Please, Let’s Get Off This Ferry…
Pic: Carrickfergus Castle Web

28 May ’05, Saturday. Carrickfergus Castle
After leaving Glenarm we continued heading south, which would take us back through Larne. In a way, it was going to work out good in going back, as I was having a little trouble shifting without grinding gears and I wanted our mechanic to look at this before getting too far away. To give you a little bit more information on how we ended up getting our clutch changed, I have been hearing a bearing noise from the very first day we picked up the van and I had (me the big mechanic…) thought it was the “throw-out bearing”. Finally when we knew that we were in big trouble, I pulled in to a mechanic and said…”I’ve got a bad throw-out bearing, so please put in a new clutch and bearing for us…” He did… Now when I went to pick up “Bumble Bee”, another mechanic, the one who actually did the work, told me, “I think your problem is your transmission and not the clutch, but I might be wrong…” Again, after getting back to the garage, they did add some additional fluid to the hydraulic clutch reservoir and we were on our way to Dublin and some additional sites on the way. We had 4 days, so we had plenty of time…
Right… We did have a good ¾ of a day heading down the coast route, although the wind was blowing right in our face the whole way. Our first stop was in Carrickfergus, about halfway between Larne and Belfast. There was a wonderful castle there that we wanted to see. This is the first castle or ruin, that they had displayed with soldiers and workers (plastic dummies) from the period, all over the grounds. Some were manning their muskets and swords, standing guard at the gates, or at the ready at the cannon. We really enjoyed their display. We also found a campsite just down the road, so in the morning we were underway through Belfast and around the coast route again. The gears continued to clash every time I shifted, but I continued on, in hopes everything would “work its way in”. On our ride, we were following this peninsula to the end and then we had a short ferry ride across to the other side. As this small car ferry made it’s way across and up to the landing, it dropped the bow to unload. Seeing as we were the first car in the line, we headed off. Now you’ve got to see this, the boat is still moving forward, the bow is dropped, and the landing is a hill that is straight up. We hit the land, the cars (us) are in motion and hitting the “dry land” at the same time, with a jolt, down, and then straight up. Well, we did fine, most of the way… When we got to the top, all hell broke loose in the transmission. It could have been worse, it could have happened going on that ferry, and we were at the front, but it didn’t, and we could at least save ourselves from some embarrassment. Now we did have a problem. We were in a very small village that I knew would have no mechanic that would be able to help us, so I had to find a way to “baby” her along until we got to Dublin, which was another 100+ km away, and it was all on back roads. We didn’t make it. We made it 6 miles past a small town called Newry, and all of a sudden the transmission went out of gear and then back in and “jammed”… It was just in and just out of gear and we were finally stuck. Fortunately, I was able to coast off the road, but when we came to a stop, and I do mean “stop”, we were blocking a driveway. Now again, we had a little bit of luck. This driveway was directly next to a gas station, and they had 4 young men that came out and helped me push back “Bumble Bee” enough so that the drive was clear. Now these were young teens, that were really more interested in kicking their soccer ball than helping out

27 May ’05, Friday. Glenarm Castle and it’s Walled Garden
When we got back to the garage were “Bumble Bee” was supposed to be, we found that she had already been taken back to the campground. Seeing as how she was all ready parked, we just decided to wait until this morning to try out this new clutch. Well, it all seems to be working fine, with a couple of little glitches, so we checked out and started back on the “journey”. We headed back up north to see a couple of villages that we had passed through on our way to Larne. Not only would this give us a chance to see these villages, it also would give me a feel of the new clutch before we start heading to far off.
