My Mom's Visit to London

My mom arrived on Wednesday, April 20, 2008 and was here until Wednesday, May 6, 2008. I was very happy to have her here and we had a great time.

We didn't do anything on the day she arrived, since Greg and I both still had to work. Thursday, May 1, 2008, was our first day out. We began the day at Harrod's for a bit of shopping. Once we were done shopping we went across the street for some conveyor belt sushi and then took a bus to Hyde Park Corner and proceeded to walk all the way through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. We walked for a couple of hours and took in a lot of the hot spots, like Diana's Memorial fountain, the Prince Albert Memorial, The Serpentine River, The pond, and lots of trees and flowers. We met Greg at Whole Foods, since he was still working, before heading to Kensington Palace Orangery for some afternoon Tea. Tea was excellent, but we were wiped, so we just decided to call it a day and headed back home.

Mom at Harrod's:


Mom at Diana's Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park:


The Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park:


The Orangery centerpiece:


Friday, Greg and I had to work again, but we went out for breakfast at our French Patisserie before beginning work. Saturday was much more active. We first went to Portobello Market for some antiques and then headed to Borough Market for some food. We bought an eclectic mix of food and had a picnic outside of the Cathedral. We ate way too much food and walked over to Bramah Tea & Coffee Museum. It was rather small, but very interesting. We got to learn a lot about the different teas from around the world, including Brick tea, which was designed because it was for the horses to carry during travels, as opposed to bag teas. They also had a very wide collection of tea pots and old coffee makers.

Brick Tea at Bramah Tea & Coffee Museum:


Greg at the old coffee machines:


When we were done at the Tea & Coffee museum we were going to go across the street to the Chocolate Museum, but it is just named that, it is actually an art gallery, so we did not end up going. Instead we went to Fulham Broadway to Warr's Harley-Davidson and another bike shop. We wandered around Fulham, which is very nice and rich, and went into a Pet Store before heading to Piccadilly Circus and having dinner at La Tasca at Leicester Square. Then it was back home for some sleep.

Sunday we got up for a day of marketing in Camden. We began with a walk up Primrose Hill for the spectacular view of London. We then walked back down to Camden and had Sunday Roast at the Lock Tavern, where our neighbor Jennifer works. Once we got done eating we hit the Markets. We had a blast going through all of the vendors and seeing all of the people. We had been walking around the market for several hours and decided to go to Marine Ices for some Ice Cream. It was beautiful weather but I was getting a sore back and it was quite warm after walking that long, so ice cream sounded great. At 6 we hit Fifty-Five, the bar that has 2-for-1 happy hour for some mojitos and margaritas. We ended up grabbing some sushi from Bento for dinner and just heading home to relax and unwind.

Me & Mom at Primrose Hill:


One of the very unique walls at Camden Market:


Monday was another extremely busy day, this is the day that I figured my mom would be ready to go home due to us wearing her out. We went to Waterloo Train station to go to Hampton Court Palace, but took a detour first. We had gone by Waterloo earlier during our journey and saw a humongous line outside. We had done some research and found out that the Cans Festival (stencil graffitti art) was going on. Banksy is a very popular graffitti/stencil artist, he even has a work in Camden that we go by, and so we decided to peek in since it was FREE. We stood in line for nearly 30 minutes before getting into the very long tunnel that was just lined and covered in art. We walked thorugh for about 30 minutes and took as much in as we could. You could even do some spray painting with the stencils yourself but we decided not to do that, it was too busy and we were hungry.

Here are a collection of our favorite artworks at the Cans Festival:

This is artwork, not a wall and stairwell.....





This is Banksy....

This is also Banksy....

Perfect?????


When we got done seeing the graffitti we grabbed a bagel before getting on the train to Hampton Court Palace. Greg and I had never been and we were excited to see it. The Palace was great, it was like a mini-Versailles. I really did enjoy it, more than Kensington but not nearly as much as Versailles. However, it was absolutely beautiful there and the weather could not have been better. We walked around the rooms for a bit and then decided to take a break from the inside and go visit the outside. We walked around several of the gardens, including the largest grape vine ever. We walked through the mushroom shaped trees and to the long lake, where we decided to take a short horse-drawn carriage ride around the acreage of deer park at the Palace. We also walked through the maze. We then decided to go back inside, have a bite to eat and finish the rooms inside before getting the train back to London.

