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.

Statue in
Derry









Bloody
Sunday
Monument
Derry








Hunger strike
memorial
Derry

















Dunluce
Castle












Tim at
Dunluce
Castle





Megs at
Bushmills
distillery

Wet
Giants
Causeway









Coastal
route






Tim at
Carrick-
a-Rede






Crown
Liquor
Saloon









Belfast
Political
Tour








Shankill
Road









"Peace"
wall







Big
Fish!









Belfast
City
Hall









Wales











Monmouth









Monnow
Bridge
Monmouth

Republic of Ireland

Day 1: Kilkenny, Cashel and Cahir

After a very smooth ferry ride, we disembarked in Dublin at 12:30am, with the aim to get out of Dublin as quickly as possible and find somewhere quiet to park up for the night. This proved easier said than done! After travelling through two toll gates, we were finally on the outskirts of Dublin, but everything looked a little too built up. Finally, at around 1:30am we exited into a perfect little town, although there was a strange black car following close behind us. We pulled over to let it past and what do you know... red and blue lights went on - the very helpful Irish police! They had assumed we were lost and had stopped to help us, and ended up directing us to a campsite back in Dublin.

However there was no way we were back-tracking, plus no camping ground would ever be open at that hour, so we drove on (hoping our uber-helpful new friends weren't following) to the next town, a place called Naas, which had a perfect carpark. We finally got to sleep around 2am. It turned out the experience unnerved Megan as she woke Tim up at 5:20am, convinced the spaceship was being towed or clamped (false alarm, just a rubbish truck). Not a great start to Ireland.

We awoke to drizzling rain and continued on our way to Kilkenny. Kilkenny has a lovely medieval city centre with cobbled streets bursting with colourfully-painted pubs. We explored the town on foot, checked out rather impressive castle and shops and enjoyed a taste of the local drop - Kilkenny of course - in one of the old pubs! We would loved to have stayed a night in Kilkenny, as it looked like the sort of place that would have really come alive in the evening!

After lunch, we set off towards Cork in the south-west, stopping at Cashel for a look at the Rock of Cashel, the traditional seat of the kings of Munster. Cashel was a pretty little town with a lovely church and again, plenty of pubs! We then drove the short distance to Cahir, a village about halfway between Kilkenny and Cork. Similar to Cashel, Cahir was very pretty, with some nice pubs and shops and plenty of people out and about.

The first campsite we tried was fully booked due to it being a bank holiday weekend, so we were relieved to find another site that had space for us. Actually, it turned out that we were the only ones there; and the place looked like no-one had stayed there for years. We had to de-cobweb the bathroom! It was run by a scary old man with a strange voice, the sort of guy who plays the serial killer in scary movies. He commented that it was a "great day for a hanging"...eeek. However, he soon left us alone and we cooked some dinner and then walked back to town in the hope of meeting some locals. We did meet one interesting character who was on his 12th pint of the day and swore like a trooper - charming. After a long day, it was good to finally head back to the spaceship for some sleep.

Day 2: Cork and Cobh

We began Wednesday by driving the remaining distance to Cork. We arrived at around 10:30am, giving us plenty of time to explore the shops and city centre before finding an impressive morning tea at the English Market - a sort of farmers' market with cakes and hot food too. Tim made the mistake of putting his used napkin in the bin just next to the butcher's stall. The butcher, who was French, promptly told him off for using "his personal bin". What a cock.

We walked up the hill to an area of Cork called Sheldon, which we had been told was very pretty and lively. We liked it, but like the rest of Cork it seemed asleep. Cork is apparently a student town and, being summer holidays, we guessed that most of the students were off on holidays. We turned down the opportunity of visiting the butter museum in Sheldon (as fascinating as that sounded) in favour of a trip out to Cobh.

Cobh is a sweet little seaside village about 20 minutes' drive from Cork, where the Titanic made its final stop for passengers. We visited the Titanic memorial and a memorial dedicated to the Lusitania victims (many of whom were brought ashore and buried at Cobh). We had some excellent seafood chowder for lunch and took a look at the cathedral; by now, we consider ourselves cathedral conniseurs. Plus they are generally free and almost always dry.