About 30 miles back up the coastline, we came to the village of Cushendall . We had noticed the first time we passed, that they had a very unusual harbour and breakwater, that date back to the 15th century. It didn’t disappoint us, even though it is small. Then, turn around again, and head back a couple of miles to Glenarm. The village of Glenarm is really quaint… as usual, very narrow streets with 2 storied multi-colored buildings on both sides. But this one has something a little different. A small river runs along one side and on the opposite bank is a tall rock wall that encloses a beautiful castle…The Glenarm Castle. As you pass by on the coast road, you see some of the wall as you cross over the river, and then as you make your way through the village, you come to a corner that takes you across a bridge to the gate-house of the castle. Try as much as we could, we never could get a good look at the castle. Getting back in the van, we went around a different approach and came across a sign that said “The Walled Garden of Glenarm Castle and Tea House”. A cup of tea was just what we were looking for… (anything to get a look over that wall…). After pulling up to wall of the “Walled Garden”, we knew we had done the right thing. The doorway entering into the “Teahouse” was so low, Louise and I both had to duck. Once in, it was like stepping back over 150 years. From the 18th century, the grounds of Glenarm Castle, the ancestral home of the McDonnells, Earls of Antrim, have been reserved for the family and guests only, but the 1st of April this year, they opened them to the general public. Our tea (my really good coffee), was taken in one of the converted “Mushroom Houses”. Nigel Marshall, formerly head gardener at the world renowned Mount Stewart, stepped forward and was the overseer of this restoration. It was a little disappointing that we couldn’t see much more of the castle from the “Walled Gardens”, but after finding out that the owners were about to arrive, we didn’t want to be caught jumping the fence…next time when no one is home… It was kind of cool sitting there in the Tea House, looking out through the multi-paned windows into the gardens. Tall perfectly trimmed hedges, plants and trees of all descriptions, fountains, large flat stones for walking certain routes, a long line of old mushroom building, and the tall rock inner-walls of the castle. I hope you feel the “tale” of the Glenarm Castle, Walled Garden and Tea House as we enjoyed it…

First I asked for a phoneEIt’s about a ½ mile up the road”…”can I buy some time from your cell phone?”…”no, but try that one behind the wall”….”do you have a phone book?”… He drags out this large phone book that covers “ALL of Northern Ireland, and is the most confusing phone book I’ve ever seen. Still at step one “Are you sure you don’t know of any tow vehicles ? After all of them conferring with each other in Gallic, “No”… Then the best advice came from the corner (it was Louise)“call the police, they have to call a tow truck all the time.30 minutes later, we had our tow truck out front.It was a little challenge but, we have our tow. “Auto Recovery Services came to our rescue. Jim  "Jimmy" Scott was there and he took charge, fact is once he heard our story he was “making it happen.  Jimmy isn’t a big guy, but he has a big heart, a big truck, (we found out later on he also had a big challenge with our problem. One thing I hadn’t mentioned, we broke down on the Friday heading into the “Bankers Holiday" and that goes through Monday.  On top of all that, our ferry from Ireland to England was to leave Tuesday morning at 8:20am. And to top that all off, we were still about 85km or 2 hours away from the docks. Once “Bumble Bee was all fitted to the top of the flat bed of Jimmy’s truck, we were under way. Louise and I in the front seat with Jimmy who is on the phone calling all his contacts. He hadn’t been on the job more than 3 minutes and he had been searching for a transmission..used or new, but used was just about the only chance we had.  Now Newry is a city, but has just received that distinction from being a village not too long ago. The fact is, Jimmy has seen a lot of growth in the last few years, and hardly recognizes Newry himself and he has been there for over 50 years. All of the phone calls seemed to come to the same endSorry, it’s the holiday, and they haven’t got anyway to check.  Jimmy’s idea then was just to take us to his “yard" and keep trying. Once there we were introduced to the “Scott Family".We met everyone, Jimmy’s wife Christine, the 3 girls, son and the 2 dogs. Jimmy and Christine’s son has joined them in business, and the girls are all in high school and college. Christine had us over to the house for coffee and tea while Jimmy continued to search for a tranny for us. It wasn’t long and he was in the kitchen asking “did we want the good news or the bad?He had found one and it could be installed by late Monday, but it would cost... What do you do ???  Really there is only one thing you can do, and that is to bite the bullet and get on with our lives and our journey. Now, this being Friday night, we had to find a place to stay. I had kidded with the Scott girls that I would pay them to move out to the garage and we would take their rooms, but they declined. Then, the door opens and in comes Paul. A friend of the family, and now we would like to call him one of ours as well. Paul took us out to find a room, and that wasn’t as easy as it could have been, but again, after a couple of stops and a couple of calls made to Paul’s friends, we had ourselves a B&B we could call home for a couple of nights.

