Day 9 Cranlough, Derry and LetterKenny: September 7

Up and out again by 8:00 a.m.  Off to Cranlough, Giant's Causeway and Derry before settling for the night in Letterkenny.

Our trip today took us along the coastline of Northern Ireland. The day started off very rainy and misty, clearing now and then to give us views of green patchwork fields and spectacular views of the ocean. Instead of choosing a few pictures, I've pulled some pictures from the whole trip between Belfast and Derry into one slide show. I think I either got a lot better at capturing pictures through the bus window, or, it's just too beautiful to take horribly bad pictures! I did keep a few that aren't all that great just to show the way the weather changed throughout the day.  If you can't view the video by clicking on it, try clicking here. It doesn't seem to work the way it should - first time since I started this travel blog that I wish I had used a different blog tool.

Our first rest stop was in Cranlough, a quaint little fishing village on the ocean. We had a few minutes to walk around the park, above the wall behind the boats, and buy some snacks in the local store.

Back on the bus, we headed toward Giant's Causeway.  Based on pictures I'd seen prior to our trip I expected larger columns, but, I wasn't disappointed with the views, at least not until it started raining. We didn't attempt to climb on the slippery rocks, though we might have tried if it hadn't been so wet. You'll see some of our younger traveling companions and other tourists scrambling around the rocks in the pictures. Again, if the video doesn't work, click here.

Derry, officially Londonderry, was our next stop. The name was confusing so I had to look it up. Did I mention that our bus had wireless access? It worked almost the entire time except for some of our Scottish Highlands drives. If you are interested, you can read about the name dispute here.

Derry is known as "the walled city," and we were fortunate to be taken on a walking tour that included walking along the wall. Our guide was a young woman who was very good at sharing the history of her city. It felt as though the war is not quite over in Derry, similar to how one might feel about the U.S. Civil War when traveling in the southern United States. Like Belfast, the buildings are covered with murals and it seemed as if there were more political murals here, though I think we just saw more cultural than political murals in Belfast. The mural that affected me the most was the one below of the first child killed, Annette McGavigan, in 1971 at age 14, who was caught in crossfire. Our guide shared that her father sat at her grave every day until his death a few years ago.

We left Derry to cross into the Republic of Ireland, towards our hotel in Letterkenny. Now we would be using Euros instead of Pounds Sterling. We had been warned to change our money whenever possible, but it did appear that many border town shops would accept either for payment.

Our hotel that night was the Station House, Letterkenny.  This would be what I might call uninteresting or "remote." By the time we got settled, most of the stores and shops were closed. In fact, it seems that most stores close by 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. nearly everywhere we traveled in both Ireland and Scotland. We walked across the street to the bridge over the River Swily, and up to one convenience store that was still open. We looked down one street that just seemed totally deserted. It wasn't in the country for a nice "fresh air" walk, nor was it city with things to do. Just boring.

Surprises/Cool Stuff today:

• One of the items on the breakfast menu was porridge at nearly all of our hotel restaurants. At the Europa in Belfast, next to the container of porridge, was a bottle of Irish Whiskey with a sign suggesting adding some honey and Irish Whiskey to the porridge. Of course I had to try it. I thought it was actually quite good, but, I suggested to one of my traveling companions that she try it and she did not like it at all. I guess it's not for everyone but I could certainly learn to eat my oatmeal with this "condiment."

• Brown sugar is included in the containers on the tables along with white sugar and the typical sugar substitutes. I started using brown sugar in my coffee and came to like it.

• At one point on our coastal journey we were able to view Rathlin Island. A myth about this island is that Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland fled to this island after being driven out of Scotland by King Edward I of England. It is said that the expression: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" comes from his time there, perhaps watching a spider spinning a web.  You can read this tale here.
• Derry has several "peace" memorials. 

The River Foyle Peace Bridge was opened in 2011. 

Hands across the divide - the spirit of reconciliation and hope.