American Family Travels

23 June 2016: The view from the top is worth the climb.

Hollyrood Palace, the Queen’s house when she is in Scotland, is located at the terminus of the Royal Mile near the modern Parliament Building. Hollyrood Park encompasses the Palace and includes the mountain in its backdrop. At the very top of the mountain is Arthur’s Seat which provides wonderful panoramas of the entire city and bay. The hike from the bottom to the top was strenuous at times but well worth the effort. The round trip as we went took about 2 hours, although it could vary greatly depending on where and how far you go. Some of my pictures were taken with a telephoto lens so don’t be fooled, they look much closer than they are.

22 – 23 June 2016: Amazing City

In a word, wow. We loved Edinburgh. It was one of our favorite cities we have ever visited. We did not arrive with particularly high expectations of Scotland’s capital city and we were pleasantly surprised. Originally I had only allowed one day to see the highlights of Glasgow and Edinburgh. When we realized all the city had to offer we regretfully cut the Northern Scotland portion of our trip to allow for another full day. As a result, we did not visit St. Andrews, Ben Nevis, or the Loch Ness to name a few. Cara and I decided that Scotland goes back on the list of travel goals, we must come back.

The center of the city’s tourism is the Old Town’s Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle down to Hollyrood Park, each of which I will follow with a dedicated blog post. Some of the other highlights included the Princess Street Gardens and Monuments, Walter Scott Monument, Parish Church, St. Giles Cathedral, Scottish Parliament Building, Hollyrood Palace, Castle Terrace Area, The Meadows and Calton Hill. There is little doubt we could have spent several more days here and missed other would be highlights but we simply ran out of time. We already look forward to our return.

Royal Mile

Hollyrood Palace

Street Performers

Princess Street

Parish Church

Edinburgh

22 June 2016: Scotland’s Largest City

After seeing Scotland’s countryside yesterday, we thought we’d check out its largest city, Glasgow. We parked near the shops of Buchanan Street and took a walking tour of the city. The city is the third largest in the U.K. but it lacks many tall buildings like you might find in other countries. Our exploration included the City Chambers in George Square, the University of Strathclyde, the Glasgow Cathedral, and the Necropolis. The Necropolis is a cemetery that sits on a hill overlooking Glasgow. Besides the views it provides of the surrounding city and the Cathedral, the monuments and intricate grave stones are worth a visit. A monument to John Know, the founder of the Presbyterian denomination in Scotland, prominently sits atop the hill.

Overall we liked Glasgow. It was manageable for us to get around despite its size and had some interesting character mixed with the modern influences of a growing modern city. We would have liked to spend more time here but it was time to head back to Edinburgh to explore its downtown area.

Downtown Glasgow

Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis

21 June 2016: Burnley FC, Lake District NP, Hadrian’s Wall and Southern Scotland

On our way north from Manchester, we stopped in the town of Burnley to see the Burnley FC Stadium, Elle’s favorite team. The stadium was under construction so we did not get to see as much as we would have liked but we did stop in the gift shop and got her a goalie jersey and yet another soccer ball for the collection.

The main attraction of the day was our tour through the Lake District National Park. The Lakes was busy with tourist. It is a very nice area to spend some time. Our only complaint was much of the accessible waterfront property on the east side of Windermere Lake was owned by businesses so there were long stretches that we could see. Where we could, we enjoyed stopping for pictures, taking a short hike, and skipping rocks. We had lunch in Windermere and stopped in Ambleside, both quaint little villages. We kept travelling north past Thirlmere Lake and then took some scenic back roads to Carlisle.

East of Carlisle, we made our third major stop at an access point to the Hadrian’s Wall Path. Hadrian’s Wall was a fortification built by the Romans from the East Coast to the West Coast to protect the Empire from the barbarians to the north. Portions of the wall and associated structures remain. The section of the trail we found was not at all what I expected but we thoroughly enjoyed it for different reasons. The trail took us through a farmer’s field of sheep, across railroad tracks, over a bridge, through the woods, and almost all the way to Grandma’s house. The ruins we found were not that impressive but the kids had a blast with the sheep and we enjoyed the bizarre hike.

We were not on the highway long before we crossed into Scotland. Not too much longer after that, we decided the highway was not seeing Scotland so we took and exit and meandered through the rural back country toward Edinburgh. The driving was a bit intense at times but the scenery was amazing.

We arrived at our hotel west of Edinburgh where we will stay for three nights and walked to get a late dinner.

Lake District National Park

Hadrian’sWall Trail

Southern Scotland

19 – 20 June 2016: The Beatles and Manchester United

Father’s Day was a travel day for us with a single goal, get from our hotel in Dublin to our hotel in Manchester without any problems – mission accomplished. Once we arrived at our hotel in the Manchester suburb of Stockport, we walked downtown to get something to eat and shop. The only problem we had is most everything closed early on a Sunday so we didn’t get any of our shopping done. We did have a very nice dinner at a chain restaurant called Frankie and Benny’s NY Italian Restaurant. It didn’t get great reviews but it was the only thing open and we were happily surprised. The service was horrible, as it has been in every restaurant we’ve been to yet, but otherwise the food was good. We liked it so much that we ate there again the next night after a successful bid at shopping. They sat us in the exact same booth so it was like déjà vu.