Ava Bianca (The White House) was our new home for the next couple of days. It is owned and run by Mona and Patrick and is a home that they built about 20 years ago. A beautiful home with outstanding gardens that sits high on the hill over looking the city and surrounding hills. It was about a 25-30minute downhill walk into town, which we did a number of times while there. Mona and Patrick also believe in a “hearty” breakfast, which was something Louise and I had to adjust for the 2nd morning. It was just a little bit too hardy…very good, but a ton of food on your plate. Another great couple… they made us feel more than welcome. Fact is, when we woke the first morning, Louise found she had left her make-up bag at the van. Now you know how important that is to our ladies… Patrick insisted that he would take us to the van and pick it up. Now it wasn’t too far, maybe 5 miles or so, but when you get into some of these back roads…you can get lost. We found out even the locals can get lost. After hitting a number of different narrow, winding, up and down hilly roads, we finally had to stop and ask directions at a house…we were close, about 150 yards… Patrick had about as much fun with that as I think he might have had if he had to go out and milk a cow, but he was very gracious about it anyway. Now Mona, she is a very nice, genuine hostess. She would give you the shirt off Patrick’s back if you wanted it. The house was decorated very uniquely, with A LOT of furniture, artificial flowers, nick-knacks, pictures, and clothes. She always wanted to make sure we were “warm enough”, and reaching for the thermostats while we were saying “no, no, it’s not necessary…” I must say, we have had a good time, even when it seems it could be a little bleak. We also passed the time by taking in a couple of movies…the only one worth mentioning is Monster Mother in Law. It was pretty good. Well come Monday morning, it took all I could do not to call Jimmy at 7am to see how things were progressing. I did hold out until after noon, and then he said “I’m sure we will have you on the road to the ferry by 5 tonight”. Those were good words to hear… About 4, Louise and I started walking with a little bounce in our step…singing a merry song along the way…just knowing things had made a turn around for us. A lot of good-byes, and we were on our way. Well, not before we remembered when we had just cleared town, we had left our luggage at Mona and Patrick’s. Thank God we remembered.
After a couple of hours more down the road, dinner in Dublin, we headed out to the ferry docks. Once we pulled up to the locked gates a man came out, and I asked if we would be allowed in to park for the night and catch the 8:20am ferry…no problem… I am now catching up while the ferry is rocking me slightly while on the computer and Louise is snoozing on the lounge seat across the way.

26 May ’05, Thursday. Belfast City Hall
As we had driven “Bumble Bee” to the doctor (mechanic) yesterday, and could do no more than just wait, we boarded a bus again and went to Belfast for a second day. We were lucky as the rain decided we had had enough for the time being, and we enjoyed a day of “mild” sunshine. It gave us the opportunity to visit St. Ann’s Cathedral and make a tour through the Belfast City Hall. At first, the foundation for St Anne’s church, was laid in 1776, and then in 1899, the Countess of Shaftesbury laid the first stone for the “new” cathedral to be built. As soon as you walk through the huge doors and enter the cathedral you see a “Marble Maze”. If you follow the white marble stones, they will lead you to the sanctuary and the path of eternal life. If you follow the black marble, you will come to a dead end. I’m sure I don’t have to repeat myself, but the stained glass works are again stunning. The baptistery was of particular interest…it contains over 150,000 pieces of glass and each one individually placed onto the ceiling. Our reception at the cathedral was very warm, as we were met at the door with a welcome and a big smile, and a written guide to the cathedral. This doesn’t always happen, but I must admit, this wasn’t the first, but the most memorable. We also went to see the glass enclosed St. Georges Market. It is open every Thursday and Friday, but I guess it starts very early and closes early as well, as we missed it…they were all packed or packing. When we got to the City Hall, we found we had just missed the tour, but they would have one more at 2:30, so we signed up and left. Some how, we were at the internet and time started to get away from us, and when I looked, we had 10 minutes to make it…with a few kind words from my lovely, we scampered down the hall, out the door, and we made it just in time.
