Short post tonight. Need to get some sleep before tomorrow. Also, nothing much new to report. I’ve spent the day traveling on the buses to get from Belfast down to Doolin. I checked out of the Old Rectory around 9:00 this morning, and got to Doolin around 8:00 this evening. So, not much to show you from the trip – pictures of bus stations aren’t all that interesting. I did manage a few pictures, though:
The bust trip from Galway to Doolin went through the Burren. Normally, I don’t even bother trying to take a picture from a moving bus – they turn out mediocre, at best. But this view made me try, and the shot is… well, it’s not as bad as I expected it to be. Notice the large limestone mound in the background; that’s what tells you you’re in the Burren.This is the view from the steps leading up to my room at McGann’s Pub. I took it mainly to document the fact that, once again, I’ve got some good weather in Ireland. Which I have just jinxed. Dammit.Compared to the Old Rectory, my room here is tiny and austere, but that’s okay. It’s got a shower, a toilet, and a bed, so I’m set.And this is the main reason I came to Doolin. The session got started about 9:30, and the place got really crowded. I had had dinner at a little counter where I couldn’t see the musicians, so I wound up standing in behind some folks and in the way of some other folks. By the time 11:00 rolled around, it was hot and crowded and I wanted to sit down. I can still hear them playing from up in my room – they just finished The Butterfly, and started into Beeswing.
All the above pictures were taken with my iPad, because I was too tired to dig my real camera out of my bag at the various times. Tomorrow, when I1 take the ferry out to Inisheer, I’ll have my camera with me, and I’ll bring it into the pub for better pictures.
Bedtime, now. It’s about a two-mile walk to the ferries tomorrow, so I need to get started early.
Today was an expedition to Marble Arch Cave1 out near Enniskillen in Co. Fermanagh. It’s about a two-hour bus ride from Belfast, and then a twenty-minute taxi ride from the bus station. I was a little concerned about the logistics involved, but it all worked out very easily. Got a taxi ride from Gerry of Charity Minibus Hire right at the bus station, and he gave me a card to call him when I was done at the cave. Gerry was also helpful pointing out the views, letting me know about our location2, and generally being a fun, friendly conversationalist.
There’s a very nice little visitor centre with some souvenirs and a tea shop. That’s where you sign up for the tour.You enter the cave through a shake hole – a place where a cave has collapsed, opening up a way into the complex.The shakehole is pretty deep. This is looking up from near the bottom.When the water levels are low enough, you enter the cave through what they call the Wet Entrance. There’s a little boat ride under some very low arches.This is near the end of the boat ride. It shows some of the small stalactites and a cascade.This is a bigger cascade deeper in the cave.This is kind of a neat thing. The flowstone formed while the river was higher, over thousands of years. With the cave opening up, the water level dropped, and the flowstone that used to stop at the water surface now hangs about four feet above the water.
Here’s something interesting about the cave. The water in it is so calm and black that it reflects whatever is above it. This leads to some awesome little scenes, where you look into the water and see tiny little alien cities. Unfortunately, if you take a picture without a flash, all you get is dark water. And if you take a picture with the flash, all you see is the bottom of the river.
There are two rivers winding through the caves – the Cladagh and the Owenbrean. As a living limestone cave, there’s lots of water, both in the rivers and dripping into your hair.This shows how the river isn’t cutting upwards anymore, but is slowly spreading sideways, undercutting the wall.This is a large expanse of flowstone. It stands about two and a half metres high, and spreads out about six or eight metres.The flowstone has formed a number of roughly crescent-shaped ridge pools.This picture doesn’t show the shaft up to the surface that I wanted it to, but I still think it turned out pretty cool. So, here it is.So, to me, this looks like some creepy ogre head about to take a bite out of something. The little group of stalagmites on its tongue are called the Simpsons, according to the guide.The limestone wall here is rotting away, thanks to the river below it and the water running down the walls. The white foam on the surface of the water is caused by minerals from peat and such mixing with the calcium carbonate of the walls and reacting in foam. And this being Ireland, they call the white foam on brown water the Guinness Head.This is the largest stalactite in the cave. The discoloured and twisted end is the result of some vandals about 25 years ago throwing rocks at it until the tip broke off. They are trying to repair it, and won’t know if it’s successful for another 75 years.The folks putting in the concrete pathways never had a single accident, and they say it’s because of this column, which they called the Guardian.
