British Isles

This section is designed to give you a basic overview of each location we will visit on the trip. You will have a much richer travel experience if you know some back ground information on the history and culture of the places we will be visiting. I’ve embedded a few links and suggested some additional reading, but I’d encourage you to seek out other sources as well; it’s always best to consider multiple points of view. If you come across something you’d like to share with the class whether it’s a website, video, book, etc., please feel free to post a comment.

Day 1: Our plane departs from San Diego Airport at 11:50am on Tuesday, May 18, 2010. Be at the airport no later than 9:00am.

We’ll start our journey in Ireland, the Emerald Isle. Rick Steves offers several well done podcasts of his NPR travel show that airs on Saturday afternoons at 2:00pm. Rick Steves’ radio program archives offers three shows on Ireland from which to choose. Check them out when you have the time. He talks about Dinlge, our second stop, in the 2009 show.

Our flight is overnight and lands in Dublin the next morning at 8:40am. A bus, or “coach” as they call them in Europe, will pick us up at the airport and take us to our lodgings for the night, the Harding Hotel, where we can store our luggage until check-in.

Day 2 and Day 3 overnight in Dublin: During our first day in Dublin our plan is to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College, which is part of the University of Dublin. The Book of Kells was created by Irish monks in the 9th century and is the oldest existing illuminated manuscript in the world. It is housed in the “Old Library” of Trinity College. After the Book of Kells we’ll probably all be tired, so some may want to return to the hotel for a nap. Our hotel is located on the border of the Temple Bar area of Dublin, which is an older section of town that the Irish government has set aside for artists and musicians (U2 has been known to frequent the Temple Bar). Traditional music, or “trad” music as they call it in Ireland, abounds in this area. If you’re not too tired our first evening there, you’ll want to spend some time exploring the cobble stone streets of the Temple Bar which are always flush with people and street performers. Last time we were there Paul and I happened upon an impromptu Irish step dancing session in the middle of a crowd surrounding a band playing traditional Irish tunes. You can see a picture of this on Paul’s photography website in the “People” gallery.

Day 3: During our second day in Ireland we will check out Ireland’s National Museum at Collins’ Barracks. The building housed the British military while they were occupying Dublin during Ireland’s fight for freedom. According to the museum’s website “The barracks and central square are named after Michael Collins, the first Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army, who was killed at Béal na Bláth, Co. Cork four months before the barracks was surrendered to the Free State Army.” They have an excellent exhibit on the struggles of the Irish people from the 1916 Easter Uprising to the War of Independence from 1919 to 1921 and the Civil war of 1922 to 1923.

After Collins’ Barracks we’ll visit the Dublin Writers’ Museum, which features items from the lives and works of such important Irish writers as James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett. We will also see items belonging to Lady Augusta Gregory who partnered with W. B. Yeats in establishing the Abbey Theater in Dublin in 1903 during the Irish Literary Renaissance. The Abbey Theater is still thriving today as it continues to sponsor contemporary writers, while keeping alive Ireland’s rich literary past. (We’ll be visiting Lady Gregory’s estate, Coole Park, on our drive from Dingle to Sligo on Day 6.)

We’ll have our first group dinner on the evening of Day 3 at the Irish House Party for an authentic and intimate Irish music experience. We had a lot of fun here last time we were in Dublin. You can watch a short video here (check out their photo gallery to see photos of Irish Nobel Prize in Literature winners Seamus Heaney and Frank McCourt and The Edge from U2). If you’re a musician yourself, you’ll have an opportunity to share your talent with the audience.

Day 4 and 5 overnight in Dingle: After Dublin we’ll drive Southwest to the Dingle Peninsula to spend two nights near the water  in Dingle Town at the Dingle Marina Lodge and the Harbour Nights Inn next door. Time permitting, we will stop in Limerick, which is the setting for much of Frank McCourt’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes.

