Our first stop was Windsor Castle, the home of Queen Elizabeth when she isn’t at Buckingham Palace. The part she resides in wasn’t open to tourists, but a large part of the castle was. While there were some interesting historical things here, for the most part it wasn’t that spectacular. I kept thinking that if I were the Queen I wouldn’t choose to live in such a dreary place.

Our next stop was Stonehenge. Although we saw things in Ireland that were older, it was still almost surreal being at Stonehenge. Maybe it was because the stones were so large, or that it was a mysterious place you had wondered about since you were little, but seeing it in the field as you topped the hill took your breath away.

From here we went to the village of Lacock for lunch. This village is very picturesque with its old cobblestone buildings, and it’s been used in several shows and movies including Harry Potter. Our lunch at the George Inn was brief but good. The pub dates back to the 14th century and included a medieval fireplace, complete with a dog wheel where a dog was used to turn the meat cooking over the fire. The bells at the local church were ringing, and saw when we went inside that about half a dozen residents were ringing them with ropes in the loft.

Our last stop was Bath, home of Roman Baths that were built around natural hot springs here during the first three centuries AD. There is a museum on the site now, full of artifacts from the original baths with glimpses of original foundations and walls intermingled with new displays that helped you picture the context of the pieces you were looking at. One of the more curious things on display were recovered curses that people had inscribed on plates and thrown into the springs. The entire city itself was beautiful, full of buildings built from limestone in the Georgian style.

After a long bus ride back to London, we grabbed some dinner before heading back to our hotel room to finish packing for our flight back the next day.

From here we walked on a pedestrian bridge across the River Thames to the London Eye, the famous ferris wheel. The totally enclosed cabs held maybe 15 people each, and the views of the city were great. I can only imagine they were spectacular at night too, but we didn’t make it back for a ride after dark. There was a lot to do around here, and we had to keep saying “next trip”. We stopped for some (sort of) familiar McDonald’s food. Like McDonald’s in Ireland, they had some unique items.

Next we walked back across the river, passing Big Ben on our way to Westminster Abbey. Wesminster was much more amazing than we expected, as it was full of tombs and memorials of kings and queens as well as other famous people, including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and William Shakespeare. The Abbey interior and its memorials were beautiful. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the main (and most interesting) part. We did take some pictures in the less interesting part of the cloisters, where photography was permitted. This did include some original wall murals that had survived, as well as a more recent portrait of Queen Elizabeth on display. That portrait, just this past Friday, was defaced.

From here, we walked to Buckingham Palace. Here we saw the famous guards (but not the changing of the guard) from outside the palace gates. At this point, whether it was because it was day 16 or because we hadn’t been walking this much, we hit a wall and had to return to our hotel for an afternoon nap. We had planned to visit the Tower of London, but once again had to say “next trip”. Just outside our hotel, though, we were surprised to see hundreds of nude cyclists. WARNING: There’s one picture in our gallery, but it just has naked butts.

We woke from our naps and headed to dinner and a burlesque show at Cafe de Paris (Wam Bam Club). Since it was a burlesque show, there was some semi-nudity (we saw much more from the cyclists on the street) but the show was much more than that as it included comedy, magic, acrobatics, singing, and dancing. Dinner was nice, and the entertainment was great.

We finished our night with some souvenir shopping and a stop at the London M&M store, which had some M&Ms you can’t get anywhere else in the world.

We had anticipated stopping at a few places, but we only ended up with time for one stop, at Newgrange. This passage tomb was built around 3,200 B.C., which makes it over 5,000 years old (older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid at Giza). I was disappointed to learn that the outside was actually a reconstruction (using the real stones found there) based on what an archaeologist believed it might have looked like (some other archaeologists disagree). However, it didn’t take away from the impressiveness of the large entry stone with its carvings, or from the inside (where unfortunately photography was not allowed). The neatest thing about the tomb was that it was designed so that for just a few minutes at the winter solstice, light would enter the chamber through an opening above the entry. They simulated this by turning off all the lights inside, and turning on an artificial light near the opening.

We headed to Dublin Airport, turned in our car (noting that we had traveled over 1,600 miles in it), and said goodbye to Ireland as we boarded our flight to London (which had been delayed).

We stopped at Titanic Belfast, the new 100 million dollar exhibit dedicated to the Titanic, located at the site where the ship was built and launched. The facility was top notch, with state of the art interactive exhibits. In one exhibit you are watching an old film of the first launch when the electrically controlled opaque glass behind instantly switches transparent revealing the view of the docks that matches the view in the film. Another one takes you on a 3D tour of the ship with screens on three sides of you.

