Blarney and Dublin

The next day of our cruise we went to the Blarney Castle. We docked in Cork, and took a bus to the castle. Of course, I'd heard of people kissing the Blarney stone before, and since we were there it seemed like the thing to do.

It turns out that this Blarney stone is at the top of a dilapidated castle, right at the edge, over a hole. To kiss this stone, you have to lean over backwards, at the top of a castle, over a hole. The stone is at the bottom, too, so you have to lean backwards, hold onto a rail, and lower yourself as far backwards as you can and kiss the wall.

There was a long line, and The Boy grew increasingly more anxious the higher we climbed. Neither one of us like heights, but he has me beat in the anxiety department. When we got to the top he wanted to go back, but since we'd climbed an ancient, small, and winding stairway that was full of people, there was no going back.

So we all kissed the stone and hopefully now are more eloquent and persuasive.

That day we watched the beginning of Bolt (so cute!), Enchanted, and Yes Man.






Day 4 was Dublin. By this time I'd devised the perfect breakfast, and I had it the rest of the trip. Their scrambled eggs tasted a little sweet, and I didn't like the omelets either. But every morning they served eggs over easy, so I'd go in and put some bread in the toaster, then get an egg and a piece of ham. When my toast was done, I'd assemble an egg sandwich and it was delicious. Sometimes I had the fresh pineapple too, as that is a treat.

They served some strange things for breakfast on the ship, probably catering to the many different nationalities on board. Some of the odder things were fried hard boiled eggs, fried rice, miso soup, fried liver, and cooked tomatoes.

I also made sandwiches for times we'd be away from the ship around lunchtime. I'd take a hard roll, cut in in half, spread it with butter, and insert a piece of ham. Yum!

Anyway, Dublin was MUCH bigger than I expected. I don't know why I expected it to be little, but it's a major city. We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It was really interesting. In the Long Hall upstairs they had an exhibit about Napoleon, which I also found very interesting.

We walked around the Temple Bar, which is a cool part of town. We went to the big park in town, an it was lovely and full of people. When we stopped to see the ducks in the pond, The Boy spotted a fox across the pond, sitting on a rock! When we were pointing it out to each other, a lady nearby said she lives in the area, and goes to that park every day, and she'd never seen that fox before!

When we went back to the ship, we grabbed a piece of pizza for my snack. One of our favorite things about the ship was the hamburger bar and the pizza station, which were open nearly all day on deck. We really missed them when we got back home.

That night we watched Hotel for Dogs.

Captivated!

That book turned out to be really good! I was taken captive for awhile, but it was worth it. Now I'm back to reality and will post more about my trip soon. I practically promise!

Guernsey

The first stop of our cruise was in Guernsey. I learned that there are islands in the English Channel, called Channel Islands! I was surprised to learn this, as there are islands off the coast of Ventura, California, that are also called the Channel Islands. Makes a bit more sense in the English Channel I suppose.

I was also surprised to see on a map that Guernsey is much closer to France than England - we could faintly see Normandy in the distance. But it was a political reason that they ended up belonging to England.

My In-laws had decided to rent bikes, so we ventured onto the island and searched for the bike shop. I was impressed with the island - it looked like Catalina's harbor, but with a lot of nice flowers. Clearly they take pride in their flowers!

It had been a long time since I'd ridden a bike, but I managed to avoid falling down! The Girl and my MIL both managed to fall into traffic (right next to the bike path!), and luckily I was not there to see either. I said a prayer for the Girl as she rode off without me.

K and I decided to ride over to the Castle Cornet, an old castle on the island. It was fun riding the bike there, as there was less traffic and it was much faster than walking.

We walked around the castle and got a really good view of the canon they fire every day at 1pm. Even tho I knew they were going to fire it, it still surprised me when it went off. I kindof screamed and took a less-than-perfect picture.

It was interesting to find that England abandoned these islands during WW2, as they were too close to France and too hard to defend. That must have been an interesting time to live there.

When it came time to ride back to the bike shop, I followed K into traffic and said a silent prayer for the best. We ran a red light in a busy intersection, and everyone was driving the wrong way, but I just followed him and we made it back without incident. Whew!

That afternoon and evening we watched BOLT, DEFINITELY MAYBE, ENCHANTED, and BRIDE WARS. For dinner I had ceasar salad, black bean soup, and tiger shrimp kabob.

I just bought a book about Guernsey that takes place during the German occupation, and I'm looking forward to reading it! It's called THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Schaffer. I'll let you know if I like it...

Family Cruise

Day 1 - Traveling and Waiting

K's parents decided to take the whole family (12 people) on a cruise to the English Isles to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They've been planning it for a long, long time. I was packed at least a month in advance, but I was still rushing around at the last minute until we left. There's always so much you want to get done before leaving for vacation.

Anyway, one of The Boy's friends drove us to the airport, in our own van, and that worked out nicely for us. At the airport it turned out my bag was 8 lbs overweight, so they asked me to put some of my stuff into another bag. Somehow in the midst of transferring things, my suitcase managed to get poured out onto the floor, but we were able to quickly scoop it all back in and nothing too embarrassing fell out. Whew!

The flight was fine. We'd stayed up late the night before, hoping it would help us fall asleep on the flight, but all it did to me was give me a headache! I didn't sleep much on the way there, which was only about a 10-hour flight. I saw some good movies - He's Just Not That Into You, Bride Wars (never quite saw the whole thing), New in Town, and The Reader. I think I missed something crucial in The Reader, tho, as I didn't quite understand the end.

Ten hours later we landed in London, where it was 7am! Going through customs, I was advised to put two perfectly good packages of beef jerkey into the "Honesty Bin" = which looked an awful lot like a trash can. So much for honesty!

I bought some coffee at the airport, and some wine for the cruise, as we were allowed to take a bottle each (adult). Then we were shuttled to a bus, then driven to the port about an hour away, then into a large waiting room for over an hour. Somewhere around 1 I think they let us onto the ship, and we made our way to our room.

I was pleasantly surprised to find our room and bathroom a bit bigger than the last (and only other) little cruise we took. We got settled and then set out to explore - getting some fries from the hamburger station on deck, and eating them beside the pool. Ah... heaven! We saw K's sister and BIL, KT and David, come out of the buffet, and we got to visit for awhile.

I told everyone to try and stay awake until our new bedtime, but the Boy went ahead and took a nap that afternoon. I think this threw him off for the rest of the trip, as he kept waking up at 5 in the morning after that.