One thing that I enjoyed very much about our trip to Ireland and Scotland was the chance to visit historical places.  Castles in particular never get old to me so when our new friends offered to show us some of the sights including a castle I was totally excited!  Dublin has many beautiful places to see, the city itself is filled with history and beauty so going anywhere is an adventure.  This day Dublin Castle was the main event !  I love to see the various towers of such structures even those things which the locals would consider common strike me because it just doesn’t seem common to me at all .  This fellow doesn’t seem impressed with his surrounding at all .  What castle would be complete without towers like this ?  Magnificent clock towers were often the subject of my photographs…I hope you can bear with me as I feed my fetish .  Here’s a better shot of lady justice .  She’s a fine lady don’t you think ?  Here’s another angle of the clock tower …such an awesome thing to see!  The other side of the tower had a warrior next to a defeated lion .  I backed away some to frame this shot through some arches .  Not all was serious and quiet…oh no, not with RD along !  Cobblestone roads are one more thing that’s common there that I never get tired of !  I wonder if Gabby will ever learn to just suck it up and let a picture be taken of her… .  A person learns to appreciate a few minutes of sunshine when it shows up in Ireland…I thought it provided a beautiful backdrop to this cross on the roof .  I’ve seen all sorts of gargoyle type faces but this guy reminded me more of Burger King …yep, still creepy!  I’ve heard of going a little grey on the side burns but green ?  I mean, how Irish can ya get?  LOL!  This kind of shot I have taken from Lovely.  She loves reflection shots which normally I wouldn’t think of but this time I got one that I really like…this is Gabby in the parking lot …don’t you love her little rain boots?  Before the trip we prayed so much about locks being opened so when I saw this I immediately thought of all our prayers …this looks pretty imposing but so did our circumstances before the trip…there were locks in the way but God opened each and every one!  I’m a weapons fanatic…I love them both old and new.  I could almost imagine someone behind this window with a crossbow !  This shot was taken from a garden area in the castle…I thought the contrast between old and new structures was interesting .  Mysterious garden paths…that end in modern art ?  Hmm, okay then.  Here is Danielle who turned 14 on this trip with Gabby and our dear Nigerian friend Esther.  Having her and Ade (her husband) with us made the whole trip even better!  Isn’t this what you think a castle should look like ?  Here is the princess in her castle .  Here is both the queen and the royal photographer !  Lovely and some nice knockers …wait, what were you thinking?  LOL…I meant the door really I did …c’mon people focus !  Okay, moving on…this was an interesting tower I thought .  Here’s a gate near the exit from the castle .  There were some lonely paths near the exit .  More cobblestone streets led us away from the castle at last .  The castle walls lead out and blend in again with the city…another mix of the old and newer structures…I just love this shot .  I will end this blog this week with a shot of the seal of the great city of Dublin .  The tour will continue later next time.  Again I can’t thank everyone enough for their prayers.  God is so miraculous and so able and so willing to make things happen.  He always keeps His promises and He is so incredibly faithful!

Quote Dude, this sounds like the best material yet I'm lovin' it! 

YouTube - Creed - "Overcome" (Official) WATCH IN HD
  

Quote I know, I know not everyone likes rock but I do and this song has me pretty excited about the rest of the album.  I pre-ordered it on i-Tunes already...give it a listen if ya want.

YouTube - Three Days Grace - Break
Three Days Grace Break (c) (C) 2009 RCA/JIVE Label Group, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment

My oh my it seems that I can’t get used to being back!  We had delays and rushes galore to get back home but we finally made it.  None of us have been able to sleep that well and I count it a blessing that I finally slept all the way to 5:00 AM!  All the rest of the days I’ve been up at 4:30 and been unable to shut down and sleep some more.  Even driving again seems weird, I’m used to the other side of the road and everything being different…even a trip to Wally World seems kind of weird still.  Honestly I could have easily handled some more time abroad.  It was a grand experience for us all.  For those of you that prayed for us I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  May you reap the reward and never find yourself without prayer when you need it.  Our trip was a mix of very, very hard work and frantic sight seeing to view everything we could whether that would be a made dash to Northern Ireland past Belfast to view the Giant Causeway and Dulduce Castle or driving many hours outside of Edinburg to see Loch Ness and some fantastic castles there or just having time around Dublin to see Dublin Castle or Edinburg Castle…it was all too wonderful to even begin to explain.  God kept us safe and opened many doors to go to new places next time.  Right now our hearts are set to return to Europe again…this time with a visit to a pastor we met from Wales and a trip to Ghana now could likely include a visit to Nigeria where I’ve never left the airport in Lagos.  Exciting times my friends!  I’ve gone through the myriad of pictures and instead of meticulous arrangement that could take me much longer to accomplish I have chosen to share pictures here and there as I find them in my folder from my camera and explain each one as I can.  Ireland has wonderful people and tremendous beauty though admittedly I’d about had my fill of cold and rainy weather and Scotland has beauty beyond compare and amazing history though there too the weather could be bad…not all the time but sometimes.  I love the accents, the sense of humor people have, the cities that are so old…everything about it.  It’s amazing to eat at a place that is older than the Declaration of Independence!  Without further ado let me begin showing the pictures!

