Honeymoon Tour: Dublin - Day One

Our visit to Dublin started late in the evening so we didn't really do anything except wander around the hotel and create our plan for the remaining days in Ireland. Unlike Paris, we didn't plan exactly what we wanted to do for every single day, and unlike London, we didn't have a list of things we wanted to do, other than Guinness factory and the Cliffs of Mohrer really. Let's just say we were finishing up planning the wedding and we kept pushing our Dublin planning off. Well, now it was time to figure it out. We had a bite to eat at the hotel and then headed back to our room.We stayed at Clontarf Castle, which was a castle located about 10 minutes from Dublin.

On day two we went on a self-guided wandering medieval church/cathedral tour, which wasn't that hard since there is literally a church every ten feet. Essentially we took a cab into Dublin and then started walking around until we found something we wanted to go inside. On our walk we also saw Trinity College Dublin which was pretty neat. The first cathedral we visited was St. Patrick's Cathedral, the tallest church in Ireland. Interestingly, this is also where students of the Dublin Institute of Technology have their graduation and it was the site of the funerals for two Irish presidents. It was very impressive inside, with towering ceilings and beautifully tiled floors. It also has one of the largest organs in Ireland, with over 4,000 pipes! While walking around inside we also saw the original St. Patrick's gate and carved stones.

The carved stones (photo below) we saw were two granite stones located in the area of the church before St. Patrick's was built in 1192. One of the stones covered an ancient well, which may have been where St. Patrick baptized converts in the fifth century, and the other stone (the one in my photo) was a grave marker of an early Christian. The stones were believed to have been carved between 800 and 1100. 32 of these type of stones have been found and six were at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Where they were quarried is still a mystery. Pretty cool, right?

I wonder how heavy that stone is. Below is a photo of the beautiful interior. Look at those ceiling heights and the stained glass windows! While we were in the church we lit a candle for my husband's Irish grandmother who passed away a few years ago.

We then visited Christ Church Cathedral, also known as The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. The is the second of the medieval cathedrals in Dublin and is older than St. Patrick's. Christ Church Cathedral was founded circa 1030 by Sigtrygg Silkbeard (awesome name!). It is claimed as the seat of both the Church of Irealnd and Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin, however the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin really uses St. Mary's on Marlborough Street (also in Dublin). Look at it in all of its medieval goodness and glory:

An interesting thing about this cathedral is that it contains a crypt, which you can walk around. Notably, the crypt was used in a television show called The Tudors (which I totally watched) and it had an exhibit of the costumes:

And a less "hollywood" but no less interesting story: you can even see a mummified cat and mouse in the crypt that was pulled out of one of the organ's pipes. This oddity was used by James Joyce as a simile Finnegan's Wake when he described someone as being "...As stuck as that cat to that mouse in that tube of the Christchurch organ..." I didn't want to offend anyone's sensibilities with an actual photo of the cat/mouse but you can google it if you're into that sort of stuff.

Overall, it was a pretty interesting day and seeing all the medieval history tied to the churches was fascinating. We continued to walk around and tour the city but I didn't take very many photos so we'll stop here. Or actually, one more photo:

Since we went to the Guinness Factory Tour the next day and all....

Honeymoon Tour: Liverpool - Day Two

We really only had half a day in Liverpool for day two since our plane to Dublin was in the evening. We still made the most of it and managed to some pretty cool stuff into our half a day. First, we returned to Albert Dock for the National Trust tour of John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney's childhood homes. Unfortunately we wen're allowed to take photographs of the inside of the homes (lame!) but it was still really neat to walk where the boys did all those years ago.

We visited Paul McCartney's childhood home located at 20 Forthlin Road right in Liverpool.

This home was owned by the local authority and the McCartneys moved in in 1955. They didn't even own their own home! That's how normal the family was. Can you believe the incredible journey Paul had?? Insane. Anyway, does "she came in through the bathroom window" mean anything to you? Well, we got to see the bathroom window. Apparently, Paul would miss curfew and his dad would lock him out (what a dad thing to do) so Paul would take the alley (it looks like a black door to the left in the photo above) to the back garden of the home, climb up a red pipe, and climb into the bathroom window. Kind of neat. The National Trust wanted this home because of how many Beatles songs were written in it.

We also saw Mendips, John Lennon's childhood home located at 251 Menlove Avenue in Woolton. John lived with his Aunt Mimi because by all accounts his mother sounded like a piece of work and they decided it was best that John did not stay with his mother. John's bedroom is the room with the four windows near the center of the home. By the way, it's a semi-detached home so the gray and yellow paint mark two different homes. 

I took this photo from the wikipedia page because I couldn't find the one I took and I wanted to point out a few things. First, the blue circle under John's bedroom windows is an English Heritage blue plaque, given when the person has been dead for 20 years. For this reason, Paul's house does not have a plaque...yet.

