So, as most of you know we both just took a carry on.  Meaning we would need to find a laundry mat so we could wash some clothes.  Well, we found one only they are called Laundrette’s because there is someone working there that will wash your clothes for you while you go about your day.  The one we found was in downtown Dublin and our hotel was about a 20 minute or more walk from there.  This wouldn’t have been bad because we could have caught a bus that would take us that direction, but no.  They were having a marathon while we were there and all the roads were closed.  It also just so happened that it went right past our hotel.  So needless to say there was no bus available.  So, we converted our bags to backpacks and started walking.  Yes, we walked into downtown Dublin to the Laundrette and got our clothes washed.

We had about 45 minutes to kill while the clothes washed so we walked around downtown.  In our wanderings we walked around the Temple Bar area, down on the waterfront and past this cute little bakery that smelled really good.  Keep in mind we are still walking around with our backpacks on just screaming TOURIST.  While the clothes dried we went back to that cute little bakery and got ourselves something to eat.  By 11:30 that morning our laundry was finished.  After getting our clothes we continued to walk around and found ourselves on Grafton Street.

This was cool.  It reminded me of our Saturday market a little.  The street is lined with stores on both sides and the street is made of cobblestones.  Cars are able to drive down the street but for the most part is a pedestrian street only.  The one thing we noticed right away was that at each end of the street you found a Burger King and McDonald’s almost side by side.

We got back to the hotel in time for our trip around the city.  One of our stops was Dublin Castle.  This was an interesting tour because it’s not really a castle anymore, it’s more of a mansion instead.  The only original part of the castle that still remains is a tower.  Even that has been altered and is taller that it originally was.  The inside was very nicely decorated.   First room we went through was the ladies drawing room.  We learned that the large screens you see on stands in front of the fireplace was there because of the makeup that women wore at the time.  The screen was to keep the heat from the fire off of their face and to keep their makeup from running.  This is were we get the term “Saving face” from.  Women wore very think makeup back then because most of them had small pox scars.  The final layer of makeup they would put on was wax based and did not agree with the heat from the fireplaces.

We then went through the throne room.  The throne was huge.  We learned that the last person to sit in that throne was Queen Elizabeth II grandfather.  Because England no longer rules Southern Ireland, she did not get to sit in the throne on her resent visit.

Next was the dinning room.  This is a very long room with paintings of all the chancelors that presided over Ireland on the walls.  In the middle of one wall was a large fireplace and on the facing wall were windows.  Between the windows were three domed mirrors.  The most important seat in the dinning room was just in front of the fireplace because you could see every corner of the room thanks to the domed mirrors on the other wall.

The last room we saw was the ball room.  The room is very blue with huge mirrors on the walls.  On the ceiling are three large paintings.

After our tour of the city we returned to our hotel for our welcome drink (since this was technically the beginning of a new tour and a new tour director) then dinner.   Dinner turned out to be dinner and a show.  That’s right, irish music and step dancing.  Right up my alley.  =)  Dinner wasn’t bad even thought they had all of us packed into the room like sardines.  Dwayne went up to the room after dinner because he had a headache.  Good thing to because the waitress came by with a try full of drinks and she must have tripped or something because the next thing I know I’m wearing a glass of red wine.  And of course because she spilled red wine I had to be wearing a white shirt.  My new white shirt that I had just bought before the trip.  Needless to say the shirt is still with the hotel.  They are trying to get my shirt clean.  We will see how successful they are when we get back to Dublin.

Ok, so today was really just a travel day.  They  had to get the bus from Scotland back over to Ireland.  We just go to go along for the ride.

Some of the road signs were quite humorous.  When we left a town there was always a sign that says “Haste Ye Back”.   The other sign I saw that I thought was great was a sign in the middle of a traffic circle.  On one side it was welcoming you to the city, on the other side it read “Whist’s Yer Hurry?”  We didn’t get a picture of that because the bus went by way to fast.  lololol.

