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Belfast.
A cleaner and more cared for city than Dublin. We stayed in Arnie's BnB near Queens University, a cute place with interesting people and showers.
Our first place to visit was the Transport Museum, Keith will talk about that, he knows what's what. The UK houses numerous Transport museums. They are generally exceptionally well done with historic vehicles restored to near pristine condition. This museum was no exception with a great range of trains, trucks, cars and motor bikes. A guided tour was given by a retired engineer who happened to be a female, this being rather unusual in this type of environment. Well worth the short visit despite the rain, wind and cold (Keith).
Friday we poked about the city and spent quite a bit of time in the Irish Museum. There is a lot of history in Northern Ireland, some similar to the UK mainland, then there is the significant difference with respect to the impact of the Vikings and Brits rather than the Romans and French. Nicole arrived by train during the pm and we found "Deans" restaurant (the only Michelin restaurant in Belfast) to have an amazing and tantalising seafood dinner. Should have had our camera with us to remember the moment. (Keith forgot the camera again. Can't he do anything right. Keith put that in! Naughty.) Robin arrived a little later and we retrieved him from a harrowing train trip from Dublin. To a harrowing experience with Arnie's shower.
Belfast City is smaller than Dublin but more affluent (not effluent).
It was when Walter arrived at last the next morning with the prearranged "Black taxi Tour", (he arrived late, getting over his hang-over we suspect) that we saw the Belfast as the Irish know it. The "Black Taxi Tour" is 8 Euro each …cheap, so do it if you come here. We saw Belfast as a city divided by religion and fear. The wall that divids Catholics and Protestants still stands testament to this. All the bloody blood shed over who's religion (more like land and power) is right. Or something like that. The wall is so high, the murals so dramatic and the gates open 6am; close 6pm automatically. There are cameras every where on the wall and gates, the people living close to "the wall" live in fear. No progress. No future. Even the Berlin Wall has been down for some 20 years now…how backward. I feel that until this "Wall" comes down nothing will change. Murals, portraits, memorials and grave stones mark the area and remind people to hate (or hopefully remind them of the waste of human life). The battle will continue. The history of the Irish is that they are a fierce nation, they will not roll over if cornered or if injustices prevail. They are as robust as their forefathers who had to withstand plague, famine, cold and battle. We wrote on the wall, too, in protest, as many do.
Moving right along we travelled north along the Atrium coast to Portrush. The coast road was a narrow, winding buggy track, oh and more hedges. Breaks in the hedge wall filled our sights with awesome cliff hugging views. The wasn't much room between us and the drop over the edge, let me tell you.
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