There are a few items in the cave that look like food3 :
Cauliflower. There’s one with some green algae growing on it that they call the Broccoli.The Porridge Pot.This one’s just for Dan. It’s the Cave Duck.
There were something like 150 stairs to climb in order to get out of the cave, and I was really glad I had taken it a bit easy yesterday, so my knees were up to it. Once aboveground4 again, I took a bit of a walk around the grounds for a bit.
The forest was thick with bluebells and moss, as well as holly bushes. I wasn’t able to get a very picture of the holly, but here’s a lot of bluebells and moss.This was also on the grounds. They call it the Cottage, and seems to be a natural cleft in the rock that was then roofed over and finished with stone to make the arched doorway.
By the time I was done, it was time to call Gerry and have him come pick me up and get me back to the bus station for my trip back to Belfast. I had intended to visit Florence Court if I had time, and possibly Enniskillen Castle, but I had spent too long at the cave for that.
Guess that means I’ll have to come back and visit Enniskillen.
This is my last night in Belfast. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading down to Doolin for a few days. Checking the bus schedules, I’m going to be spending most of the day traveling, so there won’t be much to say tomorrow.
Probably, anyway. You never know.
So, the name? Blatant marketing lie. Not a bit of marble in the caves. Limestone, with some sandstone boulders left behind by the glaciers. [↩]
We were about a mile from the border with the Republic, which kind of freaked me out. I still have difficulty wrapping my head around the distances here. [↩]
The plan this morning was to bus out to a certain car park in the south end of Belfast to take a walk through the woods and fields to the Giant’s Ring. When I woke up, though, I was really feeling yesterday’s walking in my knees and feet. So, I decided instead to spend the morning taking a tour of the Belfast City Hall.
It really is a beautiful building, right in the centre of the city. I’ve been seeing a lot of it here, because it’s a very useful navigation point for anywhere I might want to go. Also, the bus back to the Old Rectory picks up here.The rather extensive grounds are open to everyone, and are a popular place to have an outdoor lunch. There’s even a huge TV screen set up at one location that was showing the news when I saw it.Okay. A lot of the pictures I took in here didn’t turn out all that well. But I’m including a few of them that are okay, like this shot of the statue on the first floor, with the mural and the column.
Incidentally, admission is free to all, and tours run several times a day. The City Hall was financed by Belfast’s two gasworks when it was built, and the plan and understanding – carried through to this day – is that this building belongs to the people of the city, and they share it freely with visitors.
There are a total of five domes on the City Hall: one atop each of the four corner towers, and this central one.The Council Chamber. There are fifty-one city councillors, and they elect the Lord Mayor of the city from among their number for a one-year term. Lord Mayors may serve multiple terms, but never consecutively.The Lord Mayor’s Chair. Also, the chairs of the Deputy Lord Mayor and the Chief Administrator.This is the actual table that the Ulster Covenant was signed on. One of the more important pieces of Northern Ireland history.
After touring the City Hall, I walked down to the bus station, and caught the bus to Downpatrick, because there was some stuff there I wanted to see.
This is, as the sign says, the Down County Museum. It used to be a gaol, and Thomas Russell was hanged from these gates after the 1798 rebellion.The Down County Museum is small, but absolutely wonderful. It has some very nice exhibits. Everything from a beautiful, almost pristine grave cover…
1..." width="768" height="1024" />…to replica cells (much more spartan than those at the more modern Crumlin Road Gaol.)……to the beautiful (if tiny) Millennium Garden. Really worth the trip, even if it wasn’t my main objective.Down Cathedral sits on a hill overlooking the entire town. You can see it from pretty much anywhere, but the view of it as you come up the street here is pretty overwhelming.The inside of the cathedral is lovely – cozier than, say, St. Anne’s, and impressive in a completely different way.Pipe organ!This is where, as far as history can be sure, the remains of St. Patrick lie, along with the remains of St. Brigid and St. Columba. This is one of the main things I came to Downpatrick to see.Okay. Saw these statues in the streets in Downpatrick and went to have a look. They are of Lynn Doyle, a Downpatrick writer, and three characters (a dog and two men) from one of his short stories. I got the low-down on him from an elderly nun and three of her friends, and then a little bit more from a clerk in a nearby store where I went to buy something to drink. The Downpatrick folks are all so friendly!
