Tour Day 11
We saw the village of Sligo and made a rest stop at the village of Drumcliffe and site of Yeat's grave. While there, we noted that Prince Charles and Camilla had planted a tree of peace to honor the peace accord that signaled the end of The Troubles. Pascal related a story that we Texas girls had not actually realized: the Irish give credit to President Bill Clinton for steering the tricky and complicated negotiations that led to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998, finally ending the bloody conflicts and terrorism between the IRA and Loyalists. They feel he put Ireland's peace at the top of his foreign policy agenda, and that without his influence, peace would not exist today.
We had lunch in Donegal, which is in the most remote part of Northern Ireland and home of Irish tweed.
Some of us shopped around the lovely diamond shaped town center and some of us toured Donegal Castle, over two centuries old. Those of you who know us would likely be surprised to know which one of us did each activity!
Again the the rain accompanied us to Derry, our next stop. Derry has a piece of sad history as it was the town where "Bloody Sunday" occurred in 1972. It was a key escort base during WWII for US convoys heading to Britain. Anne's grandsons were also interested to know it is where the surviving German U-boat surrendered at the conclusion of the war. Our lively and fun guide from McCrossan tours gave us a tour of his city including a walking tour of the old medieval walls. There is much more to ramble on about Derry, but we shall go into that later, in person, with wine.
We had lunch in Donegal, which is in the most remote part of Northern Ireland and home of Irish tweed.
Some of us shopped around the lovely diamond shaped town center and some of us toured Donegal Castle, over two centuries old. Those of you who know us would likely be surprised to know which one of us did each activity!
Again the the rain accompanied us to Derry, our next stop. Derry has a piece of sad history as it was the town where "Bloody Sunday" occurred in 1972. It was a key escort base during WWII for US convoys heading to Britain. Anne's grandsons were also interested to know it is where the surviving German U-boat surrendered at the conclusion of the war. Our lively and fun guide from McCrossan tours gave us a tour of his city including a walking tour of the old medieval walls. There is much more to ramble on about Derry, but we shall go into that later, in person, with wine.
Indiana Jones would have been proud!
|
The coach landed us in Portrush for our two night stay overlooking the north Atlantic, which is considered to be a genteel seaside port. Pascal, on behalf of RS Tours, treated us to a wonderful three course dinner at 55-North, a restaurant at the water's edge located, appropriately, at 55 degrees north latitude. It is entirely possible that there MIGHT have some visits to a pub before tucking ourselves in for our next day's adventure. The view of the Atlantic from our hotel window was pretty spectacular we thought.
The Antrim Coast provides spectacular scenery and has often provided sites for Game of Thrones filming. (Irish pronounce that "phil-um"instead of our American one syllable version of "film") The itinerary categorizes this action packed day as "strenuous".... and that is no exaggeration- how we rated it: #steephikes, #wornout, #worthit! The Giant's Causeway (name derives from Irish legend) is part of the rugged, craggy 20 miles of the Antrim Coast. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. We guess because there are simply not enough adjectives to describe it's breathtaking beauty and rigorous hiking. Spectacular Dunluce Castle
Not enough superlatives for these two RS tour guides! Cynthia Ballard and Paschal Fitzpatrick on our Fitzpatrick's coach. #simplythebest
|