God Save the Queen

One thing I (Brandi*) really loved about London was that there was some super real castles. Like when you think of a castle or palace – this stuff was for real. Moats, bricks, towers to shoot people from, places where traitors were killed and JEWELS – the Tower of London had all of this and more!

Tower of London (The moat separates where we were standing here and the castle)

This was as close as we got to a guard!  

This place was built in 1066 and since they has served as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie (fancy word for a place to keep exotic animals), home of the Royal Mint and home of the royal bling aka the Crown Jewels! (thanks Wikipedia for the refresher).

Brady with some armory

Tower Bridge from the Tower of London

Inside the castle grounds

Some facts about this castle:

·         Over a 400-year period, 112 executions were held here.

·         One of the most famous beheading was that of Anne Boleyn. I’m sure you’ve heard of her name, but if you want the full history, visit my friends at Wikipedia

·         Legend says that the palace will fall if the ravens leave the ground. So some ravens live here with clipped wings. As a Steelers fan, I booed them.

Beefeater

We weren’t allowed to snap pics of the Crown Jewels (and our guide suggested that women not compare their wedding ring to the bling either lol). But seriously – I’ve never seen anything like this in my life! There were some serious diamond in these cases. I read a fact that there are 23,578 jewels in the house. The most impressive is the Imperial State Crown, which contains 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and five rubies. Wow.

After touring the castle, we made another pilgrimage. This one was a bit cheesy and some of you “muggles” just won’t appreciate this. Our last tourist stop was…Platform 9 and ¾ at Kings Cross Station.

You don’t get it, do you? That’s because this stop is special to us Wizards aka Harry Potter fans. This is where Harry and his friends went to get the train to Hogwarts. They pushed their carts of school supplies through the wall and off to the famous wizarding school.

So many people have gone to visit this spot that they made a little photo opp outside the station where we totally had to snap a pic.

On Saturday night we dined a delicious new Gordon Ramsey hot spot called the Bread Street Kitchen (located on Bread Street). A yummy way to end our sweet trip!

London's Calling...us to come back to posting!

Ell-o again!

 After a mild domestic dispute over who was going to post next, we both abandoned this blog and didn’t finish our London posts. Well folks, I decided that there were just some pictures that we too good not to share.

On our second day in London, we dominated the Underground. No, not the night club in Chicago – the London subway system.

Brady and I rode this awesome train around London and visited a lot of awesome things. From Hyde Park (where Kensington Palace is – future home of WillKat) to Piccadilly Circus to Portobello Road - the Smith’s were HUGE tourists!

Some photo highlights.

British Museum

This rad place is FREE and it's the home of the...

Rosetta Stone

Brady being all serious because he's in historical mode

Us posing  with Aphrodite - the the Goddess of Love ; )

London is getting all pretty for the 2012 Olympics - here's a preview of the gold medals

Portobello Road 

So if you REALLY know my husband, you will know that he is a HUGE fan of the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. So needless to say, he was pretty psyched to visit Portobello Road. (watch the video)

  

There were a TON of good antiques on this road that we could have spent hours browsing through

I love this clock in Hyde Park - "Time Flies" - it really does! 

Kensington Gardens

Well now you get to why we got into an argument over the Day 2 post. As a lifelong Beatles fan, I thought that the Mr. would want to tell you about the following pilgrimage to the mothership, but he declined. So now you will get the description from the fair-weather fan.  

On a beautiful Friday two days before Sir Paul McCartney wed, we visited his hood and the world-famous Abbey Road studios.

Now if you are a Beatles fan, you know this is the site of THIS famous album cover and the studio where the Beatles recorded the majority of their songs.

(source)

Traffic and bikers coming right at ya

Millions of people come here every year to imitate that famous shot. I had these visions that it would be easy to snap someone walking in the cross walk. Let’s just say it totally is NOT! The reason why is that there is no red light or stop sign. Cars are just coming straight at you! Here are some of the best pics we snapped.

People sign the wall outside the studio, so of course I had a Sharpie and we had to leave our mark!  

Tomorrow I’ll wrap up our last full day in Europe! 

London's Calling

Cheerio (in a British Accent).Our European vacation didn't stop with a trip to the Emerald Isle. After a whirlwind trip across the country of Ireland (and back), we then hopped on a plane for a short flight to the United Kingdom where we spent four nights in London!

Upon checking in to an adorable bed and breakfast, we hit the streets and took a stroll over to Buckingham Palace. Seriously - this place is fit for royalty. The detail on the building and the gates is just amazing.

