Days 7 - 11 - Portrush and Londonderry

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Day 7 - Portrush



We caught a train at 12:14 today from nearby Botanic station to Portrush. Just 11.50 GBP each for the slightly under 2 hour ride to a beautiful seaside holiday town. Kenny and Sara's house was just a short walk from the station and is a lovely 3 bedroom ocean-view home right by the beach in Portrush that they generously offered to us for a few days.

We spent the afternoon walking around the west strand bay into the business core of Portrush and stopped at The Hidden Cove for coffee, tea and great desserts then later had a great and inexpensive supper at Jackman and Pye. Fish and Chips, Vegetarian Paella and the Mussels were all wonderful, mixed reviews of various salads, and I really enjoyed Profiteroles for dessert but varied opinions of the rhubarb and apple crumble. If you order between 5:00 and 6:45 you only pay for your main course (10 to 15 GBP) and you get your first course and dessert for free.

We picked up some supplies from the little grocery store after supper and returned "home" for laundry, tea and to plan our exploring for the next day.

Day 8 -Portrush

Woke up to a cloudy, drizzly day but that didn't stop us from setting off for a day of hiking around the area. Beautiful scenery everywhere and lots of cute cottages and condos for sale or rent at what appears to be pretty reasonable prices.

We had fish and chips at The Hidden Cove which was just "okay" then Chris and I headed out along the East Strand beach while Garth and Sue walked through the town.

This is a GREAT walking beach with beautiful rock formations, sea stacks, caves, etc. all along the coast with a wide, sandy beach for about three miles, almost all the way out to Dunluce Castle.

The day got sunnier as we got back to the house and I had a Bulmers Pear Cider and an afternoon nap! 😊. Chris cooked a great pasta supper and used some nice pesto that Garth bought yesterday and we drank a bottle of Lindeman's Bin 50 Shiraz. We all played the Ellen Degeneres game Heads Up after that using Chris' iPad; this is a Hilarious game!

Day 9 - Portrush

Kind of a cool, blustery day with a little drizzle off and on today but still warm enough that we were able to enjoy a full day of sightseeing.

We started out catching the "Rambler" bus at 10:25AM near the Portrush train station and bought £6 all day tickets so we could hop on and hop off. A 30 minute ride brought us to the Giant's Causeway, a UNESCO world heritage site. You can pay £8.50 for an audio guide and tour or go thru everything for free which was what we chose to do. A 10 minute walk down a steep sidewalk brought us to the sea edge and the amazing rock formations. Nobody knows for sure how this was formed but it's certainly an incredible site. We wandered around, climbing on the rocks while the wind blew at probably 50 km making our footing on the wet rocks a little shaky but luckily, no injuries.

We caught the Rambler again for the short trip to the Bushmills Distillery. £8 each got us a 40 minute tour and a shot of whiskey at the end. We each chose a different one so that we could taste four. They were nice but Garth and I decided we still prefer the peaty, smoky flavour of Scotch.

We caught the Rambler again for the short 7 minute ride to the ruins of Dunluce Castle. A £5 entry fee allowed access so we could tour the castle and grounds. A very interesting, violent and historically important castle and a spectacular location. We really weren't too sure if we should bother seeing this but it was well worth it.

We had a bit of time to kill before the bus came by so we had tea at the "Wee Cottage" next to the castle parking lot which helped warm us up a bit.

The 8 minute ride home got us back into Portrush just before 5PM and we spent a little time buying some veggies and wine before walking home. Chris cooked up a great pasta and veggie mix and salad and we sat around the rest of the evening looking at our photos and planning our trip to Derry tomorrow.

Day 10 - Londonderry

VERY interesting day! Garth and I walked down to the Portrush train station and bought us all tickets @ £11.50 each to Derry (if you're Catholic) or call it Londonderry (if you're Protestant). We hopped onto the train at Dun Varren station right around the corner from our wonderful Portrush holiday home. Boy was that place great! We will miss it and Chris and I are already talking about how we could rent a place for a month there next year or the year after.

