Happy New Year everyone! So I haven’t written a blog in about two weeks. Between the holidays, Christmas parties, family gatherings and everything in between I was super busy. With all that was going on I decided it was best to wait until after the holidays to start my blog again. So here I am trying to get back into the swing of things. At the moment I don’t think I am doing so well.
I was thinking about writing what I did each month on this blog–like I did for the end of 2016, but I decided that was long and boring. Instead I will give you all the highlights of my 2017. Isn’t that nice of me?
2017 started with me anxiously waiting for my first trip to England and France. March finally came around and my husband, our youngest daughter and I went to England and France. We had a great time in both places! Getting to finally see Big Ben in person was most definitely a wow moment for us. I can’t tell you how many times my husband and I looked at each other and said “I can’t believe we are actually here!” It was quite the site.
We also had the opportunity to tour Westminster Abby. I had no idea there was so much to look at in that place. I mean, seriously, that place is amazing. The history inside the building alone was mind blowing. I did my best to take it all in.
While in England we did so much walking it was unbelievable. We certainly didn’t have to worry about getting our exercises in while there. We went to museums. We went to afternoon tea. We got to see Buckingham Palace. At least the outside of it anyway. We had our own personal tour guide in one of those cool looking cabs for two days. On one of those days, Craig our cab driver took us to see Stone Henge and to the little English village where movies like Harry Potter were filmed a little. Oh, we also went to the Tower Bridge. What a cool bridge! And the tour was nice as well. We were able to go to Liverpool, England one day to see the Church my great grandpa was baptized in as a baby. It was nice to see the Church some of my ancestors were a part of. The cab driver that took us there thought that was a strange request. He also thought it was even stranger that we didn’t care to see anything about the Beatles.
France was our next and last stop on our vacation in March. That was another amazing trip all on its own. We stayed in a cute house out in the Country. That house was a short walk from Château de Pierrefonds which is also know as Camelot in the BBC show Merlin. Visiting that castle was a dream come true for me since I am a big Merlin fan. It was cool to be able to recognize different rooms from the show and see the stairs that they so often went up and down on in Merlin.
We were able to walk around that little town while we were there. We ate the local food which was really good. We did go to another little town and walked around that. It was cute as well and I bought a nice top there.
Of course we went to Notre Dame, the Eiffel Towel, the Arc de Triomphe and other places. But I would have to say the most amazing part of France was getting to see Versailles. That places was more then amazing. That was jaw dropping wow! Oh yeah, I bought lipstick in Paris! I know that sounds silly, but I was determined to buy lipstick in Paris and I did.
My second highlight for 2017 was spending five weeks of my Summer in Ireland. Those five weeks were beyond wonderful. We went to as many different parts of Ireland as we could while we were there. For four of those weeks we stayed in a house in Trim across from Trim Castle. This is the Castle used in filming the movie Braveheart. While in Trim we got to know the locals better and had the chance to try their food. You can read more about Trim in my blog — My Stay in Trim Ireland.
We went to Dublin often. We went to Belfast I think twice. One of those times we spent a day with my friend Samantha and her family. We went to the Giants Causeway, the Dark Hedges, Slane Castle and the list goes on and on. We went to as many ancient ruins as we could. I have this thing for ancient ruins, especially castles. We spent a week in Dingle and had a great time there. Overall Ireland was truly amazing. And we didn’t get to see everything. We made friends over there that I know will last a lifetime. I miss Ireland more then I can say.
There is one other major event that did happen in 2017. It didn’t happen to me, but I’m still excited about it. My oldest daughter got engaged around Thanksgiving time to a very nice guy. I think that made for a nice end to 2017. As for this new year 2018 we have more trips ahead of us that we are excited about. And we have a wedding to plan and eventually attend. Here’s looking at you 2018!