The Dingle Peninsula is the furthest western lying landmass in Europe. According the Rick Steves, the locals in Dingle like to say that the next parish over is Boston. Dingle  is the less-touristy neighbor to the Ring of Kerry just to the southeast. The Irish government has designated Dingle as a Gaeltacht, meaning the Irish langauge, Gaelic, is spoken, and the traditional culture is upheld. Dingle also boasts 100 inches of rain a year, 40 shades of green found in the lush landscape, and Ireland’s tallest peak at over 4,000 feet.

Dingle was once a busy medieval port, though the population has been reduced significantly since the Irish Potato Famine of 1845. The Dingle Peninsula is littered with evidence of human activity from as early as 4000 B.C. Stone forts, monuments and churches from the last 6,000 years cover the landscape. Dingle has been invaded many times by such groups as the Vikings, Oliver Cromwell, and the Spanish Armada. Not far offshore, there’s even a 1588 shipwreck of the Santa Maria de la Rosa, a merchant ship of the Spanish Armada.

Day 6 overnight in Sligo: On Day 6 we will leave Dingle and head North for some fine sites on the West Coast of Ireland. We’ll first drive through the Burren, which is known as Ireland’s “desert,” though it has a rich and diverse flora, including flowers from both the Mediterranean and Arctic regions. The flowers, including orchids, thrive in the natural limestone crevasses. Around 500 Stone Age forts and 120 stone tombs, or cairns are scattered through the Burren, and we’re sure to see a few from the road. The cairns now look like just a pile of stones, usually with a larger flat stone balanced on top, but when they were first built, they were surrounded and piled with dirt that has since eroded away.

After driving through the Burren, we’ll stop at Coole Park, Lady Augusta Gregory’s Estate. Lady Gregory was a leader in the Irish Literary Revival at the turn of the century as a dramatist and folklorist. She helped found the Abbey Theater in Dublin with her friend with W. B. Yeats, who lived nearby. We’ll explore the forest and gardens and wander out to the giant ash tree where many well known Irish writers carved their names. The mansion was torn down after the estate was sold in 1927 to the state, but the grounds are still gorgeous.

A short drive down the road from Coole Park will take us to Thoor Ballylee. In 1919 William Butler Yeats, one of Ireland’s most beloved poets, moved into the tower with his family in the tower known as Thoor Ballylee with the purpose of living the simplified artist’s lifestyle. If we’re there while the nearby museum is open, we’ll stop there was well.

We’ll stay overnight in Sligo in a college campus-style lodgings called Yeats’ Village. If we have time, we’ll possibly visit Yeats’ grave site at Drumcliff church, which rests in the shadow of Ben Bulben, Ireland’s tallest mountain.

Day 7 overnight in Belfast: On day 7 we will leave Sligo early and drive northeast, stopping in Derry on the way. Derry lies on the boarder between the Repulic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K. Derry is known as Londonderry to Unionist/Loyalists who support the British rule in Northern Ireland, while it is called Derry by the Irish Republicans/Nationalists.

Peace has overcome Derry’s turbulent and violent past.  British troops withdrew in 2007 and the community is working towards peace and reconciliation. We may visit the Tower Museum known for its balanced portrayal of Derry’s history and/or the Museum of Free Derry, which focuses on the Troubles and the events leading up to and following Bloody Sunday (which also inspired U2′s song by the same name **warning, this video contains graphic images**).

Derry was established as a monastic settlement in 546 A.D. by St. Columba (when we are in Oban, Scotland, we will be very close to the Isle of Iona, which is the location of St. Columba’s monastery). In the early 1600, the English conquered the remaining Celtic tribes in Ireland. English settlers came shortly after and built up a community in Derry. In 1613 thick walls were built around the town to protect the Protestant settlers from the local Catholic forces. In 1688 the wall prevented the invation of the city. According to Rick Steves, the wall forms a mile long loop, is 20 feet high and 20 feet thick. If we have time, we may take a turn on the wall as was popular in Victorian times.

