Ireland the North 1. Belfast

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Ireland the North 1 Belfast

On the road again at 8.30 with an overcast sky, a strong westerly wind and occasional drizzle. Just past Ballygally we saw some cormorants basking on a rock, unlike some other miscreants taking an early morning dip in the bay, maybe as penance for some wrongdoing. This appeared just as crazy as the Bungee Jumpers on the Belfast Quay. The riding was pretty average for most of the way but this was because I jibbed at the steep hill out of Glynn and went around the coast via the A2. The section to Larne was good and the wind was mostly behind us. The Carrickfergus leg was more difficult as we headed into the wind but a cycleway took us away from much of the traffic, especially after the town where we stopped for coffee. Many police we present in the town due to a parade to commemorate William of Orange landing in Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690. Today is the 11th June. I just managed to see the colourful parade complete with a marching band as I rode out of town. Arriving at the AC Marriott before one gave some of us the chance to take a ‘hop on hop off’ tour bus around town. This was mainly to see the many murals scattered around town, mainly on Falls Road and Shankhill Road. I hadn’t realised how many murals there were and my camera got quite excited at the amount it was taking in. Crumlin Road Jailhouse was quite a big building and looked quite intimidating as we passed it during one of the many sudden showers. A pleasant surprise was how many murals, flags and banners commemoratingthe Queen’s Platinum Jubilee were on the streets. I can give this tour a recommendation for anyone visiting the city, especially as our guide was a bit of a comedian and folk singer complete with guitar. I wanted to see the Titanic Exhibition but ran out of time. I will visit this on my return in August.
All in all a great day.

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Photos

The Orange flag
Carrickfergus

The March
The tail end of it.