Ireland + UK (errr.... London, more accurately)

I'm a terrible blogger as of this past year.  Shameful.  Despicable.  But I finally mustered up the motivation to recap our recent adventure to Ireland and the UK!

We met our Australian bffs Ivan and Joanne in Ireland back in early May, where we toured the country by car for 6 days, managing to avoid any sort of major catastrophe while driving on the wrong side of the road (I'm sorry, but driving on the left hand side of the road is just completely incorrect and should be abolished).  We then flew to London for a few days, flew back to Dublin, and then flew home. It was over too quick.  It's great having a job that won't even let me take two full weeks off... at least Ivan and Joanne were game for a shorter trip; we sure love our Australian friends!

Touring Dublin by foot

Clark and Ivan, reunited!

Plenty of streets to wander down and bars to wander by

A big ass spire that obviously exceeds the dimensions of this photo

Aw, three of my most favorite people

The renowned Temple Bar. Limited dining room so we chose to eat at a restaurant just across the street

Maybe it's my Catholic upbringing, but I just love ornate churches and cathedrals

St. Patrick's cathedral in the background.

The first of many castle stops... Athenry Castle on our way to Galway

An old church close by to Athenry Castle

My husband....super tourist of Galway city

The Claddagh ring originated in what is now considered Galway city

Entrance to Ashford Castle

One of the cute B & B's we stayed at outside the village of Cong

A very narrow road winding through the countryside

There were sheep everywhere! Spray painted all sorts of colors so owners can easily distinguish their sheep from others. Good call with the red spray paint, I might add.  No one will want a sheep that looks mortally wounded

Aughanure Castle

Joanne demonstrating what it may have been like to take a poop in medieval times

Dunguaire Castle

Joanne got a little jealous that I wanted a picture with Clark instead of her (see above photo), so immediately afterward I made sure she felt included.  By the look on her face, she may have been holding a little grudge

Cliffs of Moher!!

Absolutely breathtaking views. One of the highlights of the trip for sure

Sitting on some steps of King Johns Castle in Limerick

Wait..... who the hell is yelling at us!??  Oh, it's Ivan and Joanne!

The River Shannon

Killarny National Park, part of the Ring of Kerry

The gang at Ross Castle

Muckross House

Just before driving through the gap of Dunloe

Another B & B nestled just outside of Killarny in Castlemaine

A random beach off the southwestern part of Ireland. Not quite sun bathing weather, but we did see a brave soul wander out into the water and start swimming.  According to his friend, he's been doing it his whole life

Joanne took a sequence of dance photos.  Let's just say Clark and I were pretty stoked about being on the beach

A potato famine cottage with a thatched roof.  We learned a bit of history of the great Irish potato famine of the 1800's (looks like the English were to blame for the severity of the famine)

Oh my gorgeous.  Instead of driving the entire Ring of Kerry, we opted to drive the Slea Head loop off the Southwestern coast of Ireland.  Our drive started out from Dingle.  It was really quite beautiful

Cahir Castle

Then we hopped on a plane and flew over to London, where refreshing precipitation greeted us for just about our entire visit

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

Westminster Abbey.  Sadly, tours were not being offered any of the days we were there

Obligatory telephone booth photo

One of the horses nuzzling up to Clark

Guards at Buckingham Palace

Trafalgar Square

Our incredible hotel not far from the Tower Bridge.

Who was on our wall overlooking our bed?  Oh yeah, Princess Diana AND Justin Bieber.  Hit the jackpot on this one, folks

Bought us some classy souvenirs, just couldn't help ourselves

The John Snow water pump, where Dr. Snow traced a cholera outbreak in the 1850's, undoubtedly saving many lives

What's this? Lounge chairs in St. Jame's Park? Only for a small fee, of course

A blue rooster back at Trafalgar Square, on a much more weather friendly day

The London Eye, the River Thames, and Big Ben

Part of the financial district

Our last meal in London. The fish and chips were surprisingly underwhelming.

We had so much fun touring around Ireland and London with our friends Ivan and Joanne.  We're so fortunate to have friends who can endure us for more than a day at a time and are willing to fly dreadfully long hours to meet up with us.  The bond we share with Ivan and Joanne makes me especially grateful for the time we spent working in Australia.  I don't for an instance believe it was a coincidence that we all moved to Australia within a month of each other and worked on sister floors.  Nope.  We were supposed to meet each other, become friends, and travel the world together.
 Now if only we all made a little more money so we could travel more frequently and see each other more than once every year and a half..... ehhhh, that's life. At least we have skype :)