For more information on Derry and its history, check out Rick Steves’ Ireland 2008 pages 325 to 341; it’s on reserve at the library.

Once we’re in Belfast, time permitting, we may see more Troubles murals or C.S. Lewis Sites.  Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland and as such is the seat of the British government there. Like Derry, Belfast has been on the front lines of much of the conflict between Irish Nationalists and British Loyalists. There are still high gates and walls dividing the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. One of the largest, the “Peace Wall,” still divides neighborhoods, though many Belfast locals are proud to tell you that gates are being unlocked and walls torn down.

We will stay at the YHA Belfast International Youth Hostel near the university and botanical gardens. The hostel is about 3/4 of a mile to the City Hall which is in the city center. We’ll leave early the next morning to catch a ferry across the Irish Sea to Scotland.

Day 8, overnight in Oban, Scotland: On our eighth day we’ll wake up bright and early in Belfast and take the early ferry across the Irish Sea to Stranraer, Scotland, where we’ll drive off the ferry in our coach and head to Oban. We’ll drive straight from the ferry landing to Oban so as to have more time for exploring the West coast of Scotland before the sun sets. Oban is small town nestled in the rolling hills of the highlands of Scotland and sheltered from the northern Atlantic by the Hebrides Isles (this link has some amazing photos). If time permits, we’ll take our second ferry of the day to see the Isle of Mull and the Isle of Iona, which are both part of the Inner Hebrides. You’ll recognize Mull from Stevenson’s Kidnapped.

Though much smaller than Mull, the Isle of Iona boasts a prominent place in the history of western civilization. It was on Iona that St. Columba first touched shore in his hide-covered boat after he left Ireland (there is an interesting storing, involving a manuscript, behind Columba’s exile from Ireland). St. Columba built his abbey here in 563 A.D. and proceded to win the rest of Scotland over to Christianity, deaming Iona as the “Cradle of Christianity.” Though Columba’s abbey is no longer intact, another abbey built in the 12th century still stands guard over the larges Celtic cross in all of Brittain. Unfortunately, over 300 Celtric crosses that used to stand on the isle were destroyed during the 16th century. The isle is also the final resting place of many Scotish kings (48 by some counts), several Scandanavian kings, and even Macbeth, or Duncan, both of Shakespeare acclaim, depending on who you ask. The Book of Kells, that we will see in Dublin, was made on Iona. In addtion to its religious significance, it is considered the best piece of art created by Western civilization during the Dark Ages. The Book of Kells was later moved to Ireland by monks to save it from violent Viking raids of the 8th and 9th centuries.

Day 9, overnight in Inverness, Scotland: We’ll drive through the highlands on our way from Oban to Inverness, passing by some stunning scenery. Our route follows the Caledonian Canal, which connects the lochs in Glen Mor, or “the Great Glen,” a sixty mile geological fault line. We’ll see Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK at over 4,000 feet, finishing our journey for the day at Loch Ness, home of the infamous Nessie. Time permitting, we’ll stop at Urquhart Castle, which stands on a rock outcropping over Loch Ness.

Our lodging for the night, the Palace Hotel, has a great view as it is located right across the River Ness from the local castle. Inverness is known as the capital of the highlands and is a hub for trad music. Hootenanny’s is the place to go if you’re hoping to drop in on an impromptu gathering of local musicians—several from the group were lucky to happen upon one such gathering during our 2008 trip.

Day 9 and 10, overnight in Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh is one of my absolute favorite cities. The castle sits on a tall rock outcropping in the middle of the city surrounded by multileveled streets and alley ways. The castle offers views of the large bay known as the Firth of Forth; this should sound familiar to you if you’ve read Kidnapped.  High Street, which is the main thoroughfare, begins at the castle gates and continues downhill where it ends at Holyrood Palace. This stretch of road is known as the Royal Mile and is flanked by St. Giles Cathedral and many small alleys or “closes” as they are called in Scotland.

You may want to visit Holyrood Palace during your free time.

