May 28 on to Belfast where we should arrive about 10:30 a.m. I probably shouldn't mention this, but on the first cruise, and so far on this one, the seas have been very calm. Another day or two and we should be out of the shelter of Ireland into the North Atlantic and/or North Sea. Not that I'm wishing for bad weather, you understand, just commenting on good luck to date.
I spent a quiet morning on board then went for a driving tour of Belfast in the afternoon. We covered the sights of the city pretty thoroughly. Our first stop was Belfast Castle with its lovely gardens and picnic areas (it's now a city park but was the home of the Chichester family who more or less founded Belfast).
Then we drove through a number of neighborhoods, both rich and poor, Royalist and Republican, lovely detatched homes with gardens in one area and row houses with little greenery but walls covered with murals and graffiti in another area. 95% of children still go to all-Catholic or all-Protestant schools, but the percenntage of integrated schools is slowly growing as parents don't want their children to grow up as they themselves did during the Troubles. This photo shows the Shankill Road side of the wall that still divides the Catholic and Protestant areas. The other side is the Falls Roads area. The wall wasn't high enough, so they added to it. Now the big colorful graffiti are totally covered by handwritten notes expressing hope for peace and mutual respect signed by people from all over the world. But walls like this and murals of sometimes violent scenes of the Troubles are what the children in these working class neighborhoods have to look at every day. No wonder they are still separate.
We visited two other gardens: the ones at Stormont which is Northern Ireland's capitol building, and the Botanic Gardens at Queen's University. Our guide, Chris, is a naturalist who normally leads birding tours, so several birders among us were quite happy. Mostly I stayed on the bus and chatted with the young driver, Mark. We also saw the rather exotic-looking Titanic Museum at what was the shipyard of Harland and Wolff where it was built, but didn't go in. We saw the restored ship Nomadic which was built expressly as a tender to ferry first and second class passengers out to Titanic from Cherbourg where the Titanic was too big to go in. It served its purpose only once.
May 29 and we are at Greenock, Scotland which is located where the River Clyde exxpands to become the Firth of Clyde. A firth in Scotland is pretty much like a fjord in Norway. Greenock is the port for Scotland's largest city, Glasgow which is about 45 minutes' drive up river.
For once I was up in time to go to the dining room for breakfast. Then, as my tour wasn't until this afternoon, I wandered the ship a bit and found the spa where I intended to make an appointment for a pedicure. As it turned out, I got it right then as most people had gone ashore already. A nice young Jamaican woman named Tonya did a great job for me, and in plenty of time for me to veg out a bit before lunch.
There are tons of things to visit here from castles to cathedrals, not to mention the Scottish Wool Centre in Glasgow, but having seen three medium to large city centers in a row, I opted for an afternoon drive in the countryside up to the village of Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond is the second largest freshwater lake in Scotland behind Loch Ness which I plan to see on another tour. It was a beautiful drive out through the highlands and along a series of lochs, both salt and fresh water. I wished for a decent map to see where we were since the twisty mountain road completely confused my sense of direction for a while.
First we went through the small town of Greenock which is unusual in that its center area still has managed to support a wide range of traditional shops like a butcher, baker, news vendor, cafe, coffee shop, etc. which in most villages have succumbed to competition from big grocery stores at the outskirts of the towns. If I could walk better, I would have enjoyed "doing" its main street. Here's a photo of one I know some of my friends will enjoy.
After crossing the Firth of Clyde on a ferry, we went past Holy Loch where the US Navy based nuclear subs with Polaris missiles for many years during the Cold War. After the US Navy left, the area was cleaned up and decontaminated and the base housing was sold off to locals.
We got a little lesson in Gaelic place names. Loch = lake. Ben = mountain. Dun or dum = fort or castle. Mor = big. So when we went past Benmor, we were passing Big Mountain. Our guide tried to teach us a simple phrase or two, but anything over four letters long is not pronounced in any way that looks familiar to me. The letters could just as well be replaced by hieroglyphics and make as much sense. The children are taught Gaelic in school, but relatively few adults remain fluent in it beyond a few phrases.
Next we went along Loch Eck. While our guide commented about its remoteness and there weren't many villages, there were occasional houses, small hotels and caravan parks along the way. Past Benmor, another loch or two, and up over a pass, we eventually arrived at the seriously picturesque village of Luss on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond where we had a break for drinks, snacks and a bit of walking about. Of all the photos I took of lochs, due to trees and bushes along the roadside, this is the only one I got of Loch Lomond. Fortunately, it also shows Scottish bluebells which were in bloom everywhere on mountainsides and roadsides reminding me somewhat of the bluebonnets in Texas. We came back down out of the highlands at the lower end of Loch Lomond to the town of Dumbarton which is known for its whiskey distilleries and crossed the River Clyde on a bridge to get back to Greenock and the ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment