Derry

Londonderry, if you're of the UK of GB bent. Northern Ireland is, but perhaps not for much longer. We drove in on a rainy Sunday morning, found a convenient parking lot, and spent a couple hours walking its walls and viewing a few of the landmarks. I was still feeling under the weather, but well enough to go for a full Irish breakfast at the end of our sight-seeing.

It's a walled city--the old bits-- and one of the things you do is
walk the walls

The whole place is admirably explained in
numerous signs; sadly, most of the history is
about the evils of religion and nation...but Derry
and the rest of Northern Ireland seem to be rising
above those things, offering some little hope for
the rest of the world...

It's quite a young city, as these things go

Street scene walking up onto the walls

Street scene from the walls

Northern Ireland voted to Remain--56%--and
people we talked to were angry and already
predicting reunification with the Republic of
Ireland...something unthinkable a generation
ago

An array of artillery from Derry's early days as a colonial
center

This one made in the reign of QE1

So it says

Tower of yore--1992, Vicki says

The Peace Bridge, a pedestrian bridge uniting the Protestant
and Catholic communities

Derry was a major point of departure in the
continuing Irish diaspora; Vicki conjectures
her "Scotch-Irish" ancestors may have departed
from Derry; I get all my scotch directly from
Islay and Highland Park

Walls and another portal

City Hall--beautiful sandstone Gothick--and home of the city
museum, one of the few cultural things open on Sunday morning

A happy ending for me; Vicki had her usual scone and tea