Hampton Court Palace:


Me & Mom at the gardens of Hampton Court:


The three of us in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace:


The three of us on our horse-carriage ride:


When we arrived in London we went to Covent Garden and had dinner at Wahaca, it was after all Cinco de Mayo, and we had to celebrate with chips & salsa and a margarita. We then took a stroll through Chinatown and into some chinese super markets for some purchases.

Mom in Chinatown:


Tuesday was a day around London. We took a train ride out to Metropolis motorcycles, which ended up being a bust, much smaller than we had expected it to be. But, no big deal, we took the train back into town and went to the Cartoon Museum. We were expecting more like comics, but it was comic strips instead, more political ones than anything, but we still enjoyed it.

Mom enjoying some strips at the Cartoon Museum:


We walked back to Covent Garden for lunch at Wagamama's before heading off for some mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. We went to Baker Street and then to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, which was kind of gimmicky but still cute. It would have been much less annoying if we hadn't arrived with about 60 students. We went through all of the rooms, taking in all of Sherlock and Dr. Watson's collections and belongings before catching a bus to Abbey Road. And yes, we walked the infamous Zebra Stripes. While trying to dart in between traffic we did get a couple of okay pictures, then we wrote on the wall, we will see if our names are still there in September when we go back.

A wax model of one of the stories of Sherlock Holmes:


Sherlock Holmes forensic case:


Me & Mom at Abbey Road:


At this point we tried yet again another motorcycle shop, but still no luck for any souveneirs. We then went back to Camden Markets to purchase some things we had liked on Sunday. We sure were ready for some sitting time. We ended up eating at Harry's Pizzeria, which was excellent. Harry's was very close to where a ghost walk that we were going to take was starting, which is why we ate there.

The ghost walk was great. We got to see parts of London that we had never seen before and got to hear many great stories of ghosts around London. We even got to see a remaining steeple of a church that is now someone's personal 4 story apartment. We headed home afterwards and had to take my mom to the airport the next morning. It was a great trip, but flew by way too quickly.

Mom with our ghost tour guide, Richard:

PIctures of Dublin

Here are all of our pictures from Dublin
http://picasaweb.google.com/Greg.Ware/Dublin

I don't want to go to jail in Dublin.....

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Today was to be a more leisurely day than Saturday, but still very productive in our sight seeing. We started off by going to St. Patrick's Cathedral. I had read many impressive things about the Cathedral and was looking forward to taking a peek inside.

The exterior of St. Patrick's Cathedral:


The nave and memorials were all very impressive, but I still think Christ Church Cathedral was nicer. The best thing about St. Patrick's Cathedral was all of the old Irish Regiment flags and armour inside the Cathedral. There is one whole area filled with the military flags and helmets, swords, and more flags line the Choir.

Some of the many military flags of the Irish Regiment:


Looking down the choir and nave:


The choir with it's flags, helmets, and swords:


St. Patrick's Cathedral seemed to have become more touristy, as we found out close to the end of our visit when 3 tour buses of people arrived inside of the Cathedral. Oh well. At the end of walking around the Cathedral we were able to see the graves of Jonathan Swift and his inspiration, Stella. There were also many memorials to them as well inside the Cathedral.

The graves of Jonathan Swift & Stella:


Next, it was off to the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced jail), which is a very famous prison in Dublin, it even housed many of the Invincibles and Civil War prisoners. The old part of the gaol was built in 1789 and walking through the very old, dingy halls was a very surreal experience.

One of the original wings of the gaol built in 1789:


The door of Thomas Clarke, the last prisoner of Kilmainham Gaol:


The east wing was much more impressive, it was a Victorian style prison, with 3 levels of cells and much more open, so the guards could see all around them. It was also built with great acoustics so if any prisoner made a sound the guards could immediately hear it. The acoustics are so great that even U2 and Sinead O'Connor have recorded there. The move Michael Collins was also filmed there, since this is the prison that Michael Collins was actually kept at.

