First Day in Northern Ireland

The Derry Travelodge wasn't the best accommodation in the world, but we weren't there long and it was cheap. Following a basic and rather plain breakfast, we set out to walk around the city for a couple of hours. We went to the Bogside, the traditional Catholic neighborhood just west of the original walled city of Derry. The Bogside was, during the civil rights struggle, known for a time as Free Derry. We went to the Free Derry museum to learn more about the oppression of the working class people, the civil rights movement, and the Bloody Sundy massacre which happened at this site. Here along the street there is a series of murals commemorating those times and other similar struggles for civil rights.

From the museum we walked up the hill to the city wall (built in the 1600s) and into the city centre. We saw the Diamond, billed as the only square roundabout in the world. I don't want to tell the locals that we have at least one in Indiana (see: Paoli). We grabbed a takeaway lunch and soon headed up the coast to Bushmills.

In Bushmills, we took a tour of Bushmills Distillery, the oldest licensed distillery in the world. The King granted its charter in 1608. Unlike at Jameson, here we toured the working distillery so it was interesting to see the bro duct being jaded and the bottling line. Today, they were actually bottling Jameson's. Jameson's doesn't have a bottling facility, so they send their whiskey to Bushmills for bottling. Of course, we got a sample at the end of the tour.

After the tour, we headed toward our B&B in Portrush, passing the remains of Dunluce Castle along the way. The sun was already beginning to set, but the site was open for another 1/2 hour so Barry and Jim took the time to exploe the ruins as dusk fell. It's a very dramatic site, to be sure. I would have enjoyed a little more time there to explore more, read some history as we walked, and hike down to the cave and the shore. Unfortunately, you can only do so much when the sun sets before 5:00.

The town of Portrush is a delightful seaside resort village. Of course, in November it's mostly closed. We found a wonderful bistro for dinner, and lots of other people were there enjoying it, too. Only later did we discover the place listed in our guidebook. We came back to our spacious room to read more about the history of Northern Ireleand and post to the blog before turning in.