adore to explore

day 17.

IRELAND.

Belfast, Ireland is known for their linen, engineering and shipbuilding industries!!

We left for Belfast, Ireland at 5:30am this morning and flew out at 8:30 for an hour and a half flight. Once we arrived we went to this little market where I got some yummy homemade lemon curd to take home to the family (sadly, it was taken away from airport security on the way back) and then we went on a nice tour around Belfast. I also came to find out that the Titanic was built in Belfast! So we were able to go to the site and see how big it actually was.

Waiting at the airport, looking real good at 5:30am

finally on the plane ready for Ireland!!

on the bus to our hotel... and Lee is creepin' in the back

At the farmers market in Ireland, the food looked amazing!

the peace wall in Berlin

We went on a bus tour while we were waiting to check into the hotel and we learned a lot of interesting things about Belfast. The picture above is the Peace Wall on the East side of Belfast. We came to find that there has been a type of democracy between the Catholics and Protestants, so this peace wall separates the Catholics who want to be apart of the UK and the Protestants that don't want to be apart of it. People were setting buildings on fire and there was a lot of contention going on until 1995 things have calmed down a lot, but they still have the separation. It was interesting to see the real side of Belfast and the history that outsiders don't really know about, rather than just seeing some pretty buildings and rolling hills.

this is the east side, who want to be apart of the UK... hence the flags

This is where the Titanic was built!

this was able to hold one million gallons of water and the pump house could even pump all the water down to the very last inch!!

here is the website to read about titanic stories and it's history

http://www.nmni.com/titanic/Home.aspx

our sweet hotel room at the Hilton

me and Danielle loving our new bed!

our sweet bathroom

the view from our room

I liked the chair

and I liked the wallpaper :) we were living in luxury here.

day 16.

CAMBRIDGE.

Today we went to Cambridge, where the second oldest university in both England and the English-speaking world is located. Formed in 1209, it is seventh oldest around the globe! This is the ultimate college town filled with very smart students a beautiful atmosphere filled with amazing architecture and nature. Academically Cambridge ranks as one of the top universities in the world, with graduates who have won a total of 61 Nobel Prizes, the most of any university in the world! Initially, only male students were enrolled in the University. The first college for woman was formed in 1869 and 1872. The first woman students were examined in 1882 but the attempts to make them full members did no succeed until 1947. When they were first opened the men had a funeral, because to them that was the day that education had died, and they floated black boats down the river as their death symbols. Little did they know that we ARE smarter than them. :)

I have never seen so many bikes in my life! I loved it :) I wish we rode bikes around more

beautiful fan vaulted ceilings

love the stained glass windows

The shadows from the pretty windows

i was loving the bikes :)

and another pretty bike

about to go on our boat ride!

we had to take a picture with the hott punting boys of course!

it was an entertaining ride

day 15.

HADDON HALL &HARDWICK HALL.

Once again... another early morning! Sweet little Molly knocked on the door about 15 minutes before we had to leave, and once again Andrea and I were sleeping! We have a serious problem. Good thing we have Molly here to awaken us from our deep sleep. So I got ready in 10 mins and we were down stairs at 6:45am. Because of this rush out the door, please excuse my pictures. Once we all got to the train station we had about 15 minutes before we had to board the train, so we found the nearest coffee shop, which was Starbucks and stocked up on energy with a good cup of coffee to add a nice kick to our morning adventures. Once we were happily carrying our energizer bunny cups in our right hand and our train ticket in the left we were seated in the train and off to Chesterfield! After we got off the train, we switched to a 30 minute bus ride to Haddon Hall. It was really cool to see and experience this place, it has been in many films including my classic favorites, Princess Bride, Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre!!

this is Haddon Hall

me and Darwin saying what's up through Griffin's glasses

this is a shot from the Princess Bride! Love that movie!!!

this was the little church inside Haddon

I liked this little spidy... creeps

in the kitchen area

hanging outside of Haddon... it had a beautiful garden

cool kids.

beautiful right?

just about to bite his head off

After Haddon Hall we jumped on our tour bus and headed to Hardwick Hall, where Queen Elizabeth lived. As you can kind of see in the picture below, her initials are on the top of the house, this was also her second house built on the land. The first home is slowly diminishing and is in ruins, but there most of the walls are still up. These two places showed Tudor times very well. Where Bess was married to 4 different men, which is how these two homes came to be. Her first husband mysteriously died, she bore 8 kids with her second husband, sadly only 6 of them survived to adulthood, then he died. So she married again, they were together for 5 years then he "mysteriously" died again. Then her final marriage was to George Talbot, who was an Earl. They were later divorced after Bess decided she didn't like that her husband was keeping Mary, Queen of Scots, prisoner on order of Queen Elizabeth. She felt it was draining their funds. Bess was one who loved to show off her wealth so she Built the second house, which is the only reason why these two houses exist.

Hardwick Hall... the second home built that is still standing

The ruins of old Hardwick Hall... the first house

it was crazy to walk around in the ruins of this house, to look up and see where all the different floors were, and where the plastered fireplaces were placed.