Belfast

Ken should be writing this one! We visited the Titanic Exhibition Centre, left after about 4 hours but Ken could've stayed all day. Massive purpose built building. Made to be the height and bow shape of the Titanic. Five stories high!

We also toured the Guiness factory - seven stories high!! The interior of one of the buildings has been rebuilt into the shape of a Guiness pint glass and if it was filled, could hold 14.3 million pints!!

We toured the city on the hop on hop off bus. Part of the tour was driving up and down Shankhill and Falls roads, sites of 'The Troubles' and still very much divided.

Titanic's bow's figurehead

The Titanic Exhibition Centre Belfast

Belfast - no man's land

Guiness Storehouse, Belfast

Miscellaneous tid bits......

At the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum near Belfast we saw the De Lorean car used in the 'Back to the Future' films.

Also here we learnt that 'in 1837 the code laid down that only single men were eligible to enlist in the police'. 'Marriage was not permitted until the policeman had served at least 7 years, by which time he should be able to support a wife'.
'In order to marry, a policeman had to obtain permission from his superiors, but this could be refused if his intended wife was thought to be unsuitable after she and her family were vetted'.
Some policemen chose to resign in order to marry. From 1943 women were allowed to join the police but had to resign if they wished to marry, this bar was only lifted in 1968.

In Belfast, the Parliament building, Stormount, is built of a beautiful white stone. In WW2 they had to coat it with manure and black tar to hide it from the air (Belfast was a prime target being a main port). They are still trying to remove the last remnants. It has 5 columns, for the provinces, 7 floors for each day of the week and is 365 feet long, days of the year.

Finding a parking space or a public toilet is a problem in Ireland - and if you can find either you'll be paying for the use of it!!

But having said all that - we loved Ireland!! And our wee VW Golf went like a dream - our new favourite car!

People were all so lovely and interesting and friendly. The hostess (elderly) in the pub in Cork (Reidy's Vault Bar) where I had lasagne which cost me £11!!! (about $20), had the habit of staying the same word of phrase over and over eg 'I know, I know, I know....' 'yes, yes, yes.....' 'no, no, no....' When we got back to Rosslare we found our young host Jonathon doing the same thing - hadn't noticed it that much elsewhere.
More in Northern Ireland than elsewhere, we found people saying 'wee' a lot - 'take a wee seat and I'll bring you a wee cup of tea in a wee minute'.

So many interesting and beautiful things and people........




I have an ancestor from Cahir, Tipperary, called Mary Condon. Imagine my surprise when I came upon a sign outside a pub saying that Mary Condon was the publican (and the funeral director!) We went in and met her - and lovely, she was! Going to do a bit more research when we get home about all that family.














This is the family motto and history that
Mary had in a frame in her pub.   
                                                                    















At the cliffs of Moher. Yes, it looks a brilliant sunny day - but as you can tell by the fact that we are so well rugged up, it was bitterly cold!!










One of the things I really wanted to do in Ireland was to witness a music 'session' - and here it is, and a good one it was. In Doolin at O'Connor's pub - they do good food too!

The De Lorean car used in 'Back To The Future' films                                                   

Irish B&Bs - the good, the bad, and the ugly........

We felt a bit like 'The Hotel Inspector' every time we walked into a new B&B!
At home B&Bs are like ours - you interact with the hosts in the evening, maybe even have breakfast with them. Over there, you are shown to your room, asked what time you'd like breakfast, if you're quick you can ask where to go for dinner and what's the wifi code, and then you're left to it.
Mostly this suited us as the evenings were spent on the internet trying to find the next night's accommodation!
I think the one that came the closet to perfect was at Brosnan's in Dingle.
In Carlow we had a VERY amorous couple through the wall!
In Cork we didn't even try the shower.
Doolin we had to write our breakfast order the night before, on a sheet of pad left in the lobby.
Some places were cold (heating on a timer), lots of toilets moved! some showers worked well, some didn't. Most were on at least the second floor and some were even higher! Usually up steep narrow stairs built hundreds of years ago and not made for hauling suitcases up! Ken built up such muscles carting our suitcase up and down.
We thought the worst B&B was Shandon Bells in Cork - looked lovely on the website - haha!! But when we got to Paddy's House B&B in Dublin we now thought Shandon Bells was beautiful!!
This was really the 'bad and the ugly' !!It really is a hostel not a B&B. All you got was a bed, another wobbly loo, dirty shower..... could use the kitchen if you could work around the filth. Website said breakfast snacks, fruit, all day tea and coffee available. When I asked about the breakfast snacks I was told, 'oh yeah, someone bought some croissants one day, hahah....'
When we visited Cornwell/Devon/Somerset area for 10 days we found the B&Bs were much the same as Ireland, but nothing as bad as Paddys!!
The breakfasts were usually FABULOUS - set us up for the day and we didn't eat again until our evening meal, which was often in a pub. the pub meals were so yummy and reasonably priced on the whole.
The full Irish breakfast consisted of egg, bacon, tomato, mushroom (sometimes) white pudding, sausage, (black pudding if you wanted). the first time we were served the white pudding we had to ask what it was. It is made of pork mince, breadcrumbs, herbs and spice - sooooo delicious. In Cornwell they call it hog's pudding.

