One Year Ago...

I can hardly believe that one year ago, today, my Dad landed in London, and we began our two and a half week Eurotrip! 

Crazy how time flies!

Over those two weeks, we traveled to London, Dublin, Berlin, and Paris. At each destination we took in a few day trips as well to see other cities and the countryside.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip!

Fuller's Brewery

As I mentioned in my weekly recap post for last week, I got to chaperone some of the SU abroad students for a trip to Fuller's Brewery!  

On Friday morning, I met two other guides and the students at the SU Abroad center before boarding a bus to Fuller's Brewery. 

Fuller's Brewery is located out in Chiswick with the closest tube station being Turnham Green. For those still needing clarification on where it is, it is so far west that you can access the highway to Heathrow. 

Now, I've done the Guinness Factory three times and have toured Jameson twice, so I expected a similar tour. I was wrong!  

We were broken into groups of around 15 with a guide that took us threw the actual brewery showing us step-by-step of the process that occurs each day. 

On the banks of the Thames 

To start, we walked down to the Thames. Fuller's Brewery sits right on the edge of the riverbank.  Don't worry, though, the Thames water isn't used to make the beer! 

Throughout the tour, we learned of the various players that took stock in the company through the last couple hundred of years. 

Inside the brewery, we saw a lot of the original equipment that was and is still being used!  The brewing process is incredibly complicated yet interesting at the same time. However, I think I'll stick to government for the time being as the science behind the brewing was a tad complicated for me. 

Got Beer? 

Original Equipment 

Post the tour that lasted a little over an hour, we were treated to a few drinks! After all, it was a Friday, and it was 5 o'clock somewhere…

SU Student Guides 

If you've completed a lot of the main London attractions, or if you are up for a good pint, I highly suggest checking into Fuller's Brewery! It's entirely different than other tours, and it offers a fun adventure for a few hours! 

Father-Daughter Eurotrip: Day Eight

Sorry for the bit of the delay in writing these posts! You know busy being a tourist can be!

The day eight of our trip was mainly a travel day. We left Dublin around mid-day on our first flight to Sweden.  We had a bit of a short layover, but then we were off to Berlin!

Stockholm looked cold...

We ended up only having dinner at the hotel that evening. Neither one of us speaks German, and we did not want to get too lost. The Mark Bradenburg Restaurant at the Berlin Hilton is amazing! If you need a restaurant in Berlin, check it out! It was well worth it!

Father- Daughter Eurotrip: Day Seven

On Easter, we stayed in Dublin in order to see everything that had been closed on Good Friday. We had another day trip for our last day in Ireland. So, needless to say, we did a lot. 

We started out the day with doing a Viking Splash tour minus the water portion due to technical difficulties. It was an hour long tour, but it gave a great overview of the city. I had done one in 2010, so I knew this would be perfect again! The tour is a bit cheesy complete with viking hats and chants, but it makes the experience. 

The Four Courts

U2's Recording Studio 

After our hour tour and a coffee break to get warm, we headed to the Guinness Factory. I'm not sure whether it is sad or a good thing, but I have now done the Guinness Factory three times. Some new exhibits were open when Dad and I went through including special photo opportunities. We did the entire experience including the Guinness Factory. I am in fact, still certified to pour a Guinness. Dad passed as well!  For those of you who have never done the museum, you learn about how the beer is made, have a chance to understand how to taste a Guinness properly, see the famous exhibits, and learn about the history of the Guinness Factory. 

My Goodness, My Guinness!

We passed!

For lunch, we stopped in at Arthur's Bar to have some beef and Guinness stew as well as hear some live Irish music. Following lunch, we headed up to the Gravity Bar to get the "birds eye" view of the city. 

Beef & Guinness Stew

Live Irish Music 

Keeping up with the drinking activities of the day, Dad and I then headed down to the Jameson Experience. The Jameson Experience is a guided tour to understand how the whisky is made. At the end of the experience, there is a chance to volunteer to taste three different whiskies and choose your favorite. Of course, one of them is Jameson. The other two were Johnny Walker Black and Jack Daniels. Dad and I both volunteered for this experience! I'm not a huge whisky drinker; I did this experience on my last trip to Dublin in February, so I was prepared. Needless to say, we passed the whisky tasting experience with flying colors!

Passed the Taste Test!

Inside the Jameson Factory

Since it was Easter Sunday, many businesses were closed. That left us with dinner at the hotel. Although, since we had another day trip the next morning, we were fine with that. Stay tuned! 

Father- Daughter Eurotrip: Day Six

On our second day in Ireland, we headed out on a day trip adventure. This, of course, called for a 5am wakeup call with a 6am cab ride. Nevertheless, we put the tiredness feeling aside as soon as we checked in with our tour company at the Dublin Heuston Station. We booked the Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Bunratty Castle, and Galway rail tour through Viator.com which was serviced by Railtours Ireland. It was going to be a long day of seeing everything, but we knew it would be worth it.

Limerick

We started off with a train ride to Limerick junction where we should have transferred to another train. Unfortunately, there were issues with the train which led us to take a bus down to Limerick.  Once we got to Limerick, our tour began. We only got to drive through the city for a brief period before heading to Bunratty Castle.

Bunratty Castle

Bunratty Castle was built in the medieval times and has been restored to the period. Many of the pieces inside the Castle were not original to the Castle, itself, but rather the period. Outside the Castle, they had old houses that would have been common to the area in different eras. After the tour wrapped at Bunratty Castle, we kept heading West in order to get to the Cliffs of Moher. We did stop for lunch along the way. Don't worry...Dad got his fish and chips at last!

