London & York

This is a "snick-away" (alley) in York.
















This is a guy who painted himself purple (in York) and put containers for people to put money in for himself (not even for a charity or maybe it is - himself). We thought at first it was a statue.













This is some of the fields of flowers that are used to make canola oil. I will have to check the containers when I get home to see where they are manufactured.














This is one of the typical photo ops of Big Ben in the middle of the London Eye (ferris wheel).












This is Richard, Bertha Dale & Ollie outside the Beefeater Shop at the London Tower.












Okay I haven't done so good at posting. On Friday we took the train into London, had a bus pass for getting off and on and got off at London Tower. I wasn't aware that the London Tower was/is basically a big castle area. The crown jewels are in one building and another building houses lots of armor, swords and other weapons. Plus there are several other buildings we never got to go through. Richard & I covered most of the building with the armor & weapons with me clicking away on the camera. We then went on the river cruise to Greenwich and then back to the bus and around the rest of the bus path before getting back on the train (which was very crowded because it was rush hour on Friday with LOTS of people) back to Mildenhall.

Then on Saturday we caught a bus tour at 7:00am from Lakenheath to York. It was a 4 hour ride then a 2 hour walking tour of York. About 2/3 the way into the walking tour, it began to rain. We got a little wet, but managed to dry out. Then Richard & I just walked around and tried to find some of the shops that we had seen while on the walking tour. We found the 3 that we wanted to go back to then went into a pub and had a beer before getting back on the bus. We got back to our room about 9:00pm and crashed.

Sunday we had to make reservations for our flight to Ireland (I needed to go to the office because I wanted to make sure I could print out a receipt and boarding passes since I don't have a printer with me). There is a Community Service Center on Mildenhall that I also used because it was much closer to our room. Then Bertha Dale made room reservations for Dublin. We found out on Sunday that Monday is a "Bank Holiday" and lots of things are closed (Oh, well). We also found out the airline we were taking to Dublin was very strict and only allows 15 kg per person per checked baggage and 10 kg for each carry-on. We bought a scale to be able to weigh the luggage. We managed to have one bag at 14.7 kg and the other at 14.2 plus we were under on the carry-ons.

We left Mildenhall this morning at 6:00am and managed to get to the airport in plenty of time. The flight was a little over an hour. The cab ride to the hotel was about 20 minutes. After checking in we found a place to have lunch and then came back to our rooms. We napped a bit then took off walking. We were out about two hours. We walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral which was already closed then walked past Christ Church, St. Audeon's Gate (1275), past Dublin Castle and back to the hotel. When we came back Ollie & Bertha Dale were in the pub so we joined them.

Tomorrow we plan on getting a city bus that has on/off privileges so we can check out some of the main sites.

On Wednesday we pick up the rental car and head south towards Cork. We might spend about two days there then head up the west coast of Ireland to Limerick then north into Northern Ireland. Then we plan to be back in Dublin next Tuesday in preparation to leave on Wednesday.

I just noticed on the TV that the Iceland volcano has gone off again. Some of the airlines (including Ryan Air that we came over on this morning) has canceled or put on hold flights at least until tomorrow afternoon. I guess it's a good thing we got out today. Hopefully everything will be calmed down again by next week.

Before today, I had trouble getting the pictures uploaded and then being able to go back to typing text. Tonight, it worked so I think it's just me, but by the time we get back to the States, I might have this figured out. Now if I can upload the pictures in order that would be better.