In 1906, a time of unprecedented prosperity and industrial “might” (ship building), the Belfast City Hall opened it’s doors. It was in 1888 that Queen Victoria conferred the title of “city” to Belfast. When you see the City Hall from the street, you are taken with a very “grand” building, but the magnificence of the interior wasn’t totally expected. Just to give you a few words from the brochure; Visitors are welcomed though the impressive stone porte-cochere and marble lined vestibule into the Entrance Hall. The Grand Staircase is made from Carrara, Pavonazzo and Brescia Marbles. Classical influences from the Rotunda, abound with an elaborate colonnade in Greek Cippalino marble. Rising from this landing are the four main arches which support the dome.The large stained glass windows record important municipal events, from the granting of the original Charter by King James I in 1613 and on and on…
Well, tour over and the next bus about ready to arrive, we’ve got to get back and pick up “Bumble Bee”.

24 May, ’05, Tuesday GWB Mural in Nationalist and Loyalist Neighborhoods The clouds are there and it looks like we will escape the rain, so we grabbed a bus and went into Belfast for the day. We have had reservations for the ferry back to Wales on Wednesday, so we had to find the ferry company and move them out for a week. The bus ride into Belfast dropped us off in the middle of town, so we had quite a walk to the terminal, but we got everything changed ok…we are now leaving Ireland next Tuesday. On our walk back to town, we saw a little restaurant, and seeing as it was after 1, we stopped in. It was located in the “harbor area” and was really old and, you might say, needed some tender loving care. It has been there for over 50 years and in the same family. The roof leaked like mad, the tables and seats.. interesting…the food…really good and CHEAP !!! I haven’t been able to up-load to the web lately for different reasons, so today we made a determined search for a “good” internet outlet. Fortunately, we found one, and it was very reasonable at that, so I was to get a lot of work done. We thought the best way of seeing Belfast in a day was to get onto one of those “Sightseeing Bus Tours”, so that’s what we did. It was very interesting, because we not only saw some of the old history sites of Belfast , but we also were introduced to the current “political” side of Belfast as well. We’ve all read in the past about what has been happening here in Belfast, with the marching, bombings, killings, and all the destruction. We drove through “The Area" and saw all the destruction, murals showing the men and women with their heads covered and holding machine guns, very tall walls that were topped with barbed wire, and much more…a little disheartening. One mural that we saw, that I thought interesting, is the one pictured at the top…GW with a straw sucking oil from the oil fields of Iraq with all the dollar signs floating through his head. I must say however, the Irish are very proud of their American ties (with the exception of GW). There are markers throughout North Ireland showing their ties with America and all those that were of Irish decent that stood out in the building of America. Belfast is a city under construction. It was “the ship builders town” for a long time, but now, it is a city of growth and diversity. It isn’t a city of great beauty, but it is a city in change…buildings being re-built, and the high cranes working on the “new”, a lot of street improvements as well. They are telling us, “Wait 10 years and come and see us then…”. Wednesday… Rain and more rain… one heck of a wet day, but we are surviving. We are all ready for… Tomorrow…the big day for “Bumble Bee”

23 May ’05, Monday. The Coastline and Boardwalk of Larne
Sunday, we decided that we have been sitting too much, so we took a long walk. Larne is a town that is situated along side the North Channel of the Irish Sea. It has a pretty busy maritime industry, especially the ferry system to Scotland and England. It also boasts a long boardwalk that runs for miles along the coast. So that is the long walk we took. We were out over 3 hours, and it was really a good and picturesque outing. We had been told about this very good restaurant across the street, so come dinner, we decided to splurge. Well, it was ok, but getting out was what we really needed.
