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<\/a>As I mentioned in the posts I scheduled while I was gone, I spent 12 days on a combination vacation \/ pilgrimage to England, Wales and Ireland.\u00a0 I really need another day to recover from the travel and catch up from being away from home for two weeks, but it\u2019s time to get back into the regular flow of things.<\/p>\n
While this is a religious blog, and while I intend to write several posts related to the religious and spiritual aspects of this trip, I\u2019m going to start with a description of the ordinary travels.\u00a0 Our destinations were inspiring, educational, and at times just plain fun, but there\u2019s something to be learned from the journey too.\u00a0 So here goes.<\/p>\n
We had a traveling party of five.\u00a0 In addition to Cathy and me, Cynthia, Michi and Lee from Denton CUUPS went along, and Cynthia was the primary trip planner (thanks Cyn!).\u00a0 Unlike the 2012 trip where it was nine Methodists and one UU Pagan, this time it was four Pagans and one open-minded Christian.\u00a0 We had all been to England before, but it was my first trip to Ireland.<\/p>\n We flew from DFW to London Heathrow, arriving about 9:30 AM British time.\u00a0 Getting out of Heathrow was surprisingly easy.\u00a0 After two train rides and a 15-minute walk with luggage, we checked into our hotel and went back out for lunch.\u00a0 We had less than a day in London \u2013 by design \u2013 and we used our sightseeing time on the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology.\u00a0 It\u2019s a small museum on the campus of University College London.\u00a0 It has nothing big, but it does have case after case of small items ranging from the Ptolemaic period all the way back to the Predynastic period.<\/p>\n The second day found us running after a train in Paddington Station.\u00a0 The platform was late being posted and by the time we got there it was about to leave.\u00a0 We got separated and by the time we got settled Cyn and I didn\u2019t know if the others had made the train or not.\u00a0 Thankfully, they had.<\/p>\n After we got settled into Bristol we took the train down to Bath.\u00a0 Bath is a tourist town but the Roman Baths are marvelous.\u00a0 Some parts have been restored and some haven\u2019t, but it\u2019s all amazing to see.\u00a0 The baths themselves are no longer considered safe to use \u2013 partially due to lead pipes, but also because bacteria can grow in the warm waters.\u00a0 There\u2019s a modern spa nearby that purifies the water for bathing \u2013 when we were there the line for it was over an hour long.<\/p>\n The next day was three trains, to Birmingham, to Chester, then on to Bangor in Wales, where we met Kristoffer Hughes of the Anglesey Druid Order<\/a>.\u00a0 Kris showed us two castles on the mainland, the largest of which (Caernarfon) is still an active part of the town.\u00a0 Get away from the sea and the sense of quiet is something I haven\u2019t experienced since I was very young.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the skies were overcast and we couldn\u2019t see much of Mount Snowdon, but we felt its presence.\u00a0 Cynthia and I poured libations as we went, but this was the first place where I felt like the spirits of the land acknowledged our presence.<\/p>\n I was expecting to see ancient monuments and other stone structures on Anglesey.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t expecting to see a stone circle in what amounts to the back yard of our hotel.\u00a0 The Anglesey Gorsedd Circle is a modern construction, intended for bardic events but occasionally used by the local Druids.\u00a0 We visited three ancient tombs, two churches (one still in operation), a sacred well, a sacred lake, and two mysterious standing stones that nobody can figure out what they were used for.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t thank Kris enough for being so hospitable.\u00a0 He showed us the places we wanted to see even though we didn\u2019t know they were there.\u00a0 And he was a constant reminder that while the Romans may have massacred the Druids on Anglesey in 61 CE, we\u2019re still there.\u00a0 This was the highlight of my trip and I\u2019ll have at least one more detailed post on my experiences on Anglesey in the coming days.<\/p>\n From Wales we took a ferry across the Irish Sea to Dublin.\u00a0 By that time we were getting physically run down, so we took most of the first day in Dublin as a rest day.\u00a0 The second day we took a bus tour of the city.\u00a0 We got off at Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old illustrated manuscript of the Christian gospels.\u00a0 It would be beautiful if it was new \u2013 knowing that it was made in 800 CE was that much more impressive.\u00a0 No photography was permitted at the display, but I was able to take pictures in the Old Library, which was pretty impressive itself.<\/p>\n Our one big travel glitch happened the next day.\u00a0 We rented a car for the rest of our trip, but it developed mechanical problems before we could even get out of Dublin and we couldn\u2019t get a replacement big enough for all of us and our luggage.\u00a0 The rental agency offered us two smaller cars for the same price, but we didn\u2019t like the idea of splitting up, so we replanned the trip on the fly and went on to Galway a day early.<\/p>\n Last-minute train tickets are quite expensive and when we got the price, the taxi driver who was taking us to the station offered to drive us to Galway for the same amount.\u00a0 He got a good, easy run and we got to Galway a couple hours earlier and without the work of hauling luggage from taxi to train to another taxi.\u00a0 With the exception of the mechanic at the rental car agency, everyone went out of their way to help us out with hotels, transportation, and other arrangements.<\/p>\n This meant we missed Rathcroghan and its sites sacred to Morrigan \u2013 that was the biggest disappointment of the trip.\u00a0 On the other hand, there are worse things than being on vacation in Galway \u2013 it\u2019s a fun place to eat, drink, and listen to music.\u00a0 Perhaps we\u2019ll see Rathcroghan on a future trip.<\/p>\n We found a reasonably priced bus tour of the Burren and the Cliffs of Mohor.\u00a0 Coach tours aren\u2019t my favorite way to see a country, but it was there, and while our driver was a good Catholic he was also a good bard.\u00a0 The pictures of the cliffs aren\u2019t as good as I had hoped \u2013 it\u2019s hard to take pictures in a sleet storm driven by gale-force winds\u2026 which was followed by bright sun 15 minutes later.<\/p>\n We took the train back to Dublin \u2013 booked 3 days ahead of time, it cost 1\/3 what it would have cost for same-day travel.\u00a0 The travel day was mostly a rest day, then we took another bus tour to the Hill of Tara and to Newgrange.\u00a0 Weather wasn\u2019t particularly favorable (especially at Tara), but Newgrange is a special, magical place \u2013 I\u2019ll have more on it later as well.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>