Onward north! Today we make our way into Northern Ireland for the first time. We paid for our meals last night in cash so that we won’t have too many euros to exchange because northern Ireland uses British pounds as currency. We’ll be in northern Ireland for a few days time visiting sites.
This morning we left our little B&B in Sligo. Before leaving the town of Sligo we drove around the town to some scenic viewpoints. I got attacked by a swan at the edge of a lake and decided that was enough of that view.
Then we started towards the north. We went out of our way to see the ocean at Mullaghmore and then again at Bishops View both along the coast on our way to Londonderry.
We got into Londonderry or just Derry, depending on which of the locals you ask, at around 1pm. We parked our car and got out to stretch our legs by walking the Derry wall. This is the only fully walled city in Ireland and it is spectacularly maintained. Half way around the wall we took a detour out to Bogtown which is part of Londonderry where the troubles took place. Those that have been around long enough couldn’t go an evening or two without hearing about northern Ireland on world news in the late 70’s and through the 80’s. We got to see all of the Bogtown Murals that were painted in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. It’s hard not to walk through this section of town humbly humming Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 in your head. It was quite amazing.
Then we got back to the wall and finished up the loop just under two hours walking. We got back in our car to head to Coleraine for the evening. Our Guest house is so large, we can see why people spend a week in this place. Our room has its own kitchen and living space with three beds total. It’s bigger than our first apartment and much nicer than our castle stay from the other night.
We had a good meal and plan on turning in soon. Tomorrow will be a packed day of more beautiful and strange landscapes. And hopefully some free whiskey tastings!