Would you like a wee spot of tea?

My sister and brother-in-law have been living in Glasgow, Scotland for the summer. Brian got an opportunity to work on his PhD research over there at the University of Strathclyde. They have loved it over there. Kelley has probably liked it best since all she does is go to coffee shops, tour museums and walk around the beautiful town. :) Just kidding. She actually has work to do since their flat does not have a clothes dryer or dishwasher. And she has been keeping a blog and keeping her Etsy business up.My family thought it would be a perfect time to visit the United Kingdom and Ireland since Kelley and Brian were already there, so we bought the plane tickets and starting planning (by we, I mean my parents and Kelley). We headed out of DFW August 19th. It was a long 2 plane rides over there, but we eventually got there! We met Kelley and Brian at the airport and took a taxi to their flat. Their flat was small, but perfect for them. It was a two bedroom and had a cute little kitchen, living room and bathroom. (Sorry for all the pictures in advance)

After dumping our stuff off there, we walked down to The University of Strathclyde to see where Brian works. 

After that we caught a bus to Loch Lomond and toured it on a boat. It was beautiful! It wasn't Loch Ness, but it was still pretty, even without the chance to see Nessie.

We found a cute little tea room to eat at and then headed back to Glasgow. I tried Irn Bru, the popular fizzy drink there. It tasted like Big Red. 

When we got back we took a double decker tour bus ride around the city. We learned all about the history, art and landmarks of Glasgow.

It was dinner time by the time we finished the tour so we ate at a restaurant that had Scottish food. Brian ordered haggis and made everyone try it. It actually wasn't too bad. It was similar to meatloaf. After stuffing ourselves we went back to the flat and mom and dad went to their hotel. Kate and I got to stay at the flat with Kelley and Brian. The next morning we rode a train to Edinburgh. We got to tour The Real Mary King's Close. It was really neat. It is a warren of 17th century underground streets, spaces and abandoned houses that were partially demolished. We toured some of the rooms of the houses underground and they had recreated events that happened there. There was a murder scene and a death by plague scene that really made you glad you did not live in that era. The tour was about an hour long and was SO worth it. After walking the underground streets we headed over to the Edinburgh Castle.

It was built in the 12th century and still stands today. We got a tour of it and then walked around the dungeon, The Royal Palace where the Crown Jewels are kept and took some pictures by Mons Meg, a cannon given to King James II by Duke Philip of Burgundy in 1457 that could fire a 300 lb. stone 2 miles. 

My mom and Kelley decided we hadn't seen enough so we went on a train ride to St. Andrews. We visited the golf course and actually got to play putt putt on it. I won't tell you who won because I don't want to brag.

After hitting birdies and pars we went back to Glasgow to eat dinner at Vespbar on Aston Lane. We ordered the meter long pizza! This was probably my favorite meal while there! Duh, pizza. 

And we destroyed it.

While we were walking to Kelley and Brian's flat we encountered a drunk-off-his-butt character. My dad asked what he was looking for and the inebriated man replied, "A woman of the night!" My dad told him to go on because all of us women were his. We got a pretty good kick out of it. The next morning we got to sleep in and not get up at the crack butt of dawn (yes, Penny's, I stole that one from y'all) and headed to Cairnryan, Scotland where we caught the ferry to Belfast, Northern Ireland. On the bus ride over my mom made friends with a nice Irish fellow and his wife. His accent was so heavy my mum had to say "What?" after everything he said. She enjoyed talking to him though. The rest of us kind of ignored the guy until he asked Brian if he watched much boxing. Brian said he liked the good ole days of boxing with Muhammad Ali, etc. With that being said the Irish fellow started listing off names of Irish boxers that none of us, including Brian had never heard of. He was so surprised that we hadn't heard of them. Hello! We are from America and we just said we don't watch or keep up with boxing. Anyways, we had many laughs at his expense. I have rode a ferry before so I knew to expect a boat that fits about 40-50 cars and the sitting area is metal benches on the top or middle of the boat. When the boat came to dock I was very surprised. It looked like a cruise ship! It was huge! We walked on and found 3 different sitting areas (comfy chairs included), 2 bars, a game room, 3 restaurants, a kids playing area, a store to buy most of anything you wanted and slot machines. It was awesome! We got off in Belfast and walked around a wee bit, and then ate at Robinsons Bar. 

Friday we got up to catch a train to Dublin. We checked in at our hotel, The Pearse Hotel, then ate at Bewley's for lunch. After that we decided to take a tour bus around the city and see some sites. 

We got off at the Kilmainham Gaol and toured it. It is the biggest unoccupied gaol (jail) in Europe. The British built it in in the late 1700s. It is full of history, and it imprisoned many of the most famous people involved in the campaign for Irish independence. Our tour guide was great and told us all about the escapes, hangings, crowding and conditions of the prison back when it was in use. He said that at one time the prison held 9,000 people. It was made to accommodate around 800 prisoners. Also, he told us that children were arrested for petty theft. The youngest was 7 years old; he stole a loaf of bread because he was hungry. There was a museum at the entrance of the prison and it had the sign in book of the jail that said the name, age, offense and sentence. So many people that got arrested stole coats or food to stay warm and feed their families. There was no segregation in the cells either. It was sometimes 5 or more people to one cell. They had no heat and only one candle that they could only use one hour every night. This was one of my favorite stops on our trip. 

We decided to go back to the hotel and order pizza and then walk around the Temple Bar area in Dublin. While we were walking we saw some amazing street musicians. They were playing really neat Irish songs.

The next morning we got up and walked to Trinity College and took a tour of it. We were going to go inside the Old Library and see the Book of Kells and the beautiful library, but the line was too long and we had a bus to catch so we decided we would come first thing the next morning. 