So, I got back on the bus, and made it back into Belfast in time to have dinner and catch the Ghost Walk tour. I don’t have any pictures of that, mainly because it was still daylight, so not very scary, and the visuals weren’t half as interesting as the stories.
The stories were very good, though; we had unmarked graves, live burials, grave robberies, plague, ghostly warnings, and all the rest. It was tremendous fun.
Claire is the same guide I had on the Titanic Walking Tour – she obviously knows her stuff, and is great at presenting the material. I got a picture with her because, after two tours, I figured that made us practically family. Thanks, Claire!
And then I came back to the Old Rectory. I’m going to bed now. Tomorrow, I will see about taking a bus out to Enniskillen, then a taxi to Marble Arch caves.
That’ll be fun.
Much more spartan than those at the more modern Crumlin Road Gaol. [↩]
Last tie I was in Belfast, I took a tour up around the Antrim coast to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, the Giant’s Causeway, and Dunluce Castle. It rained pretty hard the entire time, and I got drenched. More to the point, I didn’t really get any good pictures.
This time around, the sun was shining pretty much the whole time. There were some threatening clouds in the afternoon, and I felt a few tiny drops when I got back to Belfast, but really, the weather was pretty much perfect.
So, yeah. You may have seen some of these pictures from last trip, but I think these turned out nicer.
We started from the Europa Hotel. Until recently it held the record for the most bombed hotel in the world. Now the honour is held by the Hilton in Bagdad.Our first stop was Carrickfergus Castle. We only had a short stop here, so we had a look at the outside, but couldn’t go in.My seatmate on the tour was Anya, from Denmark. She agreed to take a picture of me here at Carrickfergus in return for me taking a picture of her here, as well.Carrickfergus Harbour is very pretty.We stopped for lunch at Bushmill’s Distillery. Not enough time for a tour, and a long line at the cafeteria, so I grabbed a sandwich from Spar and walked down into the town.The centre of Bushmill Village is very nice. I still can’t get over the narrow, narrow streets and narrow, narrow sidewalks.We stopped at a view of Dunluce Castle, which was very pretty, but we didn’t go in. A little disappointed, but at least I went in last year.I didn’t get the name of the young lady who took my picture here. But thank you!Last time I was at the Giant’s Causeway, tide was high, and I was a little disappointed with the size of it. Today, the tide was much lower, and a whole lot more of it was exposed. All the darker portion was new to me.It’s really much more extensive than it seemed last visit. Also, less likely to kill you if you get close to the waves. And easier to climb on the drier stones.So, yeah. Much cooler this time around. And not drenched in rain.And lots of tiny wildflowers sprouting in amongst the stones.Thanks to Anya for once again doing photographer duty.Another shot of the Giant’s Boot. Drier this time.Here are some kids up at the Organ. They give some perspective as to the size of the formation.Looking up at the Organ. This time, without a big drop of water on the lens.Waves crashing on the Giant’s Causeway. Big, but not terrifyingly big.This is the headland on the beach just past the Giant’s Causeway. I’m not sure if the little pillars you can see on it are natural or man-made.The island in the foreground is Rathlin Island. Interesting place. Behind it, the shadowy outline is the Mull of Kintyre – it’s actually part of shoreline of Scotland, about twelve miles away.I had forgotten how much walking was involved in visiting Carrick-a-Rede. And how steep most of it is.So, this is the Carrick-a-Rede bridge from above. With the bright sunlight, you can see exactly how far down things are.Here I am, halfway across the bridge. Maria and David, who are from Mexico and are here on their honeymoon, helped out with this picture.This is the view down from the bridge at about the half-way point. It’s around a hundred feet down to the water and rocks.They have put up new fences to keep visitors from trampling over the fields where wildflowers will be sprouting soon.
After this, it was back to the bus, and back to Belfast. My legs are worn out, and I’m going to bed soon.
Those of you who have been looking at my itinerary have probably noticed that I didn’t go to the Ghost Walk last night. That’s because the schedule has changed, and they only run on Wednesdays and weekends. I’m going to try and make that tomorrow night.