As with many old cities, Edinburgh has been built up on top of itself, leaving what used to be street level several hundred years ago now three or four stories underground. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, you can sign up for one of the underground tours during your free time. The tours can be a bit kitchy, but they do throw some history in here and there, particularly about the Black Plague.

We will stay two nights at the Knight Residence, which is walking distance from all major attractions in Edinburgh. The lodgings are apartments style and have kitchens and a washer/dryer unit. Some apartments have views of the castle, which is lit up at night.

As a group we will visit the castle, High Street, and the Writers’ Museum. We’re planning a group dinner at Deacon Brodie’s Tavern, which is known as the home of Robert Louis Stevenson’s inspiration for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Princes Street and Grassmarket Street are two fun areas to explore in addition to the Royal Mile. The Grassmarket area is located between our lodgings at the Knight Residence and the Royal Mile. When you’re on Grassmarket you can look up the facade of a tall building  to see another street right above it.

Princes Street is another fun area to explore. This area is known as New Town and was built in the 19th century, after the Black Plague decimated much of the population in the older part of town near the Royal Mile. It is known for its shopping and architecture.

Day 11, overnight in York, England:

We’ll leave Edinburgh and head south to England, passing Hadrian’s Wall on the way; time permitting, we may stop for a short visit. Smithsonian magazine published a good article on Hadrian’s Wall last year. Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the wall built in 122 A.D. It marks the furthest Northern border of the Roman Empire.

We have over four hours of driving to do that day, so may not have time for the detour, but there are more Roman sites to see in York. I have talked to several people who list York as their favorite city in England as it has a very rich history; some have even said it feels like you have gone back in time to the medieval era which is when much of the city that still stands today was built. The city itself was established by the Romans in 71 A.D. York is a medieval walled city and was once occupied by the Romans, Danes, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, and Normons. York Minster Cathedral, where we plan to attend Sunday services, is the largest Gothic cathedral north of the Alps. You’ll definitely want to spend all our time in York exploring the city.

Day 12 and 14, overnight in Stratford, England: We’ll have the opportunity to attend an 8am communion service Sunday morning at York Minster Cathedral. We’ll then leave York and make the short drive to Haworth for a visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum where we’ll see a short slide show and take a walking tour of the village. It won’t be hard to imagine the village as it was in the first have of the 19^th century when the Brontë sisters walked its streets.

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, though not terribly famous in their time, have long since been revered for their literary talent. Charlotte is most known for Jane Eyre and Anne for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Emily’s Wuthering Heights is set in the desolate and wild moors that surround Haworth. We’ll then continue our journey to Stratford-upon-Avon, so we won’t be staying the night in Haworth and will have to settle with imagining the ghosts of Catherine and Heathcliff wandering the moors in the dead of night.

The drive from the far north of England to Stratford should take about three hours. Stratford is Shakespeare’s hometown. If we arrive before 5pm, we may have time to go see Shakespeare’s birthday place or Anne Hathoway’s house (she was his wife). The hotel we’re staying at, the Falcon Inn, is right across the street from the house Shakespeare called his home at the end of his life and where he took his last breath. Our hotel may have been standing in Shakespeare’s day.

Day 14: The breakfast at the Falcon Inn is something to look forward to—formal, yet traditional. Time permitting, we may stop by a Shakespeare site in Stratford. If we don’t have time in the morning, we’ll catch it later that evening or on Tuesday morning. We’re planning on visiting the home of my college roommate, Stacy, who now lives in a 17^th century village down the road from Stratford (we were both lit majors). She now has the two most adorable kids, both under the age of two, so we may pick up lunch on our way to her house or eat at the pub next store. Instead of a numbered address, her house is known by the postman, and everyone else, as Rose Cottage.

After Stacy’s, we’ll drive a few minutes over to Warwick Castle, which is probably the most fairytale-looking castle in England. We’ll spend the afternoon exploring it’s turrets, towering walls, water mill, sprawling lawns, and rose and sculpture gardens.

