UK – Higman Travels

London, Baby….part deux

We were back in London again, this time for about 5 days.

The first couple of days were basically down days. We did a lot of laundry and just chilled, mostly because it was raining. Our WiFi was terrible so we visited Costa coffee and McDonalds to use their WiFi. I needed to print some of our train tickets so I visited an internet cafe. Didn’t realize those were still so prevalent but they are.

We took a “Classic London” bus tour. It was a great way to get an overview of not only the city but of the history. Our tour guide was so funny. We’ve had really great luck with tour guides. But, I guess you have to have a good personality to do that job. Big Ben is under construction so we really didn’t get to see it but we got a good overview.

Of course we walked through Picadilly Circus, where the highlight was seeing a Shawn Mendez billboard. Then to Trafalgar square. Buckingham Palace was definitely a must do but Prince Charles’s voice was so funny. He is definitely very English and very hoity toity. I didn’t realize he was so charitable. He’s really done a lot for young artists in his country and around the world. No pictures were allowed inside so we just took a quicky outside.

Westminster Abbey was definitely a highlight. The concept of having all those people buried inside was definitely weird to me. Royalty is crowned there and people are married there and then people are buried there. Hmmmm, just strange to me but that’s just me. We did see Stephen Hawking’s placque there. He was the last person to be buried there right next to Issac Newton – or right below, I guess. Obviously, we couldn’t take pictures there either. We saw a Chinese guy try to take a picture and the priest told him not to. Then once we walked up to it Justin pulled out his phone. I had to not so gently remind him of the rules. We just saw that Chinese guy get scolded!!! He totally forgot.

The kids and I took a trip up the London Eye. It was just one of those things we had to do. It was really cool experience but I wished it had gone a little faster.

Last night in London and we had to try Nando’s. It’s all over the UK and apparently some YouTubers talk about it a lot so Jayden really wanted to eat there. It’s basically Chicken seasoned with peri- peri, a type of pepper that some South African’s brought from Mozambique back to Johannesburg. I thought it was pretty good but I really like spicy stuff so it satisfied my appetite. Of course we ate more Indian food and finally had some Thai, which we had been seeing all over our travels, even in Greenland.

Trafalgar Square:

Trafalgar Square

Admiral Lord Nelson

Tower Bridge. Most people mistake this for London Bridge.

Ruins of old Roman walls and London Tower. The Beefeaters and their families live in London Tower. The first woman Beefeater was installed in 2007 and the second was installed last year in 2017.

Buckingham Palace, changing of the guards, ice cream @ Buckingham Palace, and a unicorn!

Outside in the garden

Gift shop full of corgis

Ice cream at the Palace

Changing of the guards

A unicorn!!! They existed !!

Westminster Abbey

Picadilly Circus…Jayden’s highlight. Then we discovered that Shawn Mendez was actually at that exact spot two days later. Missed him by “that” much! Of course, we had to get M&Ms.

London Eye and the views from it. There is a lot of construction going on all over the UK.

Big Ben under scaffolding.

Sites from around London – a mix of the old and the new.

What is the deal with the trash?! They really do need to have dumpsters! We were told to just put our trash out on the sidewalk the evening before trash collection. I didn’t like that but what else do we do with the trash????

There were also homeless – or roughsleepers — but, coming from San Diego, it was really nothing.

Well, we will see you in Croatia next time!!!

Belfast and the Titanic

Here we go. This will be the highlight of this part of the trip. That later.

We first visited the Irish Republican History Museum. As you can imagine, it was definitely very interesting and very sad. They say the situation really is not religiously motivated. I agree. It’s discrimination and lack of economic opportunities for one group vs. another. That’s what they did in Northern Ireland – protestants were given the better jobs, better housing, better everything. The Irish basically wanted to self govern. as our bus driver said, it was also sad for all the English people who lost their lives. All we can blame is the government for enacting these policies that split people and families. We see this now too and the people of Northern Ireland identify with the Palestinians, the Apartheid movement, etc. You can see this on the murals all over Belfast.

