Of Irish History

We left Dublin Thursday and headed for Belfast.  As an aside, we met two couples at the Enterprise office when we were renting our car.  Kathleen recognized them - they were from Victoria.  She had sung with one of them in a church choir about 30 years ago.  What a small world!  The drive to Belfast was easy and short (about 1 1/2 hours).  Back in May for Kath's birthday I'd given her a gift certificate for "A Day in Belfast" which included the hotel, a drink at the Crown Bar, dinner and a Black Taxi Tour.  So, right after we checked into our hotel, we arranged for the tour.  Our driver Brendan picked us up at 1:30 and we were with him for 3 hours.

I never really understood how the struggles in Ireland came about.  Brendan gave us a history lesson, albeit from a Catholic Republican perspective, which helped us understand the roots of the conflict.  He told us about the Battle of the Boyne; the Protestent William and Mary of Orange (now I know why that colour is in the Irish flag); James II (the Catholic) defeated in the battle, and the plantations in 16th and 17th century when Irish lands were confiscated by the English crown and colonized with settlers from England and the Scottish Lowlands to increase the Protestant population and secure the lands for England; the tragic potato famine in the 1800s and its devastating effect on the Irish population.  Then, we learned more about the 20th century and the events that led to the rise of Sinn Fein and military presence of British soldiers and the current police corruption.  (Remember, I said this was from Brendan's perspective - although when I questioned him about some of what he told us, he said it was all well documented as truth.)  I also asked him if he changed his rhetoric if he had Brits on his tour and he said absolutely not!  So, I chose to believe what he told us.  I think we were most surprised and shocked by the Belfast peace wall - nothing about it speaks "peace" to me!  It more closely resembles the Berlin wall and some of the fences currently being put up between Hungary and Croatia!  The wall separates the neighbourhoods of Falls Road (Catholic) and Shankill (Protestant).  The homes backing onto the wall on the Catholic side have wire mesh running from their roofs to the wall to protect their windows and yards from rocks being thrown.  On the Loyalist side, we saw hundreds and hundreds of Union Jacks strung across the road leaving no doubt as to the politics of the people living there.  In both neighbourhoods, there are memorials to their martyrs.  It was chilling to see one glorifying a British soldier who had been nicknamed "Top Gun" because of the number of IRA members he had shot.  Even more chilling was finding out the gates which separate these two neighbourhoods are still locked each night from dusk until dawn.  At least the Belfast city centre is considered an "assured zone", one where these politics are put aside.  I don't have any idea how this situation can ever be resolved (thousands of people much brighter and tuned into the situation than me have tried) but it seems to me a good start would be to remove some of the symbols representing hatred.  Someone just has to make the first move.

The "peace" fence from the Republican side

 

Falls Road mural

The "peace" fence from the Shankill side

Mural honouring "Top Gun"

Later in the tour, we went to the shipyard where the Titanic had been built.  After that, we walked through the cathedral quarter where there was a huge cultural festival going on - lots of music and dancing.  Then, we walked to the famous Crown Bar on Victoria Street for the drink which was part of the birthday certificate.   While we were standing at the bar having our drinks (Kathleen is really enjoying the Irish Harp lager with lime), we met a couple from Regina.  They managed to find seats in one of the snugs and they invited us to join them.  Well, two and a half hours later, we staggered out of there to a nearby Italian restaurant - where I conveniently forgot that I was supposed to pay for dinner!  Oops!

The Titanic Visitor Centre in Belfast Dock Area

Inside the Crown Bar
(unfortunately the spectacular exterior was behind scaffolding)

The snugs in the Crown Bar - luckily we snagged one! 

While Ireland is steeped in history - much of it tragic, it is also steeped in myths and legends.  More about that in the next blog.

Alive, alive oh!