I’m reserving judgement on what I’m going to do tomorrow until I see how well I recover from the exertions of today. I had planned to make it out to the Giant’s Ring, and maybe to Downpatrick, but I may try for Marble Arch Caves tomorrow if I’m still tired. Or I may just decide to try and see some of the places in Belfast I haven’t made it to, yet. I haven’t got anything definitively booked, so I can be flexible tomorrow.
In other words, stay tuned. Not even I know what I’m going to do!
I’m back at the Old Rectory earlier today than yesterday. I want a good sleep before tomorrow’s tour of the Giant’s Causeway and Antrim Coast. And last night was a late night1.
Weather today was a mixed bag. There were periods of moderately heavy rain2, as well as some nice, sunny periods. I was riding on the City Sightseeing city tour, and my plan was to get off at Stormont to tour the Parliament Building, but it was closed for the bank holiday. It was nice to see the grounds, and I might have got off to wander the grounds a bit, but the rain was moderately heavy at that moment.
So I rode on back into Belfast, to Crumlin Road, which used to be called the Murder Mile because of the number of killings that have taken place there during the Troubles. And these were big parts of the reasons:
The Crumlin Road Courthouse is currently derelict. It was opened in 1850, and has a tunnel passing directly under the road to the gaol – the source of the phrase “sent down.” During the Troubles, the court used Diplock Courts, where cases were tried by a single judge.This was the gatehouse or tally house at the front of the gaol.The main block of the gaol. Inside are the administrative areas and access to the cell wings.This is the tunnel under Crumlin Road. This section has been upgraded, with a concrete floor.This is an older, unrestored section with a flagstone floor.The door to the little holding cell – tiny door, and a cell about ten feet square. They were intended for about ten prisoners, and were segregated. Normally, men and women were separated, but when the Troubles heated up, the segregation was between Unionists and Republicans.Here’s the Governor’s office. It’s one of the few places in the prison with carpet, and so being brought to see the Governor – usually because of something bad – was being called on the carpet.This is the Circle. The gaol is built on the Panopticon concept, like Kilmainham Gaol, but implemented differently. Four different wings radiated straight off the circle, with clear lines of sight from the central area.Here’s a cell, furnished as it was circa 1850.Here’s a cell circa 1950. Somewhat upgraded. Still no toilet, though.By the 1970s and 80s, they had abandoned the Separate Method of confinement, putting two prisoners – sometimes three, if necessary – into cells intended for one.At some point, they knocked the wall out of between two cells to make a larger room for use as an art classroom. Some of the murals have been preserved.This is a punishment cell. Note the absence of bedding – bedding was provided at night, but during the day, you could sit or lie only on the floor or on the wooden pallet. Thus, being sent to the punishment cell was called “being on the boards.”This cell was used to house condemned criminals. It was twice as large, in part because two guards had to be in with the prisoner twenty-four hours a day.
In addition, the condemned prisoner got a few extra perks – extra tobacco allotment, some stout from time to time, and so on. The whole prison had to be locked down if the condemned prisoner was being moved, taken out for exercise, or taken to bathe. Thus, there was a small washroom attached to the cell, with a toilet, sink, and a tall cupboard.
The cupboard held the restraints used to bind the prisoner when being taken to be hanged. At the time of execution, the prisoner would be bound here, ready to be led away, and then the guards would slide the cupboard away to reveal a door into the scaffold area. From the time of binding to the time of actual execution, only a few minutes would pass, with no time for the prisoner to bolt or struggle.
Steven, the guide, slid the cupboard open and opened the door revealing the noose in a wonderfully dramatic manner. It shocked the hell out of me, and was tremendously affecting.The noose hanging above the (glassed-over) trap door.The rack they used to bind prisoners upright while lashing them either with birch switches (if under 18) or the cat of nine tails (if over 18).The exercise yard out between C Wing and B Wing.
After that, I caught the tour bus back around Shankill Road, Falls Road, and the Peace Wall. Unfortunately, it had really started raining again, so I stayed on the bus back around to the city centre. I needed to get more batteries for my camera, anyway, and it was lunch time. So, I took care of those things, and looked at the time.
It was just about three by then, so while I could take the tour bus back somewhere, if I got off, there wouldn’t be another one for me to get back on. I decided to do some walking around the downtown area and the cathedral quarter, instead.
