Long time no post…I know. Maybe now I brushed the dirt off the site a little we may see some more stuff…but first…We’re getting married! (like you didn’t know that anyway) But still it’s all official like.
Attached are some pics of the ring.
We picked up our fancy VW Golf and set off for the last week of the tour. A drive around Scotland and England. but today was St Andrews, home of golf and the ‘Burn’ hole (1st) and the Road Hole (17) walked, then on to Glenfiddich in the scottish highlands for a most amazing tour of the distillery, and best of all – A self poured 15 year old whiskey, bottled, labelled and lovinging woden boxed by yours truly.
It doesn’t get much better than this for me.
Edinburgh, welcome to scotland!. Uninteligable accents, walkers shortbread, 25 whiskey shops to every 7/11 and more castles than the north of Ireland (*nothing* has more castles than the south of ireland….) We check into our top rated hotel (thanks expedia 3 for 2 days sale!) and finally get a good shower. B&B’s need to save water, i geddit – but c’mon. We all need a little water pressure.
We go see the castle (for a eye watering 24 pounds – thats about 5 million dollars i believe) and it’s actually quite insightful about how the English did them wrong, and how they basically pimped them in the end and had a scot as the king.
i um’d and ah’d a lot about whiskeys (since the miniscule CA customs duty limits us to only 2.28L between us) and had a fantastic time checking out the hundred or so varieties.
Laura fell in love with a little store called ‘Ness’ on the Royal Mile, and was such a trooper with my whiskey watching. We saw holyrood and even Robbie burns memorial (we’re all set for next years Robbie burns day on the 25th jan by the way)
It was wet, as was the UK generally – whats with that? A summer where you get only 18 degrees and rain every day? no wonder they bugger off to Spain for a real holiday every year.
So we arrive in Belfast, not really knowing what to expect. My childhood memory was of IRA and ‘The Troubles’ as they call them here, and sure enough that’s what still seems to colour this city. From the Shankill to the Falls Roads, walls that are still closed on weekends, funeral pyre like bonfires that were still burning after the ‘12th of July Orange Marches’ celebration and the street where we are staying adorned like Her Majesty’s bathroom (flags everywhere just in case you forgot this area is ‘loyalist’). Considering the rest of Ireland was quite affluent looking (the Celtic Tiger one local put it) the North seems to have missed out on a lot of that prosperity. A city openly divided is a very interesting place to walk through – but oddly disconcerting.
7 Days around this amazing little country. 2000 km’s and you really see how diverse the features of the landscape are. From beaches to rolling green hills, rock strewn valleys that remind you of the moon to tall mountains rising up out of nowhere – it really has it all. And the people we met were equally as diverse, but with one trait in common…they could talk underwater with a mouthfull of marbles (yes Mel of Sligo, we’re looking at you). We’ve seen everything from Blarney Castle, Waterford Crystal factory, the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, the Valley of Blackness, Giant’s Causeway and a zillion “moo moo baa baa neh neh’s” (we’ll explain later). We even got to go to the World Highland Games at Glenarm in the north, complete with n aussie and a canadian to cheer for (they both sucked at all the highland games).
Check out the GPS map of our whole drive, some of the more interesting physical parts have pins in them.
Today was the Ha’Penny day. north of the Liffey was O’Connell street, the Jamesons Old Distiillery and the Ha’Penny bridge. Luckily we didn’t have to pay half a penny to cross that bridge, but i did spend a small CAD$ fortune at the Jamesons Distillery. They have a special edition 12 year old Whiskey thats only available at the distillery, so I had to get that. It shall be the celebratory drop when the visa gets sorted in 20 days (20!!!), no idea how we’re going to carry it, so we finally relented and bought a new suitcase. So now we have a rolly bag to wheel crap around with us. Lucky for us too since there is now a few more T-Shirts and jumpers to bring back. Dublin has a lot of cool trinkets!.
After a marathon 6 landings and take-off’s, we arrive in Dublin. Greeted by wet bags and rainy skies we now know the love of the emerald isle.
First morning was off to Grafton Street and a trip through the parks surrounding the area. Oscar Wilde himself was spotted lounging in the spotty sunshine. Off to Temple Bar and the funky part of town and then the castle and villiage green.
Finally the road led us to the local institution – the Guinness factory.
So what did we think? – Well it’s a tale of 2 cities/stories really…Laura was not so taken with the black stuff, the storehouse was entertaining and we did learn quite a bit so that made up for having to wade thru a whole pint at the end. Me? Well i reckon all those people who claim that it tastes different/better in Dublin are full of it…it tasted just the same to me. Good, but the same.
The stew however it magnificent here, really really good. For that we were at a local pub called the Quay in the Temple Bar. All in all, a very Dublin day.
Not much to report, just lots of relaxin…
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