Wednesday morning we woke in Liverpool and had about 1/1/2 hours to finish sightseeing - we went to the Maritime Museum and the Slavery Museum (I forgot to mention this city is the only one in the world to have a museum dedicated to slavery).  The former focuses a lot on the Titanic and Lusitania tragedies; the latter, on human enslavement both historically and today. It is heartbreaking that it is still so prevalent in so many places around the world! I found both museums a pretty depressing way to start the day.  As is often the case when you are about to leave a place, the weather had become spectacular so we quickly rushed around to get photos that we'd taken previously on the cloudy days.

Then, it was time to start the next part of our adventure:  Ireland.  Our airport check-in and flight went smoothly except for the part when my carry-on bag was rejected and had to be examined because of all the electronic stuff I had in it.  Really?  You need a lot of cords, adaptor plugs, etc. when you are toting around two iPhones, an iPad, a Garmin, a Surface Pro 3 and a camera!  However, I guess an X-ray machine makes all those wires look suspicious.  The flight from Liverpool (John Lennon Airport - with a yellow submarine in front of it) to Dublin was short, only about 35 minutes; the taxi ride to our hotel took almost as long!  I'd stayed at the Arlington Hotel before and, while it is not luxurious, you cannot beat the location.  We'd barely settled into our rooms when we set off;  after all, it was after 4 p.m. and happy hour was approaching. 




Now I have to say, over the next 6 hours, we did a pub crawl that would make any Dubliner proud.  We walked over the Ha'penny bridge to the Temple Bar part of Dublin (emphasis on BAR) and started to explore.  Our first stop was a pub called The Temple Bar - it was packed and had live music so we stopped for "a pint", although mine more resembled a glass of wine.  The music wasn't that great so it was on to the next pub, The Auld Dubliner, where the music was better so we stopped there for longer. We stepped into two more pubs to check them out, Gogarty's and Temple Bar Quay, a designated heritage pub. It looked the same as the others to me, by the way. 

The Temple Bar Pub

 

Kath at the bar

Gogarty's

Kath at the bar at The Auld Dubliner

Next we walked to Grafton St., Dublin's famous pedestrian shopping area. Our real reason for going there though was that there was another heritage pub to see: Keogh's.  It turned out to be very crowded so we didn't linger.  On our way, we actually did go into a shop - a Claddagh jewelry store. That establishment got none of our money either although I have my eye on some earrings. We wandered back to Temple bar where we went to The Storehouse, yet another pub, for dinner and, naturally, a pint.  On our way there, we passed a statue of Molly Malone with her basket of mussels.  The two guys playing in this pub were terrific (a guitarist and a fiddler) and the food was good too.  I had lamb stew and Kath ordered mussels.  When they arrived, she was stunned by the amount of them - about 4 dozen.  That was more than had been in Molly's basket - and Kath ate them all!

 

We stopped in at our hotel pub for more music and a nightcap (Bailey's on ice) before calling it a day. After the morning's depressing topics, it was nice to end on a higher (literally and figuratively) note. Better yet, I'd walked nearly 18,000 steps!  

Merseyside

Monday morning, we left the bucolic Lake District countryside and headed for Liverpool mainly on the very busy M6 motorway.  Thank heaven for Mindy (aka our Garmin) and my mobile.  Because of them, we located the Europcar drop-off office with no problem and, somewhat amazingly, the car was returned in pristine condition, except for the mud and dirt from the rain and grit on the road.  Whew!  We had driven over 1700 miles; yes, miles not kilometers and survived with very few close calls!

View over the Ambleside rooftops from our B&B

We took a taxi into Liverpool and, while I didn't have any preconceived ideas about this city as I'd never been here before, I wasn't prepared for how fabulous it is. I know that wasn't the case back in the 1970s and 1980s but it has really cleaned up its act.  So much so that it was granted a UNESCO World Heritage distinction a few years ago.  From what I've seen so far, it is well deserved.  Monday, we got here just past noon and we really maximized our time.  After checking into the Ibis hotel on Albert Dock - perfect location, by the way - we went to Tourist Information and bought tickets for the Hop On/Hop Off bus which included a boat ticket.  After an hour on the bus (the time to do the entire circuit), we went to the ferry dock for our boat trip.  Well, I totally lost it as we boarded the ferry -  tears streaming down my face when Ferry 'Cross the Mersey by Gerry and the Pacemakers started playing.  Little did I ever imagine as a 15 year old loving the "Mersey Beat" that I would ever get here and actually be on a ferry crossing that iconic river! 

