Across The Pond - Northern Ireland up the coast

 July 16, 2012

As we made our way up the beautiful coast of Northern Ireland, we made a quick stop in a small fishing village to get a coffee and some fresh air.

While we were walking around this little village, Chris appeared with a local snack called Dulse that we just had to try. Dulse is an edible alga (seaweed) which grows widely along the shorelines of the North Atlantic. It has been harvested as a source of food for thousands of years, and continues to be popular in Northern Ireland, Iceland, and parts of Canada. I dove right into it as I like seaweed. This one is VERY chewy and tough and takes about 10 minutes to get soft enough to swallow. Even tough, it is pretty tasty (if you like the taste of the ocean) and the health benefits are huge.

Dulse

More of the coast as we came into Cushendall where we will have lunch.

The little village of Cushendall

We took a quick hike up to a vista point to get some exercise before we have lunch. We came upon this huge fuschia hedge about 10 ft tall and over 100 ft. long. We have never seen a fuschia so big.

Here is a great movie of the surrounding landscape in Cushendall. It's just beautiful.
(All that hard breathing from me is because we just hiked up a huge hill :o)

With all that hiking, we became really parched (thirsty in proper English) so we stepped right into this pub called Johnny Joe's for, what else, a Guinness.

The entire bar walls are covered with money from all over the world.

Here is old Abe between a 500 bill from Zaire, a 5 from Bank of Ireland (in Celtic) and a 100 from Oman.

After our Guinness, we stepped across the street to a seafood restaurant called Harry's. This place is known for it's REALLY GREAT seafood. YUM!

Bloody Mary Mussels with Garlic Dipping Bread. The most flavorful mussels we have EVER had. I'm not kidding. They were unbelievably delicious. I got the sauce recipe from the waitress :o)

 Fresh Maldon Oysters on the half shell. We had never had Malden oysters and are really, really, really, REALLY over the top delicious. Sad that we won't have them again until we come back here as they are from the British Isles. The Maldon is my next favorite oyster in the world next to the Kumamoto.

 Cesar Salad

...there was also Seafood Chowder, Grilled Goats Cheese with Burnt Red Peppers and Marmalade Glaze, etc. etc..........it was all really fabulous!

 We left Cushendall with full bellies and a happy heart and continued north, up the coast to Ballycastle.

On the edge of Ballycastle Golf Course is Bonamargy Friary and its fabulous ancient graveyard. I find graveyards fascinating and have stopped in many over the years during my travels. Here is a little history on this one:

 Bonamargy Friary is the ruin of a Franciscan friary founded by Rory McQuillan about 1500 and used until the mid seventeenth century. One of the last friaries to be built before the Reformation, it was approached by a small, two-storey gate-house. The friary church, originally roofed with thatch, is long and rectangular, and retains much of a fine east window. Against the south wall is a fine McNaughten tomb of 1630, and a low, holed cross at the western end is traditionally said to mark the grave of Julia McQuillan, a recluse nun who lived here in the 17th century. There is also a sealed vault which contains the coffins of several MacDonnell chiefs most well known locally was Sorley Boy resting in his massive coffin. In 1584, the church was burned when Irish and Scots attacked English troops quartered here, but the friars continued to use the church throughout much of the 17th century.
There is a stairwell leading to the roof but be careful not to step on the thirteenth step as this will incur a misfortune. When you reach the roof you will find an excellent view over the surrounding golf course, but be aware that only a few hundred years ago this beautiful place would have been the scene of many a vicious battle between the MacDonnells and the MacQuillans and many a courageous warrior was slain here.

There has just been a memorial day here so poppy wreaths are placed at the gravestones from The Great War.

A magnificent Celtic cross. Note the Irish harp carved just below the center.
And, look at the light!

 

Here is Chris standing at the sealed vault which contains the coffins of several MacDonnell chiefs.

 I stuck the camera lens through a crack in the door and here is what came out in the photo. Oh, the mysteries of the dark tomb!

Here is the stairwell that leads to the roof. We didn't go up there as it is said if you step on the thirteenth step you will incur a misfortune. :o)

Here is the really cool low, holed cross that marks the grave of Julia McQuillan, a recluse nun (the Black Nun) who lived here in the 17th century. Go here for an interesting tale about the Black Nun: http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/yourplaceandmine/antrim/A789285.shtml

This gravestone has an effigy with wings carving which signifies the flight of the soul.

(I did a bit of research on gravestone carvings and found a great document: Symbols On Gravestones And Their Interpretations, so I think I am getting these right).

We figured the skull and crossbones means this is the grave of a pirate. Arrrrrrgh! Actually,  it really symbolizes mortality.

