A Life Hiatus

NORTHERN IRELAND (Belfast) and IRELAND (Dublin)

NORTHERN IRELAND (BELFAST)

Our hotel in Belfast was to die for! Why? Well because it wasn't a hotel at all, it was a palace!! Originally built as the official palace for the Bishops of Down, it is now Culloden Estate and Spa. I fell in love!

View from breakfast

View of the hotel from the gardens. So gorgeous!

The coast was breathtaking!

The Giant's Causeway

Hotel Europa was the most bombed hotel in Belfast during "The Troubles"

Exciting news to wake up to, but being overseas when

it happened did cause a little anxiety.

IRELAND (DUBLIN)

From Belfast we went to Dublin and again, stayed in an amazing hotel. I'm really not sure how mom finds these places, but I'm so glad she does. This one was called Clontarf Castle!

Inside the lobby. Yes that's me in the chair :) I was waiting (not so) patiently.

The downtown area with all the restaurants and bars, is called

"Temple Bar". This is THE Temple Bar!

For those of you who don't know my mom, she an obsession with crystal.

It's what she buys for herself WHEN she buys for herself, and she goes

to the crystal department every time she goes to a department store.

Excited to say, after a visit to the Waterford Crystal factory in Waterford, Ireland, she has passed this obsession on to me :)

Cinderella's Carriage - £30,000.00

which today would = around $46,771.00

It was amazing!!

BCS National Championship Trophy! Let's hope that ends up in Tuscaloosa this year!!!

Trophy for the 2012 Olympics in London, in the making!

Before and after of a gorgeous bowl.

A brand new Cinderella's Carriage in the making.

Blarney Castle is known for the Blarney stone and legend is that if you kiss the stone you will receive the gift of gab (eloquence and skill of flattery). I could not bring myself to kiss a stone that a bazillion other people has also kissed, but mom couldn't wait!

At the top of Blarney Castle, headed to the Blarney Stone for mom.

Mom kissing the stone.

Went to Guinness Storehouse!

View of Dublin from the top floor of Guinness!

Walking into Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.

SCOTLAND

After leaving London, we headed for Edinburgh. This city is by far the most magical place I have ever been. The old part of the city and the new part, are separated by the river and the difference between the two is unreal. You leave the new part which looks like any other city in Europe, cross the bridge, and suddenly you are in a city that is straight out of a fairy tale with castles and cathedrals that make you pinch yourself.

Join us....

Our Hotel in the new part of Edinburgh

View from the new part to the old part of Edinburgh...

Another view of this amazing city!

Street view inside Old Edinburgh

Inside Edinburgh castle

Wouldn't be Scotland without bagpipes :)

We all remember the story of "The Loch Ness Monster" right?

Well, here is Loch Ness, but we didn't find a monster... just a gorgeous lake!

When the Queen visits Scotland, this is her palace - The Palace of Holyrood Isn't it gorgeous!! Of course, it has the same enchanted look as the rest of Edinburgh!

We loved every second in Scotland!! Next... Northern Ireland!

THE ROYAL WEDDING

Our plan for the wedding was to wake up early Friday morning, around 4 or 5 and go find our spot on the street, wherever that may be. We had accepted the fact that we may not even get a glimpse of Wills and Kate, but we were going to do our very best!

We had dinner and decided to walk around for a little bit just to see what the crowd was looking like so far. We stumbled upon a crowd and camera crews outside of a hotel and stopped to see what the fuss was all about...

The hotel where Kate stayed the night before the wedding!

We walked around by Buckingham Palace and noticed that people were camping out, but there were still a decent number of spots open in front of the Palace with a good view of the balcony. We started to talk about whether or not we should go ahead and get a spot while we could. What did we decide?...

...to camp out of course! We debated what we should do, for just a minute, and then went straight to Harrods!

Why did we decide camping out was worth it?
.... THE VIEW!

So we waited, and waited, and waited for the whole wedding extravaganza to begin, not knowing exactly what was going to happen, where she would drive by on the way, where the carriage would bring them on the way back, how close we would be able to get once they let everyone go to the gate... we just knew we were excited to be there!

It was 100% worth our last minute decision to camp out. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.