Day 4: A Castle and Some Stars

October 7th, 2011


Today we left for Denmark and we got straight to business, as usual. We headed out to the Rosenborg Castle right after we landed and what a castle it was.





The Rosenborg Castle was used as a place for royals to stay until 1710. It was mostly used for emergencies after this, for example, when the palace burned down and the royals had to stay there or when they were being attacked by the British.


The Rosenborg had one thing that really stuck out in my mind, and that was the museum, or the Rosenborg Collections. It is a collection of artifacts from the 16th to the 19th century! We went to see an exhibit of the crown jewels as well, a very popular sight. 


I may have like the museum part of the castle, but Kileigh just loved the gardens. The Rosenborg Castle gardens are pretty... I suppose. They get around 2.5 million visitors every year.


   

We stopped at a small cafe in Copenhagen that had some delicious food. We decided to eat breakfast instead of lunch because the Danish food had to be better than the pretzels from the plane. I had some pain au chocolat, or chocolate bread, while Kileigh had the bread with cheese and jam. Needless to say, it was a very good meal.


Full, we moved on the Rundetarn (The Round Tower). Not quite as extravagant as the Rosenborg Castle, this 17th Century building was built as an observatory. At the top, we could see all of Copenhagen! There were no stairs here, just a ramp, which made climbing the thing a lot easier after a long day of walking. Because we had spent almost an entire day at the castle, we had very little time to explore the area around the tower, so we stopped at the same cafe for dinner and headed back to our hotel for the night.
  


-Miriam

Day 3: Tea and Aisles

October 6th, 2011

Hello!

Today we went to some fun places! We went to an old house and a beautiful cathedral!

The house was called Number Twenty Nine. It is also called Georgian House Museum. The house was the residance of Mrs. Olivia Beatty who moved in in November 1782. She had seven children, 5 boys and 2 girls. Her husband, David passed away in January of 1794. Mrs. Beatty moved away in 1806 and the lease was taken up by Mr. Ponsonby Shaw. She died on September 9th, 1843 at the age of 83. The exhibt opened up in 1991. The house has many colors and 5 levels. The rooms were beautifully decorated and really reflected the time period. After we looked at the house, we had tea in their little cafe.

This was the attic. It ws also used as a nursery!

This was the piano/drawing room.

Next we went to St. Patricks Cathedral. It ws built as a church in 1192 and it is believed that St. Patrick performed her first baptism in Ireland in a well on the grounds which is still there. It became a cathedral in 1213. Most of the present building dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries. It fell into poor condition until the 19th centry when Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness restored it. 

Wouldn't that be an awesome aisle to walk down on your wedding day!

After all this excitement today we still have more coming! We are getting one a plane at 6:50pm to go to Copenhagen, Denmark. We will be coming back to Dublin before flying home though. 

So far so good! 

~Kileigh

Day 2: Exploring Ireland

October 5th, 2011

Hi there!

After we got off the plane today, we went to get something to eat in the airport cafateria and then headed to find our hostel. After we were all settled in and had our stuff locked in a locker, we went out to our first destination, the Dublin Castle. It was built in 1204 by King John. It was built to defend Dublin, but it never had to withstand a major attack. It was the center for British rule until 1922 when it was handed over to Ireland. It was largely rebuilt after a fire in 1684. The castle has watched the founding of the first Celtic settlement all the way to the inauguration of every president. It was quite a sight! The rooms each more beautiful than the last. I loved walking through and seeing all the wall coverings and tapestries and old things from the castle.

That is the court yard in the middle of the grounds.

Like I said. Beautiful walls, tapestries, carpet, and furnature!

We then took a bus to the Ha'penny Bridge. It is a beautiful land mark built in the 18th century. The name has been changed many times, but this was the name the locals called it. The name comes from the fact that it used to cost one half penny in old english money to cross the bridge. The toll is not there anymore but the same is still used today.

By that time we were hungary so we stoped at a little restaurant and had some good Irish food. I also bought a four leaf clover key chain just because we were in Ireland!

Tonight, we walked over to the Dublin Spire. It is a big point almost like the washington monument. It was built to mark the millenium celebrations in the city, but it was not completed until 2003. It is 120 meters tall and is the largest sculpture in the world. It was all lit up at the bottom and a really cool thing to see.

Well, it's time for bed! We can sleep in in the morning but who wants to sleep when you are in Europe?!
~Kileigh

Day 1 & 2: Travel!

October 4th-5th, 2011.

Good morning everybody!
Today is the day! Miriam and I are on a plane headed to Ireland! We got on at 4:00 on Tuesday afternoon, had a layover in Philadalphia for 2 hours and then took off again at 9:00pm. It is about 7:30am so we should be landing in a little over an hour. It will be nice to get off this plane and eat some normal food... Well at least more normal than airplane food! Yuck!
It will feel good to get out your chair and start to walk around Dublin later today. I'll catch you up later tonight on what we did how it all went!
~Kileigh

Intro to our trip

Hello! We are so excited that we have the opportunity to go on this amazing trip to Europe! We thank everybody who helped make this all possible!

We will start the trip in Dublin, Ireland and then move on to Copenhagen, Denmark. From there we will fly to Brussels, Belgium and then on to Paris, France! I, Kileigh, will be telling you everything we do in Ireland and France and Miriam will be talking about Denmark and Belgium. We will be seeing at least 3 historic and beautiful landmarks in each country and explaining them to all of you back home. We are on a tight budget of $9,000 so we will be sleeping in cheap hostels and eating bread and butter so to speak! 

We will be leaving on October 4th and returning on the 20th. This is going to be a wonderful trip and exposure to other countries culture and history.

We hope you enjoy reading all of our experiences. Talk to you soon!

~Kileigh