Anyway, it was a nice train ride to Coleraine for 20 minutes. 30 minute wait there so crossed over the track into the station to buy a Latte and wait for our train to Derry (or so we thought). A HUUUGE crowd of people crushed into the train when it arrived including a bunch of young "Loyalists" partially drunk and carrying a variety of booze and flags and drinking heavily. Well there were no seats so we stood in amongst them while they sang songs, waved flags and got us drinking with them. Turns out we were on our way to a HUUUUUGE Protestant celebration in Londonderry (Do NOT ever, ever, ever call it Derry in the presence of a Loyalist!). So what with a little violence and injured police officers in Belfast the night before with the Loyalists marching, we weren't too sure what we might expect here as these kids were pretty rowdy and drunk but actually it was all good fun and I got my photo taken with them in front of their flags and had a few drinks from one of their bottles and had to hide it from the conductor!

So we arrive in Londonderry and ask a railway station guy where we can get a taxi and he says "nowhere around here!" then he directs us up a STEEP long hill and says we can find taxis up on the next street above there. BUT, we walk straight into the 324th annual celebration of the Relief of Derry and the 13 Apprentice Boys closing the doors to the town. So they celebrate this by drinking a LOT and then 145 pipe and drum bands, ALL PLAYING THE SAME SONG, march through Londonderry one after the other and this takes three hours! We know this as we were sort of trapped there on the street with all of our luggage. We sure stuck out like a sore thumb but of course I was shooting pictures like crazy for an hour or so until I notice that I was the ONLY person anywhere taking photos! VERY different from any parade I had ever been to before but what the heck, I kept taking photos. But I have to tell you, after 40 or 50 pipe and drum bands ALL playing the same song, they all start to look sort of the same too. So we stood in front of a closed up taxi office, originally hoping they were in business, to watch the parade. The door was gone so we had a little stall sort of to drag our bags into and get out of the rain, or hide from trouble if there was any. Cops were everywhere and lots of heavily armoured police vehicles. At one point a bunch of cops started running down the sidewalk towards who knows what was going on and all the guys in the marching bands started yelling at them and jeering them but it stopped at that.

So three hours later the last pipe and drum band goes by and we see a taxi coming around the corner so I go running towards it but it drives by and Sue stops it and he agrees to drop off his passenger and come back to get us in 5 minutes, and, HE DOES! He was THRILLED to be driving us away from downtown to our hotel because he was worried about the crowds and potential violence and did not want to be in town. So we had an interesting Loyalist adventure and we headed a little way out of town to the BEAUTIFUL and secluded Beechhill Country House Hotel built in 1729 and turned into a B&B hotel in 1991. (Thanks for this recommendation Patrick!) In 1942 the US Marines occupied Beechhill until August 1944. The beautiful wooded acres surrounding it are full of walking trails and ponds. This is a multiple award winning hotel and food services and we loved everything about it. Dinner was only £29.95 for three courses and was all top quality for presentation, service and quality. We had a great dinner Saturday night then breakfast the next morning (included in our £125 rate) and high tea at 1pm on Sunday before we caught a taxi for the Derry airport.

Our Ryanair flight was short and uneventful into London Standsted airport. We had booked and prepaid Great Britain Car service for about £67 to pick us up and drop us off at Stef and Leanne's place in East London on Beck Road. We collected the keys from their neighbour and headed off to a local market for some supplies. Some snacks, drinks, and catching up on this blog filled the evening to end this day. They have a beautiful home here with a great little backyard garden and apparently two cats although Ed is the only one we've seen so far. Maybe Miss Kika will show up tomorrow.

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Comments

[Patrick & Victoria Campbell]

Cultural experience!!
Delighted to see you enjoyed your time on the North Coast! I can't believe you ended up on a train drinking with Loyalist marchers - you certainly sampled some of the local culture!! Great photos of the beaches and culinary delights at the Beechill. Come back soon!