The travels of Tim and Megan: Northern Ireland and Great Britain

Northern Ireland Coastal Tour

Having departed the rainy Ballyshannon and driven north-east through Donegal, we soon crossed the border into Northern Ireland. You know when you have crossed the border, as there are literally hundreds of huge Union Jack flags and Northern Ireland flags lining the streets - it is obviously still very important to mark the boundaries and for people make their allegiances clear! We were soon in Derry/Londonderry (Derry for Catholics and Londonderry for Protestants) on the edge of Northern Ireland. The town has been a focal point of the Irish "troubles" and some folks just can't accept the English capital being part of the city's name. Apparently it is PC to always call it Derry/Londonderry!

We stopped in the suburb of Bogside to take a look at the monuments and murals which remember various aspects of the Troubles, including the hunger strikes and, of course, the 1972 civil rights march through Bogside, where unarmed civilians were gunned down on "Bloody Sunday". We found it all quiet eerie and difficult to comprehend such senseless violence, but knew there would be similar tales to learn in Belfast. We wished we could stay longer in Derry/Londonderry, but having a big day ahead, we pushed on to the coast.

We passed through Coleraine and joined the Causeway Coastal Route, along the top of Northern Ireland. The weather was patchy but the sea was incredible, clear and bright turquoise blue. We stopped for some photos of the now-ruined medieval Dunluce Castle, which was perched on the edge of a basalt outcropping on the coast. In the 1600s, one stormy evening, the end of the castle collapsed and fell down to the sea. The kitchen was at the end of the castle, so unfortunately a number of servants and that night's dinner fell to their doom!

We continued along the gorgeous coast until Bushmills, where we stopped for a wee rest at the famous Bushmills whiskey distillery. We picked up a tiny bottle of whiskey and some whiskey flavoured chocolates in the gift shop. Again, we decided to pass on the tour as we had more exciting places to be - the Giant's Causeway! The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns of varying height and shape (although most are hexagonal), which are the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.

The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from a cliff face and disappear under the sea, which prompted various ancient myths or legends abut the stones. Legend has it that Irish warrior Finn McCool built the causeway to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. Apparently he got halfway across and, seeing the massive size of Benandonner coming towards him, he ran terrified back to Ireland, where his wife dressed him as a baby and hid him under a blanket. When Benandonner arrived in Ireland looking for Finn McCool, his wife told him to be quiet so as not to wake her baby. When Benandonner saw the size of the baby under the blanket, he thought that Finn himself must be enormous, so he fled back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway behind him as he went! Awesome.

After a small strop in the National Trust carpark (£6 to park to see a natural phenomenon - clearly taking the piss) we walked the 20 or so minutes down to the Causeway. It looked awesome! But before we could get out the camera, a huge rain shower arrived. With nowhere to shelter (and a 20 minute uphill walk back to civilisation) we made the best of it, getting completely soaked in the process but avoiding slipping off the Causeway altogether.

We squelched back up to the Spaceship and carried on to Carrick-a-Rede, which has a lovely coastal walk out to a rope swing bridge. We discovered our new enemies at the National Trust were at it again - this time expecting us to pay £7 to walk along the coast! We refused to believe such nonsense and on further enquiry, found that we could avoid this cost if we didn't want to walk across the rope bridge at the end of the trail. Being on a budget, and not super fond of rope bridges, we took the option of just walking along the coast and observing other fools waiting for over 15 minutes to cross the bridge. It had stopped raining by now and we enjoyed the amazing scenery, but it should be made clearer that it is actually free to walk along the coast!

The rest of our trip to Belfast was pretty uneventful, save for being flagged down by an elderly couple who were totally lost. The woman, who had no idea where she was, told us that we were going in the wrong direction for Belfast, but we wisely ignored her. We elected to have our first and likely only night out of the Spaceship in Belfast, as it was still raining and we were still soggy. We checked into a great little hostel and got a room fully equipped with bunk beds!

In the evening, we ventured down to the city centre and had a drink at the Crown Liquor Saloon, one of Northern Ireland's most famous pubs! It has been extensively renovated to its 1885 Victorian gin palace decor, with dark coloured carved ceilings, stained glass windows, beautifully carved walls and doors and 10 booths along one side of the bar. We managed to snaffle a booth - brilliant. Then we grabbed some dinner and returned to the hostel, where we slept like babies.

