Today we drove to the Giants Causeway to view the magnificent natural structures. It also gave us an opportunity to try out Madison's back pack. The cause way is to rocky to take a buggy.
The drive to the Giants Causeway is about an hour from where we were staying, so we got a pretty good look at the countryside which was very like New Zealand. The two things about Ireland that have struck us so far:
1) There are bloody tractors everywhere - even on the motorway
2) Once off the beaten track, the roading is terrible. Very narrow and in ill repair as a rule. Probably because of 1)...
Driving through little villages and hamlets in Northern Ireland is strange too. They are very patriotic as in British and English flags flying proudly. Way more so than on the mainland. I guess after such a struggle they want to something to show for it.
Oh and a little history. Derry is also know as Londonderry. In the North the road signs all say Londonderry and in the Republic they say Derry. Also some signs have been vandalised to remove the London part. The original name was Derry, but when a bunch of London landowners paid for the city walls the name was changed to Londonderry in respect to them. History here
Anyway, we arrived at the Giants Causeway about 10:30 which was a good time. It was a public holiday in NI, so I think it was a little busier than normal, but not too bad. There is a bit of a walk from the carpark, but not too bad. There is even a bus for the lardy americans.
The causeway itself is formed from lava flows cooling or something. It is awesome and quite un-worldy. The pictures on the net etc, don't do it justice. Not much point trying to explain in words, but suffice to say it's well worth going to if you are ever in Ireland.
On the way back we stopped off at the Bushmills Whisky Distillery which would let Madison do the tour so stuff them. Jamisons is way better anyway.
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Saturday, September 1, 2007
Ireland - Day 1
Early start as we flew out of Birmingham at about 7:20am. Quick flight to Dublin - around 50 minutes and off to find our rental car.
We ordered a VW Golf (I thought) but was a little disappointed when car was Kia Cee'd. Had to go to other part to pick up a car seat for Madison. The seat wasn't there so had to wait for it to show up, and when it did it was unsafe. They gave us a new one and about 90 minutes after we got there we were on our way.
From Dublin we drove to Belfast City Centre. Since the "troubles" have ceased, Belfast has a new lease on life and has new buildings going up everywhere. It's not what you would call a pretty city, but given the history, that's understandable.
We did the "bombs and bullets" taxi tour. This is a tour around the trouble spots of the cities bad old days, including the incredible murals that you have no doubt seen before. The town is divided into two sections, the Catholic side and the Protestant side. It is divided by a 20ft high "peace" wall, as in keep the peace rather than create peace. The wall is still standing today. Both sides are almost mirror opposites, with the bunting (little flags etc) on the Unionist side being red, white and blue and flags of England Scotland and Wales, and the Ulster unionist flags, and on the Republican side the colours are Green, White and Orange.
It's all very surreal and I'm glad we went, but I really can't get my head around the level of hatred, death and I guess courage that was prevalent at the time. Personally, I don't have a view one way or the other, I prefer to think about the needless tit for tat killings and the innocent people that were caught up in the middle of it all, just trying to go about their lives. These people are the real heroes in conflicts such as this, and are the people we should be remembering.
Anyway, it had a profound effect on both of us, and I guess it drives home how good most of our lives are, and that perhaps we take it all for granted. Food for thought perhaps.
After the tour we had a bite to eat, and drove to Derry for our first night.
We ordered a VW Golf (I thought) but was a little disappointed when car was Kia Cee'd. Had to go to other part to pick up a car seat for Madison. The seat wasn't there so had to wait for it to show up, and when it did it was unsafe. They gave us a new one and about 90 minutes after we got there we were on our way.
From Dublin we drove to Belfast City Centre. Since the "troubles" have ceased, Belfast has a new lease on life and has new buildings going up everywhere. It's not what you would call a pretty city, but given the history, that's understandable.
We did the "bombs and bullets" taxi tour. This is a tour around the trouble spots of the cities bad old days, including the incredible murals that you have no doubt seen before. The town is divided into two sections, the Catholic side and the Protestant side. It is divided by a 20ft high "peace" wall, as in keep the peace rather than create peace. The wall is still standing today. Both sides are almost mirror opposites, with the bunting (little flags etc) on the Unionist side being red, white and blue and flags of England Scotland and Wales, and the Ulster unionist flags, and on the Republican side the colours are Green, White and Orange.
It's all very surreal and I'm glad we went, but I really can't get my head around the level of hatred, death and I guess courage that was prevalent at the time. Personally, I don't have a view one way or the other, I prefer to think about the needless tit for tat killings and the innocent people that were caught up in the middle of it all, just trying to go about their lives. These people are the real heroes in conflicts such as this, and are the people we should be remembering.
Anyway, it had a profound effect on both of us, and I guess it drives home how good most of our lives are, and that perhaps we take it all for granted. Food for thought perhaps.
After the tour we had a bite to eat, and drove to Derry for our first night.
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