Friday 22 August 2014
Belfast day 2
After the usual 9:00 AM breakfast in the hotel, we headed out to  the centre of Belfast. Robyn was to go shopping, while I headed for a walking tour.
The tour was centred around Shankill Road and Falls Road. It departed from the site of one of the incidents in the troubles. The police shot  2 people dead while spraying machine gun bullets into a set of terrace houses (flats).  Our guide Brian was a former member of the IRA, and former prisoner in Long Kesh jail. He showed us dozens of murals amd memorials, and several sites of conflict. The story of the campaign from 1968 to 2006 took 3 hours to tell. It was of course quite confronting and tragic.

 

Women and children were involved in this war. Many women were active IRA members, and dozens from Belfast went to (Amagh) jail for long spells. Unfortunately, children and innocent civilians were victims of action by both sides. Memorials to all (Catholic/Nationalist) people injured and killed were erected. These were gardens, murals, and stone plaques. Many people walking the street today are former fighters, and many said hello to Brian, our host. I never had the courage to ask what he was imprisoned for, but he was solidly IRA.

A tribute to the 1916 uprising. The street name was changed to RPG avenue in honour of the RPG (Rocket powered Grenade).

 

The tour ended in the Milltown cemetery, where The most famous hunger striker, Bobby Sands, and the other nine, are buried. Their actions really did show the Irish felt very deeply about their freedom.
There are many, many Nationalists buried here; with the red hand (of the O'Neills of Ulster - a bit of history there), emblazoned on the gravestones. The whole place was so full of recent, potent history that it was difficult to comprehend that 200,000 (that's right) people are buried here. If I had to try to put this into perspective, I would say that 99% of their stories retell happy, or at least peaceful lives. The struggles to throw off the British yoke go back a long time, but involve relatively few people. 
I'm grateful that I was never involved in any conflict like this. Australia seems so peaceful, so laid back now. And it is full of Irish and English people who like each other ! Still, the newer suburbs of Belfast have developed peacefully, and without a religious divide.

Bobby Sands - hunger striker

After the tour, I made my way to the centre of town, and met Robyn in Victoria Square. Nearby is an Irish gift shop - Carrols Irish Gifts. This is one of a chain of stores, which sells everything from thimbles to Titanic T-shirts. We spent 120 pounds there. All sorts of things- for various people (you'll have to wait until Christmas).

Just around the corner is the Crown Bar. This is the most beautiful bar I have ever seen. There are cream coloured ceramic panels under the dark wood bartop. The windows were filled with stained glass, and there were stalls with doors around the outside of the room. Each stall had a table which could seat 6 - 8 people. Needless to say that at 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon, the place was full. I'd love to go back when it's not so busy.

Outside the Crown Bar - Belfast's most beautiful (the bar - not me).

We also tried Robinson's Bar next door. It was full also, but not as pretty. Across the lane was Brennan's bar - where we found a table and ordered a drink. Yes, there is a bar on every corner in the middle of Belfast; but the Crown Bar is the icon. By the way, they all serve Guinness as fast as they can pur it, but the light style beers (Budweisser, Coors Light, Tennants Ale) are gaining in  popularity. Honestly, who goes to an Irish bar to drink American/English pale ale? What is the world coming to?  I had a pint of Guinness.

We walked back to our hotel, changed and went to the Metropolitan Kitchen for dinner. This is another restaurant in the university area, close to last night's Sakura restaurant. There are several other cafes/restaurants within a few blocks, and they are all reasonably priced. We didn't notice students eating there though - maybe they come in later. We had the early bird special - which is typically offered from 5:30 to 7:00. One course and a drink for 11 pounds; two courses and a drink for 15 pounds. I had three courses and two drinks. Robyn saved us by having only one course and one drink.
Our hotel is only a five minute walk from this little restaurant area. It took us ten to get back because we kept stopping to look at things. But now we're here and the sun has finally gone. Time to go to bed, because tomorrow we go to Dublin. I want to drive by Newgrange (the passage tomb site), and the Hill of Tara (the ring fort/Royal sites).
Till tomorrow...
Lex and Robyn.

Thursday, 21st August         PORTRUSH - BELFAST

Robyn writes: It's been a big day! We were up at around 7.30 to another cold and breezy Northern Ireland morning. Of course it had been raining heavily overnight, but things cleared a bit and we even saw some sunshine. We had the usual lovely breakfast then packed everything (with some difficulty - juggling two big ports in our little room wasn't easy!), paid Janice and said farewell to Portrush.

The view from our window this morning (somewhat specked by rain) of the town hall on the left and looking towards the beach and fun fair.

Trying to pack in our teeny room was lots of fun!

