July 2008 Vermont and the Hancock Shaker Village and Round Barn

July 20, 2008 - Vermont

The Vermont countryside is beautiful...green and lush.

But the real find today was the Hancock Shaker Village with its interesting buildings...

farm buildings...

and pretty gardens in full bloom.

It also had an awesome old, stone round barn.

August, 2008 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August, 2008

The streets are quaint...

the architecture from the 1600's...

the canals are lovely to walk along...

and the flower market was a favorite of Mary's.

October, 2008 - London

When flying in to London Heathrow Airport we flew directly over Central London.  For a change Mary had a window seat with a great view of Buckingham Palace...

and the Thames river with the Houses of Parliament (lower left) and the London Eye (lower right).

During her walking tour she went by Big Ben...

Westminster Abbey...

and the London Eye.

She later took the Tube to Camden Station where the street scene could best be described as 1960's Haight-Ashbury meets Grunge.

Just beyond the station she also stumbled across the Regent's Canal.  During the 1800's the canal system was used to bring goods to London.  It was a lovely walk, quiet, serene and green.

Along the canal were some magnificent mansions...

and a small, old, overgrown cemetery.

November, 2008 - Northern Ireland

Mary traveled to Northern Ireland a number of times.  In November, 2008 she decided to add a couple of days to her trip and took a tour out of Belfast.  The first stop on the tour was the town of Carrickfergus where she saw the castle... 

and marina.

Next stop was the Bushmill Distillery where they have been making Irish Whiskey for over 400 years.  She bought a few mini-bottles for her dad.

The Irish Coastline was lush, green, rugged and spectacular.  We will need to go back.

There was a stop at the Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge, originally built by fishermen, to a small island very close to shore.  Many tourists were walking across it to the island.  Mary doesn't like heights so she passed on this.

Next stop was the Giant's Causeway, an area of about 40,000 hexagonal-shaped, basalt columns that were caused by a volcanic fissure eruption over 60,000 years ago.  It was fascinating.

There were awesome views of ruins of Dunluce Castle overlooking the sea.  Unfortunately the tour didn't stop at the castle.