Northern Ireland and Plymouth

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to put in some pictures of Allen's and my visit to Ballykelly in Northern Ireland to visit his family, and to see some of Ireland as well.

We took the car and went over on the ferry, which was really nice. We drove all night to Liverpool and got the day ferryover, which takes around 8 hours. But, we slept through the meal but luckily a sympathetic barperson gave me some sandwiches and a couple of danishes and tea. Very nice. If anyone has ever done it though, finding the ferry port in Liverpool is pracically impossible as there are no signs when you get close, and it isn't the simplist of cities to navigate around.

We got into Belfast nicely though and then drove to Ballykelly, where Allen's family live. They have a really nice B & B with a beautiful view. Eileen and Paul spoiled us very nicely, and I didn't want to leave. It was really nice meeting Allen's family and nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be. Ireland is such a beautiful place and the people there are so friendly. The only difficult part was trying to understand people from Derry. I like the way people in Derry cross out the London from Londonderry. it's hard to believe it's still known as Londonderry today. Allen took me for a walk around the walls of Derry, which are the oldest, most complete walls in Europe. We had a look at the bogside that has murals that tell the story of the history. I didn't have my camera with me for that unfortunately, but it was great. The rain came down at that point too, so our walk was cut a bit short.

We also went to the Giant's Causeway which is one of the natural wonders of the world. The formations in the pictures you can see are volcanic basphalt rock that are 5/6/7/8 sided (polygonal). It was very cold for me and I was almost weeping as we walked along. I love the coastlines in Ireland. I can also see why it's called the Emerald Isle.

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