One Night In Derry

Our overnight trip to Derry did not begin well, due to the uniquely confusing setup at Lanyon Place Station. We managed to miss the 10am train and had to wait an hour for the next one. Annoying, but possibly meant we missed the morning rain in Derry.

The trip to Derry is about 2 hours and as we got closer the sun came out and we hit the coastal section of the route. Lovely!

There was even a stretch of beach that looked remarkably like home.

We arrived at Derry station a bit after 2 and the station was a pleasant surprise. Very modern, clean and bright.

The station is on the opposite side of the river to the centre of town so we walked across the Peace Bridge.

We’d booked an Airbnb property but only brought a small backpack each so we were fine to carry our things with us for a few hours.

On a day like this it was a nice way to enter the city, although it was still spitting a bit… but also sunny. So Irish!

There was a nice-looking walkway along the river but we headed into the city.

Not many people around, which is always nice.

We headed into the ground floor of the building below. I was interested in the stained glass. I read later that the windows tell the story of Derry through the centuries.

There was an exhibition on the history of Derry, which I can poorly but fairly accurately summarise as: English people arrive and ruin everything and the fighting goes on forever. Luke and I talked about this a lot, not just what happened but what could’ve been done differently, what might have happened if the English had never come. Ireland is so small that it might’ve been invaded by Spain or Portugal, or how different it would be if it had been left to itself. Is there even such a thing, in history, as a nation being left to itself?

I didn’t realise the English came to completely drive out the locals in the 1600s to set up plantations, much like those in the US and the Caribbean, although I think this happened first.

Next we visited the tourist information centre and picked up a map. They had a lot of Derry Girls merch and some interactive exhibits.

The craft village was recommended to visit, it’s a series of little craft shops that sell very typical Irish stuff, some more modern things and several hairdressers. Not the highlight of our visit but it might appeal to some.

The centre of Derry is surrounded by defensive walls, the mostly recently constructed in the UK and Ireland. They’re in excellent condition and the wall around is about a mile and offers an excellent view of the inside and outside parts of the city.

The wall walk was also surprisingly wide and the surface seemed quite new. There were sets of stairs along the way but it wasn’t a hard walk.

If I had more time I’d have looked for a walk to do in the hills around the city.

This area, Bogside, was where Bloody Sunday occurred. More on that later.

If you don’t immediately recognise these faces you need to watch Derry Girls immediately. Go do it now, I’ll wait.

After all the walking in the sun there was only one thing to do.

We stopped in at Peaddar O’Donnall’s for a drink and to listen to the old men at the end of the bar talk about what a good movie The Mighty Ducks was.

I had to photograph the place below. We didn’t eat there but I enjoyed their scattergun approach to punctuation.

Another photo of Northern Irish library architecture. It looks like a very defensible structure.

Before heading to the Airbnb we walked to the Free Derry area to have a look at the murals.

The old style, then the new below.

Our Airbnb was back over the peace bridge in the newer part of town.

After going through this door we had to let ourselves out the back door into a grim alley then down to a little apartment that was sparse but felt pretty new and was clean.

Plus they left us bread, butter and everything for tea and coffee so we were set. Back to the pub.

There were a bunch of pubs in a row so of course we went back to the same one we were at before. We had an hour to kill before dinner at Mekong, Derry’s top rated restaurant.

An unprepossessing exterior but the food was unreal. We ordered a range of smaller plates to share.

Vermicelli spring rolls, beef laarb balls, spicy sticky chicken wings, pork belly and glass noodle salad

The flavours were amazingly fresh and rich, with each dish having a unique taste but all tasting very Vietnamese. It was really hard to pick a favourite.

Dessert was a mandarin crème brûlée with ginger biscuit, which we used to dip in the brûlée and then crumbled over the top. I had a very sad moment at the end when I realised I’d probably never eat here again. We both agreed it was one of the top five meals we’d had on this trip.

