Today was our day in London.. We caught a train for our hotel town of Waybridge to Waterloo Station.  

Our first stop was the London Eye. That is the huge ferris wheel. We considered riding it but it was $60 and it would have taken over an hour to go around once. It has 32 cabins and it never stops. People get on and off as it is moving. It moved very slowly. It is really an amazing structure. It is like a large bicycle wheel with cables in tension forming the spokes. It is supported only on one side. The wind was really blowing but it didn’t seem to be swaying.

We then walked over the Golden Jubilee foot bridge to Trafagler Square. We had a croissant, cappuccino and a hot chocolate in a small cafe. We then walked around the square, the National Museum. 

We walked down Whitehall Street to the Westminster Abbey, the parliament and Big Ben. We had a real relaxing walk, stopping often to just watch the activity around us. 

We then caught the train back to our hotel. We have had a great vacation but, as it always is, we have had enough and we are ready to get home to our friends, our puppy dog and the warmth of Tucson. We will be up early tomorrow as we have to be the Heathrow airport at 7:30 am.

It was raining when we left this morning but that was not to last long. It would rain for awhile, then the sun would shine and then it would rain again. We headed 50 miles east to Brighton. Just north of there we found six towns that had once had people from my past. They were Hickstoad, Twineham, Bolney, Cuckfield, Cowsold and Wivelsfield. Sound familiar. Five of the six had old churches that were there when my ancestors where there. At one we met an old woman that was the church warden. She knew all about the area, the church and the graveyard. Like most people here she had a nice dog. We miss Maisy.

Then we headed to the Ace Café. It has been an internationally known British biker hang out for over 50 years. It was worth the drive but what a drive. It is nine miles west of London and my GPS said we had 58 miles to get there. 

You have never seen bad traffic until you have seen London traffic. A lot of stop, and stop again, and then go slowly. We made it there, hung around for awhile, bought and Ace Café hat and then headed south again to Weybridge again in stop and go traffic. Our hotel for the last two nights is here. 

It was cold and raining when we got up this morning. We had breakfast. Outside our hotel room window is this huge old church. As it was Sunday, we walked across the street to see what was going on. We were pleased as there were some young people there, they had a video screen set up and they were preparing their music using a guitar and a key board. I expected a dark church full of old people. They said to get the young people there they have to be more contemporary. Just like home.

Our first stop was the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum. It is here in the New Forest. Sammy was the worlds top trials rider and won a lot of road races as well. I had met him the last time we were here and at 81 he comes in to the museum 6 days a week but not on Sunday. It is a wonderful museum with over 350 great bikes.

We were off to Portsmouth. My Littlefield namesake was from here. His wife and kids went to Utah in 1860 and he stayed behind. He died before he could go. We did a four mile walking tour of the old dock area. This was a real tough shipping area in those days. They have done a nice job fixing up the dock area including a 500 foot spear monument.

Then we were off to find the birthplace of the Littlefields. It was 15 miles north of   Portsmouth in a little farm village. We found a beautiful old church. It was getting late and the 6:00 pm bells were ringing. We loved it.

We have been eating our way through the British Isles. Tonight we decided to just split a sandwich and , a glass have of wine and a liter of lager in the hotel bar. 

Today we went to the Isle of  Wight . It is an island off the south coast of England. It was also the home of several of my ancestors in about 1700. We had the names of four towns where they lived.

We caught a ferry about 8 miles south of our hotel. It is a 4 mile ferry ride each way. We had to go on line the night before and purchase our tickets. 80 pounds or about $120 for the round trip. We were questioning if we had to have reservations but it is good we did. It was a beautiful sunny day and the island is a beach resort get-a-way for many of the English. The harbors are just full private sail boats. 

There was a big market going on that drew thousands of cars. The island town of Yarmouth, where the ferry landed was jammed.

After getting out of the town we found our first little town. It was again a small farm town down several single lane roads. 

There we found another wonderful old church. In the second town there was an old woman doing flower arrangements in that church. She was a new comer to the town, having lived there only 40 years, but she was a wealth of information about the area going all the way back to Roman days.

The third town, though small, was too newly developed to even find the old church. The fourth town had another great old church.

We drove around the entire coast line of the island. It was probably about 30 miles. The southern part was really pretty. There was little traffic there, some cute beach towns, and the road was fun to drive.

We got back to catch the 5:00 pm ferry back to the mainland. We stopped at a pub on the way back to the hotel for a dinner of pub food. 