We made one comfort stop before we got to the ferry.  It was a cool little store still in Scotland that reminded me of Fred Meyer.  This store had a little bit of everything in it only cuter.  It also had a full cafeteria in the back of the store.

The ferry that we rode over on was huge.  They were loading semi trucks on it.  The ferry ride was two hours long.  At the front of the ferry was a lounge, followed by a cafeteria.  Down the hall was a quite room if you just wanted to read.  After that was a kids game room, a gift shop, casino, arcade and the concierge desk (which did currency exchanges for no fee).  At the other end of the ferry was a theater room.  Dwayne and I sat in there and watched a movie and I slept.  =)   The other half of the ferry was a truckers lounge basically.    They had a lounge, shower and cafeteria.

After we got off the ferry we drove thru Belfast and then down into Dublin.  I have to say that I had a really hard time staying awake and I’m ashamed to say that I slept through most of the drive.

We got into Dublin and we were so tired we just ate dinner in the hotel bar and went back up to our room.  The food was pretty good though.

Today we were taken on a tour of the city and then up to the Castle.  On our way to the Castle we stopped at a little cemetery were our guide told us a story about two Irish men who started stealing freshly dead bodies and selling them to medical schools for 10 lbs each.  Back in the day medical research could only be done on dead prisioners and no one else.  These two men started raiding cemeteries for bodies.  Afterwards watchtowers were put in one particular cemetery to stop them.  They started going after people and getting them drunk until they would pass out, then put a pillow over their heads to smother them.  Come morning they were dead and they would take them off to the school and get their 10 lbs each.  Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the book The Body Snatcher based on these two men.

After our guide got us up to the castle and showed us around we were on our own.  There are only two building in the entire castle area that you can not take pictures.  One is the building the crown jewels are in and the other is the building where they have the books listing all the Scots soldiers that have died in battle.  They have books with records dating back to 1914 to current.  You can look through the books and see the names, what battalion they were in and when they died and how they died.  The crown jewels were quite impressive as well.  We toured the dungeons, as well as the chapel on the grounds.  The chapel is the oldest building in Edinburgh.  I think the chapel was build in 1091 and was left standing when Robert the Bruce tore the castle down.  He got the castle back from the English but only after quite a few soldiers wee murdered to get it.  He refused to stay in the castle after that and tore it down brick by brick but left the chapel standing.

We were there when they shot the one o’clock gun was shot off.  I got a movie but will post that to our photo website later.  We haven’t pulled the castle pictures off our camera’s yet.

After we left the castle we walked down part of the Royal mile.  I would hate to see this place come July and August.  It was like walking down the sidewalks in Las Vegas.  The people were everywhere.  The Royal mile is the old town and there are a lot of very neat old buildings.  We took some pictures of the Closes as we went past.  This is there version of an alley.  Think Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies.  The lamps no longer have colored glass in them but colored plastic.  Still makes for very good photos though.

Then we wandered back down the hill to the newer part of town and back towards our hotel.  We met a couple of other women on the tour with us and we all went out to a pub for dinner.  And yes, we got a traditional little hole in the wall pub.

This concludes the Scotland portion of our tour.  Tomorrow we are on our way to Ireland to start that part of our tour.  Once we get to Dublin tomorrow we are on our own until the following day when that portion of our tour starts.  Not sure yet what we will do but I’ll keep you posted.  =)

I’ll post more pictures as we get them all straightened out.

This morning we took a tour of Aberdeen city center.  You almost need to spend a week in this city just to see everything.  The architecture on the buildings is amazing.  There are no pictures yet because we only did a drive through.  One of the other lady’s in our group got pictures and I will have to go and get some from her photo site to post.  There is still a portion of the original Aberdeen cathedral still standing.  Evidently General Cromwell stabled horses in part of the cathedral at one time.  Leave it to the English.

