International Travel in Ireland
Not quite up to date yet but working on it
Not quite up to date yet but working on it
Friday 6 June (D Day)
Off to Northern Ireland this afternoon. We leave from a place called Cairnryan which is a little north of Stranraer on the south west of the Scottish coast. When I was in Scotland 37 years ago Stranraer was the only ferry terminal. The Stranraer terminal is still there with an additiional two terminals at Cairnryan, one is P & O and the other is Stena Line.
We took the most direct route from Glasgow which took us on some multi lane roads to Ayr and then on to some beautiful rural roads with great scenery. On one of these sections we came across the ruins of an old abbey called Crossnaguel Abbey. The last monk left there in 1602. It had been in use since the 1200's, however it did suffer some damage in the War of Independence between England and Scotland.
The walls are very thick and would have been able to keep out the weapons of the day. Life would have been quite tough for the Monks. There were only two rooms in the abbey that were heated, the kitchen and a room adjacent to it called the warming room. I reckon I would have spent a lot of time in the warming room.
Water for the abbey was from a well in the centre of the grounds and there is a stream that still runs more or less under the abbey that was used for flushing the abbey latrines.
We arrived at the ferry terminal in good time so we headed into Stranraer to get some lunch. We had a little look round the country side that surrounds the town and then went and ate. On the way back to the car from lunch we heard some pipes and outside a church was a piper. He must have been piping for a wedding or some other celebration because it was quite lively. If it had been a funeral it would have been something a bit more solemn like a lament.
Got to the ferry terminal in plenty of time and were lined up on the wharf ready to go on. The organisation to get us onboard was pretty good. We were directed onto the ship by members of the crew and placed in line and as we left the hold there was a person waiting with a tag that let us know which deck the car was on and which side of the ship we were parked.
The trip across was nice and smooth and the accommodation arranged by Deb was only about 15 minutes away from the wharf. We had a bit of a start when we entered the destination into the GPS because it indicated that we would have to travel for 57 miles and two hours. It remembered our original starting point of Scotland. After it was reset everything was good.
The accommodation is nice and airy and comfortable. It is on the fourth floor with a birds eye view of the street. The shower could be a little larger but we'll be able to get washed.
Went into the city to get some dinner. Got a bus from Antrim Road which is about 50 metres away and ended up outside Customs House which is a pretty impressive building. It looked like they had very large spiders in Belfast because most of the civic buildings were covered with cobwebs. They are actually covered in netting to prevent pigeons from roosting on then and causing discolouration on them.
We had a really nice dinner and headed back to the B&B by taxi.
Saturday 7 June
What a miserable day. We are going to the Giants Causeway and it is raining very heavily. The rain seems to increase in intensity the closer we get to this natural phenomenon. We have come all this way to see it so we aren't going to let a little bit of rain to stop us.
The trip to the causeway is through some very nice country, however we weren't able to see great distances because the rain limited our view to under a kilometre. Some places it was much less because it rained so heavily.
We got to the causeway and with the entry fee you get an audio guide similar to the ones that we had when we went to Edinburgh Castle and Britannia. This one was a little like an iPod with a multi media screen which had some interesting pictures to accompany the commentary. Unfortunately because of the weather we forgot to get a picture of it for comparison.
I reckon we did about a half marathon in the rain today. We chose to walk down to the causeway and listen to the commentary. We got to the bottom and I decided that it wasn't too far back to the visitors centre. I could see the crest of the first hill not the hill the visitors centre was located on. Twice as far. Good for the soul walking in the rain and getting wetter by the minute.
We ended up getting pretty wet but unlike those visitors who were doing bus tours we had access to our suitcases where we had dry clothing. We got our spare clothes out and got changed in the visitors centre before having lunch. It was much more comfortable to eat lunch in dry clothing.
I had heard some stories about Londonderry while I was in the Navy so thought it might be nice to head down there. Londonderry still has an intact wall surrounding the city. We had a look at part of the wall and at a crystal manufacturer's that was mentioned on the Internet. Unfortunately the factory wasn't in operation and the range of souvenirs was very limited. We had a nice afternoon tea though and headed off down the road.