#nom

The Cliffs of Moher were amazing. Something truly worth seeing. I've done a lot of the cliffs throughout England and Ireland, but these were different. Just as the White Cliffs of Dover are unique, the journey to the Cliffs of Moher is worth it. We only had time to make it to the first part before the tour continued on. Nevertheless, we got the experience of them: smell of salt water, the wind in our faces, the cold, and watching some people be rather stupid near the edges...

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Dad and Me at the Cliffs of Moher

Departing from the Cliffs of Moher, we began our drive through the Burren on our way into Galway.  The Burren reminded me of the Giants Causeway (in Northern Ireland) in many areas. Much of the Burren was farmland which was cluttered with the remains of old churches and castles.

The Burren

Part that reminded me of the Giants Causeway

We ended up arriving in Galway later than we were supposed to leaving a very limited period of time to check out the city. Dad took it easy before the train ride back. I ran into the town center to just see part of the city. Putting it back on the list to go back to in the future! All in all, we covered a lot of territory in a short day!

Father- Daughter Eurotrip: Day Five

The truth is...I spend a lot of time in Dublin. It has only been a little over a month since I was here last.

Trinity College

Dad and I had a fairly early flight out of Heathrow on Friday to the Emerald Isle. Once we landed, we learned that all pubs were closed on Friday due to it being Good Friday. That also limited a lot of the tourism activities that we could. Yet, that did not stop us! 

Once we checked into our hotel, we headed down to St. Stephen's Green and Grafton Street. We decided to spend some time looking around Trinity College and the surrounding area before ending up at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I stayed at Trinity College in 2010 when I was on the ten day course through Syracuse! Ah memories!

In Dublin's Fair City...

Dad and Molly Malone

We were lucky to get inside St. Patrick's Cathedral before they closed down for Easter Services. I had not been inside since 2010, so I was excited to see the progress they had made at restoring parts of it.

Dad and me inside St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Before we stopped for an afternoon snack, we stopped at Christ Church Cathedral.

Christ Church Cathedral

And, finally, I can officially say that I've eaten at the Queen of Tarts. It's been on my list to try in Dublin for quite some time, but it has always been too busy to get a table. It was a bit chilly outside on Friday despite the sunshine, so we were glad we could warm up with some tea.

Before we headed back to the hotel, we strolled through Temple Bar. Since everything was closed, we did end up dining at the hotel. Yet, it may have been best as we had a fairly early day on Saturday!

Dad at the famous Temple Bar!

Europe Hopping!

School is over for at least another term. Break time has begun! 

With the higher education system at the UK, and more specifically, the LSE, we have five weeks off now until summer term begins. My big travel plans are finally ready to get started.

Tomorrow, my Dad will arrive tomorrow. You can see where we are headed on this older post.

Stay tuned for running updates for photos and notes about what we see, eat, and laugh at. 

Emerald Isle Visit!

This past weekend, I went to Dublin for my friend, Arielle's Birthday!

My return to the Emerald Isle after a year two-year hiatus ended when Arielle, Jenny, and I touched down Thursday evening. We had quite the journey to the London Stansted airport. The three of us met up at 5pm on Thursday to catch an EasyBus to London Stansted. For those of you who do not know, London Stansted is out of the city, and much harder to get to than Gatwick or Heathrow. We were scheduled on the 5:30pm bus. Yet, it got to be 5:40pm, and there was still no bus.  When I gave the customer service phone number a call, it was automated with no option of talking to a human. Finally, when it got to be 6pm, and we were concerned about missing our flight, we bought a ticket on a National Express bus to Stansted. We thought our troubles were over, but that was just the beginning. 

As the National Express bus started whisking us out of central London, we suddenly stopped at the Golders Green Station. The bus driver kindly informed us that there had been a major accident, and that the main road to Stansted was closed. As we realized that we would most likely miss our flight, we figured that we would get to the airport and buy another single flight to Dublin. Since we were flying a budget airline, it costs more to change a flight than normal airlines.  

We made it to the airport with roughly 30 minutes to spare to get our passports checked, make it through security, and to our gate. Needless to say, we were sprinting for those 30 minutes. But, we made it with time to spare! After I kindly told a Ryanair employee he was wrong about the cabin baggage policies, we boarded, and we were on our way! 

The Birthday Girl!

The first night, the four of went out to grab some quick food before checking out the Temple Bar area. Lots of memories from 2010! We listened to some live music at one pub before belting out classic songs such as "Sweet Caroline" at the final pub of the evening! 

On Friday, Emma arrived right after we got an early lunch. From there, we headed off to the Guinness Factory for the tour. Don't worry, we mastered the pouring of a proper Guinness at the Guinness Factory!

Making Walpoles Proud since 1990

Post Guinness, we headed down to the Jameson Factory. I was super excited about this one because I never got a chance to do it in 2010. The tour was quite interesting with a taste test at the end. The five of us volunteered to choose what our favorite whiskey was. I was the only one in the person to choose Jack Daniels over Jameson!

Friday evening, we went out to get traditional Irish food. A meal of potato and leek soup and bangers and mash held us over as we headed out to the Temple Bar area again! Live music and lots of laugh for the rest of the evening.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Saturday, Arielle, Jenny, and I decided to make our own walking tour of the city. We started on Grafton Street, made our way to St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church, and then stumbled across a market in the Temple Bar area. On our walk, we came across a free concert by the band, Key West! I had never heard of them before, but their CD has officially been bought! 

Key West

Traditional Fish and Chips

On Sunday, we booked a day trip out to the Wicklow Mountains and Glenadough. While the tour guide and the tour itself was not the greatest by any standard, we got to see some amazing sights before our flight back to London and reality.  

Wicklow Mountains 

Glenadough 

Overall, the weekend was worth it. Arielle got to have an awesome birthday experience. And, I'm looking forward to seeing more of the countryside of Ireland next month with my Dad.