I am sorry for being so terribly remiss in updating this blog, I have nothing to say for myself. But, better late than never, so ... I had a two week break after Easter and in the first week I spent three nights in London followed by two nights in Dublin. The second week was spent scrambling to finish assignments, and nothing more needs to be said on that score.
I think it is hard not to fall in love with London, the city has such a vibrancy, it feels so very alive!
On my first day we took a boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich, this is looking back on Tower Bridge.
This is at Greenwich (look familiar to anyone who has seen Thor 2?). We checked out naval history at the Maritime Museum, and pondered time at the Royal Observatory before heading further up the river to North Greenwich and the O2 dome.
This is an amazing view of London from the Shard, which has now topped the London Eye as the highest viewing platform (great idea Roy).
Behold the Millennium Bridge, notoriously closed two days after opening due to resonance caused by pedestrian footsteps.
Day two brought a walking tour, a visit to the Tower of London and Phantom of the Opera (absolutely stunning!)
Buckingham Palace again, the Queen's gardens are immaculate, unsurprisingly.
On my way to the Tower of London, under my own jurisdiction of course.
This is the White Tower, the oldest building on the site, built by William the Conqueror to parade his power.
Legend says that the Tower of London must always be home to six ravens else the monarchy will fall. To avoid this unthinkable adversity the resident ravens have their wings clipped so they can't fly away.
The oldest graffiti I have ever seen, attributed to some of the Tower's prisoners.
Next was a visit to The Globe theatre, reconstructed in 1997. Known as Shakespeare's Globe because many of his plays were written for, and performed here.
Traditional building methods were used in the reconstruction. Its is an open air theatre, so bad luck if its raining (apparently they have performed in snow before). The original theatre had a thatch roof (of course), and the replica is the first building to have such a roof since the Great Fire of London in1666. They had to get the legislation changed to enable this to happen.
After spending some time in the National Museum it was on to Dublin.
On my first night I went for a wander to get a feel for the city. I encountered Dublin Castle...
And St Patricks Cathedral, along with Christ Church Cathedral and a really friendly Irish fellow.
In the daytime, I visited Trinity College and got to lay eyes on the Book of Kells before heading to the Chester Beatty library. This is a modern building behind Dublin Castle full of delightful old manuscripts, paintings and prints from all over the world.
I also wandered through Temple Bar, a very colourful part of the city. To be avoided at night I was told, full of drunk tourists...
To end with, here are some pretty pictures of bridges in Dublin (you can see they put on the good weather for me!)
