A Weekend in Ireland

Friday: Walking through the streets of Dublin

Saturday: The Cliffs of Moher and MacCoole family farm tour.

Walking up the Burren Mountains

A baby cow born less than an hour ago

 

The wall going up the mountain was built during the potato famine

 

The Cliffs of Moher - over 500 ft tall

Buckingham Palace

I went to Buckingham Palace today to see the changing of the guards.

The tube station

A very long staircase

 Went back to St. Paul's for class today and had a tour.  No pictures aloud inside.  I walked the 257 steps up to the Whispering Gallery that is inside the dome.  Once to the top of the nearly 100 foot Gallery, I made the mistake of looking down and ended up walking right back to the bottom.

The occupy London protest outside of St.Paul's

Feb. 17-20th The Banqueting House

Friday:  Forgot my camera on the table in my room.  I might have to repeat the whole day so that I have pictures.  I took a five hour walk through Green Park and Hyde Park.  Since it was such a nice day I decided to keep walking and ended up walking all the way back to our flat.  While at Hyde Park I say the Serpentine, a man made lake, lots of friendly dogs, and Princess Diana's Memorial.  On my way back to the flat I stopped in a store called TK Maxx, this was a lot like TJ Maxx in the US except that they also have designer clothes like Gucci and Prada.

Saturday: Bad weekend for pictures, sorry.  I went to dinner at this great italian restaurant.  There were three of us there and we each ordered our own pizza which is 25cm.  When the pizzas come out they were connected in a long row and so we had one 75cm (30in) pizza that filled the length of our table.  That night we were going to go sing karaoke, but when we got there it had closed five minutes earlier.

Sunday:  Our midterm papers are due on Tuesday so I spent the day doing research and writing.  My paper is on how London's history has effected the history's and architecture of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey and how they differ.

Exciting news! I planned a trip to St. Andrews, Scotland in two weeks.  I will be taking a bus there for three days two nights.  While there I will be renting golf clubs and playing at St. Andrew's Old Course and the Castle Course.  I will also be visiting the golf museum.

Monday: A Tour of the Banqueting House, started in 1619, and still used for events today.

 Paintings done by Peter Paul Rubens and Installed into the entire ceiling of the Banqueting House

Inside Westminster Abbey

Wednesday: Found a great Italian restaurant where three of us got pizza.  We each ordered a different kind but it comes out as one long pizza on a board each part is 25cm long.  The whole pizza was 75cm (about 30in) and we finished it all.

Thursday:  Since our tour of Westminster Abbey was cancelled last week, we were able to get it reschedule for today.  Pictures were only allowed in the cloister of the Abbey.  This is the part were people would have stayed when they lived or studied there in the 15th and 16th century.

One of the tombs that is left from the original Westminster Abbey that was built in the 11th century.

The two towers on the west front added in the 18th century. 

The chapel 

The stain glass in the chapel was added around the 18th or 19th century.  Its original design would have included thick solid glass of greens, reds, and blues, that did not allow for a lot of light to come through

Medieval limestone coffins with shaped heads found in the Abbey precincts

Inside, the Abbey contains thousands of memorials, including that of Charles Dickens who just celebrated his 200th birthday.

Later that night we saw The Trial of Ubu.

Found a great deal for gelato, had vanilla,  carmel, and pistachio 

Thought it was time to put up some pictures of where I am living in London

Our study/eating area and mini fridge

The view out my window 

The kitchen

Stairs to our room

The Door to the upstairs

The back garden and our classroom

view from the back

This afternoon we went to the National Gallery and saw Tudor and Stuart portraits (no pictures allowed).  After we went to The Sea Plays in the under ground tunnels.  To get there we walked passed some graffitied tunnels.