After a couple of days in London & finally meeting up with Big Jerry & Tess after their eventful mission trip to Belize, we ended up in Dublin, Ireland. First of all, the flight from Heathrow to Dublin is the easiest thing ever. Hop on, sit, drink some hot tea, hop off, catch a taxi, and bam!...Dublin. By the way, it's SO GREEN. And there is free wi-fi everywhere you go. #winning

We were only in Dublin for 2 days, so we researched some things you cannot leave Dublin without seeing & pretty much did the touristy thing. Although, it wasn't too bad considering Dublin is a hoppin' city, but it's small & very easy to navigate (at least compared to London!). We stopped by St. Stephen's Green, Trinity College & its Old Library, Grafton Street, Guinness Storehouse, 3fe Coffee, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Murphy's Ice Cream, and Temple Bar. All in 1 day. It was awesome!

I only shot black & white film and with my iPhone in Dublin. I love capturing city life in black & white, however Dublin is such a colorful city so I'm glad I at least shot on my iPhone to capture it all! To see all the details on the instagram shots below, go check out my page!

I love quiet little moments like this girl feeding the geese. It reminds me of my childhood when we would take all our old bread to the parks in England and get swarmed by the ducks and geese.

We stopped by the Old Library at Trinity College early in the morning on our second day in Dublin. This was such a beautiful place. A library that you dream about...of course, I dreamed I was Belle in the Beast's library. We went to go see the Book of Kells, which was stunning. The exhibit before the Book discusses the details of creating books and illuminated manuscripts, something incredible to see after my art history class of medieval monsters in religious books! While there are no pictures from there, here are some beautiful shots from the Library upstairs!

The Dublin Dental Hospital & School for Jerry!

Inside St. Patrick's Cathedral. Such a colorful place inside, but quite a hefty fee to go in. Since when do churches charge to go to church? Although, considering the economic hit Ireland took in the last 5 years, I don't blame them.

After St. Patrick's Cathedral, we trekked across the city to the Guinness Storehouse...that's a good walk by the way so be ready, or take a taxi. This was a neat museum on Guinness and the company as a whole. It was all inside of "the world's largest pint glass," which decided to be clever and add a "foamy head" to their ceiling in their top-floor pub. It's amazing the impact Guinness has on Dublin and Ireland. They were one of the first companies in the world to offer paid vacation, so I'll drink a Guinness to that!

And what's better than Ice Cream after a day of miles of walking? Murphy's Ice Cream is what Ireland is clearly the best. Ireland is very proud of everything Irish. And they should be proud! Locally grown, locally produced, locally consumed & mostly always organic! They have figured out the system and it's quite a delicious one. Murphy's Ice Cream is handmade in Dingle, a small little coastal town (post coming soon!) and their signature flavor is Sea Salt. SO GOOD! They also have crunchy peanut butter, Bailey's Irish Cream, Guinness, & Brown Bread just to name a few flavors!

Also, the best treat of all to me (& thank you for walking 1.5 miles for a great cup of coffee), was to find the best coffee-house in Dublin. 3fe Coffee had tons of people talking online, especially about their latte & home-roasted beans. So we walked...and walked...and walked just so I could get a cup. It was so worth it though. Just as smooth and creamy and absolutely beautiful (love their latte art!) as I expected it to be! And as a plus, we got to see a cool little school multicultural parade while we were sipping away!

Thanks for following along! My plan is to have some photos of our Castle Tower house in Limerick up tomorrow!

I hope y'all enjoyed my first post on our Summer trip to England & Ireland. London is such a magical place with incredible history. I hate that we only just stopped by to say hello! This post, I'm showing you photos from my day with Uncle Dana & Aunt Lin. I haven't been out to their place, Nottler's Lodge, since I was 7 or 8 and haven't seen Uncle Dana & Aunt Lin in forever! They live just outside of London in a small village called Bricketwood, about a 20 minute train ride outside of London. When I was a kid, I would camp in their back yard, go visit Aunt Lin's dad, Reg, ride their tractors, talk with their foxes, fly across their land on my little bike, and once I even buried a baby bird that fell from its nest! I was a pretty decent kid, I think. Anyway, they picked us up from the train station and we traveled around the countryside with them visiting where I romped around as a kid, a beautiful cathedral, & a 900-year-old Royal pub. And even better, Jerry and his mom, Donna, had never met the legendary Uncle Dana, so this day was just amazing! Needless to say, family, traveling, & Pimm's make for one awesome day!

Our first stop was to St. Alban's Cathedral, a beautiful medieval Abbey church who had a great take on its art & architecture. Being the art history nerd that I am, I have absolutely loved visiting churches across Europe & actually knowing what the art means, and the style of architecture, and just...well, being an overall nerd. St. Alban was a martyr for the Church. He was converted to Christianity by the priest of Alban, and when the Roman soldiers came to execute the priest, St. Alban impersonated the priest & died in his place. He was beheaded on the site of the Abbey & legend has it that his body rolled down the hill after his death. Gross, huh? But such a stunning church. The stained glass above is was done in memory of Princess Diana, and the colorful modern-day saints had me in love. I mean, who lets a local group of students create modern-day saints of John Lennon & Martin Luther King, Jr. to stand at the altar? St. Alban's does.

After we traversed around St. Alban's Abbey, we hopped in the car and took some beautiful back highways (and of course avoided all the highwaymen) to The Royal Standard. This pub claims to be the oldest pub in England, and while all pubs claim that, this is the only royal pub in England. This pub has some amazing history, so click this link if you want to know because it's a lot. A lot happens in 900 years, people. Definitely too much to blog about. But the coolest part I will talk about. In this lovely pub that smells of wood, beer, and fish & chips (just the tip of the aroma-iceberg), lies a hidden room that housed King Charles I when England was in a civil war. The pub was also an inn, and the hidden priest's hole housed the King when he disguised as a servant to escape his enemies. The priest hole, or hidden room, is seen labeled in the picture below, saved His Majesty's life. Pretty awesome, huh?

Somehow, just somehow, that awesome beer glass & it's mate will forever be with us. I had to get rid of some coffee mugs, but it was well worth it.

This was our table guest. Such a loving cat who just wanted the "fries with eyes," which were little fried Whitebait fish. And I love the old glass windows where the glass has warped over the years. Such a beautiful thing to look through & hard to get anything in focus with a camera.

This is the priest's hole where King Charles I hid during war! I hate we can't get in but it's royal & historical, which basically means you can't touch it in England.

Oh, and you have to love good ol' Uncle Dana! He can't stop talking for one second to take a picture! Here he is with his lovely wife, Aunt Lin, & Mrs. Donna! Such a great day with y'all! Thank you for being such lovely tour guides!

Tomorrow-be ready for some photos of Dublin. And beer. And books. And ice cream. :)