Belfast

Monday 1 August dawned clearer and much drier. We checked out of the hostel and picked up some breakfast at Tesco on the way into the city centre. We arranged a black cab political tour of Belfast's troubled spots, which was brilliant. Tim had done a political taxi tour on a previous visit to Belfast, but was happy to do it again, as it is so fascinating. Our driver was extremely knowledgeable and provided us with a great insight into the history of the violence and stories about some of the central characters who have played a role in trying to find peace.

We began the tour by visiting the Shankill Road area, the Protestant area of Belfast, where we saw several elaborate murals painted on the ends of buildings. Apparently these murals are now no longer allowed to have any provocative or intimidating elements to them, so they tend to be either celebrating historical events or memorials to people of the area who have been killed by the violence. This area was also covered in Union Jack and Northern Ireland flags! We walked amongst the murals and learned about the message that each one was trying to convey. It really was interesting.

Our next stop was at the enormous wall that separates the Protestant and Catholic areas of Belfast. The wall is insanely high and runs for miles along this particular area of Belfast. There are several massive gates along the wall, which are mainly closed and locked at nights and on weekends. One is left open to allow emergency services vehicles access between the areas. It is unreal to see such things in a place like the United Kingdom. The wall has literally millions of messages for peace that passers by have written on it over the years.

On the other side of the wall, we visited the Catholic memorial garden and saw some more murals dedicated to the hunger strike victims of the 1980s. Then the tour concluded with a look at some more wall murals, which featured all sorts of fights for peace from around the world and people like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, etc. The tour was very well done and we would definitely recommend doing it if you are in Belfast!

After some lunch and a walk down to the waterfront to see Belfast's "Big Fish" sculpture and the Harmony statue, we popped our heads in to the Linen Hall Library, Belfast's oldest library. As well as usual lending services, the library houses an extensive collection of Irish history and Irish language materials, and also contains over 250,000 items on Northern Ireland's political history and the "troubles".

In the afternoon, we went on a guided tour of the Belfast City Hall. The majestic building was constructed between 1898 and 1906. Our thorough tour took us through the main lobby, up the Grand Staircase and into almost all of the main rooms in the hall, including the debating chamber and several function halls. There many statues, paintings and stained glass buildings were magnificent and it was good to learn more about the history of the city and region. Later in the afternoon, we walked through the city to the Duke of York pub, another of Belfast's most famous pubs, where apparently Gerry Adams used to work as a barman!

Then we picked up the car and drove the two hours south to Dublin and caught the ferry back across to Holyhead in Wales. The ferry crossing was very comfortable - we had dinner on the ferry - Tim had steak and Guinness pie with chips and gravy and Megs had vege curry with rice. Both were really good. We arrived in Holyhead about 12.30am and parked up in the McDonald's carpark for the night.

Wales

Tuesday was a big driving day, as we decided to take the scenic route down through the middle of Wales. We took turns driving south from Holyhead right down to Monmouth in the south-east corner of Wales, stopping many times throughout the day to enjoy the stunning scenery and explore little towns. We arrived in Monmouth late in the afternoon and we had a great time exploring the pretty town. Some of Tim's ancestors came from around the Monmouth area, so it was especially interesting learning about the place. The Monnow Bridge was built in around 1270 and is still standing strong today! We also enjoyed having a look in St Mary's Church, a nice little stone church in the middle of town.

We found a brilliant camping ground just out of Monmouth, where stayed for the night. It had an on site pub, where we played some pool and had a beer while we talked rugby with the Welsh barman. The Welsh people were all so friendly and welcoming to us - I suppose we have a fair bit in common with the Welsh, with out love of beer and rugby and our rivalry with our larger neighbours. We cooked pasta and sauce with salad for dinner and had a nice bottle of red wine sitting out in the evening sun. Then we watched the movie "Atonement" on the DVD player in the spaceship.

France Bound

Wednesday was our 22nd and final day on the Great Britain and Ireland tour and it was rather uneventful. We drove from Monmouth across southern England, briefly stopping in London to get a light on the spaceship fixed at the space station, then we carried on to Dover, where we caught the evening ferry to France.