Entrance to the Irish Republican History Museum

Some of the exhibits

Entry to the Women’s prison

Women’s Prison Room

Some of the IRA’s guns

Murals

Muras

Murals

We’ve been having trouble crossing the streets together

Well, the best part of our travels was here, not because of the Titanic but because of a Black Taxi tour that we added on. The Black Taxi tours are conducted by cabbies in Belfast who had been involved in the “troubles.” Our cabbie Jerry was definitely very informative. We wonder how he was involved. 😉

We stopped by the Peace Wall, which was first signed by Bill Clinton, then a couple of days later by the Dalai Lama. Since then, everyone that visits the wall can sign it. And we did! OMG, they LOVE Bill Clinton there. His name came up about 100 times.

Peace wall – the longest one – 4 km long

We all signed it.

The Higmans are on the wall

The Wall is due to come down by 2024.

The most photographed mural is that of Bobby Sands. He was a provisional Irish Republican Army member who died in a hunger strike while held in jail. He lasted 66 days and there have been films made about him. Michael Fassbender, an Irishman, played Sands and even lost something like 16 kg to play him. Sands was also voted into Parliament when he was in jail. He, obviously, never stepped into parliament chambers. He wrote many songs, books, and poems while in Jail.

We then visited the Clonard Monastery, or Church of the Most Holy Redeemer. You can read more about the church here: https://www.clonard.com/our-church/

Everyone is anxiously awaiting the Pope’s visit this Saturday and Sunday.

Front

Back with organ

Next stop, the HMS Caroline, the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, the only major naval action of WWI. Honestly, I think it was one of those places that probably doesn’t get a lot of visitors on its own so it’s added to some tours like that of the Titanic. It was interesting but I would have rather had more time at the Titanic.

On the deck of the HMS Caroline

Going down!

Toilet of the Captain’s quarters

Last but not least, we visited the Titanic Exhibition. It was really more of an interpretive center – there were exhibits, 3-D experiences, films, and even a ride. I thought it was done really well. Just wished we could have had more time.

Amazing architecture

Recreation of the sinking

Coming back into town, we went by the Google building, the performing arts center.

Google building on the left Not quite done yet.

I think this is the performing arts center. I’ll find out when I walk by it later.

We ended the night by watching Titanic. We watched Braveheart the other night after we visited some of the castles. We will be off on another tour tomorrow to more castles and where they filmed some more of Braveheart and Game of Thrones. See you then!!!

Goodbye U.K., Hello Ireland!

We left our cute little Three Crowns Hotel with a great breakfast. Caution: this hotel is not for tall people. Justin bumped his head on lamps, ceilings, everything! But so so cute.

We drove all day from Salisbury to Liverpool. It really shouldn’t have been that long of a trip but the traffic was terrible. Stop and go most of the way. We finally arrived in Liverpool and kicked ourselves for not staying here longer. But, we had an amazing Indian meal. The place was called Mawgli and it served Indian street food.

The next morning bright and early (9:30) we left for Dublin. We took 2 taxi’s because of all our luggage wouldn’t fit in one, then managed our way through a local train line to Chester, a Virgin train to Holyhead (the port), a shuttle to the ferry, then a ferry across to the Republic of Ireland!! Not as simple as just jumping on a ferry but not difficult at all, unless you are us and have a ton of luggage and the trains have no room for luggage.

The ferry was really nice and we upgraded to the club level that had free snacks and drinks. The seats were comfy and the WiFi was good (the most important thing for the kids)!

Very foggy when we started. It was actually very cold in Liverpool

Kind of weird to be on a boat again!

We arrived in Dublin and couldn’t get a cab even though I called for one. We need a system like in New York City. A gentleman who had a big van who transported a big group from our ferry came back to get us so we were able to get into the city. He was very nice and we got his number so we can call him for our return trip.

Our first night in Dublin and what do we do?? Go out for sushi!!