Weekend in Ireland: Dublin & Cashel

This last week we spent a long weekend in Ireland, getting a very quick introduction to the country. We arrived Friday night and spent our first full day exploring Dublin. We visited Trinity College to look around and see the library and the Book of Kells. This is just how a library ought to look.

The rest of our day we spent shopping, wandering and eating. Dublin is a manageable size for exploring on foot with lots of shopping, restaurants and cute streets.

After a late start, our second day we picked up a rental car and headed east to Killarney. On our way, we stopped by Cashel to see the castle there. Unfortunately, half the castle was covered in scaffolding, limiting our pictures. We were still able to enjoy the stunning panoramic views across the countryside and nice walking.

Kings, Lords & Courts

In late August we headed south for some quick stops before going to our vacation in the Lake District. Dad picked out our first stop: Runnymede.

Do you have any idea of why Runnymede is famous? That's one of the nice things about having visitors is they tell you about places you would have never discovered on your own. It's the place of the signing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215. I'm no historian, but my understanding is that the Magna Carta is considered one of the foundations of democracy and a model for constitutions all over the world. I don't think King John had any interest in furthering the cause of democracy. He was just forced into it by his rebellious barons.

I love moments like this on vacation - signs that your kids really do love spending time together.

Enough of educational moments! Next it was time to visit Highclere Castle, film location for Downton Abbey. 

No pictures are allowed in the house, so I had to settle with taking some shots of the outside. 

This is our Lord and Lady of the Manor shot. It might have been more effective without the zip-up hoodie, Husky cap and high street jacket.

The grounds and gardens at Highclere are just exceptional. I think I just might say that about everyplace we visit. This time though, these grounds really are at the top of my list. Beautifully designed gardens, rolling hills, striking old trees - just perfect.

We have this recurring theme of taking vacations with my parents and spending a lot of time being really, really cold. This was late August for heaven's sake, but boy was it a nice day for a hot chocolate. 

The next day it was time to head up to the Lake District. On the way, Camille had picked out our next tourist stop: Lancaster Castle, home of famous Pendle witch trials.

We had one of our best tours yet at this castle. The guide was so knowledgable and interesting to listen to. Besides extensive knowledge of the royalty and nobility of England, he had a spooky ghost story, dramatic tales of the witch trials, interesting details of the courts held at the castle and much more.

We had a busy two days of tourist sites and lots and lots of driving. By the end of our time at Lancaster Castle, we were all ready for some famous fish and chips and to settle into our country place in the Lake District. 

Hampton Court Palace

Do you have an incorrigible flaw? One of mine is that I tend to be very confident I know the way, no matter how many times in the past I've gotten lost. This came into play on our outing to Hampton Court, which is south of London. The GPS on my phone was having problems, but I assured everyone I knew the way to the M25 and it would surely be easy from there. Ha! I got us lost in the suburbs of London and ensnared in horrible traffic, turning a 2 hour trip into a 4 hour trip. At one point we arrived at Ham House. I started making the case that Ham House was surely as nice. In the end though, we decided we couldn't give up, persevered and finally made it to our destination: Hampton Court Palace (which is never, apparently, abbreviated on signs as Ham House).

HCP has an interesting history. It was built as a bishop's palace for Cardinal Wolsey in the Tudor times. He was a favorite of King Henry VIII, until he wasn't able to procure a church-sanctioned divorce for the king. As a last ditch effort to save himself, he gifted HCP to Henry VIII.  It wasn't enough though - he was tried for treason anyway.

Later in the palace's history, King William III desired a palace to rival Versailles. He started remodeling, but ran out of money to finish the project. So half the palace is in the Tudor style, previously shown, and the other half is in this Baroque style. 

Apparently, Henry VIII traveled to HCP by punting down the Thames. By which I mean, he sat back in the boat while someone punted for him. This garden leads from the Thames to the palace. 

Just another view of the extensive gardens at Hampton Court. I hadn't realized there is a famous maze in the gardens, otherwise I would have liked to have visited that as well. 

