It's time for the London/Ireland wrap up blog post! You all always tell me how much you love following me along on my travel adventures so this blog will not only show you our trip to London and Ireland but tell you all about our experiences! I booked our trip through TripMasters. If you aren't familiar with TripMasters then you must check them out! They have so many great vacation deals and most of their vacation deals included round trip airfare and hotels for pretty much the cost of a normal flight. We love them and use them for lots of our bigger trips. We booked our China vacation through them the other year too. (They aren't paying me one dime or even know that I'm writing this, I just love them!) Although we had only planned on just doing Ireland, I was able to add on a couple of days in London for pretty much nothing so I had to do it! :)
I'm going to write about each location and experiences below with the images so keep reading between the images to learn more!
London was amazing! If you know me, you may know that I'm sort of a royal buff. I've always had a fascination with royals and monarchs, especially Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth and family. London was filled with visiting lots of palaces and everything else! I also really wanted to do some high street shopping but we didn't really have time or the space in the suitcase.
Ireland was just gorgeous! I'm convinced that you could spend two weeks driving around Ireland and still not be able to stop at every castle that you see! They are literally everywhere and are gorgeous! Some are marked by signs and you can tour them but others are just dilapidated structures that you see in the distance. The dilapidated ones just have some sort of gorgeous beauty to them. We tried to stop at a few that we saw as we were driving but we just couldn't stop at all of them.
Since wedding season is during the spring and summer, we take a lot of our vacations in the winter. I love it since it's really the travel off season so you can get great deals and there are way less crowds. However, we were literally some of the only people in some of our destinations and I can not imagine how busy some of these place would have been in the busy season.
DAY ONE- LONDON: First stop! We flew into London Heathrow and then took a bus to Victoria Coach Station. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Buckingham Palace. The hotel was super basic but was a block away from Victoria Coach Station and Victoria Train Station so it made getting to and from the airport super easy. Plus it was just a few blocks away from Buckingham Palace!!!!!
Our flight arrived around 11:30am so once we checked into our hotel we went straight to Buckingham Palace! Now, you can tour Buckingham Palace but only a few months per year, February wasn't one of those months. We explored the outside of the palace that literally takes up several city blocks.
I LOVED all of the gold seals throughout the gates and palace.
Don't mind me, just waiting for the queen! haha
After we explored Buckingham Palace we kept walking to Westminster Abbey.
Of course I had to take a photo of my reflection in a phone booth!
St. Margaret's Church was the next stop and it's next-door to Westminster.
And then it was time to visit Big Ben! Unfortunately, we had no idea that they were restoring it! It was covered in scaffolding and the chimes were turned off. It was still magical though.
All of the architecture in London is just stunning! I love the gothic style of architecture!
Along with Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, I also have a fondness for Winston Churchill so of course I had to visit his statue.
The row of hotels and town homes on the street of our hotel.
DAY TWO- STONEHENGE/LONDON: London is only a few hours from Stonehenge so we of course had to make it a stop on our trip! We booked a morning tour with GoldenTours, they bused us to and from Stonehenge and it also included our admission ticket (way cheaper than renting a rental car for the day). They were super great and even gave us ponchos for the rain! Unfortunately, this day was EXTREMELY cold and rainy! Because of this we just couldn't bring ourselves to explore Stonehenge as much as we would have liked. We were dying in the freezing rain and bitter wind. However, it was still an amazing experience and we are so glad that we were able to fit it into our trip!
Once we got back to London we warmed up and them went to see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
DAY THREE- LONDON/DUBLIN: This day we split between London and Dublin. We woke up early and headed out to Hyde Park for sunrise. Our first stop was the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (the ring below). We then explored the park for a bit and then walked to Kensington Palace and Gardens.
I'm kind of the swan whisperer and there were TONS of swans at this park who I made friends with!
The little duck/bird was just adorable. He loved us and followed us around the whole time we were by the water. If we sped up or slowed down, he did too so he could stay by us! We were sad to say goodbye to him!
The next stop at the park was the Prince Albert Memorial and Prince Albert Hall. The hall was being renovated but the Memorial was so gorgeous! Queen Victoria had it commissioned after Albert passed away and it would have cost about 10 million dollars in today's money.
Making friends with more swans!
And of course I had to get a photo with my girl, Queen Victoria! Her statue is just outside of Kensington's Palace Gardens.
The gardens of Kensington Palace and of course the palace!
Even the birds love Queen Victoria!
You can tour a part of Kensington Palace so we did just that! It was so neat seeing all of the artwork and everything else. These photos are of the King's Staircase (the Queen's Staircase wasn't as elaborate).
In the King's gallery.
There were a couple special exhibits at the palace while we were there and one of them was the Princess Diana Fashion Exhibit. I was excited about this because when we stayed on the Queen Mary Ship a year or so ago this exhibit was there but it was closed during our stay.
Some of her famous gowns were displayed.
I loved seeing this fashion sketches with new wardrobe ideas for Diana.
The hallway to some of the restrooms at the palace had this amazing Princess Diana wallpaper!!!!
The second special exhibit was the Queen Victoria exhibit! I was soooooo excited!!!! Probably the one thing I learned that I never really knew was how small people were back in that time. Queen Victoria's gowns and Prince Albert's suits were so short! Apparently people were just shorter back then. Queen Victoria was only about 4 foot 8.
That dress below was the gown Queen Victoria wore when she married Albert!!!!!!!
All of their portraits are just amazing!
These bracelets were my favorite! They had painted portraits of Albert in them! I wanted them so bad!
Some of Queen Victoria's Children's items.