We stopped at a lookout and realized that we were looking down on the rope bridge (left of photo). You can see the rain squall coming towards us and we could hardly see any of the Scottish islands or mainland.

Rather than take the direct route to Belfast, which is not much more than 100km, we decided to take the scenic coastal Causeway route down. We really enjoyed the trip through so much more beautiful and dramatic scenery. As we zoomed past the rope bridge, we spared a thought for the people shivering there in the rain! We stopped at a lookout a bit further along, and realised that we were actually looking down at the bridge and island. The weather was very overcast and rain squalls kept sweeping across as we watched (in fact, one swept right over us and I bolted for the car!) We followed the the coast right around and all of the way down the eastern side of the coast until Carrickfergus, where we passed the 12th century castle in pouring rain.

We headed inland for a while to see the mountain range there known as the "Glens of Antrim". Truly spectacular scenery and waterfalls.

Then we went back to the coastal route and the sea again.

We were hungry by this time as it was after one, so just past the castle, we spotted Papa Browns, a grill restaurant, so we pulled in there and had a lovely meal - Lex had a great wild mushroom pasta and I had stuffed potato skins and salad. Huge serves and we were so full!

Then we had to find our way for the last 10km or so into Belfast itself. A bit of a worry at first as the satnav decided to have a hissy fit and stop working! Luckily after 5 minutes or so it decided to rejoin us, and we then managed to get ourselves into the city. Interesting as there were lots of turns and we took a few wrong ones...but in the end, we navigated our way successfully to the laundry address we'd found on the internet. The nice ladies there said that they'd wash, dry and fold our load for only 7.70 pounds, so we very happily thrust it at them and promised to pick it up at 6. Belfast is interesting - it's obviously a much bigger city than Derry, but the shadow of the Troubles seems to hang over it much more in some ways. We passed several buildings which are still surrounded by huge wire fences, and even when you look out of our hotel window there are two lots of barbed wire fences.... It will be interesting to see what the city centre is like tomorrow.

Our room here is much more spacious than our last!

Outlook is not so nice though - there are lovely green fields in the distance, but razor wire in the foreground...



The lovely greenhouse in the botanic gardens, dating back to the early 1800s

Stunning main building at Queen's University

We easily found our way from there to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, which is nearby, and booked in. Our room is lovely and big, with a sofa and a very spacious desk. Sooo much bigger than our last room! Once we'd got our things upstairs, we decided to go out and see a bit of the local area (we're in the university quarter). We walked to the Ulster Museum through the Botanical Gardens, and had about three quarters of an hour to have a look around it. It closed at 5, so then we walked back past the uni and through the local restaurant quarter and had a look around. We chose a Japanese restaurant, Sakura, and booked it for 7pm. Then we headed in the direction of where we thought the laundry was, and though we had a bit of trouble finding it, we finally tracked it down again and retrieved our clothes, now clean and folded (they have the confusing habit in Belfast of chosing one name and having both a street and avenue with it - or in one case we've spotted University Road, University Street and University Avenue...all in close proximity!) At least the rain had cleared and it was quite a nice afternoon - only needed one jacket, not two or more. Belfast does seem quite a bit warmer than the north.

We had just enough time to head back to our hotel, shower and change then stroll along to our Japanese restaurant, where we had a huge and delicous meal - Lex had spicy minced pork ramen and I had chicken udon noodles. We are both still so full! Hopefully we'll have a good night's sleep before heading out to explore Belfast tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 20th              PORTRUSH

Robyn writes: We've had a great day today! The number one item on our agenda was, of course, the reason we came to Portrush - its proximity to the Giant's Causeway. The aim was to be there at 9 when it opened, so Janice very nicely promised she'd do breakfast for us any time from 8. Lex set the alarm for 7.30 so we were up and dressed and down for breakfast (a lovely cooked meal, then fruit and yoghurt) right on time. The day had dawned very cloudy after rain at night, but improved as we drove towards the causeway, about 15 minutes from here.

We were one of the first in the door (for free - National Trust membership saved us 8.50 pounds each) and were told that the first guided tour was at 10. We had an hour to kill so decided to walk down for a look first. As we were heading down, there was an English couple just ahead and we ended up walking down and having a lovely chat to them. We got there to find that we had it all to ourselves! Amazing, considering what it was like later in the day. We took advantage of that to get a rare and unique photo of just us and the causeway (normally impossible!) We had a most enjoyable half hour or so wandering around drinking it all in in the peace and quiet before catching the shuttle bus back up the hill to the centre for our tour.

Note: just us in the photo! Amazing and rare view of the Giant's Causeway. Such dramatic scenery.