We haven't arranged any accommodation for tonight. We just thought that we might try somewhere along the way. While I was driving I was keeping a lookout but there was nothing that seemed suitable. I was getting a little tired so thought it would be a good idea to change drivers and you wouldn't believe within about 10 minutes of Deb taking over the driving we found a very nice place called Kelly's Inn. It is located in Ballygawley, County Tyrone. This was along the lines of a motel. The units had parking behind and access to the hotel was from an internal corridor. This was very important because of the amount of rain that we had been going through.
The room was very good because it had working radiators in both the bedroom and the bathroom so we were able to get our wet clothes dry and packed away into the suitcases rather than having them spread all over the car. Our shoes dried out quite nicely as well.
Kelly's Inn is part of a complex comprising a small supermarket and off licence, a service station and pub. The whole place is very busy and where we had dinner overlooked the service station driveway. Lots of people pulled into the driveway but only one put fuel into their car, the rest went into the off licence and got supplies for the night considering it is Saturday night.
It is like a lot of small places in Britain where it seems like it is in the middle of nowhere but is surrounded by small farms. Most of the viable farms are only about 100 acres so are close together whereas in Australia much more land is needed to make a living.
Sunday 8 June
After our exertions yesterday doing the half marathon at the Giants Causeway we both slept really well last night. Our next objective is the Cliffs of Moher which is in the Republic of Ireland. Everything was going swimingly until we heard the words "Welcome to Ireland" from the GPS. From then on it didn't want to know anything. Didn't know any of the places we wanted to go to. Knew about the northern parts but nothing below the border.
To confound things the distances in the Republic are in kilometres and our speedo is in miles. I don't know how the car does it but when it passes a speed sign it puts that speed sign on the face of the speedo and marks the speed on the edged of the dial so that all you have to do is line up the needle and you are doing the right speed. The speed limits in the republic are 30, 50, 60, 80, 100 and 120 kmph, When a speed sign was passed if it was 100, the figure 100 came up on the face of the speedo and a mark appeared next to 100 on the perimeter of the speedo. This wasn't 100 kmph but 100 mph. A bit of a problem if you weren't concentrating.
We tried following our instructions that we had from the iPad but took a wrong turn which made quite a difference so we stopped in a little town called Ardee where we purchased a map. I think I mentioned this town in my interim blog. This showed us that we had covered a little bit of territory in not quite the right direction so we had to change our plans a little. Instead of seeing the Cliffs of Moher today it will have to be tomorrow.
In Ardee we also got access to the Internet. In the Republic our portable hot spot and my phone didn't work. The phone would work but it was international roaming which cost a little more that a normal call. International travel does make quite a difference,
The weather has again been changeable. We started off in sunshine which gave us some hope, however it soon deteriorated quite rapidly. I lost count of the number of times the weather changed. Even the natives are quite confused as they reckon it has been more changeable than normal.
Our travelling today took us through some really beautiful country. There are so many greens that it sometimes looks like a green checkerboard. There are very few browns. The only time you see a brown is when a farmer is preparing his land. We have had all sorts of scenery from flats and coastal to some climbing through hills.
On one of our climbs through some hills we stopped at a lay by that had some beautiful views. There we found a group of four kids busking with traditional Irish instruments. See my interim blog. I think I also mentioned a castle called Dungaurie on the shores of Galway Bay in my interim blog.
Some buskers in the middle of nowhere
We drove a little down the road to a town named Lisadoonvarna and got a room at the Hydro Hotel. The origin of the hotel was as a spa at the nearby sulphur springs. We didn't have time to go to the Cliffs of Moher because we arrived at 4.30 and they close at 5.30. Wont give us enough time to have a good look around. We will have dinner in the restaurant so we don't have to go out in the rain. Hopefully it will be fine tomorrow.
I'll catch up with the rest of the blog shortly
Deb and Den
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