Paddy's House Belfast - not much room!




Ballintoy B&B built 1737, our room the small top window







Gabriel, mine host, at the village of Saul

Paddy's Lazy Orchard, pub & B&B at Saul

The Port Rosslare Lodge

Inishross B&B, New Ross

Abbeyvale B&B, Holycross

The shower we didn't use,
Shandon Bells, Cork. Check out their
website www.shandonbells.com
False advertising??



The view as we approached our farmhouse
B&B on Sheepshead near Bantry

Doonmacfelim B&B Doolin
Our room upstairs 2nd from left

Ennislare House Bangor, our room the upstairs bay

Churches, abbeys and ruins aplenty

Well where can I begin (or rather, end) with so many beautiful churches, big and small, all with such beauty, simple or highly decorated and intricate.
St Aidan's in Enniscorthy (had to see that one for our namesake grandson!)
Adelaide Memorial Church at Myshall, built by a grieving husband for his wife and daughter. This is a tiny replica of Salisbury Cathedral.
St Canice's in Kilkenny (church and cathedral) Music practice going on so restricted viewing
Jerpoint Abbey ruins - Jim the guide made it so interesting
Holycross Abbey with it's bronze cast Stations of the Cross
Rock of Cashel - couldn't see lots because of restoration work
St Brendan's in Loughrea (3 baptisms happening)
St Finbarr's in Cork (a funeral happening)
St Anne's (had to go there!) where you can 'play' the bells. No NZ tunes so I had to play 'Waltzing Matilda'. I suggested to the receptionist they get 'Pokarekare ana' which she duly noted. Also here the seats had a fish carved into the backs.
St Nicholas in Galway
Rosscarberry, the smallest town to have a cathedral
Carrick-on-Shannon and the tiny Costello Chapel (16 feet long and 12 feet wide) built by Edward Costello for the remains of his wife Mary Josephine who died aged 47 in 1877. He was so heartbroken that he had her body placed in the care of the local Marist Sisters until 18 months later when the chapel was dedicated and then he had her remains interred here under a thick lid of specially made glass. At the dedication service a silver chalice (specially commissioned by Edward) was used for the mass and thereafter every first Friday in the month until Edward's death in 1891.
St Patrick's Church in a village called Saul! This was the site of St Patrick's first Christian church in Ireland. It is still used every Sunday. (we stayed in a B&B here run by a man called Gabriel!!)
Long Church in Derry, outside the walls (people praying so restricted viewing)
St Columb's Cathedral, inside the walls
Fabulous Dublin Cathedral where Jonathon Swift, the author of 'Gulliver's Travels', was Dean for many years and is buried here. (Apparently 'Gulliver's Travels' was written not as a children's book but as a political satire)
Such amazing history everywhere - and Ken read most of it!!



Adelaide Memorial Church, Myshall



Floor tiles, St Aidan's, Enniscorthy

Adelaide Memorial Church, Myshall




Rock of Cashel, Cashel

St Anne's, Cork. Chair backs

St Anne's, Cork. 'Playing' the bells

Costello Chapel, Carrick-on-Shannon

St Anne's Belfast. Stainless steel spire, exterior view

Stainless steel spire interior view

St Patrick's, Saul

Jonathon Swift memorial, Dublin Cathedral

Ireland is green - so very green......

Lots of Ireland reminded us of home - the rolling hills and greenness of Southland, all made possible of course by ALL THAT RAIN!!!!
But I exaggerate - I must be Irish!!
We were very fortunate to have rain on only maybe three days, and then only a little and on two of them we were travelling so it didn't matter. The third lot we really got caught in it properly - going around the gardens at the National Horse Stud at Kildare - partly dried my legs off under a hand drier in the ladies washroom!
I even found a green letterbox!
Bur what we could never seem to get away from was the constant freezing wind. An elderly man told us it was a lazy wind - it goes through instead of around you!


Green posting box in Wexford