Tina and I took a European Vacation from July 11 to 20, 2016.
We visited Dublin, Ireland; Crewe, Wales; London, England; Paris, France.
We went with an EF Tour group that was organized by my sister-in-law, Sharon and her Pennsylvania teacher friend, Becky.
Sharon's daughter (my niece) Katie also went with us, along with several of Sharon and Becky's students and their parents.
We had a great time! Everyone that we met was so nice.
Every day we walked until our feet were crying for mercy and we had to stop.
But, then, those feet recovered overnight and were ready for more walking tours of each of our beautiful, exciting and wonderful destinations.
Day 1 (July 11): Fly to Dublin
Day 2: Walking tour of Dublin:
Grafton Street;
River Liffey;
Temple Bar area.
Day 3: Bus Tour:
St. Patrick's Cathedral;
Book of Kells at Trinity College;
Dublin Castle; Georgian Squares with the many brightly colored doors; O'Connell Street; Phoenix Park; St. Stephen's Green
Day 4: Take Ferry from Dublin, across the Irish Sea, to
Holyhead in Wales. Visit Welsh castle,
Beau Maris.
Travel through
Snowdonia; spend the night in
Crewe.
Day 5 (July 15): Tour of
Stratford-upon-Avon; visit
Shakespeares' birthplace;
garden and cottage of Anne Hathaway's family.
Bus ride to London.
Day 6: Walking tour of London:
Westminster Abbey;
Big Ben;
Houses of Parliament;
Buckingham Palace; St. Paul's Cathedral;
British Museum; The Strand; Leicester Square;
Covent Garden.
Day 7: Went to Sunday services at Westminster Abbey; then rode subway ("Tube") to the
Tower of London; then walked to
Trafalgar Square and
Piccadilly Circus; then a fish & chips dinner followed by the
London Eye (HUGE ferris wheel) - WOW!
Day 8: Travel by
Eurostar Train from London to Paris. This took us through the "Chunnel", at 290 kilometers per hour (180 m.p.h.) over the beautiful, rolling French countryside.
Walking tour of Paris:
The Louvre,
Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris;
Day 9: Bus Tour of Paris:
Place de la Concorde; Champs-Elysees;
Arc de Triomphe;
Les Invalides;
Eiffel Tower;
Grand Palace of Versailles.
Day 10 (July 20): Fly back home.
Dublin -
Benjamin Lee Guinness statue in front of St. Patrick'a Cathedral. Ben committed a big pile of his Guinness beer money to restore St. Pat's fading glory in the 1800's and earned this permanent statue.
St. Patricks Cathedral overall view
The Lady Chapel
There were many small carved stone faces all around the cathedral. Each was different and some were kind of comical. I loved them all!
Jonathan Swift was the Dean at St. Patricks from 1713 until his death in 1745. He is buried inside St. Pat's
I also liked the various special floor tiles.
Beautiful Spiral staircase up to the bells
Beautiful stained glass windows.
Book of Kells at Trinity College
Books and also a Bust of Shakespeare at Trinity College Library
Dublin Castle with beautiful stained glass inside the Chapel Royal
On left hallway arch with gold decorations, on right State Drawing Room
Ceiling artwork at Dublin Castle in St. Patrick's Hall
Here we are on the Ferry from Dublin to Holyhead (Wales)
On the left side of the photo is our Tour Guide, Tony M.
He was GREAT!! Walked us everywhere, then bussed us
more places and taught us how to ride the "tubes" (subway)!
Wales - Tina at Beaumaris Castle
Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaumaris_Castle
Lunch in the town of LLangollen.
Parked outside our hotel room in Crewe was this Lotus Super "7"
England - Stratford-upon-Avon Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Garden
England -
Stratford-upon-Avon William Shakespeare's birthplace
Tina with a bust of her friend "Will" (b.1564 - d.1616), and the view to
Henley Street
Shakespeare tour guide and the handpainted cloth "wall paper"
Live play in Shakespeare's backyard Sharon, Tina, Katie
The king was there! And a Morgan +4
Shakespeare is buried inside
Holy Trinity Church. Becky on the church cemetery grounds.
London - Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey North Entrance
Buckingham Palace
We went to Kings Cross Station to catch the Eurostar bullet train to Paris and had a few minutes before the train left, so we went to see Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter fame. The station has a shopping cart cut in half and looking like it is "magically" going into the wall at the end of Platform 9 3/4.
See for yourself how good it looks.
Eurostar train from London through the "Chunnel", then over the beautiful, rolling, French countryside at 300 kilometers per hour (186 m.p.h.) WOW!!!
Paris - Cathedral de Notre Dame, this is Saint Denis after walking for 10 kilometers holding his own head in his hands while preaching a sermon of repentance. Read more here:
Saint Denis (Wikipedia article)
Inside Notre Dame a life size diorama and a miniature scale model
Clock, I forgot where?? and view up the side of Notre Dame...
...showing all the gargoyle drain spouts.
Paris - Palace of Versailles, Hall of Mirrors.
Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles
Louis XIV (1638 - 1715) King of France from the time he was 5 and was known as the "Sun King".
Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France
More pics inside the Palace of Versailles
The Gardens of Versailles
Fountain showing the people of Lycia that Jupiter turned into lizards and frogs as punishment because they insulted Diana and also Apollo's daughter.
Paris - Arc de Triomphe
Paris - Seine at dusk from the Eiffel Tower
Paris - Eiffel Tower.
Click here to see Eiffel Tower sparkling at 10PM every night.
Tina and Katie in front of this strange little red building that was still many places in England.
These are probably not long for this cell phone dominated world!!
Our entire Pennsylvania (and AZ) group at Phoenix Park outside of Dublin
Check back for more photos as I can get them posted.
