[Travel Tuesday] Livingstone, Zambia

Over the next several weeks, we will be outlining our 2012 trip to Africa!  This has been one of our favorite, most adventurous vacations to date.  Sometimes you go to a place and are happy to have checked it off a bucket list.  For us, Africa checked several items off of our bucket list however we added a new one that says return to Africa.  We can't wait to relive the memories through these posts!!

[Travel Tuesday] Dublin, Ireland

During our time in the UK, we took a few days to hop over to Dublin to experience a bit of Ireland.  The great thing about Europe is the discount airlines really make it affordable to travel between the cities.  While we have heard the Irish accent before, we were shocked at how thick it was here.  Even when English was being spoken, Brian had an extremely hard time understanding.  We had quite a few laughs as Brian thought they were speaking Irish Gaelic when it was actually English!

Our only together pic in Ireland, outside the Guinness Factory.  Yes, it's blurry.

[Travel Tuesday] Scotland

Brian has family in Scotland so we were lucky enough to arrange a visit and stay with his Aunt and cousin while we were visiting the beautiful country.  We stayed in Branchton and used that as a base to get everywhere by train.  We found the train system to be very easy to understand and there were many options to get us to/from our daily destinations.  We visited in May and the stereotype was true.....it rains ALL...THE...TIME.  Overall we really enjoyed our time here and hope to get back someday. 

Port Glasgow

Sightseeing
St. Andrew's
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Arran
Branchton

[Travel Tuesday] London Surrounding Areas

While we were in London, we made sure to take in a few of the surrounding areas as well.  This post will document some of the surrounding areas of London we visited during our trip.  

Oxford
We arrived in London around 7:00 am with an 8 hour layover until our flight up to Scotland.  Rather than twiddle our thumbs at the airport, we decided to check our luggage at the hold desk and take the bus to Oxford.

If I remember correctly, it took about an hour for the bus to get to Oxford so it provided us a nice time for a nap prior to sightseeing.  We loved the city of Oxford!!  Such a quaint town and of course, being the nerd that I am, I love any type of university setting.  Our first stop was University Church of St. Mary where we climbed 127 steps for a birds-eye view of the city.

[Travel Tuesday] London Sightseeing

We have quite a bit to share regarding our previous trips therefore we will begin a Travel Tuesday segment to highlight past trips as well as new ones!  Also it will be fun for us to go back through our photos and reminisce about our trips.  For February, we will focus on our trip to the UK back in May 2011.

Overall we LOVE the city of London.  I think this is where we really started to develop an appreciation for history and have ensured we spend some time during our travels learning some aspect of the local history.   We would welcome the opportunity to go back to London someday.

Outside the Tower of London with Tower Bridge in the background

Hotel
The Waldorf Hilton - We used Hilton Points here and it was fantastic!  Great location within walking distance to several areas. If you are an Honors member, they have a fantastic lounge for breakfast and tea time.  Instead of lunch, we would come back here to enjoy the snacks at tea time to save money.

Sightseeing
Buckingham Palace
Tower Bridge
London Eye
St. Paul's Cathedral
Tower of London
Westminister Abbey
Royal Mews
The Monument
Abbey Road

The Texas Coast

The Texas coast does not have a good reputation.  This state isn't exactly known for its beaches however it does have a quite large coast line and we figured it was worth checking out.  Since this past week was restaurant week in Galveston, we decided to check out both their food and coast.