Boxhill

We had a lovely week here where it was sunny and warm.  Heath and I took the opportunity to go to Boxhill which is part of the south downs and has really great hiking.  We took a picnic and hiked the long trail before finishing with a pint at the local pub.  We had a wonderful time.  We're looking forward to taking everyone when they come because it's the perfect slice of English countryside.

Brittany with Vince

Heath and I visited Vince in Rennes for the Spring Break.  Vince and Marie were nice enough to put us up for a week and take us all over Brittany.  

We started out visiting some of the historic towns around Rennes including Dinan and St. Malo. Both cities have walled historical centers with leaning wooden buildings and a large tourist trade.  At St. Malo, which is on the coast, we got to watch the tide come in.  In the course of twenty minutes the tide will go from low, where you can walk along the tide pools to the small islands right off the coast, to high tide where you can get stuck on said islands.  The residents of St. Malo congregate on the walls at this time and thoroughly enjoy watching the tourists scramble to get back to the mainland, laughing and pointing.  Unfortunately for us no one got so stuck as to need the boat to go get them.  That would have been really funny!

Dinan

Me and my massive Pain au Chocolat

The crepe I ordered

The crepes we made

St. Malo

On Marie's day off they took us to Mont St. Michel which was incredible.  It truly is as amazing

as you'd expect.  It looks like the Disney castle but it's really a church set upon the cliffs and surrounded by a small village of curio shops and cafes.  The tides are extreme here as well and if you're not careful you could come back to the parking lot and find your car under water.  The

opposite though allowed us to venture our onto the flat endless sand and walk around the island.  The church it's self is perched on the topmost point and built up out of the rock.  The stones are covered in a beautiful yellow lichen.  Go to Mont St. Michel if you get a chance.  It's amazing.

Mont St. Michel

Because the weather was unpredictable and we didn't relish the idea of sleeping out in the rain, we opted out of backpacking and decided to just do some day hikes.  These included the coastal trail as well as the menhirs of St. Just.  Brittany is famous for it's menhirs (which are giant prehistoric stones set in rows) and we went to St Just to hike among them.  Heath and I also traveled to Carnac to see the most famous menhir site with over 4000 stones.  

St. Just

Coastal Trail

Carnac Menhirs

The highlight of the trip however was the menhir of St Samson which you're supposed to climb up.  Legend has it that girls who wish to be married within the year must climb up and slide down in their knickers.  It's nearly impossible and I certainly couldn't do it.  It's fun to try though.

Before we left Marie took us to the gaufes place in Dinard.  Gaufes are huge belgium waffles that you cover with nutella or caramel and whipped cream.  They're amazing and so bad for you!  I never thought I'd find anything to rival churros y chocolate but I think these take the cake.  I could barely make it through half of mine.

 

Snap Shots

So here's some random photos I've had laying around for the last couple months.

This is Windsor with our friends Lynn and Jacques

Heath chatting up Lynn

Heath and Vince

Pictures from when we had the heavy snow

Dublin with Kevin

Kevin came to visit this month and we headed off to Ireland so he could connect with his 25% Irish heritage.  In Dublin the main attractions are the Guinness Brewery and the Jameson Distillery. We did manage to squeeze in a few historical sights while we made our way between these two important monuments.  

First of these was the Book of Kells at Trinity College.  The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript containing the gospels circa 800AD.  It's amazing.  The exhibit includes demos on how they created the detailed drawings and the super thin vellum used. Unfortunately you can't take pictures in there.  At the end you come to the Long Room which houses the library's oldest books.  It's one long room , two floors, stacked floor to ceiling in old books.  Smells amazing!  It is a fantasy archive come alive.  

Next we visited hiked across the city and took in Dublin Castle (sounds more impressive than it is), St. Patrick's Cathedral and tea at the Queen of Tarts before heading to the Jameson Distillery.  

The Jameson Distillery is full of swanky decor mixed with rustic warehouse chic.  Quite an odd combination but it works.  The tour takes your through the distilling process to the tasting room which is definitely the highlight.  Kevin got to do the taste test while Heath and I enjoyed a Jameson with ginger ale.  It's actually really good!

We spent the first evening in a pub by our house listening to a really cool group of classic Irish musicians that ranged in age from 20 to 80.  Including an accordion.  We were quite lucky to find this place as we searched the following two nights and never came across anything near as good.  Pretty much we spent most meals sampling what the many pubs had to offer.  Heath was excited because we were there for the final 6 Nations Rugby game where Ireland beat Wales in the last 30 seconds!  The entire pub went deathly silent and then erupted into a frenzy of cheering and sighs of relief.  

The highlight of the trip though was the Guinness Brewery.  The experience is a seven stories climb up through different exhibits celebrating Guinness and culminating with a pint in the Gravity Bar overlooking all 360º of Dublin.  Written on the windows are quotes from Dublin's famous authors celebrating their city's sights.

Spring Bloom

Jameson

Guinness