Scotland via England

For this trip we decided to fly into London and drive to Scotland, this will give us a chance to see the Northern part of England.  We flew Ryan air again for $123 round trip for the three of us. You really can't beat their prices. We picked up the rental car from Sixt for around $100 for the 4 days. This time we rented hotel rooms on Hotels.com instead of houses on Airbnb since we were traveling around and not staying in one spot.
Our first stop was to Sherwood forest and to check out the area of Robin Hood and his merry men.

This is a must see for anyone who is in awe of nature.  The forest is home to a lot of very old oak trees.  The forest covers over 450 acres but is recorded in records back to 927 AD which covered over 100,000 acres then.  The major oak is considered the oldest tree in the forest and is thought to be anywhere from 800-1000 years old and is still producing acorns. 

She may be propped up, have some rotten holes and not have any leaves on her right now but she is beautiful! look at her! just look at her! I wish i could have seen her during the summer when she is in full leaf. her trunk circumference is 33' and branches spread over 92' wide! The tree is thought to be the site of the base camp for Robin Hood and his followers, but there is  no evidence of it.
Here is another picture of her The Major Oak.

Ok last picture I promise. Up at the gift shop there was an artisan making wooden bowls with a homemade lathe, it was pretty cool.

Our next stop was to Nottingham castle it was originally built in 1067 and rebuilt in 1678 to what you see now. It was the residence of King Richard I also know as Richard the Lionheart.
 
There are tributes all over the grounds of Robin Hood.

On our drive to Scotland we stopped in the town of Kensington, England.  We noticed a cute little gate with rabbits on it.

We did a little search and realized that this is the town that Beatrix Potter wrote her famous book Peter Rabbit. This was a cute little garden that we found a geocache in.

We finally made it to Scotland and went to see Edinburgh Castle, there has been a royal castle on this site since the 12th century.  

Before driving up to see it we stopped below it to get our first geocache in Scotland.  

The entrance to the castle grounds, you can see how high up the castle is over the city.

The castle grounds were pretty awesome. In 2014 researchers claimed the Edinburgh Castle as "the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attached in the world".

The views from the castle are amazing, seems like you could see forever. 

The arms rooms were really cool, all of the swords and spears are originals, and there are loads!

 Here is a shot of the entire room, you can see the displays of spears and battle axes hung high on the walls. The suits of armor are really cool too.

 This is what the Scottish Armys barracks looked like, talk about being close to your brothers in arms.

Kim was a bad girl and had to go to the stockade. The castle jail was pretty neat and had been modernized to hold prisoners during WWII. 

 I love the look of the architecture, even though it is all gray scale it is still cool looking.

 In the back ground is St Giles cathedral built in 1243.

 Highland Kirk church right outside the castle in the city.

 This is an overview of a tartan factory, they make multiple patterns for kilts and other items.

 The machinery looks very old and heavy, pretty cool.

 We left Edinburgh and wanted to go find Nessie, in Loch Ness.  Driving through the highlands was beautiful, it was really strange, the temperature dropped way down as we were driving through.  When we came out the temp went back up.  

 If your are interested in the legend of Loch Ness then you want to visit the exhibition center.  It was pretty neat, it showed the research of the lake and it also showed the hoaxes that have been created over the years.

 The lake is absolutely gorgeous! We looked for a while but no luck we didnt see Nessie.  We drove around the entire east coastline.  It was amazing to see it so green since we just drove through the snowy highlands.

 On our drive back to the airport I wanted to stop and see Hadrian's wall.  It was a wall built by Romans fro east coast to west coast in 122 AD.  Parts of it are still standing!! There was a roman fort about every 5 miles along the wall. We got there to late to visit the fort and visitors center.

Te trip would not be complete with out a man in a Kilt playing a bagpipes....THE END.

Ireland!!

We took a trip to Ireland on our 4 day pass, we flew out of Cologne (a 4 hour drive from home) but the tickets where only $220 for the 3 of us.  We parked in P3 and left the car for 4 days it was $56 we could have reserved a spot and it would have been as low as 29€. It was about 1/4 mile walk to the terminal so it might not be good for people with small children. We flew Ryan Air, you can take a carry on bag for free and one small personal bag.  I did pay an additional $35 to chose our seats there and back,  so we could guarantee to sit together,  but once we got to the plane it was only half full so I dont know if it was worth it or not.

I have inherited the excellent ability from my father to be able to sleep anywhere anytime, even on an one and a half hour flight. We rented a car from Sixt for $125, we opted to pay $165 for additional insurance rather than putting a $1400 hold on our Credit Card. After renting a car back in Texas during Thanksgiving and a rock cracking the windshield we have  realized the extra fee is worth the peace of mind.  Remember before you haul tail out of the rental area that you drive on the left side of the road, in a right side drive car with gear shifter in your left hand so be prepared! I have vivid memories from when I was returning from my deployment to Iraq of landing in Ireland to refuel it was the greenest grass I have ever seen, a color of green i havent seen again since. Even in winter the grass is green although not the lush color I remember but for temps below 40's its still very green. 

We saw this place everyday and cracked up every time we saw it.  We stayed at Hotel Royal just South of Dublin in the area of Bray for $75 per night. I chose to stay in Dublin because the country is so small you can drive from the East to West coast in 2 hours, If I would have planned earlier I probably could have found a nice B&B for just a lil more, we have good luck with Airbnb.com. 