This is the Albert Clock, built in memory of Queen Victoria’s husband and consort. It leans about a metre back and a metre to one side, thanks to the earth beneath it subsiding. Now, the tour guides said that each of the four clock faces told a different time, and none were correct. I took that at face value last trip, but this time I went and checked. Guess what? Each face showed the same time, and it was within a minute or so of my phone’s time. And they call the CLOCK the four-faced liar.There are dancing fountains in behind the Albert Clock, with children playing in them. At least, when the sun comes out.I love the way this is worded. And it’s good advice, wherever you are.This is the fish they’re talking about. It’s the Salmon of Knowledge. They say that if you kiss it, you will gain wisdom. But I’m already wise enough to know that kissing a fish is not a good idea.Here’s a close up of the salmon’s scales. It’s a mosaic, and each tile has a reproduction of a historical document important to Belfast.And here’s me standing by the Salmon of Knowledge. Look, folks! I’m really in Belfast!This is the Spire of Hope, rising out of St. Anne’s Cathedral. It’s a sister piece to the spire on O’Connell Street in Dublin, erected in response to the 9/11 attacks in NYC.This is the front of St. Anne’s.The interior of the cathedral. Note the chairs instead of pews – each chair had a little pillow attached to the back for the person behind to kneel on. Each of the pillows was beautifully embroidered.This tapestry was made to honour those people lost when the Titanic went down. The edge and the big cross in the middle are made of a myriad tiny white and silver crosses.The Baptistery has a beautiful mosaic ceiling and marble font, with stained glass windows behind it all. Absolutely gorgeous.The Chapel of the Holy Spirit is right across the church from the Baptistery, and has beautiful mosaics, as well. The mosaics were made by two sisters in the 1930s.This little shrine contains books in which are recorded the names of all the Irish people, of whatever faith, who died in World War I. Carved on it is the legend, “He tried them like gold in the fire.” A powerful symbol of the sense of unity that many have held all through the Troubles.From the Ambulatory, which winds behind the altar and the sanctuary, you can look past a big, silver cross down to the big stained glass windows over the main doors.Organ!On the north side of the cathedral is the largest celtic cross I have ever seen.Statues of three Buoys across from St. Anne’s. They are apparently named Tom, Dick, and Harry. When asked which was which, the guide said, “Why would you care about a stupid thing like that?”
At that point, I was getting tired, so I walked back toward the bust stop, ducked into Tesco for a sandwich and some drinks to take back to the Old Rectory for dinner, and then spent the last couple of hours doing up this post.
Now, bedtime. Up early for the Giant’s Causeway.
Mary here at the Old Rectory said, “You push yourself hard.” My reply, “Only because I’m stupid.” And then she says, “Well, at least you’re honest.” See? They know me here.” [↩]
And, about half an hour ago, there was hail for about thirty seconds. [↩]
I heard that line five or six times today, visiting Titanic Belfast. Everyone who said it chuckled, but you could tell that it was only mostly a joke.
I forgot this morning that it was Sunday. Which means Sunday bus service. Which means that, when I missed my bus to the city centre by about five minutes, I had an hour to wait for the next one. Rather than sit at that stop1 and look like an idiot, I decided to walk down a stop or two and catch the bus there. At least, I told myself, I would be making forward progress.
So, about the time my legs get tired and I start looking for another bus stop, the schedules on all the stops start reading, “No Sunday Service.” I wind up walking down past The Barking Dog, where I had dinner last night, to Queen’s College before I find a bus stop with service. And I got there just in time for the bus.
Once downtown, I found the pick-up spot for the City Sightseeing tour2, got on, and then got off five minutes later at the Titanic exhibition hall.
This was my first good view of the building. The sun decided to help me out and light up one of the walls and not the other, making for a pretty impressive first sight.The building is built so that, from above, it looks like the logo for White Star Lines, the owners of the Titanic. Each of the pointy bits is built to stand as high as Titanic’s hull, and points in one of the cardinal directions.
There’s a figurehead statue sitting out front that I thought looked pretty cool.And a big sign out front in case you forget where you are. It’s made of sixteen tons of steel, the same as Titanic’s anchor. This is one of the brief moments in the sign’s life when there are no tourists posing in the letters.