We’ll come back to the hotel with just enough time for everyone to go catch a quick dinner on their own. We’ll then make the short walk over to the Courtyard Theater for Romeo and Juliet, put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Day 15 and 16, overnight in Oxford, England: The next morning, on our way to Oxford, we’ll stop at Blenheim Palace, which could be called the Versailles of England. It is the current home of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. We’ll take a tour of the state rooms inside, then you’re free to explore the grounds. After a very short train ride on a very small train, you will arrive at a butterfly house and hedge maze. My favorite thing to do is take the Lake and Cascades walk from the palace, along the river, and out to the dam and pump house. On this walk you’ll pass the Temple of Diana where Churchill proposed to his wife. A Harry Potter scene was also filmed on the grounds.

Once in Oxford we’ll drop off our luggage at St. Thomas’ Mews, which is apartment style accommodates like we’ll have in Edinburgh. Washing machines will be available here. The rest of the evening in Oxford will be a free. There’s plenty to do. Here’s a list of some ideas: tour of the Bodleian Library, visit Magdalen College where C.S. Lewis taught, climb to the top of the tower at St. Mary’s Cathedral, visit Blackwell’s Book Shop (one of the oldest bookstores in the world), eat at the Eagle and Child Pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein used to meet with the Inklings, visit Christ Church to catch a glimpse of one of the locations for the Harry Potter films and/or just walk around and check out architecture and all the gargoyles.

Day 16: After breakfast in your own apartments, we’ll head over to the Kilns for a tour scheduled at 9:00am. The Kilns was C. S. Lewis’s home in Oxford where he lived with his brother Warnie. The rest of the afternoon in Oxford is free.

Day 17: We’ll get an early start on Thursday as we have a long drive ahead. We’ll leave Oxford and take the round about way to London, stopping in Bath and Stonehenge on the way. In Bath we’ll visit Jane Austen sites and check out the Roman architecture.

Our coach will then drop us off at our hotel, the London House Hotel, and we’ll use our tube passes to get to Jubilee Park where we have a 4:45pm ride scheduled on the London Eye. The London Eye is a great way to get your bearings in London. You’ll be able to see Hyde Park (which is near our hotel), Buckingham Palace, the Parliamentary Building, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Globe Theater, and the Tower of London.

Day 18: London

• 9:15am: City Sightseeing Bus (red double decker bus)
• Disembark at the Tower of London (once home to Henry VIII and many other English monarchs)
• Free time until dinner (your bus pass is good for 24 hours & your ticket includes a boat ride on the Thames)
• Meet at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese at 4:45pm for an early dinner (this pub was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666 and was frequented by Samual Johnson and Charles Dickens)
• Walk over the Thames on a pedestrian bridge to the Globe Theatre where we’ll see Macbeth at 7:30pm

Day 19:

• morning visit to Westminster Abbey
• optional visit to the British Museum and/or the British Library
• Free afternoon and evening—some options: Portabello Road Market (one of the biggest flee markets in the world), Harrods Department Store (world’s largest department store; a good place to by souvenirs), Buckingham Palace (if the Queen’s in residence, the flag will be up), wander through Hyde Park; go shopping in Covent Garden or Oxford Street, visit Charles Dickens Home and Museum, walk across Abbey Road, see a matinee play, or take a walking tour; the possibilities are endless

Day 20:

• Free day
• Church at Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, or John Wesley’s Chapel
• Options: train to. . . Bath (again), Dover, Wales, Brighton Beach, Cambridge, or Paris (take the chunnel by Euro Star)
• Or, take a boat ride to Hampton Court Palace

Day 21:

• Morning visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral
• Boat ride up the Thames to Greenwich (National Maritime Museum and Prime Meridian)
• Free evening

Day 22:

• a coach will pick us up at our hotel and take us to Heathrow International Airport to catch our flight home

Share on Facebook