May 2019                itinerary link

 

Belfast (population: 280,000) was the last major stop on our week long driving tour of Ireland. We drove in from the north and parked the car at the Airbnb apartment we had rented for the night in the Queen’s Quarter area toward bottom of the map above. We walked down about 20 minutes to Crown Bar, considered to be one of the most beautiful bars in the United Kingdom, to have lunch. We were amazed as we discretely walked around the bar and the dining areas in the building. The food was surprisingly good.

The Grand Opera House was pretty much across the street from Crown Bar.

We arrived on time for the free walking tour at 2 PM that started at City Hall. The tour covered the area between City Hall and the Cathedral.

Our guide explained that all the demonstrations and civic activities happened at this corner by the City Hall. Our guide weaved the history of Northern Ireland into the tour quite nicely to give us a good background in getting to know the city and its people.

The violent conflict known simply as “the Troubles” in Ireland is constantly in art works and murals all around the city. “Nobody wants that again,” he said. He added that 40% of population in Northern Ireland nowadays are immigrants from the Republic of Ireland, and everyone is happy with the border-less arrangement. He said many foreigners think it was a religious conflict, but, it, actually, was a civil rights conflict that protested discrimination.

The tour ended back at City Hall. I never knew the Titanic was built in a shipyard in Belfast. So there’s a memorial garden in the city hall complex, and there are other reminders of this connection around the city.

As I mentioned earlier, there were constant reminders to “the Troubles” that they don’t want happening again in various forms and shapes all over the city.

We walked around the pleasant Queen’s Quarter neighborhood after returning from the tour. The presence of Queen’s University, the most prestigious university in Northern Ireland with 25,000 strong student body, explained the college town vibe. We found a nice Italian restaurant and had a satisfying dinner.

We started the next morning in the Botanic Gardens. It was right next to the university & free to walk in. Palm House, the famous glass enclosed greenhouse was not open when we got there before 9AM, but it was pleasant to walk around the “garden.”

Flowers were blooming, and the colors were just gorgeous. We sat down on a bench near the entrance to the greenhouse and enjoyed the morning sunlight.

Ulster Museum(free admission) was supposed to be a good museum to learn about the culture and history of Northern Ireland, but we were too early.

We drove 6 miles northeast out of the city to visit the Parliament Building. It was a bit unusual for an essential government building to be away from the city center, but it gave us a chance to see other parts of the city. It is often called ‘Stormont’ because it is located in the Stormont Estate. We could enter the building, but we were not free to walk around unless we joined an official guided tour at designated times. The dining room was open to the public & looked quite elegant when we looked in. The menu prices were surprisingly reasonable.

You could never guess where we went next! Over the years of traveling, I’d come to a conclusion that wearing a good pair of socks made walking easier. So I decided to invest in high quality light, sturdy, easy care hiking socks with good cushion and came across a brand called, “Bridgedale.” I was quite satisfied with a couple of pairs I purchased online, and I noticed that the company was based in the UK, specifically in Northern Ireland. So I did some online research, and there seemed to be a Bridgedale outlet store outside of Belfast. Finding the address turned out to be more challenging than the Google Map indicated. After driving through empty fields and empty roads and made turns and circled around and… somehow, we ended up at THE place where Bridgedale was being made.

This is a description hiding on their website:

We don’t just design Bridgedales… we make them. Bridgedale Outdoor Ltd is located at the tip of the Strangford Lough, Newtownards, near Belfast in Northern Ireland under the shadow of the Scrabo Tower which was built as a monument to Lord Londonderry.

The factory here has been knitting socks in Newtownards since WW1, when the first army socks were made. The strong heritage in hosiery is a feature of the Bridgedale brand and several of our team have been working in the factory for over 40 years, so you could say we know our socks!

When the first Bridgedales were launched in the early 1980’s there were 3 colours, 2 sizes and 2 lengths, just 12 products, now we have over 500 products in the range and we have factories not only in Northern Ireland but South Africa too.

We could hear the machines running inside, but all the doors were securely locked. We noticed an entrance door that had an intercom on the side wall. We pushed the button. “Yes?” “Well… We would like to buy some socks.” A long story short, a friendly lady unlocked the door, was shocked to hear we came all the way from California to buy Bridgedale socks, sat us down, told us the factory was not set up to sell new socks but she could sell us imperfects at the employees special price of 4 pounds/pair if we would like. Yes!!! While I was going to town selecting the perfect imperfect pairs for myself, an elder gentleman came into the room and said, “I am the operations manager here. Thank you so much for visiting us. May I give you a tour of the factory?” So we got a personal tour which was totally fascinating. Robots that did not look like the image of robots we had did all the work. In the end, we were able to buy only 7 pairs because it was cash only, and all we had left was 30 pounds.

This was how our short visit to Belfast ended. In May of 2019.

May 2019                                                                                                  itinerary link

 

The whole time we were in Ireland, it rained every day. Sometimes harder, sometimes ever slightly. The sun would pop out then disappear in a moment. We got used to it by the time we were driving in this area. Known as the “Causeway Coastal Drive,” this 212 Km(130 miles) route hugging the coast of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Derry is supposedly one of the most beautiful drives in the entire world. We were heading the other direction on this road toward Belfast.

Yes. Castles. There were at least several of them. The rain poured down when we arrived at this castle. We quickly looked around and ran back to the car.

Giant’s Causeway, a true natural wonder for sure. Of course the legend has it built by a giant, Finn MacCool, whose name I only had associated with an Irish bar near our house till this visit to his monumental work.

The first instinct is to take pictures of every inch of it. But, then, you realize you will never be able to capture the true essence of wonderment you feel. After a while, all the pictures would look pretty much the same any way.

When we were there in early May, we ran into more bikers than cars on the road.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge links the mainland with the tiny island of Carrick-a-Rede. The island is small, but, the name is long. We stopped there but did not want to wait in a long line to get on that bridge. It’s been there for over 250 years, thus, it should still be there when and if we return to this area.

Turned inland to find the Game of Thrones forest, Dark Hedges. There was no parking lot, and we were lucky to be able to squeeze our car in a tight spot by the entrance. Getting out of that spot as we tried to leave was even trickier with more cars and people pouring in.

The rain continued. We decided to give up on the rest of the Causeway Coastal drive & head directly to Belfast.

 

May 2019                                                                                                           itinerary link

 

Only 150,000 people live in this area of Ireland, and you can feel the low population density as you drive through it.

People of this are is proud to say their Slieve League is bigger and better than Cliffs of Moher down south. A lady we ran into on the road told us a secret to visiting this site: there is a metal divider that will prevent cars from entering this park area, but you can manually lift it and drive right in. We did just that, and there was a parking zone inside this gate.

 

 

 

Without a huge crowd, it was peaceful and meditative.

 

We had lunch in Ardara, which is supposed to be a gourmet spot, but the Google Maps app had brought us to a dead end street  & we could not figure out where the center of town was. We just ate at the first restaurant that we saw was open.

And we drove on….

After a while, Horn Head, Marlin Head, and other Heads all blended into one image of a giant rocky cliff by the wailing ocean.

We unceremoniously entered into Northern Ireland, which is part of United Kingdom. There was no sign of any kind to mark the border. We spent the night in a house north of Limavady.

Had dinner at this seaside restaurant. Very popular & not too expensive.