Kath and I on the "ferry 'cross the Mersey"

View toward the docks from the river

One interesting thing about Liverpool is how many achievements it has claim to and I cannot even begin to list them all here.  It has been a "first" in so many things that, during the commentary on the bus tour, I actually lost count of them.  They include:  first passenger train (running between Manchester and here), first girls' grammar school, first school for the blind.  Other achievements are:  largest Anglican cathedral in the world (and 5th in terms of churches of any denomination), longest running ferry service across a river as it has been running prior to the year 1000), the first Chinese community in the UK, the largest Chinese gate outside of mainland China, the only city in the UK which has a museum solely dedicated to the city, and so on, and so on!  Google it and you will find a lot more that I've missed!

Albert Dock

Gate to the Chinese area

The Metropolitan Cathedral

Tuesday, after walking to and visiting the Metropolitan Cathedral (the big one), we did another circuit on the bus tour.  The weather had improved and we could take better pictures.  Then, we took our 3 hour Fab Four Taxi Tour.  Phil, our driver, had obviously done his research and we learned a lot about the Beatles.  He also put so many of their songs into context.  I did not know, for example, that Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, written by Paul and John respectively, were meant to reflect their childhoods.  Paul passed Penny Lane on the bus every day on his way to school (there really is a barber shop, a fire hall, a banker on the corner like the song says) and John used to play in the grounds of Strawberry Fields, the orphanage near his home.  After the tour was done, we popped in to see the Cavern Club where the Beatles played so many times and then went across the lane to its sister establishment, a pub called the Cavern Pub, for a drink - less noisy and less crowded.  After that we walked back to the river and stopped in at 30 St. James, the building which once housed the offices of the company that owned the Titanic.  It is now a Titanic-themed hotel.  We went up to the 7th floor and had a drink overlooking the docks.  A perfect way to finish the afternoon.  Will I ever get back to Liverpool?  I have no idea but "listen, . . .  do you want to know a secret?"  . . .  I really hope I do!

The house where Paul lived - acquired by the National Trust
because of all the famous songs that were written there.

Gates to Strawberry Fields, the former orphanage near John's house

The famous Cavern Club

View of the docks from 30 St. James

Evening view of Liverpool's equivalent to the London Eye

Literary Pursuits

As I mentioned on Facebook Saturday, after the somewhat harrowing drive through Honister Pass, we decided to leave the car parked at our Ambleside B&B for a couple of days and make our way around some of the sites by public transportation.  With the Lake District crowded with hikers, walkers and cyclists, the decision was pretty much a 'no brainer'. 

Since the 1700s, the Lake District has been famous for poets and authors: among others the Lake Poets (Robert Southey, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge) as well as Beatrix Potter over a century later.  So, over the last couple of days, we have visited Dove Cottage where Wordsworth lived for a time and Hilltop in Near Sawrey, Beatrix Potter's holiday cottage. 

Saturday, from Ambleside, it was dead easy - but not inexpensive - to take the double decker open top bus to Grasmere and then walk the relatively short distance to Dove Cottage. Wordsworth lived here during his most productive years before he moved to Rydal just a bit south. Visiting the museum, we learned about Robert Southey, another of the "Lake Poets" who preceded Wordsworth as Britain's designated poet laureate.  As an aside, Wordsworth was the only laureate who wrote no official verses during his appointment.  Upon being given the distinction, he was assured he would receive the stipend without having to write anything.  Back to Southey, he apparently wrote something called "The History of Brazil", despite never having visited that country.  We also learned about the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge which soured after Coleridge's overextended visits to the Wordworth, his envy of William's fame, and William's disapproval of Samuel's overuse of opium. While we were in Grasmere, we also visited the St. Oswald Church cemetery where the Wordsworth family is buried under one of the 12 yew trees he had planted in the cemetery. 

