Today we woke up pretty early and went walking over to the Dublin Bus headquarters for our tour of Northern Irelands coast and Malahide castle. The last person to live in the castle was in 1978, which was one of the members of the family who occupied the castle for the previous 800 years. She recently died one year ago at the age of 93. A jester by the name of Puck still haunts the castle every time something he does not like happens. The most recent event was when some of the original items from the family were auctioned off. He is four feet tall and has his own door (doggie door) in the dining room.






The tour then also took us through the coast of Ireland. It showed us the school were the band U2 met and formed.











The bus driver was hilarious and even let David behind the wheel (Now he can work the wheel chair lift on any bus ☺ ) We learned from the driver that the streets of Ireland aren’t really full of potholes. They drive in Braille.

After the tour we went over to this big Irish souvenir shop. They have absolutely everything in there.


We watched the Invention of Lying this afternoon. And now we are going to pack and check in for our flight tomorrow. We are going to have to get up at 445am here (930pm at home if you are Marianne. The real time is 9:45pm) ohhh boy….
Kristie, we got a picture of a funny looking European for you, and there is a ton of really cool Guinness merchandise. Rob you should really visit here and get what you want for yourself cuz we have no room in our bags… sorry ☹

Thursday.... (traveling to Ireland)

We woke up early (for real this time) and went down stairs to our not so good breakfast place, and headed out to the station. We took the overground out to catch the place where are train departed. They don’t post the platform number of where your train is leaving from until about ten minutes before it departs. So we quickly made our way down and boarded the train. The seats on the train were smaller than those on a plane and absolutely no leg room…. But Marianne still managed to fall asleep. After our almost 4 hour train ride to Hollyhead in Wales. We decided we were going to upgrade our tickets on the ferry.
We sat in the club cabin, which was really nice and had a bunch of tables, comfy couches and chairs. They also served complementary food and wine




So, we asked our waiter on the boat if we could have some “mustard” and he had no idea what we were saying. He came back a little later and goes… “Oh we have a different slang for it… we call it sauce”. Even though the package clearly has mustard written across it. We played a bunch of card games, and Marianne fell asleep (shocker) and we arrived in Dublin with absolutely no idea of how to get to the hotel 3 and ½ hours later.





We found a cab and took it from the port to our hotel. The cab driver was interesting… He tried to be a tour guide for us, and pointed out pretty much every bank from the port to the hotel. “Did you know this square half-mile has 480 banks???!!”


The first thing we noticed was public trash cans!!!!!!






Once we got to the hotel we went walking around the city down by the river and Temple Bar (the big area where all the nightlife is). We found a pub and had some drinks and AWESOME FOOD!

Then went back to the hotel and watched a really good movie. We then tried to call it a night but Marianne was scared from the non-horror film.

PS. Our hotel looks like the mad hatter designed it.. check it out

Wednesday.. Our Last Day in London

This morning we woke up really early (well an hour and half later than when David first woke Mar up) and headed out to Saint Paul's Cathedral.... This time we were too early... Apparently it doesn't really open at 8am... more like 930am... liers..



We headed up the 600 or so stairs to the top of the dome.....
(this is not the top)

The hallways narrowed and shrank as we climbed higher.. We even had to duck our heads through some areas (see below)

(After this we both looked at each other and thought we'd love to see Rob attempt this)



Finally we made it to the top (after all of 10 min) of intense climbing and a few stops for sightseeing


The view from the top.



Next, we went on the train to Greenwich (it was too cold and wet to take the boat)


What David thinks of the coffee here... blehhhhh. David's quote "It is fricken horrible. I'd rather drink Starbucks." Of course they don't have Dunkin Donuts. Apparently America is the only country that runs on it.......However, Strongbow is everywhere...."Awesommeeeeee"



Marianne then attempted to climb a wall in Greenwich..... with anti climbing paint she went nowhere fast.




Next we went over to a pub near Harrods (the big shopping mall here) and had sausage and mash (duhh and Strongbow), which does in fact taste better than it looks. :)



Tribute to Princess Diana in Harrods..


PS.... Yesterday we forgot to tell you about the funniest thing that happened to Marianne. After we went to breakfast we went back to the room to hang out for a little before going to Stonehenge... David put the MAID SERVICE sign on the door for new towels, sheets, and glasses (since thats what normal people do in hotels). Unfortunately while he was in the bathroom a maid came in while Marianne was asleep on the bed and tried to wake her up. Once slightly conscious Marianne preceeded to give the maid a nice big KISS. Lucky for her the maid was fully conscious and backed away. She then said, "I come back in 20 min, I so sorry."

Tuesday!

Today we woke up really early and had our free (not so tasty) hotel breakfast. Apple Juice should be served cold FYI! Davids pancakes... delicious :) We headed back towards our first (and much better hotel) for our tour to Stonehenge.

We took a two hour bus ride to get out there. We talked, played some cards, and Mar ate even after breakfast.


Despite the way the photos look (super cute) it was cold as "shyte". There was rain and a crazy wind that left the two of us numb. David was only wearing a T shirt and windbreaker (as usual).



After walking around the circle of rocks (which Marianne believes aliens brought) and listening to our audio guides. We grabbed coffee and hot chocolate and headed back to the tour bus to warm up.




After all the coffee, hot chocolate and warming up, we felt the need to get rid of some energy... (see below)





Marianne's sugar crashed followed





TODAY WAS A GREAT DAY:)