There are oil rigs off the coast and we learned that Aberdeen is the oil capital of Europe and they service the oil rigs off the coast.  All revenues from the oil go to Westminster and this is a bone of contention for the scots as 90% of all the oil is on the scots side of the border and none of the money stays in Scotland.

We pasted Donotar Castle were the Scottish crown jewels had been being stored.  Cromwell was on his way to the castle to try and get the jewels so he could melt them down, but the jewels were snuck out of the castle right past the soldiers and taken to Edinburgh castle where they were hidden in a false wall so no one could find them.  Needless to say Cromwell never did get to the jewels.  Charles II in 1650 was the last person to wear the Scottish Crown jewels.

This area was also the home base area for the Picts after the Scots had settled in the West and North of Scotland.  The only remains from the Picts are the standing stones that you find around the island.  Their language completely died out.  843 or so Scots finally beat the Picts and after that the Picts disappeared completely.

We toured Glamis Castle.  The childhood home of the Queen Mother.  The family still lives in this castle but has opened up most of it for viewing.  This castle was very cool because while most of it was paneled over, there is still a very large section in the middle that has not been and you can really see just how thick the walls were when they built these things.  It was very neat to see a castle with the stones still showing on the inside.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside but here is a picture of the outside.

After that we were off to St. Andrews.  This is the home of golf and yes, you guessed it where Prince William and Kate met at school.  And yes, they have a plaque at the pub where they met.  Talk about capitalizing on tourism.  =)  This was our lunch break and we only had 2 hours here so Dwayne and I passed on lunch and headed straight for the Cathedral and castle ruins at the other end of town.  The Cathedral has quite a large cemetery with it and was quite huge in it’s day.  You can see the foundation for most of it and can get a feel for the layout.

You can’t see it but behind us in the picture is the other end of the cathedral.  I’ll post more pictures of the cathedral later.

From there we moved on to the Castle ruins.  We were able to get most of our pictures from outside the fence but the tower you see in the background on the right of the above picture can be walked up and Dwayne wanted to go up so we bought a ticket which included admission to the castle.  I thought he had pictures already downloaded of the castle.  I’ll post some later so you can see it.

After that we headed in to Edinburgh and to our hotel for the night.

No pictures today.  I’m way too tired to sort through pictures for the post.  We have 2 days in Edinburgh after tonight so I will post pictures then.

Today on our way from Inverness to Aberdeen we went through a little town called Nairn.  This little town we learned was where Bonnie Prince Charlie had hoped to surprise the Duke of Cumberland and defeat him.  But, like everything else he planned he couldn’t get his act together and it wasn’t to be.   The town is really cute and has the traditional cottages lining the streets.

We passed by Cawdor Castle which was the setting for Shakespere’s Macbeth.

Passed through another little town by the name of Elgin.  There is a cathedral there that is now a ruin.  During the life of the cathedral it was burned twice and rebuilt.  Then it lost it’s roof and was left alone after that.  It is a very well preserved ruin with a cemetery.  It and the cemetery have been fenced off so you can’t walk around inside, but you can take pictures.

After that we were off to the Glenfiddich whiskey distillery.  Got some good pictures of the distillery and we took a tour to learn how they make the whiskey.  At the end of the tour we got to take three different years of whiskey that they make.   Learned that they buy previously used casks that had bourbon and sherry in them.  They fill each of the casks with the whiskey and leave them for a certain amount of time.  Then they take some whiskey from the bourbon cask and some whiskey from the sherry cask and combine them.  They then leave them in a different cask.   The whiskey ages as long as it remains in the cask.  Once they put it in bottles the aging stops.

After the whiskey tasking we went and had tea and scones.  The little place we went was a little cottage on the Dee river.  This was very cute.  After that we were off to Aberdeen and our hotel for the night.  Our hotel is called the Ardobe hotel and it started it’s life as a castle.  That’s it for today.  I’m off to get some sleep.