Rest Day in Belfast

Thursday, May 23, 2024
Holiday Inn Belfast City Centre, an IHG Hotel, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Hi Family and Friends,
First of all, I'm hoping the problems with access to older trips and adding comments are resolved.   When you add a comment, there is a place to insert a code, however, you can just ignore that and tap "Save Comment", and all should be fine.  Let me know if it's not!
We left Dublin on a rainy, misty Sunday morning, in a slow-moving convoy of around 30 riders.  This is probably the biggest trip we've been on with TDA.  It's going to take awhile to get all the names and faces to match!  It was a relief to finally be free of the convoy, free of Dublin traffic, and out in the rolling Irish countryside! 
I had been told about Irish rain by my friend Barb, and she is so right!  It not so much rain as it is a medium to heavy mist.  It certainly makes you wet, but it's hard to see actual raindrops!  We found a small cafe for coffee and a pastry in the morning, but nothing the rest of the day.  For the most part we were on small country roads through a gently rolling, very green landscape.  Saw plenty of sheep and cows.  Our overnight was in Dundalk, where I was able to take a nice hot bath in a lovely tub!  Such luxury!
Our second day, 100 K to Belfast, was a repeat of the first, although no rain, just lots of clouds.   The roads were even more remote, barely roads actually, more like country lanes.  There was very little traffic, but what traffic there was treated us with extreme patience.  We could be slogging up a hill at a snail's pace and 3 or 4 cars might line up behind us, but they stayed well back, no engine revving, no honking, and very civilized passing when the opportunity appeared.  A couple of times we pulled over, just to return the courtesy!  There was more climbing this day, and we have felt it in our legs today, on our rest day in Belfast.  The last 20 K or so into Belfast was on a paved old canal tow path.  Monday was a bank holiday, and there were many people out enjoying a stroll along, which made for some very cautious riding at times!  However, it was better than having to ride in traffic, and it put us less than 1/2 mile to our hotel - what a great way to enter a city!
For our rest day, we did probably too much walking!  In the morning a couple of us did some shopping for 1 more warm layer.  I have pretty much been wearing the same shirt every day and was tired of it.  And for some reason, the nice wool socks that were in my hands at one point, must still be at home exactly where I set them down!  So, new socks also.  In the afternoon we went to the Titanic Museum, built on the grounds of the old shipyard.  The museum not only told the story of the history of the Titanic, but also the history of the industrial might of Belfast.  Belfast must have been quite a powerhouse of a city at one point in it's history.  It had linen manufacturing, and made the machines to support that industry.  It had the world's largest fan manufacturer, which supplied fans to the tea-drying industry, among other places.  There was whiskey distilling.  And ship-building, of course.  There was a lot of employment, even if many of the jobs were very low-paying.  We know that Belfast had some terrible times in it's past, but today it seems to be a vibrant city, moving on from the "troubles" and turmoil of days past.
Tomorrow our bags go out at 5:10 am, then we will convoy around 5 miles to the ferry, where a 2 1/2 hour trip will take us to Scotland.  Then we'll have a 50 mile, pretty hilly ride to our overnight of Ayr.  We're excited to be going to Scotland!

Comments

gwen hyatt
2024-05-28

Verdant Irish green. another amazing adventure for you both! gwen

Bryan Lorber
2024-05-29

Looks really nice. Glad to be following along.

Kate Vos
2024-05-29

As alwzys loved the pictures and descriptions! I have suchgood memories od Scottland!

sally k
2024-05-30

you describe your experiences so well, your post could easily be turned into a book or several books

Patti
2024-06-02

So green and beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

2025-02-07

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