Later in the afternoon, we stopped in at the Jameson's whiskey distillery at Midleton. The distillery is really beautiful, having operated since 1825. We were too late for a tour, but poked around the buildings and gift shop, eventually deciding not to buy anything. We returned to Cork at around 7pm, found a spot to park up sleep in for the night, and then headed to the city centre in the hope of finding somewhere interesting for dinner. We had a couple of drinks in a pub and grabbed a pretty cheap pub dinner, but again, Cork proved a bit quiet - maybe things would be different in Galway?

Day 3: Limerick, Adare and Galway

Thursday was going to be a big driving day, so we left Cork first thing and drove north-west to Limerick, arriving there about 10.15am. Our guide book had a pretty negative view of Limerick, claiming that it was plain to the point of being ugly and that it was not very lively either. However, we thought it was actually pretty good. It was rather plain, but a not lot more so than Cork, and it had a lively, exciting feel to it.

We stretched our legs with a walk through the city centre and we found a delicious brunch at a bakery. We then drove the short distance across to Adare. Adare is a beautiful little town packed with medieval buildings and charming thatched cottages. We walked up and down the main street of Adare, admiring the thatched cottages and the colourful Irish pubs, which are literally everywhere. We visited the supermarket and acquired some supplies for an awesome picnic lunch.

Next stop was Galway, a place we had been looking forward to visiting all trip, not least because we happened to be visiting Galway right in the middle of its biggest festival of the year, the Galway Races! Due to the races, there were thousands more people in Galway than usual. The place was absolutely buzzing.

We parked the spaceship and walked through the pedestrianised centre of the city, enjoying the live music and other entertainment on offer on the crowded cobbled streets. Once we had our bearings, we moved the spaceship to its overnight docking spot and we hit the pubs. Shortly after we arrived our first pub, which was already busy - as were all of the pubs - town was hit with a tidal wave of well-dressed people who had arrived back into the city on dozens of buses following the end of the day's racing action.

The streets were packed with thousands of people, most of whom were drinking. It seemed that many of the pubs were actually too full to allow anyone else in. The whole city had gone mental. We managed to move around a few different pubs, before we settled on a very busy and lively one right in the heart of the city. It was exactly what we had been looking for in Ireland - live music in the corner, plenty of people and excitement, and of course plenty of Guinness!

Within minutes, we had acquired a group of new Irish friends. We asked them if they had won any money at the races and that was it - we were instant mates. Three or four hours and many pints of Guinness later, having been invited to stay with our new friends if we were passing through their part of the country, we had to leave to find some food. It was 1.30am and we had loads to drink (10 pints of Black Gold for Tim), so we felt that we had earned a greasy burger, which we found at Supermacs (Irish version of McDonald's). That, too, was absolutely chokka. Galway in race week is insane. We loved it!

Day 4: Galway

We woke feeling rather hungover on Friday morning. Tim slept like a baby, but Megan was woken at some crazy hour by a couple of drunken Irishmen shouting down the road to each other, something along the lines of:
"Paddy...Paddy...Paddy..."
"What?"
"What are you doing?"
"What?"
"What are you doing?"
"I'm walking on the road. What about you, Seamus?"
"Oh me too."
Hysterical laughter.

We drove around to Salthill, a beautiful suburb of Galway down by the sea, where we very craftily made use of the showers at the local swimming pool. For a few euros each, we had a sauna to sweat out some alcohol and then had really good showers, before heading back into the centre of Galway. We managed to find a brilliant carpark, where we got all day parking for 5 euros. We wandered around the city centre, checked out a few shops, visited the Galway city museum (which was really good), had lunch in the museum cafe and then retired to the spaceship later in the afternoon to read and sleep. Galway is a really nice place, with lots of good cafes and restaurants, as well as insane pubs.

In the evening, we went to a couple of different pubs, although strangely we didn't feel like drinking much! There were even more people out drinking than the previous night! We saw some brilliant street performers, our personal favourite was the two guys dressed as those little green plastic toy army men that many of you may remember from your youth. They stayed still in an army pose until somebody put money in their bucket and then they quickly changed to a different pose and stayed still again. They were awesome. One of the pubs had a couple of guys performing Irish music and they were amazing. That was a good end to a rather quiet day in Galway.