In the morning we started with a morning walk through St Columb’s park. It was a nice big green space with just one creepy statue.

There were Columb-related statues and other things to look at in the park.

After a walk through town we went to the Free Derry Museum. Before entering I knew very little about Bloody Sunday but the museum was extremely informative and had artifacts from the day, footage and recordings.

If you go take a box of tissues, it’s tragic on so many levels and really makes you sympathise with the people of Derry.

On our way to the station we bought some fancy biscuits from this very instagramable shop then forgot to eat them.

We saw some fancy cars on the way.

Back over the Peace Bridge and to the station.

On the way home we got off the train at Castlerock, a little seaside town. We had a slightly underwhelming lunch at a local bar but the staff were very friendly.

Not as friendly as local character Ronnie, who wandered over as we finished eating and told us about basking sharks, how he had dropped his cornflakes on the floor that morning, and swimming in Greece. Having an extremely thick accent meant he was quite hard to understand but we concentrated very hard and seemed to make all the right noises.

We had a nice walk along the beach in the warm, windy weather and stopped to take a few photos before heading back to the station.

The trip back to Belfast was largely uneventful apart from the train running a bit late.

The weekend just gone has been very busy so this has been my most delayed post of the trip! We’ve done a few things over the weekend so I’ll to to finish everything off before leaving London. Only a couple of sleeps until we are home!

17Jun2023

Innsbruck to Hallstatt… I Mean Salzburg!

by Miss Penny Black

We got up at 6am and snuck into the hotel dining room to steal a couple of tiny cakes each from the closed breakfast room. On weekdays it opened at 6:30am but on weekends it didn’t open until later – not much good when we had a train to catch at 7:13am.

We caught a taxi to the station and boarded with time to spare. The view from the train was lovely – trees, mountains and the occasional castle or village.

Along the way the conductor came along to check the tickets. He paused at Luke’s e-ticket and said ‘it’s for tomorrow’.

He didn’t seem terribly bothered by it but we were very confused. When Luke checked, it turns out we’d somehow skipped over a day when booking accomodation. Since we couldn’t check in to Hallstatt until tomorrow and our train tickets were technically invalid, we decided to get off at Salzburg and spend the night there. Fortunately Luke found a lovely hotel right by the station, the Cocoon.

The exterior wasn’t super exciting, I’ll admit.

We dropped our bags off at 10am and then went for a walk towards the old town.

We walked through the Mirabel Gardens on the way.

A bunch of people on a tour skipped around the edge of this fountain, if anyone knows why please leave a comment… is it a sound of music thing?

Luke had looked up a good spot for coffee and we stopped at Kaffee Alchemie, where I had what was definitely the best coffee of the trip so far. I’m not a coffee snob but in my humble estimation this was just perfect.

While we sat and ate our absolutely delicious apricot and cream cheese danishes we watched athletes outside line up outside for the bus that would take them to their race. The schadenfreude was strong!

Meanwhile…

So good!

After we had not one but two cappuccinos and enthused effusively at the proprietor about the quality of his coffee, we headed out into the old town.

Lots of lovely flowers out.

I bought a few postcards then we headed for the funicular.

It looks crowded but we got straight on. I think the worst of the summer crowds don’t start until July.

The funicular ride was short but swift and took us up to the castle. Fortifications on the site had existed since Roman times, over 1600 years ago.

Of course, it had been expanded significantly over the many centuries, mostly during the medieval period.

A model of Salzburg, which profited from the salt trade for centuries.

The castle was often the home of leaders of the Catholic Church.

There were displays of armour and military uniforms spanning many centuries.

I found the more modern displays, the ones on WW1, very interesting. I hadn’t really thought about how that war would be portrayed from an Austrian standpoint. It made me more interested to learn about what started WW1 (I knew about the assassination of ADFF but not why it was done) so when we got back to the hotel we watched some YouTube videos about it.

After wandering through all the displays we headed back down the hill. After nachos for lunch yesterday we decided on more Mexican today.

