walked up the Royal Mile feeling like we had just won the lottery and a life time supply of Jammy Doughnuts. We did a little shopping and soaked up the fun going on around us.

It was about dinner time so we walked around for a bit looking for something appetizing, and that came in the form of a serve yourself shusi bar. I know, eating sushi in Scotland sounds a bit odd, but we Love sushi and this was one of those places where the conveyor belt take the little dishes right past your table and then you pick the ones you want- in other words, the laziest buffet ever :) It was yummy and way fun and we also had a great view of the city which was the cherry on top of a perfect day.

Of all the cities I have been to, in the US and UK, Edinburgh is my favorite.

Edinburgh Castle

Thursday we started our day by taking Nigel (our rental car) back. That sounds really simple but our travel agent (aka- Me) mistakenly thought it would be a good idea to arrange the car drop off point to be at Waverly Station- which means that I forced my husband to drive the car right in the very heart of Edinburgh, to a drop of location we couldn't seem to find...Oops. Brynt is pretty much super man, he kept his cool and after circling around three or four times, and just about giving up, we found the tiniest sign that directed us to the basically hidden underground entrance to the parking garage. Thank Goodness!
  We had devoted basically the whole day to seeing Edinbugh Castle, which was a good idea because we spent almost the whole day there. This castle, unlike some of the others we have seen, is not just one large structure, it is a military fortress set atop a huge hill.

The castle is more of a small city, there are lots of buildings, intertwined, jumbled up, high and low... its amazing!

We were able to take a brief tour right when we got their which gave us a great overview of what some of the main structures and what each of their history was.
The oldest structure is the Chapel of St. Margaret. It was finished in 1130 by Queen Margaret's son in honor of his mother who had been killed. Her husband was Malcom II who is the one that killed Macbeth. Anyway, back to the chapel. It is tiny compared to the rest of the buildings, and really not very special looking from the outside but the inside is a really extraordinary little chapel, and it was incredible to sit in something nearly 900 years old that is still in use today (in fact, there was a christening happening the day we were there).

The Palace is where the Honours of Scotland (Crown Jewels) and the Stone of Destiny are housed. You can't take pictures of the jewels, but they were amazing.

One of the most powerful buildings we entered was the Scottish National War Memorial. This building was established after WWI and honors all the Scottish men and women in all military branches who have been killed in war since that time. We walked around looking at the stained glass, the words engraved in stone and the the gravity of the many books lining the walls that were filled with names. Brynt made an interesting point as we left, there were people lined up and crunched together to see the crown jewels but only a few in the war memorial, sometimes its sad to see what we value most.

After the war memorial it was almost 1 O'clock so we waited for the the 1 O'clock cannon  to go off. The Scots are know for their frugality and thrift- I have heard things like, " A Scotsman has deep pockets and short arms" and all throughout our trip we were told stories and saw examples of this. Their is a joke that is applies to the  one O'clock gun as well, Why one and not twelve? Well, firing one is cheaper :) The truth of it was that the gun is fired at one to alert ships in the harbor of the exact time. This is no longer needed, but the tradition still goes on.

We then made our way to the Great Hall. This building is amazing, though only the roof is completely original, it was the 1400s (might be 1500s), in Victorian times the walls and windows were redecorated. They are fantastic though, and the roof is amazing.

While there were able to see a presentation done on Queen Margaret, super fun and educational.

Ok, I am realizing that if I keep going on like this, this post will be incredibly long. By this point in our day at the castle we were realizing (as we had many times on this trip) that learning history is like trying to drink from a fire hose... or Niagara Falls. There is so much, and it literally makes your brain hurt.
We also visited the original Tower,

The prisoner of war prison,

Three exhibits of different branches of the military and their history as well as the National War Museum (and yes, all of these things are housed within the Castle).

After leaving the castle we decided to walk down the Royal Mile down to the Palace of Holyrood.

Though the all the shops along the mile are very touristy, the buildings and atmosphere are fantastic. The buildings in Edinburgh are old and interesting, and there is a relaxed fun about the city that I really loved.

We were having so much fun walking that we decide to just walk all the way back to our B&B, this was 6 miles away but we talked and hardly noticed the distance. it did start raining on us for the last mile, but honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. We did pick up one more bag of Jammy Doughnuts on the way home, I will treasures that flavor forever :)