Last Minute London

London's just a quick 1-hour hop away, and one of my favorite places to visit. We couldn't resist just one more trip when our friends in Norway invited us to meet them for one last London visit. We visited the British Museum one more time - Richard got to see the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon room for the first time. We got to do a little tea time at Harrod's - yummy scones! And we took in a show. Rock of Ages just opened in London's West End. If you haven't seen it, it's been on Broadway for awhile and is fantastic. I'd highly recommend it for a night of good fun. Other than that, we just enjoyed one of our favorite places and some of our favorite people. Oh! And Harris started crawling on our last night in London.

Gameday in London!

Look Harris - Big Ben!

London for the Weekend

"We didn't start the fire, it was always burning since the world's been turning." - Billy Joel.

London is burning, riots are spreading and all the politicians are coming home from vacations abroad. It really seems that the UK should consider staggering their leaders' vacations. Despite the riots and fires, which are in areas of London several miles away from where we were, Richard, Harris and I all had a lovely long weekend in London. Harris and I did a bit of shopping while Richard worked a couple of days. Harris got to visit the Texas Embassy in Trafalgar Square while we got to have a Lone Star. And we got to spend a day with our friends Sarah and David who have recently moved to London. All in all, it was a perfect break.

Harris got to try out all sorts of high chairs which is a totally new experience for him since we still use the bumbo seat on the floor for feeding at home and hardly any restaurants in Dublin have highchairs. He loved being at the table with us and we loved it too. The Stokke Tripp Trapp was his favorite by far and we have been considering buying it once we move back to Texas. We all three may have been convinced despite it's price tag. Harris really loved all the travel adventure. It was a nice distraction from the two top front teeth that are working their way out. As usual, train travel is by far his favorite mode of trasportation. And Harris added 3 or four more pubs to his list. This will definitely be the hardest for Richard to give up when we move home. Pub culture, especially being able to take your kids to the pub during the day, is something we definitely enjoy and indulge in over here.

Ashley's Visit

  

 

This summer, we've again been blessed with many visitors. June brought our good friend, Ashley. She's an avid fly fisherwoman and spent a couple of days fishing in the South of Ireland. Unfortunately for her, we've been blessed with a rather dry Irish summer. And without the rain, the lakes were a little low for good fishing. But we used the sunshine for a tour of the Southwest coast. We took in Kinsale and Kerry for some great seafood. We even got to stay in another castle, Ballyseede Castle. And the castle had the best host ever, Arthur, the Irish Wolfhound.

This was our first time through the Ring of Kerry. And with the exception of my ridiculous pregnancy-related car sickness, it was a great trip. We had sunshine for most the trip, but got some moody mist as we cut through the mountain pass. Ashley and I continued on to Connemara for a day with more rubbish weather. And next it was on to London!

Even with the great sunny weather we've been having in Dublin, it really hasn't been what you can call warm. London was sunny, 80 degrees and actually HOT!!!! It was great. Ashley's sister met us in London and we spent the week being tourists and doing plenty of shopping. Harrod's was a hit, of course.

Okay, let's talk about my favorite place in London, Borough Market. It's my favorite market in Europe/UK, held Thursday - Sunday with dozens of booths full of fresh food, sweets, drinks and just about every culinary treat you can imagine. We've been before, but every time we went the famous "grilled cheese" guy wasn't there. Finally, this time he was there. And it was worth the wait. The grilled cheese filled with two different cheeses, green and red onion is beyond divine. There are a lot of diversions in London, but this will always be a "must do."

  

We headed home from London, wishing we could take the warm sun home with us. But next up was very hot and sunny Portugal!