It's another catch up day for the blogging, and we have 30 minutes free internet access thanks to the Londonderry City Council, so we'll see how much we can do :)

Our train/bus combo from Dublin to Belfast left at 1pm so we spent our final morning in Dublin doing a bit of souvenir shopping and visiting a memorial which had a very sad and mournful statue to those lost in the struggle for freedom.

In Belfast, we went for a walk along the infamous Falls Rd and saw a lot of murals containing political messages from the catholic / republican point of view. The knowledge gained in our walking tour of Dublin really helped give some context to what we saw, although we know we still have lots left to learn. We tried to walk to Shankill road to see the protestant / royalist murals but each time we were blocked by large, closed gates across the road. A passing taxi driver and tour guide explained it was a long fence (the peace line) designed to keep the protestants and catholics apart. We both thought it was very sad that the fence exists to this day and is a reminder that the conflict is not completely resolved.

On our way back to the hotel we were met by something extremely Irish: rain :)

Today, I decided not to put on my new Ireland t-shirt as I wasn't up to being shot at ;) We had a pre-breakfast walk into Donegal Square (the city centre) and saw Belfast's city hall and gardens, in which stands a memorial to the Titanic ("Built by an Irishman, sunk by an Englishman").

We picked up our rental car and made our way to Shankill road and noticed that the union jack was flying everywhere. We saw some more murals and headed to Downpatrick, where Granny Tish (my Dad's mother) was born and raised.

After some detective work involving a parking warden, a pensioner and a couple of car salesman, we found "The Dairy", the 300 year old house where she grew up. We knocked on the door and were met by Peter, the husband of my Dad's cousin Ann. We had excellent timing in meeting not only them, but a bunch more of my Dad's cousins all over on holiday, visiting my great aunt. They were extremely welcoming and as excited to meet us as we were to meet them. Anthea took us to St Patrick's (alleged) grave which is in the same cemetery as my great grandfather's grave. We then had a lively lunch with the Patterson clan.

Ok, I'm bored now, so you must be too. In summary:
-we arrived in Londonderry
-we walked on its famous walls, 1.5km long circling the old city and 8m high, 9m thick
-we saw automatic stop/go signs at roadworks, wow!
-our fancy rental car has a light which tells you to change gear up or down, wow!
-I had another Guinness, this time with a clover in the foam on top, fiddle dee dee
-we wrote a blog entry

Thanks all for your comments and emails. We enjoy reading them :)

- Brett