I also wanted to point out the little overhang in front of the front door. Aunt Mimi used to rent a bedroom out to a student in the area and if Paul and John were playing music late at night they would go into the overhang room. It's supposed to have really cool acoustics but I was too shy to sing when we stood in there. We also learned that people didn't really use the front door. Apparently, everyone except for doctors, lawyers, or official visitors, would use the back door entrance because it led into the kitchen where the floor was tile and a lot easier to clean. If you entered in the front door you entered onto carpet and it was harder to clean.

Fun fact, did you know that Aunt Mimi was judgmental of Paul McCartney before she first met him? She thought he would be too gritty or something...but Paul was a charmer and she liked him instantly. Fascinating.

After the tour ended we visited the Liverpool Cathedral. This cathedral houses the United Kingdom's largest organ and is a fixture in the Liverpool skyline. It's also the largest cathedral in Britain. The inside is just as impressive:

Just look at the lectern:

The cathedral also houses the world's heaviest bells. These are in a tower that visitors can climb up and look out at Liverpool. It was a rainy day when we visited but we still climbed the tower. Can I just say...staircases in Europe are scary and tiny.

The bells rang out a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" after his death. Also, all of the bells have a name, which I think it pretty cool:

After we climbed up to the tower, this was the view of Liverpool:

And that was Liverpool! We caught our flight to Dublin and we were onto our last leg of our honeymoon. Visit again to see what we got into in Dublin. Hint: Guinness, churches, and cliffs, oh my!

Honeymoon Tour - Liverpool: Day One

If you are a fan of The Fab Four then you know that they originated in a little English town by the name of Liverpool. My husband is a HUGE fan of The Beatles (HUGE) and when we planned England as a honeymoon destination we both knew we would be adding on a quick stop in Liverpool. It was only an hour or so train ride from London and we got to do all the Beatles-mania stuff. I think the husband really enjoyed it. First up, the Magical Mystery Tour, a 2 hour bus tour that visits a variety of Beatles-famous locations, including a bunch of childhood homes (you can't go in on the tour), the church where Paul met John, restaurants, schools, and pubs they visited, Strawberry Fields, etc. By the way the bus totally looks exactly like the ticket:

The bus drove down Penny Lane and the guide told us that people kept stealing the Penny Lane sign so frequently that the town tried to paint it onto the brick wall.  However, the fans then tried to chip away at the bricks in order to get a piece for themselves so the town eventually returned back to the normal signs. I assume they still have to replace it somewhat frequently. 

You've heard of the song Strawberry Fields Forever, right? The tour stopped at the real Strawberry Field, which was not a field of strawberries. It was a Salvation Army kids home located in John Lennon's childhood town, Woolton. Also, fun fact, John and Paul used to bike to each other houses when they were younger--wish I could have grown up in a time when I could bike to a friend's house! John Lennon would often climb the fence of Strawberry Fields to play with the kids in the home, much to the owner's complaint! Our tour guide told us that John's Aunt Mimi (he was living with her) told him that if he kept up with his antics they would hang him. The lyric "Nothing to get hung about, Strawberry Fields forever" makes a lot more sense now, right? This is the gate, though the actual gate has since been replaced and we saw the real gate later on in a museum.

Along the way we saw Saint Peter's Church, where a headstone reading Eleanor Rigby is found. We also saw The Empress, which was featured on Ringo Starr's first solo album. To be honest I had no idea about that and wouldn't have remembered it if they didn't paint it above the window.

We also stopped by the childhood homes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Because only people on a tour through the National Trust (who look after the residences) can go inside, we weren't able to actually go into the homes. But we could stop and take photos outside. So we visited Paul's childhood home at 4 Forthlyn Road and John Lennon's home. Naturally we also booked the Trust tour for the next morning so we could see the inside. It was really interesting to see where these mega stars started.  This is John Lennon's home.

On the way back to the hotel, which by the way was named A Hard Day's Night Hotel, (Beatles themed and actually really nice), we passed by the Liverpool Cathedral, which was incredibly impressive. We planned to visit the cathedral the next day. But seriously, look how intense the cathedral is:

We had a quick delicious meal of too much Cuban food at a place on the Albert Dock. Seriously, we bought a bunch of tapas and I'm convinced we ordered one of everything on the menu:

Everything was delicious!

After lunch we stopped at The Beatles Experience, a museum dedicated to everything The Beatles. Throughout the museum they had a mix of authentic objects and staged scenes. For examples, they staged the Cavern Club so you could take pictures. Although you could just go to the real Cavern Club too since it was only a short walk away.

We got to see Ringo's gold sparkly drumkit, which was used during The Concert for George Harrison a year after his death:

These were sold at auction for about $64,000.

They also had a replica "white room":

We also stumbled upon this super cool Beatles statue near Albert Dock:

Overall, it was a really good day. And we were looking forward to continuing our Liverpool adventure the next day. Be sure to check back again to see what we did on day two in Liverpool!

Honeymoon Tour - London: Day Four

On our final day in London we tried to move in with Kate Middleton returned to Kensington Palace for a tour. I learned something as we were waiting to go inside: the royal grass is cut by royal horses. Think I'm joking?