The east wing of Kilmainham Gaol:


Tami & Greg inside the East Wing of Kilmainham Gaol:


Greg inside one of the east wing cells:


The gaol closed in the 1920's and was left abandoned until some volunteers came in to restore it in the 1960's, at which point in the 70's it was opened up for tourists to visit. Towards the end of our visit we went outside to the stone breakers yard, where not only were stones broken but several were executed. Public hangings used to occur over the front doors of the gaol but it was finally deemed illegal to have public hangings so they were moved out to the grounds. Then firing squads also started taking place of the hangings for executions.

The window over the front door where public hangings took place (the white squares at the top of the window is where the hanging apparatus was attached):


We heard many amazing stories about people that stayed in the prison, and I was fascinated by them. One of the leaders of the 1916 rebellion, Joseph Plunkett, was able to get married to his long time girlfriend, Grace Gifford, the day before his execution. They only got to see each other for about 2 minutes after their marriage, then he was immediately taken outside and executed. She later became a prisoner herself in the east wing.

This plaque represents the execution spot of the leaders of the 1916 rebellion:


Grace Gifford (Mrs. Joseph Plunkett) drew this in her cell while imprisoned at Kilmainham:


Another story was about James Connolly, another leader of the 1916 rebellion. He was actually on his death bed when it was time for his execution. He was so sick that he was in the hospital, and not the gaol, so they brought him in an ambulance to the back yard, took him from his gurney and placed him in a chair to execute him, rather than letting him die of natural causes in the next few days. We listed to stories like this for hours.

The cross is where James Connolly's chair was for his execution:


We decided it was time for lunch, so we headed to Murray's Bar & Grill on O'Connell Street where Greg enjoyed Irish Stew with his Guinness and I had roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and way too many veggies for me. It was good but still didn't hold a candle to the food from the Guinness Storehouse. We walked down O'Connell Street to go to Clery's, where a great tea room is supposed to be, but it was closed. Oh well. We continued walking down Henry Street, known as the poor man's Grafton Street (ok, maybe more middle class than poor) towards the Millennium Bridge. We again walked through the Temple Bar area and down to the National Museum of Ireland.

We had read that they had a Viking Exhibit going on and it was free, so sounded like a great plan to us. We wanted to take a seat for a few minutes first so we had some tea in the cafe before starting on the exhibit itself. The Viking exhibit was great, but we wished there was more to it. We hadn't expected to see actual remains of vikings, so that took us a bit by surprised, but seeing the actual artifacts and jewelry and stuff was good. When we were done with the museum we decided to stop in at a pub we had seen on the way over, The Blarney Inn. They advertised that they had Beamish Red, and since this was Greg's nemesis from Cork, we thought we had to see if they actually had any. Low and behold, they did, so Greg finally got to taste his Beamish Red, and he enjoyed it.

Now it was time to enjoy the pubs of Temple Bar, since that is one thing that Dublin is famous for. Of course we started at The Temple Bar, the most famous of the pubs. We had some beer plus Greg had a whiskey while we listed to the live band playing. The place was packed and full of life and atmosphere, it was great.

The Temple Bar:


Greg outside the Temple Bar:


We also tried to go to another pub but they were playing very loud music and the group there was very obnoxious and moshing around, so we decided not to stay. We ended up going to Gallaghers for our dinner reservations a bit early. Gallaghers is known for their Irish boxty's and we were looking forward to having one. I had eaten a big lunch and wasn't real hungry so I was glad to see that they had a side of boxty pancakes rather than a full portion. Well, when I ordered the waiter informed me that during the dinner hours you have to order an actual dinner, you cannot just order off the side menu, I was absolutely shocked. Surprisingly, I started to cry, don't know why but it really caught me off guard. I didn't really want a full dinner and didn't feel like I should have to order something I was not going to eat, the waiter did not care, nor did any of the other staff, so we just left.

Tami outside of the Temple Bar area:


It actually turned out well, we went back to our room and enjoyed the cheese from Sheridan's that we had bought on Saturday. So, we ended up with a little picnic in our room to finish off a great trip to Dublin. Tomorrow was going to be another early start to head back to London for work, but it is always worth it.

NIce Day for a Guinness!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

It was another early start for us to our next destination, Dublin!!!! We had been to Cork a few weeks prior and were a little disappointed at how un-Irish it was, so we were hoping to get more Irish flavor in Dublin, and we in fact did.