Looking towards the "pipe organ" across the bay

Our tour guide, Eleanor, was great - she was quite young but she really knew her stuff and the tour was a good mix of geology, history and mythology! As usual, we really enjoyed being told all of the facts and having it all explained. The hexagonal basalt columns really are quite amazing, even when you've seen photos of it you aren't quite prepared for what they're like to stand in front of and climb on. The tour went for about 45 minutes, then we headed up the hill around the bay to have a closer look at "the organ" - a set of columns high on the mountain that really do resemble a pipe organ! Then we went around to the lookout at the end of that bay to more amazning views. Lex wanted to walk on but I wanted the toilet and a cuppa, so he went on a bit while I headed back and up the hill on the bus again. (Wonderful service, and we got it free with our membership!) We were very pleased with our early arrival strategy - by the time we had finished, the crowds were streaming in and you couldn't look anywhere without people taking selfies! We were also very lucky with the weather today - although the wind was cold, we were warmly dressed, I had my Crocs boots on so wet rocks weren't a problem, and the rain (though hovering on the horizon for a while) stayed away.

The tall skinny rocks you can see are known locally as Finn Macool's chimneys. Finn Macool is the legendary Irish giant.

We walked up the hill to the pipe organ

Incredible view of the causeway from the pipe organ

The causeway was crawling with people by the time we left!

I had a nice cuppa and scone, then Lex arrived back, so he had a coffee, we bought a few souvenirs and headed off. We popped into the tourist information shop there and the nice man gave us the National Trust leaflet for Northern Ireland and recommended Spring Hill, a very early 18th century manor house to us. So we drove south - first across to Coleraine, which we had travelled before, but then on new roads to us down to the western side of Lough Neagh (the largest inland lake in the UK apparently). It took us about an hour.

We got to Spring Hill about 2.20, and booked ourselves in for a 3.15 tour of the house. Then we had lunch - sadly, Spring Hill is not a major National Trust place and their tea shop only opens on weekends, so they just had a very small selection of food....so lunch was another scone! (At least they have nice, big scones...) Then Lex went off for a walk around the grounds while I went to find their costume collection. This is an amazing collection of dresses and formal men's suits belonging to the families of Spring Hill over 300 years of living there. It was wonderful to see so many lovely dresses, especially, plus they had the family history for each generation displayed with their clothes and belongings. Wonderful.

Walled garden

My favourite dress in the collection

Lex is standing next to the longest gun we've ever seen (17th century). Apparently they used to rest them on the shoulders of small boys to fire them. Caused severe hearing loss for the poor lads.

Haunted bedroom, complete with secret door. One of the owners killed himself here. Or did his wife murder him??? It's her ghost that haunts the house. Fortunately, we didn't get to meet her.

Thousand year old yew tree

Another photo for my robin collection!

Spring Hill

We rolled up for the tour at 3.15 to find we were the only ones on it! Our guide, Rachel, was very young but also knew her stuff and took us through the house (built in 1700) and explained the family history and how it related to Ireland's history of the time. The last owner and his brother were both childless, so when he died in 1957, he left the estate to the National Trust, ending 300 years of his family living there. We loved seeing the house, then we went for a walk around the grounds as well - there is a yew tree there over 1000 years old!

After we'd finished at Spring Hill, we drove back to Portrush via Ballyronan, a town on the shores of Lough Neagh. We stopped at the lough for a look - very peaceful and picturesque, with families feeding the ducks and geese and a marina there as well. Then we drove back, arriving here around 6, just as it was deciding to rain for the first time today.

After last night's late meal, we were determined to get in early tonight, so we immediately got changed and headed just across the road to "55 Degrees North", a lovely two-level restaurant looking north through huge picture windows at the Skerries, the tiny rocky island group just offshore here. We were in time to get the 'Earlybird' special, which was we got three courses for just the cost of our main. Very nice! Lex had the pulled pork spring roll, mariner's pie and banoffee pie, and I had a peanut chicken skewer, chicken gougons and pavlova roll. Yum! We are pleasantly full! (And excellent value for about 16 pounds each including our drinks). Restaurant meals are so dear over here, it's really worth getting the earlybird deals if you can. This is our last night in Portrush - off to Belfast tomorrow and our first port of call will be a LAUNDRETTE!

Nice restaurant just across the road with views of the Skerries (below)

Cool double decker bridge as seen through the windscreen leaving Derry

Tuesday, 19th August            DERRY - PORTRUSH

Robyn writes: A busy, very enjoyable day (which isn't always the case with moving day!) We enjoyed a last breakfast at our hotel, then packed our bags and sorted a load of washing. Both of us are starting to run out of clothes and an internet search had revealed one in Portrush, so we decided that that would have to be our first port of call.