From the street in front of the Titanic exhibit we took a famous Black Cab tour of Belfast. This tour was an eye opener, as we learned about Belfast’s troubled past (and present) while visiting areas located in the heart of these troubles. Since Michelle and I grew up in the 70′s and 80′s, we knew from common news reports of conflicts and bombings that Belfast had a long history of trouble but assumed (incorrectly) that everything was OK here now. We learned from our taxi driver/tour guide Steve that Belfast is separated by peace walls up to 25 feet high (named so because they were built to keep the peace). On one side are Protestants (most of whom are unionists who self-identify as British) and on the other side are Catholics (most of whom are Irish nationalists and self-identify as Irish). The Troubles between these two sides erupted in violence in 1969 and continued until a peace agreement was signed in 1998. Tensions are still high however, and gates between the two sides are still locked at night to keep peace. Steve said that there are still “skirmishes” every Sunday, and that one event could potentially set off violence at any moment. He agreed that Belfast had come a long way since 1998 though, and was hopeful that in time the walls could come down and both sides could live together peacefully.

Steve’s tour was unbiased, telling us a factual account of both sides without favoring either. Some of the stories were pretty scary (he warned us to make sure we wanted to hear them) but gave us an authentic overview of what happened that we appreciated. We visited the famous murals on both sides. Some of the murals were political in nature, or memorials to someone lost, but a good number of them were representing the hope for peace.

We left Belfast and passed from Northern Ireland back into the Republic of Ireland and headed for our stop for the night, Ross Castle B&B near Oldcastle. The B&B was our main reason for heading here, as it was one of the few castles that had been converted into a B&B in a rustic way that wasn’t super expensive or require a weekly rental. And, to Michelle’s delight (and my horror) it was supposedly one of the most haunted in Ireland. With plenty of animal skulls and taxidermy models, it was certainly creepy enough to make me jumpy. Then as it got dark we started hearing noises throughout the house. We finally determined it was the radiators heating up, but it was too late. I was spooked and in no mood to see ghosts tonight. We’ll see.

Our first stop along the Antrim Coast Road was Dunluce Castle, a picturesque castle ruin on a cliff overlooking the sea.

Next we stopped at an amazing natural wonder, the Giant’s Causeway (see the link for the legend behind the name). This strange geological formation consisted of over 40,000 geometrically shaped rock columns created by volcanic activity that cover the landscape and disappear into the sea.

We made an unplanned stop at Bonamargy Friary, an old church dating back to 1485 that we passed just off the road, before reaching our stop for the night, Culentra House in Cushendall. The car we had been following for an hour turned out to be a couple from England staying at the same B & B, and we talked with them over tea before heading to bed.

We arrived at our next stop Bruckless House, an ivy-covered country house with horses and gardens on a bay. After we were welcomed by our host Jane with some tea, we headed out to the highlight of our day and probably the best view of our trip, the Slieve League. Although not as famous as the Cliffs of Moher we visited earlier, these cliffs are three times higher at 1,972 feet. Some people walk for an hour from the first parking area but we had read online that it is OK to open a gate there and drive up to the second parking area. We got some ice cream at the little stand at the top of the cliff road and enjoyed the evening sun. There was also a lake and a castle high up on this mountain. On the way back to our room, we grabbed dinner at Kitty Kellys Restaurant, which is frequented by Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick who own a house nearby.

From the school it was a short drive to Cong Abbey in the nearby town. The monastery dates back to the 7th century but the existing structures date back to the 13th century. One neat thing about this abbey is that we saw its cross at the National Museum of Archaeology in Dublin on Day 1.

We drove through the treeless mountains of Connemara with its blue lakes. Along the way we saw an older man harvesting turf (the peat from the bog land dried and burned in fireplaces). He was using a blade to cut out “bricks” of turf which he stacked in piles. We also stopped for a picture of Kylemore Abbey before heading back to our hotel for some much-needed rest. We were so tired we didn’t come out for dinner, and had to order sandwiches from room service at 2am when we were starving.