I went inside and saw the exhibition. Now, I’ll be honest with you – I’m not tremendously interested in the Titanic. I never saw the Cameron movie3, never got into the whole doomed ship idea. It was a huge ship, and it went down. It was a tragic loss of life, but so were lots of other things.
What the exhibition did that I found fascinating was give a sense of historical context to the whole event. And it made clear that Olympic, Titanic, and Gigantic4 were thoroughly stunning feats of engineering. And not just for their time, either – we’re talking even by today’s standards.
Some perspective. This is MSC Magnifica, the largest cruise ship that currently puts in to Belfast. She is only 72 feet longer than Titanic, and apparently not as tall. So, in 100 years, only 72 feet longer. That’s something.
I didn’t take a lot of pictures inside the exhibition. Most of the stuff that I found interesting was written, and that makes for boring photographs. The three interesting shots I took – replicas of the first-, second-, and third-class staterooms – aren’t very good, but I’m putting them up here, anyway, because – as I said – interesting.
First Class Cabin. The ultimate in sea-going luxury. White Star couldn’t compete with Cunard on speed, so they decided to outdo them with style.Second Class cabin. A significant step down, but still with carpet and good wood furnishings. Even a small couch.Third Class cabin. Hard to believe, but apparently even this was luxurious and roomy compared to third class on other ship lines.
There was even a ride in the exhibit that took you in a little car down and around a representation of the hull that showed how it was built. That was pretty cool, too.
After going through the exhibit, I took a bit of a walk around, waiting for my Titanic Walking Tour to start. I found a couple of cool things to take pictures of.
This is the sleeping giant above Belfast. Folks call him Gulliver, and say that he was the inspiration for Swift writing Gulliver’s Travels. Hearing them talk, however, I’m unsure whether the giant was named Gulliver before the book was written, or was named that afterwards in honour of Swift.This huge crane was used to build ships. When it was built, it was so large, they named it Goliath.So, here’s the problem with naming things with superlatives. About three years after they built Goliath, they built another crane that was ten metres taller than Goliath. There’s no one in the Bible bigger than Goliath, so they named it Samson. Good name, still biblical, but implies massive strength rather than massive size. Anyway.
The walking tour started at 1:00, and was fascinating. Claire, who led the tour, knew everything about the Titanic, how it was built, and how it fit into history. She really brought home the historical meaning of the Titanic and her sister-ships, and made it clear that Titanic was so much more than just a ship that sank.
Here are a few pictures from the tour.
It’s kind of hard to see in the picture, but the yard here alternates patches of ship’s decking with grass. The decking represents people saved when the Titanic sank, and the grass represents people lost. It’s divided into first class, second class, third class, and crew. The ratio of grass to decking gets dramatically – and depressingly – higher as you go down the social ladder.One of two drawing rooms where the plans for the ships were drafted. Note the cathedral ceiling with large skylights – called a Belfast roof – to allow a great deal of natural light for the architects and draftsmen.Three thousand workers had to come through these gates every day. They were only open for twenty minutes – if you didn’t make it in, you didn’t work. Unemployed people would line up outside hoping someone wouldn’t show for work, so they would have a day to prove they were good enough to be taken on permanently.This is the Alexandra Graving Dock, the last place Titanic rested on dry ground. After her hull was launched, she was taken to a deep-water wharf and outfitted and completed. Then, she was brought here to be painted, have her hull inspected, and her screws attached.The gate that closes off the dry dock from the Irish Sea is 44 feet tall, and made of the same steel, by the same men, in the same fashion as the Titanic.44 feet down, at the stern end of the 850-foot-long dock. Pictures can’t express the size of the place.Each of these stacks of keel blocks weighs four tons. They were moved about – including being hauled into and out of the dry dock – by hand……and there were an awful lot of them, running the whole length of what would have been Titanic’s keel.Here’s looking up the side of the dock from the bottom. The man taking the picture should help give some sense of scale.
That was about it for the tour. We had a quick look in the pump room, and that was that. We did walk by Titanic Studios, where they film Game of Thrones, but there wasn’t really anything to take a picture of, there – just some big, warehouse-type buildings.
