"We left our wee b and b yesterday morning with regret.
What a lovely home, and what amazing people. I felt like we were instantly
friends. It is not a long drive to Belfast, so on the way we made a couple of
stops on the coast. The rain has passed, for now. It is supposed to reappear
this afternoon or evening, and south western England is getting hammered.
So
taking advantage of the sunshine, we head out to the village of Glenarm, the
oldest village of the 9 Glens of Antrim. There are 9 valleys between rolling
sets of mountains that go from the coast inland, and green is an understatement! I guess the rain helps! We
have seen absolutely no irrigation equipment on this island, unlike at home.
Glenarm has a castle, where the current Viscount of Dunluce and his family
still live. The castle is not open to the public, but the walled gardens are,
and they were lovely. I have always loved the concept of a walled garden, ever
since reading stories like "The Secret Garden" and "The
Magicians Nephew". I wish my garden could be walled, especially with a
14th century stone wall overgrown with ivy, espaliered apple and fig trees, and
roses. So romantic. And it might keep some of my neighbours weed seeds out too!
 |
| Even though I changed the photo orientation, it inadvertently plopped onto the blog this way! Aaaargh! |
We spent a pleasant time wandering the garden and the castle grounds (not a
tour bus in sight!) and since the weather was holding, went back to Cushendall,
where we had been fogged in yesterday, to see Glenariff, the "Queen of the
Glens" in the sun. Absolutely gorgeous scenery, again.
A valley, dotted
with sheep, stone walls, houses, and all just as green as could be. Another one
of my favourite songs, come to life! As we drive towards Belfast, the skies are
changing, clouds and wet rolling in, and it is raining heavily as we wind our
way to the hotel. A couple of wrong turns, as we miss things with the SatNav,
and it is rush hour traffic, but we make it in one piece, and are greeted by a
lovely girl whose name is Niamh. If you are wondering how to pronounce it, it
is "Neave".
For having to pick a hotel quickly, I haven't done too
badly. It has a parking lot! Breakfast is included! The bed is comfy, and we
don't have to take the suitcases up 3 flights of stairs. We are right near the
university, and there are many students around, and lots of choices for dinner.
Find a nice place and the bartender writes us out a list of great pubs to visit
in Belfast. Not tourist ones, nice old ones.
It's raining when we leave, and
still raining when we get up in the morning. Niamh is serving breakfast, and
Hugh has boiled eggs with soda bread "toast soldiers" just like his
mom used to make!
We take the train over to the Titanic Quarter to visit the
Titanic museum and get soaked through in spite of raincoats and umbrella. At
first it is very crowded and I want out, but it turns into sort of a Disneyland
ride, and people spread out.
There are many interactive venues all about
Belfast when the ship was built, and the whole process of designing, building,
outfitting the ship, and what happened to it in the end. It was very
interesting.
Of course, we dried out while inside, and luckily the sun was out
when we got out, about 21/2 hours later. The downtown core of the city is very
small, and we were able to walk and find a couple of the bars our guy from last
night had told us about.
We came upon McHugh's, circa 1711, and Kelly's
Cellars, circa 1720. We also stop in to Maddens Bar, no date on it, but wee,
and cosy, and full of people with nothing to do but drink. I have to wonder
about the alcohol and cigarette consumption in this country. It must be record
breaking.
A 30 minute walk back to the hotel is easy with the help of google
maps on my phone, and we find Italian for dinner. Tomorrow is our last day.
We
are heading to Rathfriland, a small village in County Down, between here and
Dublin. It is the city sister to Armstrong, near Vernon, and we will be
visiting a good friend of Chris Pieper's, the mayor of Armstrong. Andy has
volunteered to show us around a bit of his lovely part of the country.
We just
have to get out of the city first. Wish us luck!"
Apart from the screwy--and unrepairable--photo orientations, what a lovely travel blog Kathy has written! Thanks, Kathy.
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