Ireland and Northern Ireland

Despite being such a small country in comparison to Australia it still takes a surprising amount of time to get anywhere. I had intended to catch a leisurely train from Edinburgh to Holyhead via Lyme Park in Manchester but it became rapidly apparent that doing so would take nearly 11 hours so we gave up and took the mere 7 hour journey direct. Despite some bright summer days on our trip apparenlty Ireland wasn't interested and conjured up a rough sea voyage for us with no sea sickness cures on board. I spent the entire journey using Tom as a pillow trying to outsleep any nausea.

Dublin is a big city and as big cities go it's a bit much of a muchness. We did enjoy the live music in most of the pubs we went to, and some even had some irish dancing. Irish dancing is loud which automatically makes it fun to watch. We went to see Riverdance, as you do and both the informal and formal dance settings were greatly enjoyable. Unfortunately during our stay in Dublin i became sick again, so we tended to head out for short bursts and then return to our accommodation to rest. This also meant that alcoholic tours of any kind were out of the question (criminal, I know), but we did get to see a herd of wild deer in Phoenix park.

Summer poked it's head out as we traveled north to Belfast, a city you probably could not have visited 15 years ago. Today it's a pretty spot with different quarters of the city spread out a bit. We stayed in Queens quarter which is near the university and has most of the cafes. Then there is the titanic qurteer which has an enormous exhibiton about the building and subsequent sinking of the titanic. The last quarter (only three, but there you go) is near Shankill and Falls Roads. These are the two most significant districts in Belfast and the centre of The Troubles, as the 30 year Catholic/Protestant conflict is known. The old courthouse remains a bombed wreck and there are plenty of carnparks that used to be buildings. Murals are a massive part of the culture too, with the peace walls covered in tributes for both sides of the conflict. Loyalists are super patriotic about being British and Union Jack flags and bunting cover Shankill road. They have a wall dedicated to the Queen.

Belfast is pretty relaxed though and certainly feels safer than Dublin. Because we missed seeing the countryside in Ireland we made a concerted effort in Northern Ireland. We went north to the Giant's causeway following the beautiful coast road and the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge which is 90 metres high and was used one handed by salmon fisherman in the 19th century. We also visited the Mourne Mountains to the south, a ring of 12 mountains by the sea.

The ferries are much easier to catch from Dublin so we had to rearrange our schedule to arrive in time for our return ferry. On the way Summer launched from her hiding place, blasting locals and tourists with 22C, which here is hot enough for the locals to strip to a bikini and bake on the lawn (the humidity is pretty high so it does feel pretty hot).

The ferry was as easy ride this time and currently we're on the train back to London.

Edinburgh

It's great to visit a city you have been to before! We knew our way around and have already seen some principal sites like Edinburgh castle.

Our stay this time was fairly relaxed. We visited the zoo, went past the palace (closed due to the Queen being home for her annual Garden Party) climbed part of Arthur's seat and generally faffed about on buses. We visited HMY Brittania which is an interesting experience. It makes sense that a family plagued by publicity like the British Royal family would enjoy an open sea voyage where no one can find them. Bizarrely the Queen doesn't share anything with anybody, including her bed. Probably the closest i've eve been to feeling sorry for The Duke of Edinburgh... A spot of afternoon tea on the boat before running into some ex students from school on their holidys. It seems a travel requirement that you bump into at least one child from school each time you head overseas.

On our last night i forced Tom to come with me to a dinner an show at Prestonfield, a very luxurious bed and breakfast just outside Edinburgh. The show was in the stables (sounds odd i know) but we had an excellent dinner, sharing our table with some Americans and Canadians. Whiile Tom agreed to come tot he show he still fused to dance the Gay Gorden with me so I danced with a 15 year old male pereformaer who was too young to know how to lead. Lucky i already knew the dance. I don't have any photos because Tom forgot to take some while i was on the dance floor.

Edinburgh is also home to my favourite clothing retailer so my bag is pretty heavy now.

The scottish highlands.