Monday morning we started our day with a drive to Liverpool. My research provided very little to get excited about but I thought we ought to at least give it a go to say we saw it. Liverpool was a much nicer city that I was expecting. I was struck by how much American companies had influenced the shops. American restaurants, either chains we know or local restaurants serving American food, stores and products were everywhere; more so than in Ireland. We had Krispy Kreme donuts for goodness sake.

We enjoyed walking downtown, especially around the waterfront area of Albert Dock. We stumbled across the Beatles Museum and the Yellow Submarine but did not visit. Fresh fruit from one of the street vendors was a welcome change to our diet of everything-comes-with-fries and a soccer ball from the Liverpool FC Shop became a cherished keepsake for the kids. All-in-all our visit was brief but exceeded expectations, a nice city to spend some time. Had I known, we would have scheduled more time here.

Next on the tour was the city of Manchester and the first stop was the hallowed ground of Manchester United’s stadium. Elle wore her Burnley shirt in defiance. We did not take away anything from the gift shop since neither of the kids are big fans and quite a bit of their stuff is available in the States.

The next stop was center city Manchester. We walked about the area around the City Hall. Manchester was nice enough but there was nothing to get too excited. Still I must say it seemed nicer than I was expecting based on what I had read. Like Liverpool, it is difficult to fairly judge a city with such a brief visit.

We ended our day back in Stockport getting dinner and finally doing some much needed shopping before we head north into Scotland tomorrow morning.

Liverpool

Manchester

17 – 18 June 2016: Downtown and the Titanic

We walked downtown for dinner and a tour the city. City Hall was quite impressive. Belfast is smaller than Dublin but it struck us as more modern. While it does not have the same charm, it felt more comfortable to us.

We had dinner at Bubbaque, an Irish attempt at American BBQ with Memphis, KC, Texas and Carolina sauces. The meats were good, the sides were Irish, and the sweet tea was putrid. The sauces were good except for the Carolina. It wasn’t Down East or Lexington style, but instead SC mustard-based… and not a good version of it. Overall I had two of my favorite meals of the trip today, although that is not saying too much.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and walked to the Belfast Titanic Museum. During our 2010 trip to New England and Eastern Canada, we saw the museum in Halifax that housed Titanic relics near where the ship went down. During our 2015 visit of New York City, we went to Ellis Island where the Titanic was bound. So being in Belfast where the ship was built to some degree completed the circle for us. We agreed the Belfast Titanic Museum was the best interactive museum we had ever been. I was extremely impressed with the integration of technology. They had very few actual artifacts from the ocean floor but the history of the ship from conception through construction and its brief voyage was very well presented.

Before leaving Belfast, we walked back downtown to do some shopping. We were lucky enough to time our walk during their Armed Services Day Parade. The drum and fife bands were energetic and loud. Even though it was not our United States military veterans, we could not help be inspired by our allies show of patriotism and support.

We headed back to Dublin for, yes, a little more shopping, dinner, laundry and to get prepared for our flight to Manchester, England. Tomorrow morning we will fly out and begin our England, Scotland and Wales legs of the trip.

Belfast

Titanic Museum

17 June 2016: The Glenveagh NP fail became Northern Coast success

Today did not go as planned, it went better. We planned to drive northeast to Glenveagh National Park and castle before moving on to Belfast for the night. On our way we stopped by the Guard (police) east of Letterkenney and told they would be shutting down the roads in and out of the park for a road rally. They would allow us to go in but could not tell us when we could get out. We decided we could not risk it and turned around.

Instead of travelling straight to Belfast, we turned north toward the coastline and we were happy we did. We stumbled on the small coastal town of Portrush and really enjoyed ourselves. We walked the beaches and had lunch overlooking the North Channel. The restaurant was quite nice but we had to laugh when they offered us their daily special import beer of the day, Budweiser. All-in-all our little diversion was a pleasant surprise.

We continued along the coast to Ballycastle and eventually made our way to Belfast. Our hotel is adjacent to the new museum Belfast Titanic and within walking distance of downtown so we will put on our walking shoes and head out for dinner.

Portrush

Magheracross

Ballycastle

16 June 2016: Sunday Bloody Sunday

Today we needed to make up some lost time and unfortunately cut out a few planned stops on our way to Londonderry in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. We were surprised to find little fanfare, not even a sign, as we crossed into Northern Ireland. After checking into our hotel, we ate dinner and explored Londonderry briefly. Known as the Walled City, it sits near the mouth of the River Foyle. Londonderry / Derry is where Bloody Sunday (aka Bogside Massacre) took place. The Peace Bridge crosses the Foyle at the bottom of the hill from the center of town. It connects two areas of town that are still politically divided.

 16 June 2016: Sligo and Donegal

Sligo

Sligo to Donegal

Donegal

15 – 16 June 2016: A Vibrant Small Town

We spent the evening after the Cliffs in the town of Galway. Our hotel was in the heart of it all along the river. Live music played in the streets at night and the pubs and restaurants were busy. The next morning after breakfast we took a longer walk around town and did some shopping before hitting the road again.