We booked out and got away at around 10, then drove down through the Butcher's Gate to the Bogside and out of the city, going over an extremely cool double decker bridge. Have never been over one of those! Portrush is only a short drive, so we knew we had plenty of time, and we took the more scenic 'Coastal Route' rather than the main roads. The beaches up here are lovely. We stopped in the interestingly named Downhill to take photos, as we noticed an intriguing looking temple-shaped building on the cliff above it. As we drove up the hill and out of Downhill, we saw a National Trust sign for the property, named Downhill House, so called in to visit it. The temple is called Mussenden Temple, and it was built (interestingly) by one of the Earl Bishops of Derry in the 1700s, Bishop Harvey. He also built a huge house, which is beautiful mansion-type house at the front, castle at the back! It's now in ruins, but was wonderful to wander through and picture what it would have been like. We couldn't go into the temple, as they were setting up for a wedding there later today (hope the bride didn't freeze to death, poor love; the wind was howling off the Arctic and it was about 9 degrees out there on the headland!) Anyway, we had an enjoyable hour or so wandering around the cliff tops.

Temple

The wall along the front of the cliffs

Lex at the "back door" - the castle bit

The front of the house ruins



Downhill - note the huge wired-off cliffs behind to stop rock falls!



 

We headed on to Portrush, and our first port of call was the laundry, which took some finding. Portrush is set around several inlets and has lots of one-way streets which make driving challenging! It's also the height of their holiday season with parking at an absolute premium. When we did find it, there was no joy anyway - it was just a commercial & dry cleaning laundry - no laundrette at all in Portrush. Oh well, wait for Belfast....

We finally found a park, and walked into the town centre to find some lunch. We had a lovely meal at the "Eglinton", a pub just across from the beach. Then we had a walk around the seafront area, which is really nice (except for the regulation fun-fair which apparently has to feature in British seaside holidays!) We also found our B&B - right across the road from the Town Hall and the pub we'd had lunch in. Couldn't have got more central if I'd tried! It was nearly 3, so we were able to book in. Our room is TINY - however it has everything we need and is only for 2 nights. (On the other hand, the ensuite is quite big so our ports are stashed in there!)

Town centre - the pub where we had lunch is to the right of centre

Lex overlooking the marina

Our B&B, Antrim House

As it was still early, we went out for a drive to see if we could maybe visit the Giant's Causeway today (it being a beautiful day with sunshine even!) However, when we got there, we looked at the crowds thronging the area and chatted to the young lad at the parking gate, who said they'd had a record crowd through. He told us that no-one is ever there at 9 when it opens in the morning, so we instantly resolved to try that instead!

Next we decided that we'd go and have a look at the famous Bushmill's Distillery, just nearby. Again, the parking area was packed (whiskey is apparently quite popular in Ireland), but we found a park and went in for a look. The tastings were hideously expensive (7.50 pounds for 3 tastes) and Lex had already done 2 Scotch Whiskey distillery tours, so he bought a miniature to try to see if he liked it instead. (Verdict is very favourable)

Rainbow at sea

Amazing views as we walked to the bridge

Looking down on it....

Finally, across it!



Windswept on the island on the other side

Then we thought we might as well go and see if we could visit the famous rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede. It was still quite busy but we easily got a park, rugged up and headed off. This is run by the National Trust so we got in for free, and set off on the one mile hike up and down the hills to the actual bridge. The wind was howling and icy and the day cloudy by this stage, so I was feeling quite smug about the many warm layers, scarf and gloves I was wearing! When we got there, there was about a half hour's wait to actually go across. By this stage it was about 5.30 - I'd hate to be there in the middle of a summer weekend day! Anyway, we finally got our turn and wobbled alarmingly across the chasm, wind howling around us. Minorly terrifying but mercifully quick. Then we explored the little island we'd reached, photographed the views, etc. Right as we were deciding to line up to go back, a rain squall came across so we had a miserable few minutes in it waiting for our turn - and going back across the bridge in light rain and howling wind was fun! Anyway, it was a great experience and a very invigorating couple of miles hike. Fortunately the rain disappeared again so we could enjoy the walk back to the car.

When we got back it was after 7, so we got ourselves organised to head out to find our tea. We had a lovely chat to our hosts, Janice and Mark, who recommended some local restaurants. Unfortunately by the time we got to them, so had everyone else. It's summer holiday time at the beach! The first one we tried had a waiting time of an hour; the second one only half an hour so we said yes, and went off to have a drink in the bar. In the end, it only took about 20 minutes and we did have a lovely meal eventually, though much later than we're used to. I had a chicken Caesar salad and Lex had lamb steaks and Mediterranean vegetable, then we shared an enormous and amazing "Strawboffee Pie" (strawberry and toffee cheesecake). It was after 9.30 and dark by the time we headed home. It was a big day!