The first site was an ancient holy well, where the ceremony included Joe walking around Michelle (as the earth around the sun), the blessing of Michelle, and Joe reading words to the song he wrote “Soul Mates”. The second site was an ancient standing stone where Joe was blessed, and another song was played by the musicians. On our way to the third site, the altar at the church ruins, we encountered a large group of Japanese tourists who all took turns congratulating us and taking our picture. Inside the church, we had a special witness as a horse from the adjacent field watched the entire thing with his head through the window of the church. Here there was a reading by Dara about “Anam Cara”, Irish for “Soul Mate” and we exchanged matching rings inscribed with “Mo Anam Cara” – “My Soul Mate” followed by a moving song sung and played on the guitar by Laughlin. At the fourth site, an ancient sun dial, we made remembrances for those not with us, touched fingers through the hole in the stone (ancient Irish tradition for sealing a deal), passed a scarf through the hole three times (Irish tradition for making a wish), and were blessed as a couple by Dara. Although it was a misty day, it made the setting feel mystical. Although our friends and family weren’t with us, the warmth given to us by Dara, his family and the musicians (not to mention our new Japanese friends and the horse) made for a perfect day among new friends. The ceremony sites are described in more detail on Dara’s website.

The gallery above includes 10 pictures taken by Dara’s wife Tess who happens to be the local photographer. We’ll include more later, along with video (taken by Dara’s 17-year-old son Tuan). The words to Joe’s song “Soul Mates” can be found here.

Next we stopped for a quick look at Gleninsheen Wedge Tomb. While it wasn’t all that impressive to look at, it was dated to 2500 BC and was worth the stop as it was just off the side of the road.

The next stop was Poulnabrone Dolmen, a portal tomb dating back to as early as 4200 BC. Excavations in 1985 revealed the burial of between 16 and 22 adults and 6 children beneath the monument. The landscape around the tomb were also fascinating. Many years ago, the limestone cracked and over time the erosion from acid in rainwater widened and rounded the cracks to create a patchwork of rock and crevices (see gallery).

The next stop was Caherconnel Stone Fort and Sheep Dog Demonstration. While the fort wasn’t as impressive as others we had visited, they had done an excellent job in presentation. The highlight however, was the sheep and cattle dog demonstrations. The farm owner explained how after long training when the dog is first taken out to the sheep that he either had “the stare” necessary to control the sheep or he didn’t. If he didn’t, the training was for nothing and the dog would be used as a pet and never as a working sheep dog. He used both voice and whistle to demonstrate how the dog could be instructed from a distance to stay, walk up to the sheep, circle left, and circle right to maneuver the sheep through obstacles in the field. It was very impressive. He did a similar demonstration with the cattle dog, except the cattle dog would bite the hind leg of the cow if necessary. He explained that the dog knew to only bite the leg that was on the ground so that by the time the cow took another step, he was safely away from getting kicked in the face.

We made an unplanned stop at Killinaboy Church as we drove past it and thought it looked interesting.

Our last major site of the day was maybe one of our favorites so far, Kilmacduagh Monastic Ruins. The site dates back to the 7th century with parts of the existing structures dating back to as early as the 10th century. While it is visible from the road, all of the gates and doors to the interiors are locked. We had read online that if you go to the house across the street, the caretaker will give you a key to enter all the buildings, and she did. So we ended up watching tourists come and go on the street while we went everywhere like we owned the place.

We made one stop in Galway to pick up rings for our vow renewal the following day, before arriving at our stay for the next 3 nights in Connemara, the Ballynahinch Castle Hotel.

Our only stop of the day was the Cliffs of Moher, just south of Doolin. It was a clear sunny evening, but very windy especially up on the cliffs, which are 702 feet above the ocean and their highest point. We can see why everybody wants to include the cliffs in their trip to Ireland (it receives over one million visitors per year). They truly were beautiful, especially washed in the light of the evening sun from the west. We didn’t stay for sunset however (which was nearly 10pm), but instead headed to the Ballinalacken Castle Country House Hotel, just north of Doolin.

We were warmly welcomed by our host Declan, who invited us to have dinner in the hotel restaurant. We really didn’t feel like going out again, so we had a wonderful dinner there. After dinner, Declan offered to give us a tour of the castle ruins adjacent to the hotel. The castle dates back to 1390 and was originally owned by the O’Connor family and was later taken over by the O’Brien family in 1564. The hotel dates back to 1840. Declan’s family (the O’Callaghans) bought the hotel and castle in 1938 and has operated it ever since. The castle was as stunning as any other we have visited so far, and Declan’s eagerness to share his intimate knowledge of it with us made it one of the highlights of our trip. We finished off the evening with Baileys coffees at the cozy hotel bar. The hotel seemed like a perfect size – large enough to enjoy the on-site restaurant but small enough to get the personal connection you would expect from a bed & breakfast. And a private tour of a castle not open to the general public was such a bonus that we felt like we got a great value for our money, and will definitely be coming back here for our next trip. We were so mesmerized by the castle that we accepted Declan’s gracious offer to take a second tour the next morning before we left.