If I've learned anything this trip, it's to wary of cheap accommodation. Especially cheap accommodation that says it's near the city centre. Advertising accommodation seems awfully similar to advertising real estate. Garden view might just mean "window at back of property". 2 person room probably doesn't mean a double bed.  We arrived in Inverness in the afternoon and began our half mile journey to the guesthouse. After interpreting the directions on our booking confirmation which included vague statements and misspelled street names we eventually found where we were going. Tom, cursing generally for not relieving himself before we set out kept the walking pace at a speedy walk and eventually we found our accommodation in a suburban street in a suburban house. Which was locked. The notice suggested that we ring their very busy owner who was in the city running another hostel in the city. We rang and after negotiating Door 1 and being questioned about the supposed staff member who had in fact not answered the doorbell when we rang, we levelled up to Door 2.

"so your details and key should be there on the wall."
"what?"
"on the wall. A key with your details should be stuck to the wall"
"uh, no. There's no keys here"

After further grumbling it was determined that this staff member was not to be trusted. We were seen through Door 2 and magically a staff member appeared who gave us a key and wandered off. As the key was labelled "2" we extrapolated that this was our room number and went searching. At the top of a shabby staircase we found the room. Which had small single beds on either wall. Ooookay.
As i sat on one bed i was promptly tipped off as the ancient spring mattress buckled under my weight. Hmmm. 

Needless to say our stay with these guys was inconveniently cut short as we had to change our travel plans.  We found a much more suitable bed and breakfast near the river and spent the next three nights there instead. 

Inverness is a funny town, it's a lot like Geelong. Not very big but cosmopolitan in its own way. We mainly used Inverness as a base to travel around the highlands, including a tour up to Orkney. Orkney has nearly no trees, which is either attributed to the wind stopping the trees, or vikings, apparently. It is home to one of the oldest neolithic settlements, in which partially underground stone huts were built over water channels, giving them flushing toilets. Nothing like modern conveniences!

Inverness is home to Loch Ness of coursee, and no Loch Ness tour would be complete without the thousands of Ness myths surrounding a loch that is so big that it's only been explored fully in the last twenty to thirty years. Theere are some fascinating stroies about what monsters may or may not live there as well as the science of how the water changes and affects sonar in weird ways. 

We also travelled to the western highlands for yet another steam train, and although Tom was reluctant initially, we managed to hire a car for the day to get down there. I particularly wanted to go on this train because of one of the viaducts that it travels over. And I'm sure you can work out why. :) 

**sorry folks, blogspot is onthe blink, can't upload photos. Google "glenfinnan viaduct" to see what the fuss is**

The Lake District

We shall call this part of the tour the holiday Elizabeth Bennett never had. According to the story, Mr Gardiner's company would not allow him enoug time off to explore the Lake country, and they had to content themselves with Derbyshire. While Derbyshire is ceertainly a very pretty county, I think Miss Bennett missed out a bit by not going to the Lake District (although she married Colin Firth, so you know, swings and roundabouts). Sweeping mountains, still clear lakes and enough sheep to invade Australia, The lake country is stunning. Even in the completely miserable weather that we had, you can see why this is just about the tourist capital of the UK.

The buses are nuts though. Cheap, but nuts. We bought some bus passes that would allow us to travel on any bus in the lake district for three days, which was pretty handy. They travelled fairly regularly and the lake district is huge, not something that you could walk through without a tent and a week's rations anyway.

We stayed in Winderemere, near the closest rail station, but most of the lake country is further north. Travelling by bus we usually were in a double-decker bus travelling down tiny laneways, playing chicken with locals and tourists in their cars. Quie often the car had to reverse up the road until it found a turnout spot and the enormous bus somehow breathed in as it squeezed past. We were regularly reminded of the Knight Bus in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  The views are worth it though, if you can stomach the journey. I wouldn't try it in a car though, unless I was armed with the bus timetable to avoid them on these tiny roads. 

Our last day Tom wanted to spend at Hadrian's wall, the ancient Roman wall that once spanned the border of England and Scotland to keep the Picts out of Roman territory. (cue the Peter Combe song) so we caught several buses to Carlisle, the northern most part of the Lake district. Carlisle is a pretty rough city, and the weather was still pretty average. We searched around for ages for the wall untill it became clear that just about none of it remains. After speaking to some guides at carlisle castle we discovered that nearly all of the wall has been destroyed, much of it to build carlisle castle. To view the last remaining parts of the wall we would have needed a car. Grumpy that we had travelled for three hours to a horrible town with no wall, we caught the bus back, then realising that each connection we caught was the last one for the evening. Lucky to say the least! 

We would have loved to have stayed longer and gone hiking, but with the weather it was rather nice to stay warm and dry.