Woke up to a sunny beautiful morning. Robin and I slept in the lounge on a sofa bed…and had a lovely sleep. Judy and Len had the bedroom with a beautiful soft Double bed. I woke up with indigestion (from an amazing Lasagna I had for tea last night….it was really yummy!) at 3.30 and at the same time Judy and Len walked into the lounge. Their neighbours were having a party and they were making so much noise that Judy and Len couldn’t sleep! It was so quiet in the lounge I couldn’t believe it, but they were right….going into their room and you could hear the whole noise of the party. It continued until 5am. Consequently we left the owner of the apartment a lovely email!!! Later on in the day we went on the on/off bus tour of the town and learnt that it was a Belfast holiday. A time to celebrate the Orange festival. That was probably why the neighbours were partying! Bomb fires were set up all over the town in the Royalist areas but none in the Irish areas. The Royalists were also having a huge march on the 12th. After listening to the whole story on the bus and seeing the division between both groups eg high fences with barb wire and concrete walls, royalist flags flying high on one side and irish flags on the other, we were actually rather happy to be moving on to Dublin. Who knows what is going to happen during the parades?
We travelled on to Carlingford, a place which a local suggested we visit. A lovely fishing town with narrow streets and many old buildings dating back to the Vikings. It really was worth a visit. We also visited a pub called Fitzpatricks….another suggested visit. I will load up some photos when I can…our internet isn’t too hot tonight. They have filled up their garden and pub with antiques….so quaint!
On our way to Dublin we travelled through a big thunder/lightening and heavy rain storm….but by the time we got there it was sunny again. We even went out for a walk to get tea and home again afterwards. Our bed and breakfast is a little less desireable than others we have stayed in. We even walked to a local hotel to see if they had room for us! When we found out the the room charge rate is Euro200 per night and we would have to have separate rooms …so Euro400 per night!….and we are staying here for two nights. The Bed and Breakfast didn’t seem so bad after all at Euro140 for 2 nights for 4 of us….so here we are staying 🙂 With all its funny noises…in go the earplugs for the night zzzzzzzz