Again we woke up in a hotel on the beach with it pouring rain and the wind blowing. Later in the day we will see some sunshine but small rain drops kept coming too.

This is a day for gynecological searching. Jan is real good at this. She had towns all over England and Ireland where one of or m of my family trees originated. We started in Bedwelty Wales. Then in England we found the villages of Coaley in Gloucester and Chilmark and Homington in Wiltshire. In each town we would look for the old church and take photos in the village.

We try to picture our distant ancestors living in these villages and what it was that led them to take the long journey to America. These were all very small towns down narrow one lane roads. They were all farming towns at one time but it appears they are bedroom communities or retirement hideaways now. There are BMWs and Audis parked in front of wonderful old restored homes. This is really beautiful country and there were great views around every corner.

We are staying in a real nice old hotel in Lyndhurst which is in the center of the New Forest in Hampshire near the south coast. 

We have been real laid back this trip. We usually are in no hurry to get out of bed. We usually make it to breakfast by 9:00 am and are on the road by 10:00. Not this morning. We had to be at the ferry at 8:00. We were to breakfast at 7:00. I had a few Euros left and as we were going back to the UK where they use Pounds I stopped and bought gas. Still $7 .00 a gallon. We then lined up for the ferry. The ferry ride was 3 ½ hours. I roam the ship and Jan reads. We found some big lounge chairs at the very back of the ship and watched the water churn as the huge ship leaves it behind.

After landing we immediately turned down a narrow back road heading for some small towns along the southwest coast of Wales. We drove south to the very furthest tip of the British Isles. The roads were mostly one lane so we have always be prepared to slow down and move to the left or wait in a wide place in the road so oncoming cars, trucks and tractors can pass. We went through several beautiful small villages. They had wonderful beaches. The sun was shining and the fields are all a bright green. What great photo opportunities.

We went to the last town before the end named Dale and then continued out to end of the land. We then turned around and headed toward Tenby. It is a larger town along the coast with more beautiful beaches. It also has its original ancient walls still in tact. There was a narrow road going through the wall. Jan reminded me that I couldn’t drive there but I got through fine. We ended up going very slow down a narrow shopping street clearing the people out of our way.

We are stay tonight in Swansea in a Best Western across the street from the ocean. We both had fish and chips.

We left Cork heading for Ardmore. It is a small village on the south coast. It is sort of out of the way for tourists. Jan had read about a craft store there. It was a small  place ran out of a woman’s home. She had some really nice things. Jan bought a small pitcher.

We headed north on small roads to Castle. It is site of most significant ruins in Ireland. He climbed the long hill to the castle and cathedral. It was raining when we went in but stopped while we there. That is the first rain we have had in Ireland.

 It was 85 miles to Rosslare. It is in the southeast corner of Ireland. We are back in a nice Best Western. We catch the ferry to Wales from here in the morning.

After trying everything to get my GPS to come on last night I was about ready to give up. Then I just held the “on” button down for about 30 seconds. Nothing happened. I put it down on the table and it started. She is a little temperamental. I ignore what she says so often I think she thought she would show me who is boss. She behaved today. Having a GPS is great. We used to have to use maps. Sometimes I like to turn down some road just because it looks interesting. After a few turns I have no idea where I am. She gets me unlost.

Our tour book says the best road in Ireland, and in all of Europe, is the Ring of Kerry. It is a loop road along the Atlantic shore line in the far south west corner of the country. That was our destination today.

The first part of it was a narrow winding road that hugged the hills with great views of the ocean. It was a great ride. The western end the road opened up and the tour buses started to arrive. We went clockwise. We learned that all the tour buses go counter clockwise. The road is so narrow that they do not want two buses to have to pass either other in opposite directions. We had to dodge the oncoming buses but there was little traffic going our direction.

On the way back to our hotel in Cork we went through Killarney. They have a beautiful church. We stopped, had tea in a small café and then visited the church. Almost every little town has these huge stone churches. Most are several hundred years old. They are also well maintained. It amazes me how they could design and build such huge structures that long ago.

Our plan for the day is to head west to the Atlantic coast. One of the sites that everyone must see is the Mohar Cliffs. We could have gone on the motorway and got there quickly but we took all back roads. We then rode along the sea shore north of the cliffs. There was a little traffic but not bad.

We have been going to mostly out of the way places where we see few tourists. However there are places where the tourists accumulate. You can identify them by the long lines of tour buses. As we approached the cliffs we knew this was one of those places. The roads were very narrow and the tour buses do not give an inch. You just have to find a way off the road when you see them coming. At the cliffs it was a zoo. There were hundreds of cars and people. Little kids everywhere. We had to see the cliffs but it was good to be back on the road again.

