Insatiable Wanderer: September 2014

And so begins our long day of travel back to London.

We left the hotel early in the morning to catch our ferry from Ireland to Wales. The ride was about 4 hours, which is the longest we have been on a boat on this trip. We all had fun hanging out together though, and it made me realize how much I was going to miss seeing these people everyday.

Once in Wales, we did quite a bit of driving before making our one and only stop at a famous train station. This particular station is famous because it is the train station with the longest name in the world! It is called: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. If you don't speak Welsh it is practically impossible to say, although that didn't stop us from trying! Most of us just got tongue twisted and all of us were laughing uncontrollably while others tried. In English, the word means: The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave. Even in English it's a mouthful!

Then there was a lot more driving. All the way back to London. Where our tour finally came to an end. However, our vacation wasn't over yet! We checked in to our hotel and then met up for dinner with a bunch of the people from our tour who were still in town, like us. Later that night, we planned our day in London!

Our last full day in Ireland.

The day began with something that most people, including myself, had been looking forward to for the entire trip: touring the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin! We were introduced to the entire process of how Guinness is made, from the ingredients, to the actual brewing, and then the tasting. We got to see many of the early machines that did the job in the early days of Guinness and also a lot of the original advertising. It was so interesting and fun!

To end our tour, we were treated to a perfectly poured pint of 2 day old Guinness. And when I say perfectly, I mean PERFECTLY, because there is a specific way of pouring it and if they do it wrong, they dump it out and start over! We received our pints at the top of the building in the Gravity bar, where there is a spectacular 360 degree view of Dublin from above. It was amazing. Nothing like a pint of Guinness at 11 in the morning to make you feel Irish!

After the tour, we drove into the center of town where we were dropped off for our free day to explore the beautiful city of Dublin. The group of people I was with went straight to the Trinity pub for lunch.

Then it was time to see the city! First we trekked to St. Patrick's Cathedral, although we did stop and see the Christ Church Cathedral along the way. The outside of the St. Patrick's was amazing, but the inside was spectacular. So many stained glass windows and such intricate stone work throughout.

We then walked to the heart of the city to see Trinity College. The grounds and the buildings were so beautiful, I couldn't even fathom that it was a school!

From there I separated from my little group to walk around in the major shopping areas. One street that I ended up on had a different street performer about every 20 feet! The street was filled with music and laughter! This was also where I found . . . the Dublin Disney Store! Jordan and I had actually been trying to find a Disney store in most of the cities we visited. We actually found quite a few and made a point to take a picture out front and, of course, look around inside. (We are total Disney nerds!)

After a bit of shopping, it was time to trek across town, back to the hotel, to get ready for our farewell dinner. And of course, the whole way back I was snapping pictures!