Day 5: Sligo and Ballyshannon

We left Galway early on Saturday and drove north to Sligo (about 1.5 hours away). Sligo was a slight disappointment - our guide book had really built it up, but it was just a standard town, which was pretty dull and lifeless for a Saturday. We walked through the town centre, but nothing really grabbed us. Things improved though, as we found a Pizza Hut on the outskirts of Sligo, where we had a brilliant lunch (unlimited drink refills - giddy up)!

In the afternoon, we drove to Ballyshannon, a pretty little town made famous as it was the birthplace of Rory Gallagher, a very popular Irish singer. There is a big statue of him in the centre of a roundabout in the town. We enjoyed walking through Ballyshannon before we headed to a good camping ground on the edge of a lake that we had found. We got there in plenty of time to do some washing and get all sorted for a picnic dinner. However, the weather had other ideas and it started raining arounf 6pm and didn't stop until the morning. So we had a makeshift dinner in the spaceship and watched a DVD.

Day 6: Exit to Northern Ireland

We woke to more rain, so we got showered and sorted and left the camping ground. We drove north-east, passing through Donegal Town and across the border into Northern Ireland, where the weather was a little better.






Kilkenny













Kilkenny













Megs
with kegs
Kilkenny












Kilkenny
Castle











Megs in
Cashel

















Tim and
Guinness
in Cahir











Cobh














Cobh














Megs at
Jamesons
distillery
shop















Cork












Adare












Galway













Buskers
in
Galway












Galway











Our Irish
friends













Ditto












Galway














Galway
Cathedral












Megs with
Oscar Wilde
and friend
Galway

Great Britain Tour - Part 4

Day 11: Mold, Wales

Less than an hour south of Liverpool, we had crossed the border into Wales and we stumbled across a little town called Mold. For no reason other than humour, we decided to visit Mold. We parked the car in the main street and walked around the town in glorious warm sunshine, admiring the pretty church, the fun shops and the numerous pubs. We also liked the look of the enormous free carpark, where we could park the spaceship for the night. So we dropped anchor and had a night in Mold. We managed to find a Wetherspoons pub, where we got crazily cheap drinks and dinner and then we retired to the spaceship and slept like babies.

Day 12: Conwy, Wales

As it was a Sunday morning and we did not need to drive far that day, we allowed ourselves a little sleep-in before moving on from Mold. It was 40 minutes' drive across the top of Wales to our destination for the day - Conwy.

Conwy is a small walled town on the north coast of Wales and it is a very popular tourist destination. Conwy Castle and the town walls were built on the instruction of King Edward I between 1283 and 1289, as part of his conquest of Wales. Part of the tourism appeal is Conwy Castle and the town walls, which remain largely intact today, but Conwy is also a lovely seaside town with charming shops and pubs and a pretty little harbour packed with fishing boats.

We arrived in Conwy at around 10.30am and we set about wandering the town centre. Lancaster Square sits in the centre of the wall-enclosed town and it boasts a fine statue of Llywelyn the Great, who was a prince and de facto ruler of Wales for around 40 years. We loved High Street, where almost every shop and building had beautiful flags flying proudly.

We carried on through the town to the waterfront, where we saw the "Smallest House in Great Britain" - another of the tourist attractions. The house, measuring just 3.05m by 1.80m, was inhabited from the 16th century until 1900. Its last resident was a fisherman named Robert Jones, who was forced to move out of the house in 1900 as it was deemed unfit for human habitation.

After a walk around the town walls, which gave us great views of the town centre and castle, we descended to gound level and did a tour of Conwy Castle. The tour was great - the exterior walls of the castle and all of the towers are still completely intact and there was plenty of information about the history of the castle (including a seige by some unhappy Welshmen in 1403). We had great views from the top of the towers.

After the castle visit we were pretty hungry - luckily for us Conwy is also renowned for its brilliant fish n chips. We found a fish n chip restaurant on the main street and got a delicious lunch. We then had a relaxing beer in one of the many pubs, where we caught a little bit of the Formula One race on the big screen. Then our visit of Conwy concluded with a tour of Plas Mawr.

Plas Mawr is a fine Elizabethan house built in 1576 by the Wynn family. It has been extensively refurbished to its original 16th century appearance and it is the finest example of an Elizabethan house in Great Britain. It, too, was really well done and we loved our visit, which was extremely informative thanks to the free audio-guide. The combined ticket for the castle and Plas Mawr visits was only £7 - get in.