There are interesting displays inside the palace of Henry VIII's reign. My other favorite part of the castle was the large banquet room used for feasts in Henry VIII's time. It's easy to imagine it populated with the Tudor court. Unfortunately, we didn't get any good photos of the inside of the castle.

Camille and this fellow have been influenced by the intrigues of the court and have become quite suspicious of each other.

So our day out at Hampton Court Palace turned out nice, despite the arduous journey to get there.

Tintagel and Boscastle

Mike and Anya had decided we should spent one of our vacation days at Tintagel Castle - Mike, because it's the mythical birthplace of King Arthur, and Anya, because it's on her English Heritage Monopoly board. As we made the long and traffic-filled drive over, passing many tourist opportunities along the way, I grumpily wondered if it was worth the effort. I was already feeling better when we hit the very cute town of Tintagel and found a nice outdoor table for some scones and cake.

Then when I saw the view at the castle site, who could possibly complain?

If you go to Tintagel looking for an impressive castle, you'd be bound to be disappointed. The castle is now just a few rocks with a spare wall here and there. However, if you go to Tintagel as a place to admire the Cornwall coast and as a romantic spot to imagine the birthplace of King Arthur, you couldn't do better.

Everywhere you look and turn is another impressive view.

The view of the town of Tintagel from the castle.

One of the few remaining doorways of the castle.

The area is quite steep, with lots of stairs to climb. But the view payoff is worth it.

We enjoyed seeing this little group relaxing in the afternoon sunshine on our way back to the car.

Within a few miles of Tintagel is the fishing village of Boscastle, which we also stopped by.

The town is situated on a little inlet from the ocean, with paths that take you out to the ocean and all along the coastline. 

View from the cliffs back to the town of Boscastle.

Our very brief tour of Cornwall has definitely made us wish for more. Maybe someday we'll go back and spend a nice long time so we can really explore.

The North

The last part of our vacation we stayed in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is right on the border between Northumberland and Scotland. 

Just to the south of Berwick is Holy Island. You can drive onto the island at low tide. There's signs everywhere to check the tide tables, because at high tide the road disappears. It's a lovely place, and quiet despite the tourists, partly due to a no outsider cars on the island rule (there's a parking lot for tourists right as you enter the island).

There's a rather small castle on the island that was converted into a vacation home in the early 1900s that I mentioned in an earlier post. It's the most cosy castle we've seen, full of smallish rooms decorated in an arts and craft style. But it's the seaside location surrounded by beaches and grazing sheep that really makes it special. Holy Island also has abbey ruins you can visit and a few shops and restaurants.

One day we took an hour train ride up to Edinburgh for the day. At the time, my girls claimed it was their favorite European city. They loved the Scottish accent, the bagpipe players, and the kilts - both the ones people wore for show and the ones men wore for everyday wear.

Have I mentioned lately that we're Harry Potter fans? JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter books in cafes around Edinburgh. We visited one, the Elephant House. 

The kids were pretty good about walking around Edinburgh, except that it's a steep walk from the train station to the main part of town. Luckily, Anya's got her dad wrapped around her finger.

Edinburgh Castle

There's a beautiful park below Edinburgh Castle called Castle Street Gardens where we had a nice picnic, did some walking and tried out the zip line in the children's park (well, Anya did anyway). 

We spent some time window shopping and getting a little culture, courtesy of Sir Walter Scott. 

As we were only in Edinburgh for little more than half a day, I'm sure we missed out on many must-see sights and things to do. We enjoyed our wanderings around the streets of Edinburgh, even with our limited time.

Our last day of vacation we decided we couldn't resist driving up to stand on the border between England and Scotland and also seeing a little bit more of the Scotland coast we'd admired from the train the day before.

We drove to the town of Eyemouth, which is just a few miles over the border. It's not on any must-see sites of Scotland list, but look how pretty! If this randomly picked spot, chosen for convenience is a representative sample, I can see how devoting time to a Scotland trip would be worth your while.

And that concluded our northern tour. It's a beautiful slice of the UK. I'm still feeling a little bit dreamy about having had the opportunity to visit.