London 3rd & last

To Camden Lock Market for a spot of shopping and scrumptious outdoor food court. The canal lock in action. Tube escalator. Some take-away from Ben's Cookies. When Susan and I arrived last week, kind Amanda greeted us in Oxford with Ben's, lifting us from jet-lag lassitude. It's fitting to close our U.K. holiday with a bookend serving of the same cookies. Cheers!!

London 2

London taxi from my backward-facing fold-down seat my happy travel-mates with Houses of Parliament building in view. Albert & Victoria Museum, in front of the building, and nostril magnification via lens in ironworks exhibit. Another of what Martha so correctly named "Neapolitan ice cream" pose, this one with Millenium Bridge over Thames plus St Paul's across the river/estuary. 

London

We flew from Dublin to heathrow on a quick flight, checked in to our hotel ( apparently there's an al jaseara convention going on ) and found dinner at a nearby Turkish restaurant. 

Giant pillow bread. 

We could have enjoyed shisha on the patio of our hotel but instead decided to go to bed. 

Today we went to the Victoria  and Albert museum. None of us have been there before.  Lots of wonderful sculptures and s great theatre section. Also, there are casting courts. Apparently in the 1800's they made plaster copies of famous monuments for this museum. 

Who needs to go to Italy!  David, school of Athens and ghibertis golden doors all in one room. And across the hall is

Trajans column. Presented in two halves for convenience. Only the top half shown here. Could spend a week here easily. 

Dublin to London

The library of Tinity College, Dublin. Founded by QE1 in 1600's. This is the excellent Long Room (63m). Flew Aer Lingus to London. Enjoyed a very tasty Turkish supper -- see our happy faces in the restaurant mirror. 

Tara and Newgrange

Today's day trip from Dublin took us to Neolithic sites of Tara and Newgrange. Tara has earthwork remnants of ceremonial sites. Saint Patrick converted the king here. There's a pillar -- the Stone of Destiny, part of the ritual for regal succession. Newgrange, older than Stonehenge, older that the Giza pyramids, is impressive evidence of ancient technical know-how. Plus, it has a styling decorative stone at its entrance! The last pic is of the pin or needle-like Spire of Dublin. 

Dublin, Ireland

New country. Passports duly stamped. New currency -- euro instead of pound.  End of July and we're enjoying sweater-weather.

Catching up

We arrived safely in Oxford thanks to will's fantastic driving skills. 

The Radcliffe camera. Part of the Bodlaein library built by Christopher wren. 

Oxford seems to have a thing for grand Budapest hotel and Wes Anderson. This was at black wells book store. 

Food of my people

Inside the natural history museum. AMAZING. The last bits of the last dodo bird are here. 

I like that this museum was built like a cathedral. 

Inside the natural history museum was an even more amazing museum - the pitt river museum. Pitt river was a collector. Of everything from everywhere. 

Stratford upon Avon

I think Oxford would be a great place to retire. Lots to do. Many museums. Plays and concerts going on all the time. We saw advertisements for 5 shakespeare plays plus many others. Oxford is centrally located. Busses go to London every 20 minutes. Very nice. 

But on to Stratford upon Avon. We only had a short time there. But it was fun. We saw Merchant of Venice by Royal Shakespeare Co. 

Pre-show snack in the rain. 

We also visited Shakespeare's home. 

One more post - flowers

They are amazing here. I see a lot of flowers that I have in my garden but these are huge. 12 foot tall hollyhocks and shoulder high ice daisies. So pretty. Gorgeous combinations also. Here's a sampling. 

Corn glowers ca daisies and other things at Oxford botanical garden. 

Pitcher plant. 

Hydrangeas and Amanda. 

Conwy

Amanda tried this morning to help us speak a little welsh. It's so different. I have no frame of reference. But it sounds pretty cool. 

We visited Conwy castle rhis morning. Edward I built this in 1287. It's still in very good shape. You could get a pretty clear picture of what life was like. Here are some pictures:  

Amanda  and will by one of the towers. 

A shot from the floor of the great hall. 

Will standing by fireplace in kings bedroom. 

Towers

View from the castle across the inlet. 

View of the harbor from the castle. 

With that I'm caught up. We're in a ferry to Dublin now. Well keep you posted. 

Hay on wye and Wales

We drove on tiny roads from Stratford to hay on wye Wales. We discovered that in UK the bigger th identifying road number, the smaller the road. It was crazy when big trucks come in the opposing lane. Especially at dusk, in the rain, with a cow running into your lane. Will is an amazing driver. 

We only had a few hours in hay on wye - a town of used bookstores. Amanda found a great book there. 

After dinner we drove on to betws y coed   Where we spent the night. This is a view from our hotel room the next morning. 

We drove a few miles north to a woolen mill factory in trefwir. It was really interesting. Sheep fleeces come in one end and fabric comes out the other. We could watch the whole process. 

Carding

More carding and rolling into slub.

Plying two yarns together. 

Weaving. A tweed here. 

Fascinating. 

I was also excited when a guide suggested we visit Wendy the spinner. Her identifying name-the spinner- was straight out of one of my favorite movies- the Englishman who went up a hill and down a mountain. 

In front of the mill.