England and Ireland

Well, we've long since departed Edmonton for phase two of our world tour, and if you've looked at the itinerary I published in my last "blogcast" you'll know that the first part of phase two is EUROPE! So far we've done London England, and are now part way through our tour of Ireland. But I'm getting ahead of myself. As I said, we started in London - I love this city. So much to do and see like Buckingham palace (which I think doesn't look all that palatial)...

... and Cleopatra's needle (which has an interesting history)

... the HMS Belfast

I'm not sure what I think of the London Eye, but it's now a part of London's sights...

Lord Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square which commemorates the thorough routing the young British admiral Lord Horatio Nelson gave the Spanish armada so many years ago

And that's me at Buckingham palace.

Of course there's the tower bridge (which people often mistake for the old "London Bridge" which was purchased by an American who had it dismantled, moved to Arizona, and reconstructed)...

We even bought tickets and saw The Phanton Of The Opera...




We also went to Hyde park, walked the banks of the river Thames, went to the Notting Hill markets, Kensington park, etc.

And then we were off to Ireland. Starting with a few days in Dublin, which was really great. Here's a picture of a hotel / restaurant in an old area.

And no visit to Dublin is complete without a stop over at home of the Guinness brewery. Mmmm

After seeing all two of these sights in Dublin we rented a car and drove (on the "wrong" side of the road) ...

... up to Belfast in Northern Ireland. There were a few sights to take in such as the city hall ...

... a cathederal with Celtic cross...

We had a meal at a restored victorian style pub - the Crown. It was really something else. A fancy marble bar top, stained glass, ornate tile work on the floors, private booths with closing doors, and even gas lamps hanging from the ceiling. I gather that the city council purchased this pub when it was in rough shape and took the gamble of restoring it true to its former glory, and it really is something else. Take a look at the ceiling with its gas lamps...

We also went to Kelly's, Belfast's oldest pub where somebody had a bit to drink...

In Kelly's this guy heard me ordering some drinks and asked me if I was Canadian. This led to an evening of chatting and he told us he was also a visitor in Belfast, and that when our Irish tour takes us south to look him up and he'd let us stay at his flat. I guess he's moved in with his girlfriend and said he no longer uses his flat and that he's give us the keys so we can stay there. Cool!

Next day we discovered there was a live televised show of the British Opera company showing at several venues including the Queen's Univerity in Belfast. So we checked that out for a while, but got bored of it after a few acts and went to take in some real culture, so we went to see "Terminator Salvation" at the new city centre shopping mall.

Take a closer look at what the models are doing in the shop window at the mall ...

Here's a tribute to Ireland and Canada...

The next day we went to the Belfast castle. One interesting thing about the castle was that this serpentine staircase was added years later as a birthday present to the lady of the house...

The next day it was back into the car and we drove through small towns and great scenery along the coastal hiway

and stopped at the tiny town of Ballintoy. Check out the city map - it's a lot of information to take in all at once...

Walking distance from Ballintoy (so just off the map above) was a rope bridge to a small island. Not sure why it was needed to get onto the island, but a bridge was built all the same.

After we were done with Ballintoy we drove out to see the famous Giant's Causway, which is a large area of basalt stone that started its life as a cooling lava flow, and ended as large hexagonal columns rising up from the ground. There's about 40,000 of them in the area and apparantly they run through to Scotland. Legend has it that an Irish giant Finn McCool built the columns as a causeway to Scotland so he could fight the giant there. Once he arrived he saw the Scottish giant and figured he was no match, so ran back to Ireland with the Scot in pursuit. When he got home he had his wife dress him as a baby and put him to bed. When the Scottish giant arrived he went to Finn's house and Finn's wife told the Scottish giant that her husband was out but would be home later to fight. In the mean time would he like to meet their baby. When the Scottish giant saw the size of their "baby" he ran scared back to Scotland and tore up the causeway as he ran. Anyway, it was quite a site...

We carried on and drove to Londonderry (also named Derry, depending on who you talk to), and then drove back to Ballintoy, and right back to Londonderry. Amanda had fogotten her purse at the hostel so we had to go back to get it. Anyway, Londonderry was the site of the terrible "Bloody Sunday" massacre. There are several murals around the city depicting memories and events from those violent days. We took a guided walking tour from a man who was imprisoned for years as a political prisoner for his role in the IRA and he recounted first hand his memories of Bloody Sunday. Below are a few of the painted murals...

I didn't know this before, but the Cuban freedom fighter Che Guevara had an Irish mother whose last name was Lynch, so here he is known as Che Guevara Lynch. Seems freedom fighting runs in Irish blood...

In addition to a bond with Cuba, the Irish focus their attention on other struggles for peace and basic rights such as the long lasting suffering of the Palestineans...

Following Londonderry we had a long drive to Galway. Well, long by Irish standards. We have friends from Edmonton who live here in Galway - Ian and Danielle. Ian is studying medicine at the university here. Unfortunately Danielle was back in Edmonton when we were here to visit her. But Ian was a fantastic host and he showed us around the city...

That's Ian there with Amanda...

We went grocery shopping and bought ingredients to make dinner. Amanda opened this can and noticed it had a one frame scene from a cartoon...

If you can zoom in enough to read, it's a soap opera scene. I guess the idea is to get you hooked so you need to buy another can next week to see how the story continues. A pretty clever idea, actually.

Anyway, we have a few more days in Ireland before we hop on a plane and fly to Paris. We're going to meet our friends John and Arranny there. I hope others can follow their example and arrange to meet us at any destination we're travelling to.