Baked beans for breakfast. The Queen’s stunning coach. Cliffs and castles. Sheep, sheep, sheep. I’m getting ready to head out to the Texas Book Festival this week, but I wanted to post some shots of our time in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Galway.
The trip was a feast for the eyes, particularly volcanic Edinburgh, my favorite, which looks and feels like Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter series. We always talk about the influence of place on an author. I can’t think of a better example than J.K. Rowling and the world she created for us. We stayed in 700 year-old Dalhousie Castle, just outside the city, which has been restored to a hotel and spa, complete with the dining room in the dungeon.
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- The inside of our hotel at the Dalhousie Castle
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- A view in Edinburgh
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- Oh Edinburgh…I could wander these streets forever
But really, there were treasures in every city. Some highlights:
We stayed in the Kensington neighborhood at the Ashburn Hotel, a 38-room boutique hotel around the corner from the Gloucester Road underground station, which made getting around the city very easy. On our first outing, we emerged at Parliament Square to find hordes of people. What was happening? London was was waiting for Queen Elizabeth II to ride by on her way to Parliament as part of the Brexit discussions.
Like most tourists, we cued up for the Churchill war rooms and the next day at the Tower of London, with all its chilling history which our tour guide shared with relish. (I kept dreaming about Anne Boleyn’s lips moving after she was beheaded by sword.) The proper antidote seemed like ice cream at Harrod’s Department store which is an over-the-top labyrinth of luxury.
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- An unexpected surprise!
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- The Tower of London
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- The Beefeaters must have 20 years service to the Queen’s Army to qualify. They live in the Tower with their families.
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- You bet we did…
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- Tower Bridge
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- At Tower Bridge with Cristina and Javier
The Cliffs of Moher and Aillwee Cave were stunning, from the ride through the countryside to the actual destination.
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- This. You see THIS in the Irish countryside. The Burrens.
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- Holiday cottages on the way to the Cliffs of Moher
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- On the way back to Galway, we ran into some traffic
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- No picture can do these justice
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- Aillwee Cave on the way to Cliffs of Moher
I browsed the many gorgeous bookstores all over Dublin and Galway, enjoyed pub food, took a tour about Irish emigration, and bought myself an Aran sweater that I’ll be wearing this winter.
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- So many wonderful indies
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- Our favorite place for Spanish tapas in Galway
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- The finest pub food I had in Dublin. Near the Trinity College area.
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- Detail from the memorial to the Potato Famine along the River Liffey
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- At the Temple Bar district in Ireland
But here’s what I especially loved: being in such close contact with people from all over the world. I heard French on one side of me and German on the other. I watched people try out all the different languages in their heads until they found the common one that would help them communicate. Chinese? English? Spanish? Farsi? One always unlocked the relationship. Like the rest of the world, nationalist tendencies are rising, but on this trip I enjoyed the feeling that the world is everyone and that it’s possible to be here for each other.