 

Here is part of the Ballycastle golf club at the edge of the graveyard. We passed a number of Links courses on our journey. The Irish love their golf!

On our way further up the coast.........towards our destination in Castlerock.

Our B&B is just outside of Castlerock. Here is the view from our window. The B&B is also a horse stable where folks board their horses and ride.

The B&B

View of part of the stables from our back window

Wait until you see the beauty coming in my next post (and it is not us......).................

Across The Pond - Northern Ireland - Belfast

July 15, 2012

We are off to Northern Ireland today. This is all very exciting as neither of us has been there before.
Our little hopper flight from Gatwick to Belfast City Airport took just over an hour so we were on the ground headed for our first Guinness by 11am.

Our first view of Northern Ireland as we came into Belfast from the air. And, the sun is shining!

Our hosts - Chris and Julie Anne

Julie Anne is a colleague of Rowan's and Chris is her hubby. They live a ways up the northwest coast outside of Belfast. You will see more of that later.

A brief overview of the Troubles in Northern Ireland (thanks Wicki):
 The Troubles refers to approximately three decades of violence between elements of Northern Ireland's nationalist community (who mainly self-identified as Irish and/or Roman Catholic) and its unionist community (who mainly self-identified as British and/or Protestant). Use of the term "the Troubles" has been raised at the Northern Ireland Assembly level, as some people considered this period of conflict to have been a war. The conflict was the result of discrimination against the Nationalist/Catholic minority by the Unionist/Protestant majority and the question of Northern Ireland's status within the United Kingdom. The violence was characterized by the armed campaigns of Irish Republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups. This included the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) campaign of 1969-1997, intended to end British rule in Northern Ireland and to reunite Ireland politically and thus create a 32 county Irish Republic; and of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), formed in 1966 in response to the perceived erosion of both the British character of, and unionist domination of, Northern Ireland. The state security forces—the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)—were also involved in the violence. Between 1969 and 2001, 3,526 people were killed as a result of the Troubles.

One of the first things we saw walking down the city street was this plaque on the side of a building marking the spot were an IRA member was shot by the British army in 1972. These are found throughout the city and a constant memory of the conflict.

We made our way through the city streets to St. Georges Market. The market is in an old train station and houses many vendors selling art, goods, antiques and of course FOOD! That is the main reason we came here as it is lunch time, and of course we need to eat before we have that Guinness :o)

Here is a fantastic table of cakes that we will come back to later.

Bap (often a larger soft roll, roughly 5-6 inches in diameter). Dough can contain fats such as lard or butter to provide tenderness to dough. Can come in multiple shapes dependent on region. Baps as traditionally made in Scotland are not sweet, unlike the Irish version which may contain currants.

It didn't take us long to find our lunch. There was a Paella stand with a long line and we just knew from the smell and the line that this was the place. Paella is a traditional Spanish dish and is usually made with rabbit, chicken or duck. Here they had this whole leg of cured pig (prosciutto) that they were carving off to add to one of their enormous skillets of rice, vegetables, beans, saffron, etc. that is the heart of paella.

Here is a seafood paella. You can see the mussels around the edge and shrimp on top. The paella is cooked in this large skillet called a paellera.

It was absolutely DELICIOUS!

You can tell how good it was by the look on Rowan's face :o)

Chris and Julie Anne at the cupcake stand. We bought a dozen small cakes to snack on later.

Our next stop was Bittles Bar. The building dates to 1861 and is one of those curious triangular structures. The lounge is decorated with portraits and pictures of Ireland's most celebrated literary figures, from Wilde to Yeats, Joyce and Beckett. There are also paintings of Ireland's most controversial political figures and the period know as The Troubles when the Catholics and Protestants were killing each other in the streets.

The very cozy inside of Bittles.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh........ This is definitely the REAL THING!

Some of the paintings:

Gerry Adams (Irish Republican leader of Sinn Fein) is in the center.

Here, Oscar Wilde is behind the bar. Also Beckett, Joyce, Yeats and other literary figures.

Paintings showing important moments in the conflict know as The Troubles.

We left Bittles for a walk around the hustle bustle of Belfast City.

Here is another statue of our friend Queen Victoria.
You will find a representation of 'Vicki' in every former and current British colony in the world. This woman really gets around! A woman to be reckoned with! I mean, would you mess with her?

Julie Anne decided we needed to get in the car and take a tour of the different parts of the city.

The city is famous for its many political murals about the conflicts here. As we drove around, I made some movies of Julie Anne and Chris telling us about the history of the city.

 Some mural pictures.....

 

 

 

 

 Go here for a great video on the huge collection of political murals in Belfast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhvYMZ1e_U4

We move on up the beautiful coast of Northern Ireland in my next post.