Monday the rain decided to stay with us all day, so we watched a movie. We have found it interesting that the local papers (pretty much throughout Ireland, England, and Scotland) have a Video DVD or a Vocal CD included with their Sunday newspapers. This is an incentive to purchase their paper. It doesn’t cost anymore, and you find yourself looking at the DVD/CD to see if this is the one you want before picking up the paper. Well anyway, our choice of DVD was “Fried Green Tomatoes”, so with a rainy day and a new DVD, we decided to stay at home and veg with a movie. We had seen the movie many years ago, and had forgotten just how good it was…we really enjoyed it…another one for our DVD inventory. We have also picked up great Video CD’s as well. I also met with Robert, and we ordered the clutch assembly and Thursday is the day for “Bumble Bee” to get her new clutch. At least we are very hopeful…it seems that there are 2 possible assemblies, and we had to make a “gut” determination as to the right one. It was ordered from England and will be here Wednesday. Wish us good luck…

21 May ’05, Saturday.
I made my way across the street this morning by 8:30 to see if the mechanic was in yet, but found out he wouldn’t be there until about 9:30. At 9:30 I met Robert Robertson and after awhile it was determined that we would most likely be here until Thursday. The whole job won’t take but half a day, but it will take that long to get us in and get the parts. Well, we needed a couple of days anyway, so we started off with a “wash day”, complete with a wash job for “Bumble Bee”. Louise and I donned our backpacks and went looking for groceries a little later in the afternoon and also to see if there was an internet location here. We got the groceries, but found out that the only internet was at the library and they were closed until Monday…it’s a small town thing… On our way to the grocery store, we came across a local “hall” with a group of men and dummies dresses up in British/Irish, American, and German uniforms from WWII. Outside there was also war guns of all description and inside, they had some more of the same plus great displays of the Nurse’s St Johns Ambulance Corp, newspapers from the war time, and pictures of local/Belfast just prior and after having the Nazis bombers drop their bombs. Louise and I had no longer walked through the gate and we were met and cordially invited in. We were given the “Red Carpet” treatment. All this was to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. This is a small town, but they did a superb job. The opening speech, was given by a vet of WWII, and he had some very interesting stories to tell all of us. One of the other speakers was a North Ireland Congressman from this area. We had a chance to meet and talk with him for quite awhile. What a great experience our little walk gave us this morning… Fact is, it seems that our being stopped here was for a purpose, and a chance to meet a lot of great people in a small Ireland town. Speaking of meeting great people…the camper parked right next to us was a couple that are camping Europe for the next 7 months. It just so happens that they are from Fall City…it’s a small world. Robert Grimm and Helen Winkler. They had to leave here today and head up to the area’s we had just come from. They want to make it to Turkey, so we had a lot of conversation about our trip and we hope it proves to help them.

