Belfast to Dublin: Thursday 21 July

David and I had a shocking night's sleep due to a group of seagulls making a racket all night, roughly every 45 minutes, on the roof just outside our window. You wouldn't have experienced anything like it, but several people on the tour have commented on how much bigger and more vicious the seagulls in the UK seem to be. Others on our tour have had similar issues with seagull noise at other hotels during our stay.

We left Belfast and Northern Ireland for a relatively short drive through to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. As I've noticed everywhere in the UK, the countryside was very green and picturesque. On the way, Michelle gave us a brief outline of the make-up of Ireland, and the history of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

We saw a few sights on the way into Dublin, and then were dropped off for an hour and a half in the central city to find some lunch. We found a good place for sandwiches (including GF for me) at KC Peaches Cafe and Delicatessen. We had a short look around the very crowded footpaths, and bought a book for Michelle K at a local bookshop. Then it was back to the bus for a more extensive tour of the city.

We saw Oscar Wilde's family home, and his 'laid back' statue in Merrion Square. There were a lot of Georgian homes and other buildings in the area, many with different coloured doors to make them stand out. We were shown the liberties area, outside the old city walls; and heard that there is a south side (more wealthy) and a north side of the city, with the Liffey River (75 miles long) as a divider.

We drove past St Patrick's Cathedral (Jonathan Swift is buried there) and Christ Church Cathedral (the gothic oldest cathedral). We were driven through the expansive Phoenix Park, the largest enclosed park in Europe, and once used for hunting, especially for deer. We saw an obelisk made from melted French canons from the Battle of Trafalgar and saw where the Irish American Ambassador lives. We stopped at the Pope's Cross (where Pope John Paul II had visited). Other places we passed included the Irish President's home, Dublin Zoo, Police headquarters and a polo ground - all very diverse places!

Finally, we were taken to the Guinness Brewery for a guided tour. It was a very impressive place and even I enjoyed the visit! I got a photo and video of David pouring a pint of Guinness, and he got to enjoy my free drink as well. He really enjoyed the fresh Guinness, way more than what he's tried at home in the past, but it has to be served at just the right temperature and poured correctly. There were great views over Dublin from the top of the building, but it was awfully crowded. We were interested to hear that the founder, Arthur Guinness had originally signed a 9000 year lease on the property, at a cost of 45 pounds per year! He and his wife also had 21 children!

Next stop was our hotel, the Trinity City Hotel across the road from Trinity College, (the College being founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I and originally only for Protestant males). Women were admitted in 1903, and Catholics were only formally allowed in by the Catholic Church in the 1970s.

We had one hour to settle into our hotel (having showers and doing laundry by hand) before heading out for the optional evening, an Irish Cabaret and dinner up in the hills overlooking Dublin, at Taylor's Three Rock - a huge pub venue with a thatched roof. We enjoyed an evening of traditional Irish song, dance and humour, and a nice dinner (good overall GF for me, including absolutely lovely GF bread with my soup, but back to the same old fruit salad for dessert - and my promised and anticipated Irish Coffee without the Whiskey never arrived...). I particularly enjoyed the female singer and her beautiful voice - just glorious. The show ended at 10pm and our group made the fastest getaway of all the bus groups there - all of us keen to get to our hotel for a good night's sleep.

Glasgow to Belfast: Wednesday 20 July

Everyone had a hot night last night (not in the sense some of you might think...) because we'd been warned that the air-conditioning in Scottish hotels is more used to heating up than cooling down! It was still 26C at 9pm last night.

We had a two hour drive down the west coast of Scotland (passing through the small town of Alloway, birthplace of Robbie Burns), to the port of Cairnryan to sail across the Irish Sea to Belfast (a two and a quarter hour sailing). The forecast was for torrential rain and thunderstorms... with that in mind, David and I had a couple of Sea Legs tablets each...

However, the rain cleared to mist and we enjoyed a very smooth sailing, free internet, comfortable seating at a table in the cafe, and the ability to charge my iPad. Lunch for me was an Indian curry with brown rice (very nice, and one of the three GF hot dishes especially listed separately on the menu). David's read his book on his iPad. I add that an hour or two later, I realised I'd been glutened, I think perhaps by the coffee I'd had from a machine rather than a barista.

We drove into Belfast and picked up our local host - Hilda - who showed us the important sights in Belfast and something of the history behind them. We saw the parliamentary building, the housing, street art, schools, suburbs, ship building area, and more. It started drizzling again and it was hard to get photos.

Next, we were dropped at the relatively new Titanic exhibition for one and three quarter hours - the displays and interactive features were very well done. They are held in a stunning building designed to represent the Titanic and its two sister ships, with the sea or ice represented in the cladding of the building.

 

Then it was over to the hotel, finding our rooms, and out again for dinner (nothing organised this time). While we'd been in the Titanic exhibition, our Tour Director, Michelle, had googled to find somewhere nearby that might cater well for GF diets - how kind was that?!

We arranged to meet another couple (Murray and Lorraine from Lismore NSW) and crossed the road to a very old pub (The Crown) for a drink. It was an interesting place, very busy, but we managed to get into one of the cubicles for a seat. We were joined by another Australian couple who were driving themselves around the UK for seven weeks - their stories of driving around some of the narrow roads were very interesting/hair-raising and not something we would want to do. 

Then we headed to Michelle's recommended restaurant - Home Restaurant, in Wellington Place. They had an extensive GF menu and we all thoroughly enjoyed our meals.

We were finding ourselves exhausted each evening. Everyone was finding that sitting in a bus could be surprisingly exhausting!