Our first touristy foray off the island!

A couple of weekends ago (Oct 4-6), we went to Leamington, England to visit some friends: Ben, Noemi, Emilia (6), and Eleanor (1) Smith. Below is a map of where we were in England - the marker at the top left is the Birmingham Airport, then in the middle of the map from top to bottom is Warwick University where Ben is a Prof, Kenilworth Castle that we visited, and Warwick where we stayed. The Smith's live somewhere between Warwick and the Castle in Leamington.

http://goo.gl/maps/8n2DK

Background:  The Smith's moved from East Lansing to England about a year ago. Ben used to be a professor at MSU and their daughter, Emilia, was good friends with Watson at East Lansing Stepping Stones Montessori School (ELSS). Ben is now a professor at the University of Warwick. Here are some pix of them:

Travel: This was our first go at flying on one of the cheap European airlines - Ryan Air. We had heard horror stories from pretty much everyone about how Ryan Air treats customers, and I'll admit that their website was not exactly the easiest to get around. But, we got tix for the whole family from Dublin to Birmingham and back for about 140 Euro (~$190), so who can complain? Here are some of the things that Ryan does to save money and annoy customers: you are only allowed 1 carry on bag per person for free (including your purse or laptop - everything has to fit in only 1 carry-on size bag, and if your bag is too big or too heavy it costs a LOT to check it at the airport), you are only allowed to check in online for free (big fees if you forget to print your boarding pass), and seating is first-come first-serve (unless you pay more online ahead-of-time). But, we knew all of this, so we traveled without a hitch...well, except for airport security confiscating our lovely butter raspberry curd on the way home (don't they know that curd is NOT a liquid?).

Anyway, Thurs after school/work, we took the Air Coach bus from Belfast city centre to Dublin Airport, then flew to Birmingham, England (less than an hr flight). Ben picked us up and brought us to our B&B in downtown Warwick (see map). We stayed at two different B&Bs on this visit because the town was busy and neither place could accommodate us for all 3 nights. For Thurs and Fri night we stayed at the Lord Leycester Hotel. The B&B was in a VERY old building that had not exactly been upgraded with luxury in mind. The beds were hard as ROCKS (seriously, we ended up sleeping on top of the duvets the 2nd night), the floors were very sloped, the rooms were tight, and the breakfast was the unimaginative "full English" (sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, tomatoes and mushrooms, potatoes - sounds great, right? Well, surprisingly, you really can get sick of that when you're supposed to eat it every day when on holiday!). But, the location was great and the price was right at 65 pounds/night. The 3rd night, we moved just down the street to the Warwick Arms Hotel, which was much more posh, had larger rooms, and probably had a nicer breakfast. But, we had to leave at 6am for the airport so we didn't get to sample bfast and that place was almost double the price. Ah well, it is fun to experience the wide range of B&Bs in the UK! Sunday morning, Ben brought us back to the airport (SO NICE), we flew back to Dublin, stowed our luggage at the airport, and took a city bus to/from city centre so that we could spend a few hours touring Dublin.

Leamington/Warwick
Friday we made the Smith's house our home base. The kids played, the adults chatted, and everyone was relaxed. Mid-day, we walked to their local park, ate lunch at a local pub, and had pastries and cappuccinos at a local patisserie. Ben cooked dinner for us all after returning from an afternoon of teaching, and then Kendra and Jamieson went back to the B&B, Watson slept over with Emilia, Noemi and Eleanor hit the sack, and Jubin and Ben did a pub crawl between Leamington and Warwick (actually walking from pub to pub between the Smith's house and our B&B!). Although Watson had been very excited about the sleep-over, we heard back that he was a bit unhappy at one point in the evening...but, it was short-lived, and he was happy-go-lucky the next morning.

Pix of Leamington (above and below)

Having lunch at a local pub (above and below)

At a local Patisserie (above and below) - they had a very funny couch that was made out of a claw-foot tub!

At the playground (above and below) - fun for all!

Back to the Smith's for relaxed fun with toys

Saturday, we went to an English Heritage Site - Kenilworth Castle. Our first castle tour! Click here for more info about the site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenilworth_Castle
We had a picnic lunch and then explored the ruins and gardens. It was a great day! Unfortunately, Emilia was a bit grumpy off and on Saturday (Maybe not enough food? It is AMAZING how similar she and Watson are in their eating - white diets all around!), but as you can see from the pix below, all was certainly NOT lost.

This scene practically brought tears to my eyes - Watson is so grown up!

Someone didn't want to nap in his stroller (called buggy or pram here!)...

Rolling down the hill together...

What cute brothers!

Back at the Smith home playing...

Dublin
Sunday, we arrived in Dublin about 9am, stowed our luggage and took a city bus to downtown. We grabbed breakfast, wandered around the Temple Bar area of the City a bit, then walked up to where the museums are. We stopped along the way in a park and stumbled upon a monument, got to the Natural History Museum and realized that it didn't open until 2pm - woops! So, around the corner we went to the National Gallery of Ireland (Art Museum). It was a very nice museum and it had an audio guide specifically for kids. Watson seemed to really enjoy it! I think that it was sort of like a scavenger hunt, looking for the pieces of art (mainly paintings) that had audio stories about them. Here's a link to more info about the museum: http://www.nationalgallery.ie/ as well as a link to a map of the area: http://goo.gl/maps/iQu85. On the map, the top left marker is the Temple Bar district, the middle marker is Trinity College, and the bottom marker is the National Gallery. If you zoom out, you can see the airport, which is north of the city.

After the museum, we got a late lunch and then took the city bus back to the airport, grabbed the Air Coach back to Belfast city centre (this takes about 2 hrs), and then a taxi back home. Quick trip, but an all around success!

In the Temple Bar district of Dublin

Memorial for WWII in the park across the street from the Natural History Museum (above and below)

Our next visit to Dublin will be at the end of November when I am giving a talk at Trinity College, and we are planning to do a double-decker bus tour and the Zoo - hope that the weather is good enough!