Our first day in London we bought tickets for the hop-on and hop-off bus so we could get a feel for the city's layout and get an overview of what we wanted to do. We took a tour through the Tower of London under the direction of a terrific guide who reminded me of John Goodman in both looks and demeanor. He was full of fun and fascinating factoids regarding British life and history. He had the gift of bringing it all to life which made the tour both uniqu...

Whew.....what a long ride from Heathrow to downtown London! We were glad that we were coming from Dublin as it had helped acclimate us to big city life. Large cities require a different state of mind, a different kind of energy and a different approach to sightseeing. Without really talking about it directly Mike and I were both in the same place as far as seeing the places we wanted without being manic to do it all. Guess that's one of the silver l...

Driving into Dublin from Carrick-on-Suir provided quite the culture shock for all of us. Not only were we a wee bit frantic about getting Eric to his flight to London on time but driving into a city of 1.3 million people when we had been use to 1.3 million sheep was a bit of a jolt. Eric was to drop us off at a house we rented through Craig's list and then return the car to the airport before his flight out. When we arrived at the resident address we fou...

A long day of travel awaited us as we woke up VERY early so we could drive to Dublin via Carrick- on- Suir where Pop Pop's mother was born. The beautiful blue skies over Kinsale had morphed into a storm overnight and it was a cold and dreary morning when we trudged into the breakfast room at the Old Prebyteria Bed and Breakfast where we were treated to a most delightful sight! The proprietor had gotten up early to accommodate our travel schedule and had the chef ...

Our next stop was to be Kinsale about a two hour drive from Ballyvolane but we wanted to take a wee bit of a diversion to see the Blarney Castle as Grammy and Pop Pop had visited it many years ago the latter of whom had kissed the Blarney stone, setting the bar for all who were to follow. It was a beautiful day when we arrived with the sky a deep blue and the fluffiest white clouds passing by ever so slowly. I had pretty much expected a castle off side the road t...