There is the royal lawn crew. Seriously.

I guess they don't want to disturb the royals' precious beauty sleep! Kensington Palace was having an special exhibition of Princess Diana's various dresses that she wore during her lifetime. But first we toured the King's and Queen's Apartments. This is me on the Queen's staircase. I'm ready to move in any time!

Just check out these ceilings!

And I got to tend to official royal business. Lol.

After Kensington Palace (which is FAR from Buckingham Palace, even by cab), we headed to the train station for our next adventure: Leavesden. What's in Leavesden you ask? 

Leavesden is home to the studios where all the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Since they finished shooting they opened up the studios to us mere muggles for "The Making of Harry Potter" self-guided tours. It.was.epic.

You get off the train and board a shuttle that is right there waiting for you to whisk you off to Hogwarts the studios. You are greeted immediately by Wizard Chess pieces (yes, the actual pieces from the movie).

Then you go inside and there's a short video welcoming you to the studios and then you enter the great hall. This is the door to Hogwarts, literally.

From there it's kind of a choose-your-own-adventure. Everything is in two warehouses and you can spend as long as you like going through. They have all the sets, props, wigs, costumes, etc and you can see and read about it all.  The exhibit that was being shown while we were there were costumes. Between Kensington Palace and Harry Potter it was a regular clothing theme!

You can also get audio guides to tell you about everything. Be warned, the audio guides are LONG. We ended up sitting in the butter beer cafeteria listening and watching all of them so we could then walk around and enjoy what we were seeing. They also had the various backdrops from the movies. For example, Dumbledore's office:

and Diagon Alley.

And last but not least, le piece de resistance.....a full to-scale model of Hogwarts. This thing could have inspired tears from the right fan. I was just in awe from its size.

It doesn't look like it would be very large but check out the people on the right side of the photo. That will show you the scale. It was incredible to see.

After we made it back from the Harry Potter studio we swung by Abbey Road. Naturally, we had to pose on the crosswalk.

And that marks the end of our London leg of the Honeymoon Tour. The next day we headed to Liverpool. If you're not interested in the Beatles you may want to skip that post!

Christmas Plaid

It's time to get festive here on the blog since Christmas is OH MY GOSH less than a week away! Have you wrapped all your presents yet?? I still have to get my dad and my brother-in-law something. I know what gifts to get them, I just haven't bought them yet. Eesh. Where did time go?! Anyway, today's nails are a Christmas-color themed manicure with red, green, and white. Simple, you know?

2017 Snowflakes

This morning brought us our second round of snow flurries for winter 2017. It was nothing crazy--the road were fine and it was hardly two inches BUT I still wore my new snow boots from last year since I am obsessed with them. Here are my barely there snowfall nails:

Also, Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish visitors!

NOTD: Mix'n'Match with Essie

My buddy gifted me five polishes from Essie's Summer 2017 line as part of my bridal shower gift. Therefore, I had to give each polish a try to see which I liked the most. Swatch posts will be coming soon--promise!

The cuticles are a little messy....let's just say I was in a hurry to add some paint to my nails before rushing out the door. Have you heard of these polish names,though? They are too cute! On my big thumb is Blue-La-La. Then from my pointer to my pinky is Eclair My Love,

Nails of the Day: Sweater Weather

The positives to this time of year? Boots, hot chocolate, gloves, scarves, furry blankets, and fabulous coats. The negatives? Snow, ice, frostbite, and dry skin. Over this weekend we even had our first snowfall here on the east coast. My sister and I were binging on season two of The Crown on Netflix though so the snow didn't get too much attention until were done. During the show we were getting hopelessly lost in the luxurious life of Queen Elizabeth and snacking on tea sandwiches and scones.

Of course when we were finished watching The Crown I decided it was time for a new nail design. I chose sweater nails:

Swatch: China Glaze Heart of Africa

This China Glaze polish is the perfect winter red if you ask me. It's not a fire engine bright red but it's not so vampy that it's red-black. It's an oldie but goodie I bought years ago from China Glaze. I usually wear it around the Christmas holiday but honestly you could wear this red any time you want.

It applies smoothly and dries quickly, and the slight shimmer really gives the color some pizzazz. I know some people hate red nail polish because they consider it trampy (I beg to differ!). How do you feel about red polish?

Christmas Nails 2017

It's officially December now so that means I can start in on the holiday nails, right? Good. Here are some easy stamped green and red holiday nails to get this party started. I have noticed that ever since Thanksgiving I have started to incorporate a lot more reds and greens in my wardrobe so clearly I am ready to get my festive on!

Also, I got a new cell phone and I was experimenting with it's settings when I took this photo so let's just say I didn't have a good handle on the settings when I took this sort of trippy blurry shot, mmmmkay?

In other news, how is everyone doing? Has anyone finished their holiday shopping? ...or is it more like has anyone started it? Lol.