Dublin

We were lucky enough to have a week off in June that we managed to jam pack with travelling. We headed to Dublin first (after taking a four hour train followed by a four hour ferry ride) to spend a few days exploring the city. We stayed right downtown on Bachelor's walk and had a great time. I basically lived on Guinness for the entire time we were there (and it was amazing).
The first night we didn't do a whole lot of wandering around since we arrived in the city a bit late and it was pouring rain. We did wander into the famous (indie) Temple Bar area for dinner and did some souvenir shopping.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to head to the Guinness brewery. It was really neat, you wander through five floors of Guinness history through how it's made, advertising, merchandise through the years all the way up to the sky bar with 360 degree views of the city and a "free" pint (which turned out to be our breakfast that day)

After our beer adventure I had a little bit of a family reunion with the Swedish side! Recently we have managed to get in touch with some relatives and we found out that one (Pernilla) happened to be living in Dublin with her husband and a couple of super cute kids, we were invited to come meet for coffee and had a really nice time!

We popped around town for the rest of the afternoon checking out the sights including St.Stephen's Green, some shopping areas, and the River Liffy. Dublin is a really relaxed town and we were fairly happy to wander around and enjoy ourselves (it was slightly difficult to get around since we happened to be in town on the same weekend as the Formula 1 street races)

Temple Bar

The Stag's Head (a really cool little pub that we spent most of Sunday night in)

 

Stratford-upon-Avon Round Two

Notre Dame

After a super amazing lunch we walked down to Notre Dame. Notre Dame was absolutely amazing and happens to be celebrating it's 850th anniversary this year! After exploring the inside of this amazing building we decided to hike up the 400 and some odd steps to the top of the towers up where the gargoyles are and through the bell towers. The views are amazing and it is such a neat way to see the city. 

 The Rose Window

 The Grand Chandelier

The Main Alter

13 tonne massive bell only rung on special occasions was hoisted up the tower using ropes on July 14th 1682

The Louvre

The second day in the city of love was packed with even more sight seeing! We got up bright and early to head into the Louvre (and since we happened to be there on the first Sunday of the month it was FREE). The Louvre is hands down the most amazing gallery I have ever set foot in. The entrance through the pyramids is impressive, but the real excitement happens once you get inside. There are miles and miles of corridors just covered in uber famous pieces of art including Roman statues, Egyptian pieces, all kinds of paintings from all over the world and Napoleonic apartments, I could have spent my entire trip in this place.

At the entrance (before our 45 minute wait in line....we got lucky!)

All of the girls :)

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Hellenistic period 2nd Century BC, depicts the Goddess Nike.

Mona Lisa - La Jaconde - Leonardo Da Vinci - 1506

The Wedding at Cana - 1563

Liberty Leading the People, 1830- Eugene Delacroix

Venus de Milo, 100 BC... depicts Aphrodite

Psyche revived by Cupid's Kiss - 1787 - Antonio Canova

The Captives - Michelangelo, 1513

The Marly Horses - originally made for the Chateau de Marly in 1739

Tomb of Philippe Pot (1400)

Johannes Vermeer - The Lacemaker 1670..... my favourite piece in the Louvre and probably one of the smallest but the detail was absolutely amazing.




Napoleonic Apartments

Paris Day One

We took the train into London the night before we flew to Paris to meet up with two Canadians who were joining us on our fancy French weekend getaway. After having  what seemed like a short nap we headed to the airport to catch a ridiculously early flight.
We stayed at Le Regent Montmarte near Sacre-Coeur which was the first among many stops after lunch. We hiked up all the steps to Sacre-Coeur and at the very top of the hill I gracefully sprained my ankle on some cobblestone. Luckily I didn't break anything and managed to make it through the rest of the trip without any further injury.
We spent the better part of our evening wandering through the city, passing by the famous Moulin Rouge, the Eiffel Tower,the Arch de Triumphe, and the Parisian Opera (we didn't see any Phantom of the Opera though).

 View from our hotel room

Sacre- Coeur (french for break your foot)

View from up above the city

Moulin Rouge dinner show

Tour Eiffel, built in 1889 is still the tallest building in Paris, we unfortunately didn't get to go up since one of the lifts was being repaired (the lifts and mechanisms are still original from 1899)

Getting absolutely drenched while seeing the sights

Arc de Triomphe comissioned by Napoleon after a large military victory

Opera

The Last Six Weeks

We have had an incredibly busy last six weeks....so busy I haven't had a chance to update this blog since before I went to Paris! I was lucky enough to get to dash to the city of love for a long weekend and it was amazing! We met up with a couple of girlfriends and had a blast seeing the sights, drinking wine, and of course eating some french cheese. The weekend after our time away we ventured once again to Stratford -upon-Avon with our German and Swiss friends who had come up for a long weekend to visit in Birmingham. This past week we were off from school and decided to do a little island hopping. We popped over to Ireland were we hit up Dublin, the Cliffs of Moher, and Donegal and headed to Scotland to check out Edinburgh and Glasgow.