  You can’t walk the streets of Dublin without seeing something that catches your eye…often times for me it was old churches….hundreds of years old in their stately beauty .  They would be in the middle of busy sections of the city where I wouldn’t expect to round the corner and see them.   I love the feeling of old Europe and the way the little cafes and houses look .  We found a little antique shop that had an interesting facade that looked like stacked library books .  The little sign above the shop even looked like it came from another time and on each side of the store were cobble stone streets and a narrow alley or two .  I saw the most beautiful Irish girl in the door of this store …wait, that’s my wife!  Have you ever heard of the diverse colored doors of Dublin?  Well, they were there and they are indeed wonderful…I love doors for photography anyway…well doors like this anyway …all of it cries Ireland to me.  The street lights often have flowers on them…God knows there’s enough rain to keep them watered .  I loved how the people seemed quiet and soft spoken…believe it or not and this is a busy and rainy street in Dublin where Gabby is examining a flower shop on the street

Oh make no mistake about the rain my friends…it could rain and I think the cold months must be miserable but we didn’t let this dampen our spirits…we were in Ireland after all !  Call me simple but things like this on the wall even interested me …I could spend a day just capturing things like that on film!  I know this is a far more modern thing but I liked this fountain none the less and besides what else could I do while I waited for the money to be changed inside the bank?  This is a building near Temple Bar…such a wonderful building don’t you think ?  I look down the narrow alleys and wonder what mystery could be there if I walked through and took a look .  You’ll have to guess about what is down the next narrow alley of this blog my friends because the next batch of pictures deal with Dublin Castle and I don’t want to split them up from the rest.  Let me just say again it was a privilege to witness the sites of Dublin…I loved every moment of it.  We hit the ground running and had constant meetings and had little time to really enjoy all there was to see but what time we did have both in meetings and out…I loved it all!  More to come next week!

This was the first flight in all the years I’ve traveled abroad that I’ve ever been able to sleep and then take it easy taking a shower and getting to the airport.  I hope that we can expect that again in the future!  We had no problems getting our luggage on board and had time to eat a bit before flying which was really nice.  I think we were all excited to visit Paris since nobody had ever been there before.  Honestly I was a little nervous since I know there’s been some tension between the US and France over the last several years.  The highest tension point turned out to be from a very crowded flight between Minneapolis and Paris.  Was it an angry passenger that felt we had taken their seat?  No, so then was it a person that just wanted to fight with me for no reason?  No, even worse:  someone didn’t seem to think that deodorant was necessary on a crowded and therefore heated flight it certainly was…yuck!  The fight seemed to be over fairly quickly which was nice.  I had very little time to take many pictures in Paris , it was a beautiful airport though and the fact is people were really good to us and I appreciated it greatly.

The flight to Dublin wasn’t really that long but it was very crowded and seemed longer than it was.  We met the pastor and several others that became our friends before long.  The meetings started up pretty much immediately and they were all really good.  We started to really enjoy meeting new people, pastor’s sons were really funand our driver Edward became a real joy to hang out with.  Here is Pastor Thomas and Edward with the kids and I.  There were many Nigerians and Ghanaians in the meetings so it was exciting and new to us each and every time.  Here’s a shot of me and the kids outside of pastor’s house.  Gabby enjoyed the children and made lots of new friends.  Joseph’s arrival on the scene picked up the pace and thrilled us all.  His teaching is always dynamic…fact is he’s one of the greatest preachers I’ve ever known

Fact is Lovely got much, much better coverage of the meetings and I hope to share some of that later but for now I don’t want to leave you all hanging.  I have tons more pictures that I hope to share as I can.  I had terrible trouble signing on here in Ireland for some reason but I think I’ve got it now…perfect timing…we fly out to Scotland tomorrow…doesn’t that figure?  I have thought of all my blog friends and appreciate your well wishes and especially the prayer.  I love you all.  I’ll share more as I can.  For those of you on Face Book you can see far more pictures etc.  I like Spaces much better but I could get on FB when I couldn’t here so that’s the way it was.  It’s a semi cloudy day here in Dublin and it’s quite cool.  I’m just blessed to have been able to see so many wonderful things!