On Thursday morning, we headed back to the palace to watch the famous changing of the guard. While there were huge crowds along the streets, we were able to sneak a peak of the guards with their bright red coats and bearskin hats. The guard entertain the guests with music and we were a little surprised to hear a little rendition of the James Bond-theme song.

From the palace, our next adventure was a double-decker bus tour. You've most likely seen these buses in New York or Chicago, but the red bus originated in London. From the top deck on a crisp day, we saw all of the famous sights. I'm not going to go all BradyHistoryStory on you here. I'm sure you can spot all of the famous sights via our pics.

Westminster Abbey

Loads of famous people are buried and married (weird that those words rhyme)

Married: Will + Kate, Andrew + Fergie, Queen Elizabeth

Buried: Geoffery Chaucer, Jane Austen, Charles Darwin, Issac Newton, Charles Dickens (just to name a few)

Big Ben

Okay, while this is one of London's most famous landmarks, it's also the nickname of the Steelers' quarterback. Therefore, I brought my Terrible Towel for a pic

Tower of London Bridge

So this bridge is way cooler than the London Bridge (you know the tune. I hope its in your head now!). They call it the Tower Bridge because its close to the Tower of London. We'll cover that later, but basically it's an old, old, old castle where the Crown Jewels are kept in a secure place (insert childish thoughs about the "crown jewels here). Oh and that body of water is the Thames River

St. Paul's Cathedral

A beauty. This is where Princess Di was married

So for my ladies. London has a pretty rad shopping district in the Oxford Circus area. While a lot of people compare Oxford Circus to New York's Times Square because they both have flashy lights and theaters, I like to compare Oxford Street to Michigan Ave in Chicago. Here you will find UK and US favorites like Reiss, TopShop, Ted Baker, H&;M, Gap, Zara, Banana Republic, Nike, etc. all on one street

For our next post, we wil get back to the historial sites.

Final Days in Ireland

We left off last with our trip back to Dublin, starting with a visit to learn about some rad ancient rocks at the Connemara Marble Factory, followed by a few hours in the lively town of Galway (photos below).

 

We then made the three-hour trek across the country back to Dublin. After night out in the Temple Bar district, we were ready for a huge last day in Ireland on Tuesday, Oct. 4.

First thing in the morning we finally visited the place where most American tourists visit first when they get to Dublin – the Guinness Storehouse. We enjoyed the self-guided tour and loved the panoramic views from the Gravity Bar at the top of the building.

 

Next up – meeting cousin Maureen downtown for lunch and some quality family time for the rest of the day/evening. The first place we wanted to visit was the Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin to see the grave of my great great grandfather and other family members. Now, we knew Maureen was a wonderful person already, but no one told ever us she was such a great tour guide too! 

The cemetery is not only stunning, but it’s very historic too – the graves of many of Ireland's most prominent national figures are located here, including Daniel O'Connell, Charles Parnell, and Michael Collins (pictured below).  

The highlight for me of course was standing next to the grave of my great great grandfather and other family members. John Condon was a stone mason and came over to the United States to help build the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It was here where my father's grandmother Anne Condon was born. She came back to Ireland but returned through Ellis Island years later and, well, the rest is history!

The grapes and leaves you see below were the Condon family's signature design in their stone carvings:

Other gravestones in the cemetery were also done by the Condon family:

After our cemetery experience, we took the “pretty road” (as Maureen called it) to her village of Kilcoole, which is about 40 kilometers south of Dublin. Along the way, we saw incredible views from the mountains, including plenty of Aunt Kathy’s favorite sheep along the way. We stopped for photos over the breathtaking views of Lough Tay. Our official tour guide informed us that the mansion and property you see below belongs to an heiress of the Guinness family fortune. Wow.

We then got to spend time at the Scanlan house in Kilcoole, looked at some of Maureen’s incredible photos from her last vacation in Kenya, and hung out with little Simba (below).

 

We were lucky enough to meet Maureen’s son Donal and his family, including his wife and two adorable daughters. After dinner at a local pub, we got an added bonus as Maureen's husband Michael joined us for a few minutes after getting off work - he is the Secretary General of the Department of Health in Ireland.

Brandi and I really enjoyed spending time with Maureen and her family, and we can’t thank her enough for being so kind, generous, and downright awesome in showing us around. We will certainly be keeping in touch (come to the States soon Maureen!).

Final words on Ireland: it is quite simply an amazing country with some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet on this planet. The scenery, the lively pubs, the history, the music - all of it make Ireland a place every American should visit in their lifetimes. 

Next post will be all about our next adventure in London town.

Sláinte!! (cheers in Irish)