Every morning before we headed out we ate grabbed a bite to eat from this McDonalds, yes this is a McDonalds.  It was voted top 5 coolest McD's in the World, it was built in 1882 as the Bray town hall and used until 1940 as a market house. 

Giant scales still hang in the center, not your normal McDonalds.

The first day we drove to the West coast to visit Bunratty Castle and Folk park on our way to the Cliffs of Moher.

 The castle was built in 1425, 

 The castle was purchased and restored in 1956 to its current glory, It was restored with original items from the 14th to 18th century, so everything in the castle is what it could have looked like through out the years! You can see the entire collection here.

 There are many HUGE fireplaces throughout the castle. 

 the dungeon was very small and only had a very small spiral staircase leading to it.

 Jonah going down to the dungeon

 Chair in the main dining hall

 Not bad for 1425, "butt" your bum might get a little cold in the winter

 Carved poster bed from the 16th century

 Original 17th century armor next to the bed, i guess the fireplace would keep it warm for the morning. 

 controls to open the draw bridge, pretty cool.

 Main dining hall

 Another main room, this one has a fire pit in the middle of the room

 16th century poster bed

 16th century hand carved chandelier it has candles on the antlers

 Above and below are 2 gothic 17th century clocks

 The Earls kitchen, there are HUGE turtle shell "bowls" hung on the wall from the 18th century 

View from top of the castle

 The top of the castle with the Irish flag in background

House named willow weavers of bunratty

 Folk park had a bunch of cool buildings that were set up to represent the village during the 15th century.  

Small house with a loft bedroom above a bedroom. It was definitely worth the price 30 euro for family ticket, for 2 adults and up to 6 kids. 

 The road to get to the Cliffs of Moher is very narrow, it will fit 2 cars but with the rock fences make it for a VERY tight squeeze. 

 The sandstone is so plentiful that the locals use it rather than barbwire or fencing 

You can see all the sandstone fencing can you imagine how much it must all weigh

The Cliffs of Moher are amazing, they are 5 miles long and stand over 700 feet at its highest point.  There is a really nice info center with a couple of places to eat inside, an exhibit, and a nice souvenir shop. To park you pay 6 Euro per adult. The cliffs you can see in this photo, across the way, you can crawl and look over the edge if you are brave enough.

 Jonahs face looks hilarious, the camera angle stretched his head out!!

 Kim waving to Aunt Jeannie from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other.

 You can not see it in this pic but there are people standing on the edge looking down the rock face!

  We had a great time here and also found a Geocache which puts us at 13 countries.

We stopped off on our way back to Dublin and ate at a pizza spot, it was ok nothing to brag about.

The next morning we drove to Blarney Castle, so I could kiss the Blarney Stone.

The grounds are beautiful and green, remember we are here in the middle of winter.

 The castle itself was completed in 1446.

This would have been the Great hall of the castle.

The stairwells are small and steep, we are almost at the top.

Looking down into the great hall.

The view from the top was amazing, the grounds are so beautiful.

 People have been coming to Blarney castle for over 200 years to kiss the Blarney stone. It doesnt seem that far down but if that guy lets go of me i would have fallen onto the grate that keeps people from falling to their death.

 I am laughing because i didnt realize how far down it was. Well I have now been given the gift of Eloquence.

 The garden area had a geocache hidden in it, quick selfie before we head to the garden.

 This tree was unique, the limb is growing from one trunk into another. It looks like a natural harp to me.

 This is where the goecache was hidden, the rock is supposed to look like a witch with a big nose

 Another tree that i really loved, it is on top of a rock cave, that is why the roots are showing because there is not much soil.

 A couple of the waterfalls, I bet they would look awesome during spring with the flowers in bloom.

On our way back to dublin we stopped in the town of cork and ate at Market Lane.  We have realized that spending a little more money on one dinner we end up with an excellent meal.

Our last day we checked out Dublin, first stop the Guinness factory. I will have to admit I think I have only tried it once from a bottle and didnt care for it, but trip advisor says its a great attraction. It is 18 euro per person or a family ticket is 42 euro. It includes a pint of Guinness for each person over 18 and a free soda for children. 

 On Dec 31 1759, Arthur Guinness, signed a 9000 year lease with and annual rent of 45 Pounds.  They have the original lease encased in a glass safe in the middle of the factory floor.

There are 7 floors on the self guided tour, telling the story of Guinness throughout the years.

It was rather interesting, more so than I thought it would be. There is a tasting room, where you can smell the different ingredients and taste the final product.  There is also a pouring room where you learn to pour a perfect pint.

 The Gravity bar on the 7th floor is a solid glass bar overlooking all of Dublin, we grabbed our free pint and sat and looked at the city.

Best views of the city, and I rather liked the Guinness.  It might taste better when it comes from the factory. 

We stopped on Grafton Street for a little bit to get some souvenirs, there is really good shopping there. 

 Jonah liked the Disney store.

 Our last stop before heading back to the airport was the Irish Sea, Cold but pretty. Jonah and I walked down so we could touch the water.

 With tide being out Jonah and I went looking for a heart rock for mama.

We found a pretty good one.  We had a great time in Ireland for such a short trip there are a few things we would like to come back and see.  Dublin Castle, St Stephens green, and St Patricks church.  Maybe we can come back during the spring or summer before we leave Europe.