Vacation Day 5 - An Exhausting Day

One of the first stops while in London was the Who Shop. A store selling every sort of Doctor Who merchandise you can think of. Dan had never been there so I took him. Kind of neat to travel directly there and know exactly where it was.

Who wouldn't want to have their picture taken with a Dalek? A sign in the store warns 'Shoplifters Will Be Exterminated'.

Did you see that ludicrous display last night?

No trip to London is complete until you've taken a ride on the Underground. Mind the gap.

I visited the British Museum last time I was in London, but Dan had not. So I went back. Here is the main reception area. Still impressive as ever.

How many feet? That's so whether you view this station from the front or the side, it'll look like it has enough feet.

So much stone artwork like this. How can you not be impressed. I couldn't even draw this with a simple pen and paper.

The Rosetta Stone - Discovering this artifact was key to unlocking the secrets of Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

This was our guide for the 'Jack the Ripper' walking tour. He does this by night. During the day, he's a beefeater in the Tower of London (which you can see behind him).

This is a portion of an original Roman wall, still standing in London.

One more look over the Thames. Tower Bridge can be seen in the distance as well as City Hall to the right.

I don't normally take random photos of strangers, but this day was so exhausting and when I saw this couple I sneakily took a photo because it was exactly how I was feeling at the time. (And I thought it made a cute photo). Yes, I was ready to collapse. Who'd have thought having fun would be so tiring.

Vacation Day 4 - A Titanic Day

An exciting day was planned for our fourth day of the trip. But never let it be said I never take time to stop and smell the roses. Or at least, photograph the flora. These were adorning the walkway up to the B&B we were staying at.

I was excited for where our trip took us next - London! And we were going there by way of this great new ship named The Titanic.

Actually, our next stop was the Titanic Experience. One of the first things I planned to do when I found out I was going to be in Belfast for Titanic's 100th tragedy memorial.

One of the first things on display was a scale model of the Titanic. So impressive to see how large this ship actually was.

One of the most talked about feature of the Titanic has always been the Grand Staircase. Here a quick photo of the staircase, followed by a short video:

It seems just 100 years ago, people were much shorter than they are now. How did they fit in these tiny beds?

The Titanic now lays at the bottom of the ocean, but a few artifacts have been recovered. Here are just a few examples.

The Titanic experience over, we fly out to London. I saw this ship below us and snapped a photo. I believe this one managed to miss all icebergs.

As we flew over Ireland, I wanted to capture just a bit more of the country side.

My final view of Ireland. Well, at least for a few days.

Vacation Day 3 - Drive to Belfast Ireland

In order to get to Belfast, we opted to rent a car. This is what we drove.

On our drive to Belfast, I found this impressive structure. I had to take a photo of it.

Per everyone's request, I took a photo of the Irish country-side. This time, we had pulled off the main highway and took a less beaten path.

While travelling, we found a small animal preserve. We were trying to find a castle of some sort, so when I saw there was a cafe selling coffee, I suggested we go ask for directions. Plus I wanted a coffee.

As we approached Carlingford, towards the castle the kind folks from the cafe directed us to, we saw this sign. The sign may be humorous, but the shocking thing is, it was probably a problem at some point.

Having parked the car, this was the scenery as we approached King John's castle. Can you imagine having this sort of a view from the back of your kitchen window?

A glimpse of King John's castle we explored.

Nothing shows the true power of nature as well as vegetation growing from a stone wall.

The castle has seen better times. It's still impressive.

A view of the village, pointed away from the castle. Marvellous!

I had to do a bit of climbing to get this picture, and Dan was happy to take the photo.

Finally in Belfast, we dropped our stuff off at the B&B and immediately went looking for the next pub.

A long hard day of travelling and checking out castles wore me out. I decided to relax and enjoy a burger.

Vacation Day 2 - Dublin, Ireland

Our next full day in Dublin, we travelled to the Guinness Storehouse. What else? Foremost on our mind was attending the Guinness Academy where we learned to pour the perfect pint of Guinness.

Here we see Dan crafting the perfect pint. I succeeded as well and have the documentation to prove it.

One of my favourite things is antique or vintage products. So it was nice to get a chance to see some of Guinness' older bottles and packaging. They even had a video display of some vintage Guinness adverts. I could have stayed all day just checking those out. Here's a few examples of ones I saw:

The tour (though really more of a museum) showcased how the Guinness storage barrels were originally created by hand. Hard, strenuous, meticulous work. Walking through the barrel designed entrance offered up video and displays of original tools used.

After a hard session of learning to craft the perfect pint of beer, we stopped in the Guinness Cafe. Learned a few new Guinness recipes, had a proper Irish Sheppard's Pie and enjoyed a Guinness Foreign Extra.

When I look for things to photograph there are usually several things I look for. One is breath-taking scenery. I found this scene so captivating because in Wisconsin where I live, we just don't have views of mountains in the background. Hope you enjoy this!

One of the other things I love to take photographs of are buildings. I never figured out what this was exactly, but think it was some sort of a school. Either way, a very impressive building.

On our way back to our lodging for the evening, we stopped at this pub, the Porterhouse Brewing Co. for a pint. They have locations in London and New York as well.

Vacation Day 1 - Dublin, Ireland

I don't smile often, but I WAS in Ireland at my first pub enjoying my first pint. Wouldn't you smile?

A quick look around at the first pub I visited in Ireland.

♫Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came.♪ This was actually closed and we weren't even really sure this was a true pub. But I had to take a photo with the sign.

Dublin's Liffey river. Much to do on both sides, but the river walk is fantastic.

Crossing a bridge over the Liffey river, I stopped to rest for a bit. While doing so, I managed to take a few photos. The photo above shows a few of Dublin's locals, as does the video below.

Anything different deserves a photo, and I love the look of this cobble-stone streets.

This is a photo from inside the 'Brazen Head'. It's supposed to be Ireland's oldest pub, established in 1198. Check out the link, but don't forget to tell them I sent you. ;)

On the way back to our lodging for the evening, we took the Liffey River Walk. I saw these Magpies everywhere and decided to add this one to my photographic collection.