Dove Cottage

 

The Wordsworth Family Plot at St, Oswald Church, Grasmere

Sunday, our interest in writers from this area took us in a different direction on two boats and a bus to Near Sawrey, the location of Beatrix Potter's cottage.  From Ambleside, we took a ferry to Bowness and, from there, a smaller ferry to Ferry House.  Then it was a small bus up the road through Low Saurey to Near Saurey where Hilltop is located.  The property is part of the National Trust, a society that Beatrix enthusiastically supported, as was clearly communicated in the movie, Miss Potter, starring Rene Zellewenger.  Although, unlike in Dove Cottage where photo taking was unrestricted providing you didn't use flash, here photography was forbidden.  I cannot show your the love copies of letter she had written with all sorts of drawings that were placed all around the cottage.  Also, many of her books were opened to pages where you could see locations of the drawings she had done where Peter Rabbit stood in front of a mirror or Mrs. (somebody) had dressed her children and then put one of her charges in some uncomfortable clothing.  It was like her characters all came alive.  In the early 80s, I bought a complete collection of her works.  I've promised myself to read it all when I get home.  While the tour of the cottage wasn't "directed" there were docents in each room to answer questions.  When I spotted a lovely collection of metallic painted miniatures of her characters, I had to ask where they had come from.  Apparently, a man in Vienna in the early 1900s had read the stories to his children and decided to make lead figures of the "star" of her stories.  He then asked Miss Potter if he could mass produce them.  She agreed provided she would receive royalties, all of which profits she used to buy more property to increase the area the National Trust would have.  Clever!

Hilltop - Beatrix's Cottage



A pastoral scene beside the cottage

Views from the ferry back to Ambleside

More of the scenery on Windermere

 So, back to our own literary pursuits; me writing my blog and writing in my journal and Kathleen writing in her journal as well.  I somehow sadly but realistically think there are no accolades in our future for our writings!

Very broad landscapes and very narrow roads

Thursday evening, we stayed in a guest house in Greenhead between Hexham and Penrith along Hadrian's Wall.  In fact, the guest house was built on the wall (you'd never know it), out of stone from the wall (well, doesn't all stone look the same so who knows if that is for sure either). Arriving at the B&B was tricky - there was an option of a very narrow bridge or a ford over a stream before proceeding down the single track lane to the house.  We correctly opted for the bridge.  Later, we walked the 3/4 mile into the village for dinner - made interesting because we had to negotiate stepping over two cattle grids - so much easier when you do it by car!



Holmhead Guest House

The Ford - one option

The Narrow Bridge - the other option

The sign - which we saw later but the choice was obvious!

After we checked out of the B&B, we drove to Walltown Crags where we could hike up a hill (okay, not really a hike or a hill) to where there were remains of the ancient wall.  The wall, started in 122 AD, ran east-west across the northern part of England.  It wide enough for two centurions to pass each other shoulder to shoulder and it has a fort about every five miles.  From the English side of the wall, at least here, the wall looks pretty innocuous but, because it was built along the edge of a ridge, from the perspective of the Scots on the north side, it was pretty intimidating.  The following photos will give you some idea of what it looks like for the part we saw.  The photos also show how open and expansive the countryside is here in this area of Northumberland.

Ruins of Hadrian's Wall at Walltown Crags

Views across the Northumberland Countryside

Next, we headed to Cumbria and the Lake District.  Here, I think, my sister was out "to get me"!  Because there was a forecast of rain for the weekend, she was determined to make sure we saw all of the major lakes (at least the famous ones) in one day.  That meant about five hours of driving.  Yikes!  So, we saw Ullswater, Bassenthwaite, Derwent Water, Buttermere, Thirlmere, Crummock Water, and Windermere all in one day. 