Everyone was hungry by then and guess what we walk by? McDonalds! Yes, we had McDonalds over in Ireland. It wasn't bad. It reminded me of obese America, made me feel at home. The next tour we took was a bus tour called The P.S. I Love You Tour. It went out to the countryside and we got to stop at the spot they filmed P.S. I Love You at. 

We also stopped in Glendalow where monastery ruins from the 12th century were still standing. We walked around hearing about the history of the monastery and taking it in. 

There were two lakes nearby that we walked to (I found a cave along the way, and of course had to go check it out). 

Walking back out of the cemetary part of the monastery my dad buried a coin right behind Richard Kelly's headstone close by where the monastery monks lived. My dad said in 15-20 years we should go back with our kids and dig it up. When we got back to Dublin we ate at a Chinese Buffet just for Brian and then got ready for our pub crawl. We met two musicians at a bar where they played Irish songs and told us the history behind the Irish music then followed them to another bar. They were pretty fun guys to listen to. 

The next morning we walked to Trinity College to see the Old Library and The Book of Kells since the line was too long the day before. The Book of Kells is an illustrated manuscript of the 4 gospels in the Bible. It was illustrated by monks in 800 AD. It is so detailed that it must have taken a really long time to finish. It was really beautiful to see. After the Book of Kells section of the library we went into the Old Library of Trinity College. This is a still working library of really old books, but all the books are in order of size. Not subject, not author not even by number. All the small books are at the top and then they getter bigger as you get to the lower shelves. I'm not sure how they find any book there.

After the library tour we caught the DART to Howth, a peninsula suburb of Dublin. It is a fishing community that has been growing over the years. We heard they had awesome fish and chips so we stopped and got some. They were really good! We also saw a huge seal begging for food at the dock. We headed to the airport after that to catch our flight to London and so Brian could head back to Glasgow. We caught the Underground to our fancy hotel, The Andaz on Liverpool St. The hotel had free Wifi, free adult beverages, free cookies and snacks, heated towel racks and slippers to take home with you. It was one of the nicest hotels that we have ever stayed at. 

We decided to walk around downtown London to find a place to eat, but we kept walking and walking and walking and there were no restaurants anywhere. That is when dad got a little heated. He was hangry and tired of walking so much. So that made mom mad and we had a mini meltdown. They talked it out before we moved on and after that everyone was in a much better mood. We found a place called Nando's to eat at that was tasty and just what we needed. The next morning we caught the Underground and headed to Westminster Abbey. We walked by Big Ben and then toured the Abbey. 

You weren't allowed to take pictures, but as most of you know I don't like following the rules so here are a couple of the Abbey. 

We hit up Churchill's War Rooms after that. It was so cool to see the actual rooms they slept, ate and worked in. We had a headset that told us about each room and had audio of a couple of conversations that Churchill and others had. I really enjoyed walking around underground taking in all the history.

After that we found a sandwich place and had a picnic lunch in a park. After everyone was full and rested we went over to Buckingham Palace and walked around the outside of it. No, we did not see the Queen. We did see some of the Royal Guards though. 

After our little time in London we headed out on a train to Bath, England. We stayed in a cute bed and breakfast in walking distance of downtown. It was a two bedroom and two bathroom with a full kitchen and had more amenities than we were expecting. After a great night's rest we got up and toured the Roman Bath Rooms. The Roman Bath Rooms were built in Bath because of the natural hot spring found there in 60 AD. The hot spring still flows today and is a wonderful temperature to take a bath in. The Romans built room after room around the hot spring to make the building a spa for the richest of Romans. It included a steam room, massage room, cold pool room and private rooms with a small pool that the hot spring flowed into. It was really neat to see the baths and how they were still standing after all these centuries. 

Kate and I found this little place called Sally Lunn's House that had great reviews so we ate there for lunch. The specialty was the bath bun. It was an oversize bread bun that you could choose a sweet or savory topping to go on it. I got the best one with cinnamon butter on top! Yum!

After that Kate and I decided to go shopping while Kelley, mom and dad saw some more sights. We all met up to get on a bus that took us to Stonehenge. On the way there we passed one of the 16 white horses of the UK. The white horses are hill figures made of chalk. The white horse is a symbol of the British Royal family. We finally arrived at Stonehenge and toured it. We took a couple of goofy pictures while there. 

There were also burial mounds all around Stonehenge that fascinated my dad more than Stonehenge. After we got back to Bath we ate at an Italian restaurant and headed to bed early. On Wednesday we headed to the train station to catch multiple trains to Glasgow. Mom and dad were obsessed with looking at the maps and dad always had to have his compass on.

It took a while to get there, but it definitely beats riding a bus. When I went into the bathroom I saw this funny note on the wall and when the door shut a recording of a woman came over the speaker and read this exact sign. It made me laugh. 

We met Brian at the train station and headed to Kelley and Brian's favorite Indian restaurant, Mother India's. I was very hesitant, but they wanted us to go so bad so I kept my mouth shut. Most of it ended up not being too bad. The nan was WONDERFUL! I'm glad we could go to their favorite place to eat there.

The next day we flew back and headed home. I wanted to also share a couple of new words I learned from the UK and Scotland:

Rubbish - trash

Biscuit - cookie

Wee - little

Toilet - restroom

Chips - french fries

Lift - elevator

Crack - conversation

Cheers - thanks/bye

Queue - line

To let - for rent

Mind your step - watch your step

Nappies - diapers

It was a whirlwind of a trip, but we got to do and see so much that I wouldn't have changed anything. Thank you so much mom and dad for taking us and sharing this experience with us! Thanks Kelley and Brian for showing us around and being our tour guides!