Our journey began at 2:45 am as it does so many times, in order to get the early flights and cheap deals, no biggie, we were ready to go. When we got to Dublin we dropped off our luggage at The Ashling House and then immediately headed into town. We took a bus to the city to visit the information centre to pick up brochures on what we wanted to do. Our first top was breakfast....we were starved, we opted to sleep instead of eat the sandwich on the plane. We asked the security guard at the information centre and he pointed us to a cafe around the corner, Keoghs Cafe. We grabbed a bagel and eggs before heading on our way.

Molly Malone statue, known as the Tart with the Cart:


We first walked down Grafton Street, a very popular shopping street for locals and tourists, then down Dawson Street and stopping in at the Celtic Whiskey Shop and Hodges Figgis Bookstore (Ireland's equivalent of Borders). We continued our walk of Dublin by walking through the Temple Bar area and their Saturday food market. It was okay but not nearly as impressive as Borough Market.

A cute statue at Temple Bar:


We continued on our path with a walk around Dublin Castle. The castle is not like any other castle we have been to, it is just in the center of town and only the state rooms and undercroft are only open between 2 and 4:30 pm, so we only got to enjoy the exterior and the gardens.

The Bedford Tower of Dublin Castle:


Greg at the gardens of the Dublin Castle:


Tami at a guard stand of the chapel at Dublin Castle:


We walked around the corner to the Christ Church Cathedral. This Cathedral was amazing, the large nave was one of the most impressive that I have seen and they have a crypt that runs the entire length of the church, this was definitely the best part of the church. In the crypt there was a mummified cat and rat that were in an organ since the 1850's before being pulled over 125 years later. Another amazing thing in the cathedral was the heart of St. Lawrence O'Toole (Patron Saint of Dublin). His heart is enclosed in a gold heart shaped metal case that is inside of a cage. Also inside the cathedral is the tomb/monument of Strongbow, leader of the Anglo-Normals who captured Dublin in 1170.

Exterior of Christ Church Cathedral:


The heard of St. Lawrence O'Toole:


The crypt of Christ Church Cathedral:


The mummified cat & rat:


We then decided it was time for beer, so we headed to the Guinness Storehouse. This is a very large brewery with a self-guided tour over 6 or 7 floors. We walked around alot, but we had been to a lot of brewery tours so most of it was the same, but we really enjoyed the marketing part, seeing all of the old ads, bottles, and such.

Tami at the waterfall in the tour, showing they use very fresh water:


Greg....need I say more:


Tami taking a beer away from a seal:


When you do the tour you get a free pint of Guinness that you can enjoy at either the Sky Bar, one of the restaurants or at the "Pour your own Pint" stand. We went to the Sky Bar first and there were spectacular views but it was so crowded and we weren't able to get a seat so we decided we would rather pour our own pints.

Tami pouring her pint:


Greg topping off his pint of Guinness:


We did this and took our beers over to the Brewery Bar for lunch, yummy! This was the best food we had the entire trip we were in Dublin, I do have to say. While my lunch was simple it was exactly what I was in the mood for. I had a Irish brie & tomato wrap with the most amazing tomato soup I have had in a restaurant. Greg on the other hand went a little more Irish and had Guinness Beef stew, I even have to say that it was great, the beef was so tender and had the best flavor.

After lunch we took a bus back towards Grafton Street and went to Sheridan's Cheesemongers, we had read about them and really wanted to go. We ended up buying some Coolea cheese, then heading over to Marks & Spencers grocery store to get some crackers and wine to go with our cheese for later. After the store we actually decided we needed to go take a nap, we were absolutely wiped from the early morning and miles of walking we had already done.

After we were rested we took a bus back to the Temple Bar area for some food. We did not find anything to eat around Temple Bar, as most places were already packed and booked for the evening, but we did get to see the Millennium Bridge. We ended up going to Bewley's Tea House, which is another place that we had read about in some books. We had planned on going there for afternoon tea, since that is what they are known for, but didn't think we would have time to so we decided just to have dinner there. We ended up getting a pizza and a very delicious Strawberry Cheesecake.

yummy cheesecake


Now it was time for a drink, we went to Porterhouse for this. Greg had a Porterhouse that was very bitter while I enjoyed a Fruli. It was very noisy and very crowded so we didn't stay too long before heading back to the Ashling House for the evening.