We went on to Cork in southern Ireland. Our room isn’t as nice. We were spoiled last night. It will do however.

Our GPS has been fantastic. However this evening it just went black. I can’t get it going again. I hope it works tomorrow. We have maps but it won’t be as nice as having the GPS.

Today was our day in Dublin. It is Sunday and we thought that would be an excellent day in a large city. That was true but the city was still crowded. There are a lot of tourists but the Irish people like to get out too. There were long lines at most places. We were worried about parking but we found a confident garage near the main center. It ended up costing about $30 for the day. We expected that.

We first got on a tour bus. That is a huge business in Dublin. There are several lines and our line had a 2 hour tour every 10 minutes. They are double decker bus and they were full. It was a great way to see the city.

We then walked for 2 or 3 hours. We stopped at a small café for scones and tea. There are many shopping streets and a lot of sidewalk cafes all full of people.

We go back to the hotel to have high tea. They gave us a good selection of little sandwiches with no crusts and other finger food. Jan loves it. It is definitely a girly thing but us guys have to go along with it sometimes.

Ireland is definitely different from Northern Ireland. The towns look different. We go from using English pounds for currency to using Euros. The speed limits and road distances are in kilometers. It also seems to be stricter. The speed limits are very low and from the bill boards it looks like speeding is not a good idea. No one does it. In Northern Ireland when you got out of the towns the speed limit, if there was one, was faster than I wanted to drive and that is usually fast. 

We are on our way south today. Down the M4 it is only 110 miles to our next hotel but that is not the way we went. We headed down a peninsula south and east of Belfast. It was pretty farm country along the water. At the end we needed to take a small ferry to continue down the east coast.

Our first stop was a search for some high crosses. (Celtic crosses) The largest two in Ireland are at Monasterboice. It took some back road searching to find the place. It was located out in some farm country. It is on the site of a 5^th century monastery. There are three large crosses here. The crosses date to the 10^th century. It is also a cemetery.

We continued down the coast line. Our next stop was at Newgrange. It is another World Heritage Site. It is an Irish passage tomb. One of the structures is a large circular stone structure, 80 meters across and contains 200,000 tons of stone. It was built about 3200 BC and the area was populated from then to about 1000 BC. It was built about the same era as Stonehenge and the pyramids. It is amazing how long ago people lived here and that they can learn about their civilizations.

We went on to our hotel. This is a very nice 4 star (the highest rating her) hotel and spa. We got here early enough to enjoy it too. Tomorrow we go to Dublin. 

Another great driving day. We spent 10 hours on narrow windy country roads. Our first stop was about 30 miles south west on Belfast. My four times great grandfather was born there in a small village. He was a member of the Society of Friends (Quaker).  He left in 1736.  We looked the village over and talked to a couple of old timers but they didn’t remember him. We found the cemetery where his parents were buried but the Friends did not use headstones. The house of the baron he worked under, a huge estate is still there.

We next headed to Londondarry. It is another very old town that has saved many of it’s walls and buildings. It is in the very upper northwest corner of North Ireland. Then we drove east along the entire north coast line back to Belfast.

We stopped at Giant’s Causeway. It is World Heritage Site. The  coast has big cliffs and unusal volcanic formation in the cliffs and into the sea.

This north coast is one of the most beautiful areas we have ever seen. The sea,  the shoreline, the hills, the bright green fields and the post card villages are like they are out of  a Disney movie. 

The B&B last night was wonderful. It was as good as any we have ever had. Fiona, the owner, had a great breakfast for us. Then we were off to the ferry.

This is a large ferry line. A lot of cars and big trucks. It was 2 ¼ hours to Belfast. I had a good time roaming the ship and then took a short nap. Jan finished her fourth book. We landed and went straight to the Titanic Museum.

This is the one place in Belfast that they say you have to see. It is very abstract building. The interactive displays and the use of different media is wonderful. The Titanic was built here and it was a real tragedy for the local people as they had put so much effort into it and so many Irish people were working on board. The display told of the town at that time, the working conditions, the construction and outfitting of the ship, the launch, the maiden voyage, the sinking and the rediscovery.

We found our hotel. It is another Best Western in the heart of Belfast. I really like it. Jan is not fond of big citys but I love the people and the energy. We went to a pub and I had a pint of lager and a big bowl of Irish stew.