Home Cooking, Sleeping in, Taking a Day off and the Flight from Hell

---

Day 21, Monday, June 12: Edinburgh to Birmingham

Got up in the morning and did one last wander through of Edinburgh, before heading to the train for Birmingham. The 4 hour train ride was beautiful even with the impending storm (before this, the weather had been incredible). I got to Birmingham at about 4:30, knowing I would have to hang out at the train station as Kat had to work until 5-5:30.. When 6:30 came around, I decided to call and found out she got stuck at work, so here mom came all the way out to pick me up.

We headed to a local pub for a couple of beers and then off to Kat's parents place, where we were cooked a nice steak. Kat and I caught up and then off to bed (seperately, you perverts)..

Day 22, Tuesday, June 13: Birmingham/Stourbridge

The next day I slept in, as Kat had to go to work, I wandered around her neighborhood of Stourbridge, getting my photos put on CD and having some lunch. I spent a couple of hours organizing the photos and sent them out to you all. Once Kat got home, we had another homecooked meal (Thanks again Kat's Family!!) and then headed out to see her old traveling partner Kirsty and her friends at a local pub.

Day 23, Wednesday, June 14: Birmingham/Stratford-upon-Avon

In the morning, I headed to the train station and went to Birmingham's Science Museum called Thinktank, a lot of it was pretty cool, I didn't realize how influential they were with Steam Engine technology. They also had a traveling exhibit from London about Aliens, but in the end I wasn't all that impressed. In the afternoon I got the train to Stratford-upon-Avon, home of William Shakespeare. I saw his birth home, the home of his granddaughters Husband, which also had the complete set of Shakespeare works on display (this summer, they plan on performing every one of them). Unfortunately, I didn't have camera functionality this day, so no pictures, but it was nice out, not as hot as it had been and the town was very cute.

In the evening I headed back to Birmingham and met up with Kat to have dinner downtown and check out her flat. Both were very lovely.

Day 24, Thursday, June 15: Birmingham to Dublin (via Nottingham)

So, we got up REALLY early, I had a 7:55am flight to catch, and Kat's family convinced her she needed to get up and come with us to the airport. She did (Thanks Kat!!) and we got to the airport just in time to find out that a cargo plane had crash landed on the runway and that the airport was closed. At about 11am (remember, I got there before 7am) they had coach buses for us to take us to Nottingham airport. The flight was supposed to take off at 12:30 or so, but didn't get off the ground until 2:55pm, a 7 hour delay. Unfortunately, this really hurt me in terms of Dublin, I specifically booked an early morning flight to see more of Dublin, as I'm headed off for a 6 day tour of Ireland tomorrow. I did walk around the city and got to see the outsides of most of the touristy stuff, but I'm hoping I have some time before my flight to London to actually get into the Guinness Storehouse.

I did find it interesting that basically connected to the Storehouse is St Jame's Cathedral. I also went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, but didn't see a bar attached 😊 .. I walked through Temple Bar this evening, and had dinner and a Guinness (WOOHOO, it was tasty) at the Auld Dubliner. I then had another Guinness at another Irish Bar (There's more Irish bars in a row here than in Seal Beach 😊 .. After this email, I'm headed back to the hostel to change and to rearrange my luggage for the tour tomorrow and then back out to the Temple Bar, where I'll partake in a few more Guinnesses.. Almost makes up for the rest of the crappy day I had.

~Dave

---