By the time I got back on the tour bus, it was 3:30 or so, and the tours stopped at 4:00, so I just had time to ride around the rest of the circuit and fail to take any good pictures. It’s just too hard to do from the top of the bus5. The sheer amount of interesting stuff I saw in that time has got me questioning whether I need to spend a third day on touring just the city, sacrificing one of my planned trips to Marble Arch Caves or Downpatrick. I’ll see how I feel about that tomorrow.
So, at the end of the day, I went and had a nice dinner, and noticed that The Great Gatsby was playing in about an hour in the theatre right near by. I decided to go see it, and I enjoyed it, and then realized that, with Sunday bus service, I had missed my last bus back to the Old Rectory. After trying and failing to hail a cab, I found a helpful watchman at the grounds of City Hall6 who not only told me the rules about which cabs can pick up where, and which need to be called by phone, he let me borrow his phone when I had no luck dialling the cab company7.
Obviously, I made it back. Now, it’s 12:30, and I need to get up early to take full advantage of my second day of touring. City Sightseeing has a courtesy bus that I can call to pick me up here in the morning, so that’ll help maximize my day.
But still. Sleep time. Good night.
Which is right across the street from The Old Rectory. [↩]
With a little help from someone from a different tour company. I tell you, everyone in Ireland and Northern Ireland seem to want to go out of their way to be helpful. Marvelous people, the lot. [↩]
There’s one picture from my tour of Dublin that I took from the top of the bus that turned out great, and that I really like, but it was completely accidental. [↩]
There’s a big Continental Festival going on this bank-holiday weekend, and he was watching the many tents spread on the City Hall grounds. [↩]
Did I mention how amazingly helpful everyone is? They are all amazingly helpful. This fine gentleman is not unique, though he is a sterling example. [↩]
So, I’ve made it to Belfast. I have to say, if you have the option of traveling business class, it’s pretty awesome. Bigger, more comfortable seat, better food, airport lounge, all that stuff. I really enjoyed it.
The plane got in to Dublin about a half-hour early. It was a little chilly this morning, but not too bad. I just put my rain jacket on to block the wind, and I was plenty warm enough. Irish customs was really fast and easy: “How long are you staying in Ireland? Business or pleasure?” and boom – I was through. Literally no more than ten seconds.
Once through, I made my way outside and caught the Airlink bus that runs from the airport through the city centre.
Dublin Airport is kind of a cool building. From this angle, it looks like a hamster run, but from other angles, it looks like billowing sails.
The bus ride in to Grafton Street was easy, as was getting my errands done there. The difference in stress levels this trip compared to the early days of last trip are amazing – just the little bit I know about the place from being here before makes everything easier and less frantic. And, of course, I ran into an old friend.
According to the fellow in the right side of the picture, the city is planning some street changes here that would move the statue. I didn’t get the full story, though.
From there, once my phone was linked to the 3 network, I called up a walking path from Grafton Street to Connolly Station, where I was to catch the train north to Belfast. It was about a mile walk, but my luggage wasn’t too heavy at that point, so I decided to do it; if nothing else, it would let me stretch my legs after the long flight and also refamiliarize myself a little more with the city.
This is a view down the Liffey towards Dublin Port. I never made it there last trip. It looks like there might be a tall ship there on the left.
I made it to the station and got on a train, and then had to fight to keep from falling asleep. I nodded off a couple of times on the two-hour trip, but thankfully, a young lady got on and proceeded to carry on a telephone conversation in a loud, somewhat shrill voice that carried through the entire train car, and I didn’t have to worry about sleeping anymore.
Gerry greeted me, took my breakfast order for tomorrow1, and led me up to my room – the same one I’d had last time.
It really is a lovely room.This is the view from my window. You can’t really see the… little mountains? Big hills? Anyway, they rise up behind everything,There. Now you can see them.
I saw Mary again this evening, and she helped me get a table at The Barking Dog, which restaurant I hadn’t been able to try last time. It was a bit of a walk, again, both there and back, but at least I’ll be good and tired when I go to bed tonight.
As I was taking this picture, a gentleman waiting for the bus talked to me at some length about Rugby, and a woman from Montreal that he knows that works in a pub near The Crown in downtown Belfast. Everyone is so friendly.
And now the post is done, the first day of my holiday is done, and I’m pretty much done. To bed. Tomorrow, I have tours!
I confessed to him that I’ve had dreams about his full Ulster breakfast since last time. [↩]
