World Traveller: 7 Continents, 90 Countries, 871 Days Overseas
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Tuesday 29 February 2000
Highlights: Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of Macbeth
We set out to explore Chester in a good mood but it was quickly dispelled when we couldn’t find anywhere to put our backpacks which resulted in us taking them with us everywhere which was far from ideal. As a result we just ended up visiting the Chester Cathedral.
Monday 28 February 2000
Highlights: Bath Abbey, Roman Baths, Walking tours of Bath
Starting early we headed off to Bath to spend the day before arriving late in the day at Chester which we will explore tomorrow.
Bath was originally a Roman outpost from 1 AD to 4th century. The Romans established the very first bath for which the area is named which took advantage of the natural hot springs.
Sunday 27 February 2000
Highlights: Cardiff Castle, not throwing up (from overnight ferry).
Quite amazingly we got to Cardiff at about 6 am from Rosslare and caught a bus straight To Cardiff even though my stomach still hasn’t quite settled. At check in they forgot to get us to pay saving us a night’s accommodation!
Saturday 26 February 2000
Highlights: St Mary’s Cathedral, King John’s Castle
Today we explored Limerick City starting with St Mary’s Cathedral was built in 1172.
Next was the excellent the King John’s Castle. King John is often portrayed in fiction in Robin Hood stories. In reality he was forced to sign the Magna Carta. The audio-visual presentations were brilliant, highlighting the siege of Limerick in 1690-91 by the English and Dutch against the Irish and the French.
After the Irish surrendered they signed the ‘Treaty of Limerick’ which was supposed to treat Catholics fairly but was instead broken fairly quickly leading to future struggles and fights and eventually the creation of the Republic of Ireland.
From here we caught a train to Rosslare Harbour to catch an overnight ferry to Wales. The sea was very rough with Jon really struggling with seasickness.
Friday 25 February 2000
Highlights: Bunratty Castle
Although technically today was a day based in Limerick we actually caught a bus out to Bunratty village to visit Bunratty Castle. Originally we tried to hire a car to visit Lough Gur stone circle but all the rental places had a 3 day minimum hire requirement so that plan was adjusted.
Bunratty Castle is in excellent condition and was built in 1270 although Viking structures existed before this date. The O’Brien’s, Kings of Thomond (half of Ireland), occupied the castle until the 17th century.
The castle is setup as a tourist attraction with rooms recreated inside and out from different periods of Irish history. Disappointing we. Issued out on the medieval banquets it was overbooked.
After a few Guinness beers at the local pub, built in 1600s, we headed back to our Limerick hostel for an early night.
Thursday 24 February 2000
Highlights: Watching a Waterford Crystal Vase being made.
On our way to Limerick we stopped off at Waterford and spent the day exploring. Like most ancient cities Waterford at one time was walled but little remains of this wall. Reginald’s Tower still exists but they were unfortunately working on it so we could only view from the outside.
Wednesday 23 February 2000
Highlights: St Canice (Kilkenny) Cathedral, Smithwick Brewery, Kilkenny Castle
Today was spent in one our our small changes to the plan – Kilkenny City. We caught the 9 am bus from Dublin and arrived at Kilkenny 11.30 am.
First up was a visit to St Canice Cathedral, also known as Kilkenny Cathedral, is still a Protestant Cathedral despite being in this strongly Catholic country. The present Cathedral dates from 1251 and contains a stone Throne in one of the walls.
Tuesday 22 February 2000
Highlights: The Easter Rebellion
We walked down O’Connell Street and visited the General Post Office, site of the 1916 uprising against British rule. The Rebels were not supported by the public at the time, and when defeated several of the leaders were excited. However the public executions turned public opinion against the British Government and in 1922 the Republic of Ireland was formed. You can still see bullet holes in the building and memorial paintings are everywhere to the heroes of the Easter uprising.
That night we finally found a pub that has live Irish music. They played one traditional Irish song followed by one American Classic since there were so many tourists. We continued our happy Guinness tradition into the night.
Monday 21 February 2000
Highlights: Trinity College, the old Irish Parliament House, the fantastic Guinness Brewery.
We woke up to a beautiful day so good in fact we decided to chance it without our raincoats. Jon had a small dispute with a fellow guest at the hostel over which bed he should be in.
We walked down to Trinity College which houses over 9,500 students. Until the 1970s Catholics did not attend this Protestant institution, at first they couldn’t and later the Catholic Church forbade it. The university was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I.
The buildings are fantastic, a highlight of the University is the Book of Kells dating from 800 AD. unfortunately it was undergoing repair work today which happens at a lot of historic sites but is necessary to ensure they still exist for future generations.
Sunday 20 February 2000
Highlights: Magnificent Murals covering the ‘Troubles’.
We spent most of the day in Derry / Londonderry. Early in the morning we again walked the wall, but this time looking murals of the Troubles. In Northern Ireland murals have become significant symbols, depicting the region’s past and present political and religious divisions. Belfast and Derry contain arguably the most famous political murals. We managed to get a few good photos of them.
Nathan's Insights 