Despite the name, the Burrito Factory was excellent.

While we sat and ate we listened to two students next to us discussing their travels. One said she had been travelling with three large suitcases and two cartons of belongings that included a rice cooker and hairdryer and the girl she was sitting with paused and then said ‘Wow, I wouldn’t be so … brave to try to travel with so much stuff,’ and I nearly laughed out loud.

The race people had been heading to finished in the middle of the old town and we walked past as a few people finished.

The previous evening Jane and I had been talking about the fact that it is (or was) a controversial thing to give children participation awards and trophies and how it doesn’t really help build resilience, but I noticed all the adults doing the races today were getting quite a large shiny medal to wear😂.

The crowds were really out in the early afternoon and the touristy part of the city was packed.

We went back to the hotel to have a rest and I watched some WW1 videos on YouTube.

The river was a popular place but the shore looked very rocky.

The evening mainly consisted of a walk around the local area and some drinks in the hotel bar. We had a pizza at a pretty basic local tavern by the station and had hoped to visit a jazz club near the hotel but nothing was happening when we walked by.

Oh, there was also a 24 hour vending machine place with a vast range of things available, including bowls of salad, alcoholic drinks, smoking paraphernalia and cans of chilli.

If you’re ever looking for accommodation in Salzburg I can highly recommend the Cocoon. The rooms had aircon (a rare thing in our price bracket!) good pillows, mattresses, friendly staff and for almost the first time since we arrive in St Moritz no cleaner tried to get into our room before 9am. I don’t know if we’ve been unlucky, but Jane said the same had happened to them, with the cleaner at one place coming straight in and starting to clean the room while they packed! None of us had ever overstayed our checkout time… it was bizarre.

Our room had a hanging seat but it was facing the wall, which was a bit weird.

Breakfast the next morning was great too, bacon, sausages and three kinds of eggs.

Next stop: Hallstatt.

5Jun2023

London: War Rooms and the Mithraeum

by Miss Penny Black

On the advice of a large number of people, we bought tickets to the War Rooms, the tiny rooms and and tunnels that Winston Churchill and the British government used as their operations headquarters in WW2.

After a breakfast at home we caught the tube to Embankment and then walked via St James Park.

The War Rooms were very interesting, even for someone like me, who will actively avoid war-related things. We got audio guides and then walked through the narrow and dim corridors, peaking into rooms and trying to imagine what the space would be like when full of tobacco smoke and people rushing around.

In between the historical sections is a large room with lots of detail about Winston Churchill’s life. When buying tickets they said to allow 2.5 hours, but if you really wanted to see and read everything I’d say 3 hours minimum. Unfortunately, in the past I’ve found those sort of estimates usually overdo it and I’d booked a table at 1pm at a nearby pub. Lea and Pete had to rush a bit, which I felt bad about, but it’s hard to predict these things.

It was quite dark the whole way through.

Winston Churchill, a man after my own heart, had noiseless typewriters installed.

We had lunch at the Blue Boar, a pub not far from the War Rooms. It had recently been voted the best pub in London but, being in an office area, was quiet on Sunday.

I left before everyone had finished eating as I was going to meet a friend and everyone else was going to see The Play That Goes Wrong. Luke and I saw it on our last trip but he wanted to see it again.

Luke and I had met Patrick on our Haggis bus tour last time we were here and added him on Facebook. He’d offered to come meet up in London as he only lived an hour away so we arranged to meet at The Crosse Keys.

The Cross Keys is one of the Wetherspoons chain of pubs, which are somewhat notorious for being downmarket but this one was in an old bank building and quite grand.

Patrick hadn’t changed a bit and we had a good catch up about all our travels then headed to the London Mithraeum, which was just around the corner.

Patrick had said he’d wanted to see it so I invited myself along. It’s a Roman Temple that was unearthed by developers and remained a mystery until the last day of the excavation when the head of a statue of Mithras, a Roman god, was unearthed on the site. Not much is known of the cult except that it was male-only (I have no idea how they know this) and there would have been a statue of the god slaying or wrestling a bull at the alter.

