We hope you all enjoyed Halloween! More on that later - I want to talk about our trip to Ireland first. On the way to the airport, I grab a newspaper to read on the train - headlines say that a plane from China had been diverted to London Stansted Airport because of a bomb threat - yep, we're on our way to Stansted to fly out - so I was a little nervous on the plane - I don't like flying anyway. And it has been confirmed that our delays and flight issues are not only when traveling to/from the US. Our train to the airport was delayed, so we got to the airport late - they almost didn't let us check in, but they did (they closed the counter after that and actually turned down the people behind us). Then the race was on - I'm getting good at running through airports and dodging people - I always wear my running shoes when traveling now. We get to the gate and the line hasn't even moved - the plane's not even ready - all that running for nothing! But we'd rather wait in line than get there too late!

Ireland was great - we really had a great time there! We flew into Dublin late on Thursday night and walked around a bit and grabbed some dinner. We got up early the next morning and went on an all-day tour of Limerick, Bunratty, the Cliffs of Moher, Burren, and Galway Bay. We traveled through the Cratlow Hills from Limerick to Galway, and we saw lots of Obrian and Cratlow castle ruins.

There were lots of churches that had been burned down by Oliver Cromwell - it used to be illegal to practice the Catholic religion, so he came up from Britain to burn them down. 95% of the Irish are Roman Catholic now. The highlight of the tour was seeing the Cliffs of Moher - absolutely beautiful! Check out our pictures - but they don't even do it justice.

Some other points worth mentioning about our tour - We stopped off in the town of Bunratty and toured Bunratty Castle - it's a smaller castle, but it was really neat because it wasn't converted so much into a museum like most other castles are. Shannon Town is the most modern town, and the River Shannon runs right through it. We saw Dromoland castle - George Bush stayed there a few weeks before our trip. Roche is where the main ingredient for Viagra is made. Lots of the village roads are shaped in an "S" shape to slow down the approaching enemies. We saw the golf Course in Ennis that inspired Johnny Cash to write his song "Forty Shades of Green". Inagh holds Ireland's first pub brewery, and the Lahinch Golf Course is all natural - and it looks very tough!

We stopped off for lunch in Doolin at Gus O'Connors pub - Jill said that it's the best pub food she's ever had. I went up to put our order in, and when I came back Jill had made some new friends - there was a couple on the tour with us (out of a total of 19) from Arab, AL - now that's a small world! For all of my single friends, they have an annual "matchmaker" festivity in Listoonvarna - I've never heard of it, but they say that this is a very well-known event. You show up and they talk to you and pair you up with who they think you'll be compatible with - I'm thinking of all of my single boys back home - this could get pretty ugly!

We went through Burren - this place is a huge rocky area with cracks all throughout - you've got to be careful walking around on it - all of this area was once under the ocean. There were tons of old rock walls - all rock, no cement - and they are still standing after a couple of hundred years. On the coast of the mountains in Black Head, there are lots of rocks in the sea with numbers spray-painted on them - the crowds of fishermen used to be so big, they had to take a number and be assigned to a rock to fish. We saw several "Galway Hookers" - you know, 100-year old boats - they actually still sail today. We went to a pub and had an Irish coffee in Galway before heading back to Dublin - pretty strong stuff!

The coolest thing in Dublin is the Guinness Storehouse (aka the Guinness Brewery). The architecture was really neat and the whole place had a really cool atmosphere. After the tour, they give everyone free pints of Guinness. Before this, I had never had a whole pint of Guinness. I've tried a few sips before, but never really liked it. But I drank the whole thing this time - and it was awesome - I now like Guinness and truly believe that the Guinness IS better in Dublin. We both had Guinness beef stew for lunch.

We took a tour of Dublin Castle - it's an 18th-century creation built on Norman and Viking foundations. One of the towers from the 13th-century Anglo-Norman fortress still remains. This castle was once the official residence of the British viceroys in Ireland, but now it's now used by the Irish government. The coolest part was the castle underground - this includes a chunk of the old city walls and moat.

We also saw the Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Christ Church Cathedral was built in 1172 in the city's Norse settlement at the heart of medieval Dublin. It has been the State Church of Ireland since its inception. St. Patrick's Cathedral stood on the site from the 5th century, but the present building dates from 1191. This cathedral stands on one of the earliest Christian sites in the city - St. Patirck himself is said to have baptized converts at a well within the cathedral grounds.

We walked around Trinity College and got to see the Book of Kells - this book dates around 800AD and is one of the oldest books in the world. It contains the four New Testament Gospels written in Latin, as well as prefaces, summaries, and other texts.

We really enjoyed Dublin's atmosphere - we had lots of fun just walking around and soaking it up. The Temple Bar area is a really happening place with lots of restaurants, shops, and pubs. We did a little bit of shopping on Grafton Street on the way St. Stephen's Green (a huge park similar to Central Park in NYC). We walked over the Ha'penny Bridge one night and had a drink at the Clarence Hotel (Bono from U2 owns this hotel). The picture above and to the left is Jill standing in front of the bridge.

Before we left, we took the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) to the coastal city of Bray in the Wicklow mountains. The beach of Bray is made up of pebbles and sand all mixed together. We started walking by the cliffs and noticed a sign that said the cliff walk was closed because it was too dangerous with falling rock and eroding land. We walked a little further to get a view, and before we knew it, we were walking towards Greystone. The first guy we passed said that we were only 20 minutes away from Greystone, so we decided to go for it. The next person we asked said that it was an hour away (we had already been walking for about 30 minutes by this time, so we decided to go the distance). The view was incredible - and a little scary at times. There was a rock wall for most of the walk, but there were a couple of parts where the land had fallen off of the cliff and the fence wall was dangling over the edge - it was a little thin to cross, but we made it. The other picture on the left is a view from the walk. We ended up walking 6 miles along the cliffs - we've never done anything like it before. We had lunch in Greystone and made an easy decision to take the DART back from Greystone instead of walking back to Bray. When we got back to Dublin, we had one more pint of Guinness before heading back to London.

We went to a pub quiz with our flat neighbors one night during the week. This is just a live trivia game at a pub where the winners win free beer. Jill and I found out that we don't know squat about British history and sports! Justin and Rachael did all of the work for our team that night. Pamela Anderson was in London promoting her new book, "Star". Jill and I went over to meet her and get our book signed - just don't get many opportunities like this back in Birmingham.

Okay - back to Halloween - we have heard lots about people over here not doing much for Halloween - but we saw lots of carved pumpkins and trick-or-treaters that night. We carved pumpkins with Justin and Rachael - this was the first time they have ever carved one - they must have enjoyed it because they went back to the store and got two more pumpkins to carve. We all went and saw "The Grudge" on Halloween night.

We went up to Richmond Park with Justin and Rachael the other day. This park is up the street from our flat and is also known as "Deer Park". If you check out the pictures, you'll see why. We saw over 350 deer that day - and we got pretty close to them too - they are pretty comfortable around people. The largest one we saw was a 16-point - I bet all of the hunters out there are drooling - sorry, it's illegal to hunt in this park. On King Henry's Mound, you can see St. Paul's Cathedral - and it's 10 miles away! There's a law in London that says nothing is allowed to be built throughout this 10-mile stretch to obstruct this view.

Well, that should do it for this update. Don't forget to check out our updated pictures (London, Dublin, Ireland Tour, and Bray & Greystone). We're heading to Germany today for five nights - we'll be back late Sunday night. We'll let you know all about it on the next update. We love and miss you all! Take care and God bless!