Spring is in the air

View from our Notting Hill flat after a spring rainstorm  

Highgate Cemetery 

Inspirational London Marathon runners; Our new old bikes

Finally, after the longest and coldest winter in 50 years, spring is starting to descend on London. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and the British are lying in parks with their tops off.

What a relief.

Over the years we have heard people talk about getting a bit down in the dumps towards the end of a long London winter. We’d always thought that such types would be well served by swallowing a block of concrete and hardening up.

We need to eat a good dose of humble pie on that front. Had the cold lasted a day longer, we would have caught a flight home.

To celebrate the return of double-digit temperatures,

Ruins, rope bridges, and wind

 Dunluce Castle

The Rope Bridge. Monique holding on for dear life. 

Clockwise from top left: The Mussenden Temple; Daniel standing in a four hundred year old fireplace at Dunluce Castle; The Downhill Demesne 

The Causeway Coastal route really was a sensational place to spend a long weekend. Being in the Irish countryside really is good for the soul…getting stuck behind tractors is par for the course, and real men wear gumboots (as opposed to London, where they’re now the height of fashion for gents as they go for a weekend stroll through boutique shops).

Some other highlights included…

> Braving a rope bridge that connected a small island with the mainland in howling wind. It was genuinely nerve racking as the narrow, flimsy bridge swayed wildly from side to side in the howling gale. We did our best not to look down to the jagged rocks and pounding waves below. Monique didn’t cope so well, having inherited several generations worth of acrophobia.   

> Seeing the ruined Dunluce Castle perched precariously on a rocky outcrop. It made for quite a spectacular scene. It was fun to imagine Northern Ireland’s elite living in what would have been an incredibly opulent castle.

> The Mussenden Temple – a small circular building perched on a cliff  was built by a Bishop to be his personal library. We were surprised that the Bishop's home - the Downhill Demesne - had deteriorated so quickly, having only been abandoned in the 1940s.

We would like this as our driveway...

One of the more unique and enchanting places that we’ve been lucky enough to visit is the Dark Hedges. The stunning avenue of beech trees was planted around two hundred years ago by a local family trying to create an impressive driveway to their home (mansion). We think they succeeded!

Back on the road again...The Causeway Coastal route

The Giant's Causeway 

The Giant's Causeway. The top left shot shows Monique sitting in Finn McCool's mythical boot. 

The Giant's Causeway 

The Giant's Causeway

Snow along the Causeway Coastal Route.

One of the most enduring memories from our Europe trip was the time we spent in Ireland. We absolutely loved the place and the people. We thought that a great way of experiencing something similar (while also ticking off another country) was to head up to Northern Ireland for the Easter long weekend.

We were not disappointed.

Along with our friend Al, we arrived in Belfast and were immediately greeted with a friendly handshake and an enthusiastic welcome from the guy at the car hire desk. Ahhh the Irish!

We spent one day in Belfast before heading out into the countryside. Our three highlights were....

> Kicking things off with a tour where we learnt about 'The Troubles'. It really was quite saddening to learn about Northern Ireland's incredibly violent and tragic recent history. We were also quite shocked to see that there is still a wall dividing the Catholic and Protestant sides of the city that continues to get locked at 10pm every night. Houses that are along the wall have cages enclosing their backyards. It’s quite full on. Apparently a recent survey revealed that 70% of residents were in favour of keeping the gates locked at night because they still don't trust each other enough to open them up.

> Visiting the docks where the Titanic was built and set off from. It really was quite amazing to see the original dry dock that it was built in, the original room where the draftsman designed the ship, and the actual supports that it sat on when it was being fitted out. While somewhat unexpected, it really was quite a highlight.

> Catching a taxi. Surely Ireland is the only country in the world where taxi drivers will give you a tour and run down on the major sights of the city while driving you around, and then not only refuse to accept a tip, but round the fare down. Amazing.

Good Friday in Belfast

 Reminders of 'The Troubles' were everywhere. The top-right image shows the wall the still divides the city, with the protectives cages fitted to adjacent houses. 

Clockwise from top left: The dry-dock where the Titanic was fitted out, with the original blocks that the ship sat on; The pump room that drained the dry-dock; workers doing some maintenance on the original retaining wall.

A comparison of the room in which the Titanic was designed.  

 Details of the Pump Room 

The docks today. 

One of the most enduring memories from our Europe trip was the time we spent in Ireland. We absolutely loved the place and the people. We thought that a great way of experiencing something similar (while also ticking off another country) was to head up to Northern Ireland for the Easter long weekend.

We were not disappointed.

Along with our friend Al, we arrived in Belfast and were immediately greeted with a friendly handshake and an enthusiastic welcome from the guy at the car hire desk. Ahhh the Irish!

We spent one day in Belfast before heading out into the countryside. Our three highlights were....

> Kicking things off with a tour where we learnt about 'The Troubles'. It really was quite saddening to learn about Northern Ireland's incredibly violent and tragic recent history. We were also quite shocked to see that there is still a wall dividing the Catholic and Protestant sides of the city, with the gates continuing to be locked at 10pm every night. Houses that are along the wall have cages enclosing their backyards. It’s quite full on. Apparently a recent survey revealed that 70% of residents were in favour of keeping the gates locked at night because they still don't trust each other enough to open them up, despite a ceasefire agreement that was reached in 1997. 

> Visiting the docks where the Titanic was built and set off from. It really was quite amazing to see the original dry dock that it was built in, the original room where the draftsman designed the ship, and the actual supports that it sat on when it was being fitted out. While somewhat unexpected, it really was quite a highlight.

> Catching a taxi. Surely Ireland is the only country in the world where taxi drivers will give you a tour and run down on the major sights of the city while driving you around, and then not only refuse to accept a tip, but round the fare down. Amazing.