Dublin

On the Monday before the New Year, my parents and Nancy headed stateside, while I hopped over to Dublin to meet my friend, Mimi.



Monday night we explored the city, and Tuesday we woke up bright and early to see the sights. Our first stop was Trinity College.


Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, it is the oldest university in Ireland, and houses the Book of Kells (Latin manuscript with crazy extravagant illustrations of the four gospels of the New Testament, transcribed by Celtic monks circa 800). Unfortunately, the buildings were closed for the holidays, but we could still walk around the grounds.


After heading to the National Gallery and grabbing some Thai food for lunch, we headed over to Christ Church Cathedral. It was nice to get inside for a little bit; I don't think that the picture does justice to the cold, windy, rainy day.


The inside was pretty incredible. The floor really set Christ Church apart from other Cathedrals I've visited.


Just like in London, Dublin was full of Christmas trees.





After Christ Church Cathedral, we headed over to Dublin Castle. This is a view into the courtyard, where there was an exhibition of angel sculptures.


The 8-ft-tall fiberglass angels were installed for Dublin Castle's Beacons of Hope Exhibition, intended to raise the spirits of Ireland and bring about a new sense of positive thinking.
http://angelsbeaconsofhope.ie/

First built as a defensive castle at the beginning of the 13th century, and housed the English and then British royalty when they came to check up on Ireland. It was also a hot spot during the attempted 1798 rebellion and was officially handed over from the British to the Irish in 1922.

The Castle now houses active government proceedings, but you can still take tours of the inside.

This is the throne, which was too tall for the Queen of England, so I'm pretty sure they ended up sawing off part of the legs, and adding a step stool to help her gracefully get seated.


We had wanted to visit Powerscourt Castle, outside of Dublin, to see French-style gardens on the grounds. Because of the weather and a few bus confusions, we begrudgingly settled for going to Powerscourt Townhouse, an old-townhouse-turned shopping center for some pretty incredible hot chocolate.

The next day we headed over Saint Patrick's Cathedral

Devon

On Boxing Day we hopped in the car and headed a couple hours south to Devon.


On our way down, we swung by Stonehenge. It really just kind of pops out of nowhere when you're driving on the highway!


The next day, we started out with a walk with Peter Matthias, my Dad's friend and fellow architect, and our host for the weekend.



Devon is a series of green rolling hills dotted with sheep, and divided by narrow, winding roads.



And beautiful views of the English Channel.


And lots and lots and lots of mud. The Mathiases were kind enough to lend us a couple pairs of their Wellies for our trek.


Then we went to Dartmouth, a port town at the mouth of the Dart river (duh). After walking around the port and peeking into some shops, we went to lunch at Cherub. The little restaurant is housed by a building built circa 1380. That's right, 1-3-8-0. Old, European-style.


We then drove down to Dartmouth Castle, which, along with Kingswear Castle, makes the pair of forts that guards the port.



This tank was at a memorial near the coast. Apparently the allied forces practiced the D-Day invasion here, because this beach was thought to be very similar to Normandy. However, due to a mis-communication about protecting the coastline, German subs got in, and hundreds of American and British soldiers were killed. This was kept quiet until a scuba diver found this sunken tank, causing the government to release the details.


We ended the day with a drive along the coast for sunset.

Londres

Merry Christmas! This Christmas my family flew over from the states to meet me in London.


After an accidentally-extended stay in Amsterdam due to snow delays, I finally made it over to London, where Mom, Dad, and Nancy were waiting for me.


After Mom met me at the train station and we went back to the apartment for a quick lunch, we headed right out across Hyde Park to meet Nancy at Kensington Palace. It was a beautiful day out, and there was still a little snow on the ground in the park.

After seeing the debutant exhibit and Princess Diana's dresses, we meandered through the rest of the Palace. It was all decked out for Christmas!


Just like in Paris, there were Christmas trees everywhere in London.


The next day we woke up bright and early and headed over to Saint Paul's Cathedral. We lucked out again with another beautiful day.


After walking around the ground floor, we started the climb up to the top. After 259 steps, we reached the Whispering Gallery, which runs around the interior of the dome. It gets its name from the fact that if you whisper close to the wall's edge, you can be easily heard from anywhere else around the gallery. It literally sounds like the whisperer is right next to you!


At the level of the Whispering Gallery you can also go out on a balcony, that has amazing panoramic views of London.



Then, if you climb up another couple hundred stairs (for a total of 530), you reach the Golden Gallery, which has more incredible panoramic views of London. Definitely worth the climb :)


After Saint Paul's, we headed over to the Tower of London. First built by William the Conqueror a really really long time ago (around 1000 years!), it was a royal palace that was also used as a mint, place of execution, zoo, and a prison for some pretty high-profile traitors, like Guy Fawkes.

Highlights include seeing the Crown Jewels and an exhibit entitled "Henry the VIII: Dressed to Kill," which features armor and weapons of the period, including the vast collection of his own personal armor.


You also have a great view of Tower Bridge!




This picture is of an armed guard, but our tour, like all tours, was given by a "beefeater," officially known as a Yeomen Warder of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London. All beefeaters are retired from at least 22 years of service in the Armed Forces of Commonwealth Realms, and must hold the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.



We then went up and over Tower Bridge, which also has great views of the city and Thames.


Then, we divided and conquered; either heading to the Globe Theater, and or to the National Gallery. After coming back to the apartment, we got everything ready and had Christmas Eve dinner. It was fun to try something new, but we all really missed our traditional dinner and church service with the Wilson family.



But, what would Christmas be without a Christmas . . . monster? Nancy and I reverted to our 6 and 9 year-old selves to construct this guy out of our poppers.

After dinner we hopped on a double-decker bus out to Saint Martin-in-the-Fields. The Christmas decorations were intense, and double-decker busses were everywhere!


While waiting for the midnight service to begin, we had nice views of the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.


On Christmas we slept in late, and then had a delicious Christmas Day breakfast.


Complete with Nancy-made mochas :)


Since there are no buses on Christmas (and it was another beautiful day), we decided to walk to the Christmas Day service at Westminster Abbey. Our walk took us past the (very ugly) American Embassy.


The embassy faces a park in Grosvenor Square, where Eisenhower established a headquarters during WWII. Now there are statues of both Eisenhower and FDR in the park.





Don't worry, we didn't miss our opportunity to take the classic London Visitors' pictures.



We were pretty chilly by the time we got to Westminster Abbey.


After waiting in a line for little bit, we headed into the Abbey for the Christmas Day Evensong Service.



After we left the Christmas Day church service, the sun was already well on its way to setting. Here you can see Big Ben (fun fact, "Big Ben" is actually the name of the biggest bell in the tower) and the London Eye.


We then decided to wander down to 10 Downing Street to see where the prime minister lives. You can't actually walk down Downing Street, but these are statues on the roof of a building right near by.

The sunset was so pretty.


This building was facing the sunset, and you can see it reflected in the windows.