Having conquered Conwy, so to speak, we headed to a camping ground about 15 minutes south of Conway at a little town called Llanrwst. We enjoyed a few hours of hot, sunny weather in the late afternoon / evening, meaning that we could do some washing and have dinner outside on the grass. We rounded off the evening with a relaxing stroll through the town of Llanrwst, where we saw a lot of tractors and drunk people and not much else.

Day 13: North Wales

Monday 25 July was a very special day. Not only was it Tim's birthday, but it was also another cracking sunny day on which we didn't have to work. Love it. After checking out of the camping ground, we drove through town, dodging the tractors, which were everywhere. Llanwrst must be some sort of tractor capital of Great Britain. We had been playing the "tractor game" on our travels, where you try to spot tractors before the other person does, and you get 5 points for a moving tractor and 1 point for a stationary tractor. After a 15-minute burst in Llanrwst, we had both doubled our scores and the scorecard read something like: Tim 121, Megan 109. Insane.

Llanrwst's biggest attraction is a lovely old 15th-century cottage, now covered in leaves, that sits on the far side of the river, across the equally charming three-arch stone bridge, Pont Fawr. So we took some photos of the old cottage and then carried on our way, exploring the Snowdonia National Park area of North Wales.

A short distance down the road we came to the town of Betws-y-Coed - no idea how you pronounce that, but it's probably not anything like how it looks. We passed through the town, but stopped just the other side to visit the Swallow Falls waterfall. Thanks to some advice from a friendly Aussie couple who were coming out as we were going in, we managed to both squeeze through the turnstiles, which required a £1 coin for entry. It was the only £1 coin we had and there was nobody at the ticket office and there was nowhere nearby to change money. The waterfall was spectacular (photos below) - well worth a stop if you're ever passing through Betws-y-Coed and wondering how to fill in some time. But take a £1 coin!

We drove on through Snowdonia, including over a beautiful mountain pass with stunning views, until we reached a town called Llanberis, the town where the train to the top of Wales' highest mountain, Mt Snowdon, departs from. We parked the spaceship and toyed with the idea of getting the train to the top of Mt Snowdon, but we simply didn't have the time for the round trip. Instead, we grabbed some rocky road and a drink and sat on a seat down by the lakefront to consume our awesome morning tea. Llanberis offered little other than rocky road and a museum about slate mining, so we pressed on to Caernarfon.

Caernarfon also has a castle and sits on the coast of north Wales, however, we did not find it as pretty as Conwy. We grabbed some lunch in a cafe and then used the internet in the public library before pressing on to Holyhead, at the very north-west tip of Wales, where our ferry to Dublin was departing from, later that night.

We had a few hours to fill in before the ferry left, so we went to the Empire movie theatre to see the final instalment of the Harry Potter movies. The Empire Theatre is brilliant - it is like stepping back in time by 25 years. Three things completely shocked us as we bought our movie tickets - the first thing, which understandably threw us, was that the woman selling the tickets had a full beard. The second thing was that she told us that two adult tickets came to a total of £5. It's about £12 each in London!!! Then finally, she handed us those little old-fashioned paper stubs that say 'Admit One' for our tickets. Brilliant! Then a large popcorn, 600ml coke, slushy and chocolate bar came to £3.90!

The theatre itself was awesome too - it seated about 60 or 70, although at least a third of the seats were broken! We guessed they don't often hit capacity. We thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would recommend you give the Empire a go if you're ever over that way. We discovered later that Prince William and Kate often visit the Empire Theatre, as they are based in the Anglesey region, near William's Air Force base! After the movie, we grabbed a quick dinner and caught the ferry across to Dublin!








Church
in Mold












Megs in
Conwy


















Lancas-
ter
Square














Tim at
Smallest
House













Bear at
Conwy
Castle












Megs at
the castle












Conwy













Conwy













Plas
Mawr












Camping
in
Llanrwst










Pont
Fawr
Llanrwst













Llanrwst











Swallow
Falls












Ditto














Mt
Snowdon
Pass










Llanberis














Megs in
Caernarfon