The exhibition was in the original location, under an office building. Before going down to the site we looked at an installation of urns, all suspended from the ceiling by rope and fitted with microphones. As we walked around them the microphones picked up the vibration of the urns and each one had a different note. Two of the urns were from Roman times.

Downstairs, the temple was in a dark room. Once a group was in they lowered the lights and played sounds of people speaking Latin and the atmosphere became a bit smoky. There was an outline of the god statue and it was all very evocative. Apparently the cult lasted around 400 years.

Next we walked to Postman’s Park via St Paul’s Cathedral and the ruined church park.

The park has a very sad memorial to everyday heroes who died trying to save someone – a mosaic wall with names and short descriptions of what they died doing. For example, people who died trying to save someone who was drowning.

After that we said goodbye and I caught the tube back to the flat, where Luke, Lea and Pete had just returned. They enjoyed the play a lot and reminded me of many of the funny scenes I’d forgotten.

We all had a rest before finally heading to Dishoom for dinner.

We arrived at almost 10pm and, unsurprisingly, were seated straight away. We shared some rather spicy curries, cheese and chilli toast, broccoli salad and naan. It was at the high end of our spice tolerance but we all coped and no doubt it made us stronger.

We walked home, glad Friday and Saturday nights were past and our noisy neighbourhood would be a little quieter.

2May2023

Camino Ingles Day 3: Betanzos to Beche

by Miss Penny Black

I awoke this morning with some trepidation. I had woken up a few times during the night and in the morning my feet were a bit swollen. I rarely get blisters and my shoes were very well worn in so I don’t know why I had developed so many. On the plus side, they weren’t hurting much and I had plenty of plasters.

I spent quite a while stretching and then putting plasters on the tender parts of my feet. Everything seemed to be mostly ok.

After a breakfast of crushed tomatoes and olive oil on toast (just for something different) we sorted out our belongings then set off.

The Camino Ingles has two possible starting points that eventually join – like a ‘Y’ shape. We had started on the right fork of the route but, due to a lack of accommodation on that path, were planning on crossing early from one side to the other, before the two parts officially joined.

The route out of Betanzos was uphill for a couple of kilometres. I had contemplated catching a taxi to the top because of my hip pain but the stretching and sleep has possibly made a difference because up to the halfway point everything seemed to be ok.

The countryside was still very green and the undulations made it very scenic. I haven’t mentioned it before but from arriving in Ferrol we continually heard very loud booming sporadically during the day. It was still audible close to Betanzos so if anyone knows what it might be please comment!

Another feature of the walk has been these raised boxes/sheds. What are they for? I thought they might be pigeon cotes but some have crosses on them so I’m not sure.

We saw only a few other pairs and groups of people in the morning but stopped for lunch at a roadside bar.

We sat outside and had drinks then a family-looking group turned up, pulled out a guitar and started playing to the tables of people outside.

Danny was particularly loving the situation – in Ireland casual musical performances are very common and this part of Spain is very closely related to Ireland, being part of the Gaelic world. Locals we have met have been very pleased to meet Danny and find out he’s Irish. A couple of old men even took photos with us yesterday.

We decided to order food since the bar was so nice. The food took forever but the sandwiches were amazing when they arrived.

Being a public holiday most of the shops were shut and we had no idea what we would find for meals so being somewhere that was open was worth stopping for.

Everyone was loving it and then they stopped for lunch and another group of people came along with a piano accordion and did some more singing.

The lady with the accordion came over to talk to us and asked if there were any tunes we knew. Obviously at that point neither of us could think of the name of a single song so she said ‘Beatles!’ and played some Obla di obla da (is that what the song is called? You know the only I mean!).

