Speaking of the luck o' the Irish, Ruth and I had a lucky break with our travel plans. We had debated spending more time in the Cotswolds or other places in Western England, but we decided not, in favor of seeing Wales and Ireland and Scotland. The day after we left the Cotswolds, they were dumped on by some huge storms, and all travel in the area was shut down: train operations suspended and roads closed. Good thing we got out when we could, otherwise we would have been stranded! I guess there are worse places in the world to be stranded, but we're enjoying seeing the different areas of the British Isles.
Speaking of luck, we have been also lucky(?) in having some interesting B&B experiences. At our B&B in Wales, our good landlord like to talk, so we got an inside look at what life is like in small-town Wales. We heard all about his kids and things to do in the area and normal stuff like that, but then we ventured in to global warming and the French. Apparently, he's not too keen on the French, since he asserts that there are always wars going on between the British and the French. The current war that he told us about involved the French burning British sheep!
We otherwise had a lovely time in Wales: we rambled around an old castle (Conwy Castle), which we pretty much had to ourselves, and then toured the Bodnant Gardens, which are gorgeous. (As a side note, my camera has pretty much given up the ghost after all of the abuse it has taken this trip, so there probably won't be any more photo uploads until we get home.)
From Conwy, we trained to the port to take the ferry to Dublin, passing lots of sheepies and green fields, as well as the town/train station with the longest name ever: the lovely Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. This lengthy name apparently means "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave."
Our crossing from Wales to Dublin was smooth, despite the 100s of young scouts that were on our boat and raising Cain. This morning we explored Dublin, walking around the town and seeing Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green and some nice Georgian-era architecture. For our thoroughly Irish experience we attended evensong at St. Patrick's Cathedral, sat in the Guinness pew (as in the beer), and listened to an organ play the "Tuba Tune," which is more commonly referred to as "Danny Boy!"
Tomorrow we head to Belfast for the day, and then to the Giant's Causeway on the Northern Coast of Ireland. Should be pretty! It's a little over a week before we come home, and we're excited to get back, since living out of a suitcase gets a little tiring, and we miss all you good folk. Hope you're doing well, and we'll try to keep you updated this last week!
