DAY-37: Into The North
Day – 37: Thursday, September 28, 2017
Starting Location: Donegal, Ireland
Ending Location: Portrush, Northern Ireland
Today was a sunny day for our drive into Northern Ireland. After breakfast I took some time to get a few photos of the lawn sculptures in and around the hotel.
We left Donegal and crossed into Northern Ireland but actually didn't even notice the transition.
Mike then explained that the signs would become evident as we progressed and that held to be true. Soon we were seeing Union Jack flags and other means of pushing the red, white of blue that represents the United Kingdom.
Our first stop for the day was in Derry or Londonderry if you are a royalist. Derry is a walled city though in present day the city has clearly outgrown its walls.
There are symbols and imagery of the Irish conflicts in many parts of town.
We stopped in the center of town and had an hour or so to walk around. Sheila and I walked the wall or at least half of it.
Sizes A to K, what could that mean? For one thing it's a sign that Jack happily stood before for a picture.
We met up as planned after the hour and were soon on our way to Portrush.
Portrush is just that a port and considered to be one of the prime beach resorts of Ireland. Much like U.S. resorts the seasonal population of Portrush far exceeds the resident population. Our home for the night was downtown at the Adelphi Hotel.
Again today we would have wine & cheese at Chris' place. In need of more wine we ordered up a bottle from the hotel bar, turned out to have a very appropriate name, "Road Trip" Sauvignon Blanc.
For dinner we crossed the street to TapasOcho the top rated restaurant in Portrush.
As the name suggested, we dined on tapas, too much tapas that included chorizo, tempura mushrooms, pork, chicken, mussels, pimento padron, calamari, salads, breads, etc. way more than the seven of us could eat. TapasOchos justified its standing, it was a great meal.
Our after-dinner plan was to find music. We took a recommendation and headed down to the waterfront but couldn't seem to find the music. Chris found a local and asked for help. His advice was to head down "the wee alley". Not saying why, but Chris so liked how he said "wee alley", she had him repeat it three times.
We did find music but really couldn't get close to the group. Another Irishman suggested that the Springhill would have music so we headed off to the Springhill Pub. We really didn't know how far it was but after passing our hotel some of us began to question whether we should continue our search. We went on a little further with the street getting darker and more narrow, yet continue we did. Finally with a darkened street, random people standing in the shadows and the appearance of mysterious dogs our resolve was being tested. In the end we did it, we continued on and found the Springhill Pub.
Turns out that tonight was a "Trad Night" (traditional night), how cool was that, just what we wanted. We went in and much to our surprise a jukebox was belting out the tunes, not Irish tunes, just pop music tunes. That said there was one guy with a guitar, still in its case but a guitar just the same.
To shorten the story, over the next hour musicians dribbled in all sitting around a table, they had guitars, banjos, fiddles, accordions, bodhrans (Irish drums), flutes and tin whistles and together they made great music. I think Jack counted 16 players by time we were ready to call it a night. who knows how long the music continued but it was classic folk Irish music.
Today was a sunny day for our drive into Northern Ireland. After breakfast I took some time to get a few photos of the lawn sculptures in and around the hotel.
We left Donegal and crossed into Northern Ireland but actually didn't even notice the transition.
Mike then explained that the signs would become evident as we progressed and that held to be true. Soon we were seeing Union Jack flags and other means of pushing the red, white of blue that represents the United Kingdom.
Our first stop for the day was in Derry or Londonderry if you are a royalist. Derry is a walled city though in present day the city has clearly outgrown its walls.
There are symbols and imagery of the Irish conflicts in many parts of town.
We stopped in the center of town and had an hour or so to walk around. Sheila and I walked the wall or at least half of it.
The image of a church and cannon ...
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| Highly placed logo |
Portrush is just that a port and considered to be one of the prime beach resorts of Ireland. Much like U.S. resorts the seasonal population of Portrush far exceeds the resident population. Our home for the night was downtown at the Adelphi Hotel.
Again today we would have wine & cheese at Chris' place. In need of more wine we ordered up a bottle from the hotel bar, turned out to have a very appropriate name, "Road Trip" Sauvignon Blanc.
This is a creepy sort of picture. What's Jack been drinking, that's two pictures today?
As the name suggested, we dined on tapas, too much tapas that included chorizo, tempura mushrooms, pork, chicken, mussels, pimento padron, calamari, salads, breads, etc. way more than the seven of us could eat. TapasOchos justified its standing, it was a great meal.
Our after-dinner plan was to find music. We took a recommendation and headed down to the waterfront but couldn't seem to find the music. Chris found a local and asked for help. His advice was to head down "the wee alley". Not saying why, but Chris so liked how he said "wee alley", she had him repeat it three times.
We did find music but really couldn't get close to the group. Another Irishman suggested that the Springhill would have music so we headed off to the Springhill Pub. We really didn't know how far it was but after passing our hotel some of us began to question whether we should continue our search. We went on a little further with the street getting darker and more narrow, yet continue we did. Finally with a darkened street, random people standing in the shadows and the appearance of mysterious dogs our resolve was being tested. In the end we did it, we continued on and found the Springhill Pub.
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