Belfast to Dublin

 

Photo 1: Stormont - Northern Island Parliament building
Photo 2: Belfast  - Freedom Corner showing old mural from the Troubles.
Photo 3: Trinity College, Dublin showing queue to see the Book of Kells. We saw it in Canberra.
Photo 4; Murphys make more than bubs :-). Ps: Phil has not changed his name.
Photo 5: Snowdonia in the mist.
Photo 6: High alter in Liverpool Cathedral. Note golf leaf covering everything.

On Sunday 9 June we toured the highlights of Belfast. The city has a population of about 300,000 but was larger early last century when its shipbuilding industry employed 35,000 people and was one of the biggest in the world. At the docks we saw two huge shipbuilding cranes called Samson and Goliath which were once among the biggest in the world and testify to the power of the industry that built the Titanic.

Speaking of that, we toured the Titanic Visitors Centre which was opened in March last year to celebrate 100 years since the launching of that ship. The slipway on which it was built is still there next to the Centre – it is massive. The best thing about the Centre is the innovative way in which the story of the Titanic is presented. One exhibit is a 3D virtual tour of the ship’s decks that makes you feel as though you are rising through the decks in a lift. In other exhibits still photos of the ship and shipboard life are displayed with silhouette figures walking through them to give the impression of living images.

We saw the impressive Parliament building – Stormont – and some equally impressive Victorian buildings, including the City Hall and University. But the most striking images that will remain with us were those of the murals painted in the Protestant and Catholic areas during the troubles. We were told that Belfast has made huge progress since the local Parliament was restored in 1998 with power shared between the former terrorists on both sides. The city certainly has a feeling of peace and normality about it. But in some areas the flags of the UK or Ireland fly and there are still walls and security fences separating communities in some places and, as they are rather like security blankets for many people they are being phased out very slowly – the last not expected to be taken down till about 2022. There are still old murals depicting the Ulster Defence Association and other Protestant organisations and fighters, but there are also new murals emerging celebrating peace and promoting tolerance and respect. The signs look good for the future of this place.

We travelled on to Dublin and did a city highlights tour on Monday. Dublin is an interesting mixture of old and new. Many lovely 18^th century Georgian buildings – originally homes – are still there but most are now used as offices. Older buildings, nicely renovated, are more prevalent than modern ones. This gives an impression of affluence combined with a wish to preserve the historical feel of the city.

Dublin has a number of high profile and impressive historical buildings including Christchurch Cathedral (Protestant), St Patrick’s Cathedral (Catholic – what else with that name) and Trinity College, home of the Book of Kells. On the street outside Trinity College is a statue supposedly of Molly Malone. Well, after our debut performance of the song the other night we just had to get a photo of that!

Dublin to Liverpool

On Tuesday we took an uneventful ferry ride from Dublin to Hollyhead in Wales and travelled through the Isle of Anglesey and the Snowdonia National Park in Wales to Liverpool. The weather  was wet in Dublin but merely overcast in Wales at first with mist drifting over the hills. This proved to be great weather in which to view Snowdonia as the mist added to the atmosphere created by the landscape. We drove through the Pass of Beris which was created by glacial action and were awed by the rugged slopes covered in crushed rocks and landslides left by the ancient rivers of ice.

We stopped for a break in the town of Llanfairwllgwyngllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, famous as having the longest name of any town in the world. It means “the church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio near the red cave”. The name of the town was changed many years ago as a tourism promotion initiative and it worked a treat. We have never seen a bigger tourist trap in our lives.

Liverpool has many impressive public buildings, however the most impressive by far is Liverpool Cathedral – the fifth largest cathedral in the world! It is the city’s High Church of England and we had the pleasure of listening to the choir practising. The choir includes many boys who also attend a boys’ school which is attached to the Cathedral, somewhat like the arrangement we talked about at Montserrat in Spain. The singing was beautiful so the system seems to be working. The Cathedral is Gothic in style even though it was built between 1904 and 1978. Its stained glass windows and high altar covered in gold leaf are beautiful.

We also visited the dock area which has been redeveloped on a scale and in a similar way to Melbourne’s Docklands. Old warehouses are gone and new residences and public spaces created in their place. The overall impression is one of modern affluence. However we also learned that Liverpool has one of top five British cities in terms of the number of heritage listed sites, which is evident from the many impressive Victorian buildings still in place.

Sue has been very restrained in the buying department, and we may not have to send a further 5kgs of presents home from London.  I have continued to buy, but am more discerning – light and flat are good, bulky and heavy are now banned!!!  We are also over single beds!!  All the marrieds are getting single beds, and the single people are getting huge queen and king size beds.  We think their thoughts are 1 person 1 bed, 2 people 2 beds irrespective of the size of them.  Our tour director changed rooms with a couple tonight, and we all came down to dinner and whinged loudly.  He got on to the Globus head office, and we are supposed to be getting double beds for the next few nights.  Our report at the end of the tour will mention this fact, as we are all sick of sleeping alone!!  We will wait and see…..