Part of yesterday's journey took us through two passes - Hartside Pass over the North Pennines toward Penrith and then Honister Pass in the north Lake District.  The views were spectacular and the driving challenging, particular through the latter.  There were plenty of warning signs about the sheep that were often on the road but there should also have been signs warning about the myriad of hikers and cyclists which you also had to dodge.  They made driving through this pass, which is often a single track, even more challenging after you factor in the oncoming cars, many of which were large Land Rovers.  However, I love a driving challenge and rose to the occasion.  We got safely to Ambleside just after 4 p.m.

Views of north Cumbria from Hartside Pass
(heading to Penrith)

Ullswater from Pooley Bridge

Views across the countryside from near Honister Pass

The road through Honister Pass - narrow and winding!

Buttermere

As it turns out, our plan for yesterday was a good idea because this morning (Saturday) when we woke, there was heavy rain, low cloud and wind - not ideal for sightseeing or picture taking.  So, Kath was right.  We saw the lakes at their best!




Wet view from my bedroom this morning - it is not as bright as it looks!

Chocolate, Derbyshire and East Yorkshire

I forgot to mention previously that, before we left Birmingham, we visited Cadbury World - yes, a themed park dedicated to chocolate!  You actually get three complimentary bars just by buying an entrance ticket which entitles you to a total chocolate experience:  learning about the history of the Cadbury family, about the discovery of chocolate, and about chocolate making.  I didn't know that John Cadbury who founded the company in the late 1700s was a Quaker or that he was ahead of his time in the management of his employees.  He introduced a reduced work week (5 1/2 days), provided housing for his workers and even established a pension fund.  However, he made sure there were no pubs around Bourneville where his factory was because of his Quaker beliefs.  It was all very interesting in spite of the hundreds and hundreds of noisy, hyperactive children wired on all their chocolate bars!  At the end of the visit - which included demonstrations, a diorama on the history of chocolate, a ride (not unlike Disney's "It's a Small World") - you were treated to, yes, more chocolate in liquid form this time with 3 toppings of your choice and then, of course, were spat out into the gift store which only encouraged you to buy more chocolate.  Which we did!

Clair, Gavin, Harriet and Esme in front of Cadbury World

 Okay, now about the last couple of days.  On Tuesday, after popping into Chesterfield to see the famous crooked spire church, we met up with our third cousin and his wife for lunch.  His grandmother, our grandfather's cousin, is our connection to this area which I have visited often.  After lunch, we visited Hardwick Hall and, although the house was closed, we strolled around the grounds.  The house was built in the 1500s by Bess (Elizabeth) of Hardwick, the Countess of Shrewsbury (hence the E and S on the top of the building).  At the time, she was the second richest woman in England; only Queen Elizabeth I was richer.

Kathleen outside St. Mary's Church with its crooked spire

Photo of Chesterfield's old pub - it was morning and thus closed

Hardwick Hall

The 'E' and 'S' for Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury

  Wednesday, we left Chesterfield and headed north into Yorkshire.  We briefly stopped in York to visit the minster and then in a nearby village to have lunch with some friends of Kathleen.  After that, we drove east to the town of Whitby on the coast.  I really like this place and this time the weather cooperated which made our visit even more special.  We sat on a balcony in the sun overlooking the harbour enjoying our drinks.  Kath kept mentioning how lovely it was to hear seagulls again - and there were plenty of them!  We didn't attempt the 119 somewhat steep steps up to the abbey ruins (connected with Dracula as Bram Stoker used Whitby as the setting for some of his gothic novel of the same name) and, instead, drove up there the next morning.

The Minster at York

The Shambles in York

Heather on the Yorkshire Moors

Happy hour on the sunny balcony at
 the Abbey Market bar in Whitby
(you aren't seeing double - the balcony was glassed)

The harbour at Whitby

The abbey ruins at Whitby

Next, it is off to Hexham, Hadrian's Wall, and the Lake District.