The whole thing was a very quintessential Spanish experience but also felt like a pub session in Ireland. One of the old men asked Danny where we were from and when he said Ireland the man said ‘same same!’

I’m not sure, if I lived somewhere that had a constant stream of sweaty tourists, that I’d be quite as welcoming and friendly, but we’ve had a number of very charming interactions with locals and it’s really been the highlight of the walk so far. Well, that and the food and the scenery.

We sat for about two hours and had a delicious tortilla sandwich before moving on.

The parts of Galicia we walked through on this day were definitely more affluent than yesterday. The houses were in more subtle colours and everything looked neat and either historically old or new and fancy.

Most of today’s walk was along roadsides but, being a holiday, the roads were pretty quiet and it wasn’t too traumatic.

The last bit of walking was through a eucalyptus forest that felt like it was never going to end.

Eventually we made it to our accommodation, which turned out to be a stunning eco retreat cabin by a very popular dam and recreation area. Walking out of the forest to discover it was almost a religious experience.

It was really a cut above our previous, somewhat utilitarian, hotel in Betanzos.

The view from the front of the cabin is of the dam and people having picnics. Beside the cabin is a bar and restaurant but they closed at 5pm (not very Spanish hours but it is a public holiday) but I managed to snag a bottle of wine before they closed.

The wine was beautiful and local, there was also a bottle of red left for us in the cabin and Danny prefers red so that worked out well!

We had bought croissants and apples in Betanzos, knowing we might not see another open shop, so wine and croissants were our dinner.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 27 degrees so we plan to leave early and get most of our 17km done before lunch.

So far we have done over 70km, which is really good for us! I know some people manage much further in shorter times but we have stopped a lot, eaten great food and had great chats with people along the way.

25Apr2023

Keswick

by Miss Penny Black

The weather has become colder and today I had a few jobs to do before leaving to go south and then fly to Spain on Friday.

First, a quick trip to the post office.

It was not, in fact, a quick trip. It took over an hour thanks to me not reading the instructions properly on the stickers I had to fill in and having to re-line-up several times. Oh well!

Still, a literal weight was lifted when I passed it all over the bench and I went off to the museum.

The Keswick museum is small but contains some very interesting items.

Birds’ eggs. Very pretty!

A little tree hung with people’s methods of getting through lockdown.

And a giant musical instrument that was like a xylophone but made of pieces of slate. They had buttons in the display that you could press to hear the music, which was surprisingly ethereal.

Next I was going to buy myself a pair of hideous but comfortable hiking sandals (Spain being a lot warmer than Cumbria) and I like to think I succeeded and then some.

They fit perfectly, why do they look so huge? Like I’m about to go snorkeling.

I stopped in at the Oxfam shop too. No matter where you go in the UK there seems to be a plethora of second hand clothing shops.

I was excited to find a copy of The Idler, a book-style magazine that was the forerunner of one of my favourite books ‘How To Be Idle’. The magazine is full of articles on idleness. I’m generally a busy person and I live a busy life, but after I read this book years ago (and got two of my book clubs to read it, with mixed results) I re-examined my attitude to life. I make more time to do nothing now. I used to love doing nothing when I was a child, pottering around, or even just staring into space. Now I don’t feel guilty if I do nothing at times.

Anyhow, the magazine serves two purposes. First, I can read it, and second, I can cut it up to make some mail art. A few years ago my friend Fish and I did a collage course at a library. It was fun to just mess around with shapes and images. I thought I might make something to send to Kat, a friend of mine who loves getting things in the mail. Let me know when it arrives, Kat!

So I later spent several happy hours in the lounge of the B&B being creative, using receipts and fliers and bits and pieces I’ve collected in the last week to make a little fold-up collage that I could send tomorrow. As I was sitting there I wished it would rain and then it started raining, how lucky is that?

Other than that, I bought some insanely-priced hiking socks and a couple of tiny bottles of the other Kin vodka flavours so I could try them while I was here. A little toast to the first chapter of my journey ending and being such a success.