We Begin Our Visit to the Emerald Isle

On Friday, we flew out of Heathrow to Dublin, Ireland.  Below, Jana and Lincoln pass the time while waiting for Aer Lingus to call us to board:

 

After settling into our new hotel, we ate lunch at the Woolin Mills Pub.  We then walked over to the Leprechaun Museum, where a story teller explained some of the folklore history and even wove Lincoln into one of his colorful stories.  

More of Dublin tomorrow.

Jana & Lincoln visit Cambridge!

 

Mark has been teaching his study abroad class each summer since 2012.  I have been blogging about each of our visits to Cambridge and Vienna during these sessions.  We are so happy that this year we can share Cambridge with Jana and Lincoln.  The photos below show some of the places they visited.  For a more detailed explanation of any of these sights and places, go to markanditagotoeurope2012.blogspot.com as well as markanditagotoeurope2013 and markanditagotoeurope2014. 

 

To get to Cambridge, we went to Kings Cross train station and Lincoln got to go on his first official train ride!

 

Forty-five minutes later, we arrived in Cambridge.  Mark teaches at Clare College, which has an Old Court and Memorial Court.  Most of the 31 colleges, such as Clare, have dorms, a buttery (cafeteria) and chapel.  So, we started with Memorial Court but found it was once again taken over by the ARM company for a week of conferences, so I didn't take photos, but it was very nice leading J&L through Clare College  to the dorms, introducing them to Sally in the main office, visiting the Great Hall Dining Room, and walking through the beautiful English gardens of Clare College.  Below is the Fellows Garden.

After crossing the oldest bridge in Cambridge, we stop for a rest at the Scholar's Garden:

And Lincoln enjoys watching the punts and ducks in the River Cam:

After we left Clare College, we went to King's Chapel next door.  Then, we walked on the cobblestones down the Senate Passage (our usual daily route into the town of Cambridge), which intersects with Kings Parade, a beautiful long road where Kings College and other beautiful buildings flank on both sides.  Here, having just left Senate Passage at Kings Parade, Jana and Lincoln pause for a break:

While Jana and I shopped at Cath Kidston, Mark took Lincoln to Benet's Ice Cream Shoppe.
When we caught up with them, Lincoln was still enjoying his chocolate ice cream:

Lunch was at the Eagle Pub, of course!!

After more shopping in Cambridge, we walked to the Fitzwilliam, a museum of notable paintings,
sculptures, collections of ancient Greek artifacts, and medieval English suits of armor and armaments:

As we walked back into town to return to the train station, we stopped at the Corpus Clock - it usually has quite a good size crowd around it.

 

 

Tomorrow, we fly to Ireland!

British Museum and Pub Dinner: check and check!

Today Jana was able to check off two items from her list:  a visit to the British Museum and fish and chips at a local pub.  First, the British Museum --

The British Museum is free and a very popular destination for

the English and tourists like us.

This is a view of the inside of the Museum.

We strategize our visit - there is so much to see!

 

Our focus on this visit was ancient Egypt, Assyria,

and ancient Europe, which included Celtic and

Roman Britain.

We start with the Egyptian antiquities.

 

Poppa keeps an eye on Lincoln as Mom visits nearby displays.

A favorite for Lincoln was the "Clocks and Watches" section

that displayed the earliest forms of clocks over the centuries.

 

This particular clock kept Lincoln's attention for quite awhile.

The ball took 1 minute to move through each side of the grooved plate.

Lunch at The Great Court Restaurant at the top of the Museum.

After lunch, we visit the Egyptian mummies and tombs.

 

As Jana visits the gift shop, Lincoln plays with Poppa with his new toys.

 

 

For dinner, we head to a local pub, The Swan, for fish and chips

and for Lincoln, a burger with fries.

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we head to Cambridge by train!

Lincoln Visits the Queen's Palace

When one visits London, it's only good manners to call on the Queen.  Since she happened
to be out, we decided to persevere anyway and visited Buckingham Palace's lovely State Rooms. 
Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside.  We saw galleries, ballrooms, and state rooms. 
There was a special display showing the set up for a huge state dinner - silverware, china,
decorations, seating, linens, etc.  I learned a few things!

At the end our tour, we came out of the backside of the Palace.

This grassy area is where the Queen holds charity events and invites thousands

of her people for a massive meet and greet.  Also, some events are sporting

expeditions for charity where the Royals, such as Prince William, will participate.

Before heading down the back stairs, there is a lovely Garden Café.

We had tea and special cakes.

After our tea, we visited the Gift Shop - they ship!

Then we headed out of the Palace grounds through a beautiful garden area.

 

Now, it's off to St. James Park! 

One last look - Goodbye!

I forgot to take photos of Lincoln playing in the children's park at St. James Park. 
It's a beautiful and well-maintained park across the way from the Palace - the Queen's park,
I believe, with lots of ducks and other birds enjoying the space.  The flowers are beautiful
and colorful. 
At the children's park, Lincoln  seemed to especially enjoy the large area with boulders to climb
and sand to fall into.  He held his own against the English boys roughhousing on the boulders. 
We also ate hotdogs - not quite like our U.S. ballgame hot dogs, but we enjoyed them.

We walked over to Westminster Abbey.  No cameras allowed inside. 

I was impressed with Lincoln's patience and respectful demeanor

as we walked slowly and quietly through the Abbey.

Afterwards, given the late afternoon hour, we walked to the

park across the street to view Big Ben!

Across another street were statues of famous statesmen,

including Pres. Lincoln.

This was a long day for a 4 year old and everyone else.  Tomorrow will be the British Museum!

Dinosaurs and Shopping . . . No Bones About It!

                It's off to London's Natural History Museum on our first full day here. 

This is a beautiful Victorian era old museum that was built in the 1800's has quite a collection from a much older time period:  Dinosaurs!  Bones, that is. 

We went into the dinosaur bones exhibit, which is very kid friendly and informative.

Everything was going along swimmingly until Lincoln heard a roar from behind a tall wall . . . this was not a welcome sound to this 4-year old!  The Museum had reconstructed a T. Rex to be animated, with sound effects and moving parts . . . not one bit of it was to Lincoln's liking, so we went past this exhibit pretty quickly.  Survival of the fittest sometimes means survival of the fastest!

We continued through the Museum and saw many other exhibits.  When he gets older, Lincoln is going to enjoy returning and participating in some of the exhibits that were meant for the older kids.

So, how do you follow up a visit to an internationally-renowned museum such as London's Natural History Museum?  Why, you go to Harrods, of course, for tea and shopping . . .

Harrods is quite a unique shopping experience and destination.  I think most people go there just to view the very high-end products they sell and are on display.  The store seems to be on the cutting edge for fashion and technology products.  Even their candy room, food market and meat counters are packed with everything.  I had never seen so many truffles and chocolate candies displays like they have. 

In case you ever need to know this, the 3rd floor is called "Toy Kingdom" - it's unbelievably packed with every type of toy you could think of and more!  By the way, Harrods ships.  Wait til Lincoln gets home . . . .

The Legos exhibits were particularly interesting because they were so complicated and well done: 

The Harrods Store!

Close up of the Harrods Store

The Tower Bridge

We were pretty well spent by the end of the day. The next day will be another busy day . . .