20 May ’05, Friday. The Giants Causeway
“I know it’s only 10:30 in the morning, and yes, I know I have to drive, but all they want me to do is just “taste it””… First thing we did today was take a tour through the “Old Bushmills Distillery”. Did you know they were making their first Bushmills as early as the 13th century and in 1608 they received permission from King James I giving them the “right” to distill their whiskey??? And in 2008 they will be having a huge celebration for the 400 years. One thing that I do regret, was the opportunity to “taste test” 9 different whiskeys. I thought that might be too much, but as it turned out, it would have worked out just fine, and I even had Lou’s permission… I hate to say it, but I even bought a “souvenir” to take with us, care to guess what it might be…I’ll give you a hint…it’s 12 years old and they only sell it there… We are now right on the coastline, at the top of Ireland, and making our way down to Dublin over the next few days. Our next stop was just around the corner from Bushmill. It is the Dunluce Castle dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. The castle stands on a black basalt stack, projecting out into the North Antrim Coast (Atlantic Ocean). Unfortunately all that is left of the castle are a large portion of the walls, interior and exterior. They have a crew there now that is working on adding more over the next couple of years. There was a tragic accident in 1635, when there was a grand dinner party being held by the Duke of Buckingham and the Duchess. The lower kitchen courtyard fell into the sea during dinner. Unfortunately some of the kitchen staff were lost and the Duchess found her reason to leave the castle that she had always disliked. This castle had been built, given, taken, destroyed, and given a number of times over again. One night there was a dinner party and one of the guests arrested the host. Now that is a dark moment at a dinner party… Now to “The Giant’s Causeway…another site that is just around the corner. A mass of over 40,000 stone columns (like those in Spokane), that form steps coming up from under the sea and climbing high into the surrounding hills. Most of the columns are 6 sided and some are as much as 40 feet tall. They almost look artificial… Back on the coast road again, and this time we are heading to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. For centuries fisherman would go to this island to fish for salmon. The only problem was, they had no other access to it other than tossing a rope over and making a rope bridge between the island and the cliff of the mainland. They say “the trick is, don’t look down” as you cross this rope bridge. I would say, “make sure nobody else is on the bridge the same time you are” as it rock and rolls pretty good, and it is a long way down. Have we ever mentioned that when it rains, or we may have a schedule to keep, or when we are coming into the weekend, that we seem to see “Bumble Bee” act up ??? Well, we are there again. This time it is a clutch problem. When we were at the rope bridge, the parking lot was way down at the bottom of a long and steep hill. Finally, after having a little message of a problem, we got the big message…I wont go !!! Luckily we did go on the second try, but now that we are out, we’ve got to find someone who can do the work and where the heck is that ??? Some how, we kept running for a couple of hours, cruising down the coast road, and trying to stay out of trouble, like stopping or getting caught up behind someone. Finally arriving in Larne, I stopped at a gas station to ask for directions to a mechanic and possibly a campground. Well, they have a mechanic, but he has gone home for the day, and the campground is across the street… Tomorrow…we’ll have to wait and see

19 May ’05, Thursday. “The Burren” of Ireland
Following the coast line after leaving Doolin, we came upon the “Burren Way”. We interpreted “Burren” to mean “barren, Rocky place…”. We had again, been driving on those same roads, and making a very quick speed of it, from15km to a max of 40 for many km (or miles). The views were wonderful, a lot of the cliffs, the pounding waves of the Atlantic Ocean, the green countryside, and as always, the ancient ruins covered with foliage. Then all of a sudden, we came upon area’s of rock, spread everywhere. This continued until we arrived at the coast. It was the largest lava flow I have ever seen. It ran as far as you could see, gray in color, and of many varying designs and patterns. It was like a moonscape, and also a photographers paradise. Louise was really excited about the little flowers of pink, white, rose, yellow and red that would find their way to grow in the small cracks and fissures. We have seen a lot of color this spring, and this just adds to that. Again, continuing north, we came around a corner and found a wonderful little castle that was surrounded by a natural saltwater moat. It is amazing as to how many castles there were here in Ireland. Speaking of castles…the architecture of the single and multifamily (2 and 4 plexes) are very similar to that we have in the northwest (USA). Now they have very few wood constructed homes. Most are concrete block structures, both single and two stories, with stone and plaster covering. This is basically the same look as we have using “Dri-vit” or stucco. The structure is very NW in exterior design. Most roofs are either comp, or slate, with a few being a more modern version of “Thatched”. Obviously, we have also seen a lot of the “old rock” structures, especially in the farming areas, and the very old plastered homes and shoppes in the towns. The next town of any size was Galway, and then a long run to Sligo, to Donegal and then a slight right following the border of The Republic of Ireland and North Ireland. At Castlefinn, we crossed into North Ireland for the 1st time. From there we followed the border again (this time on the North Ireland side) to Londonderry. It has been a long day, so it was time to find a campground for the night. Just outside of Magilligan on the Magilligan Strand. We are a few miles from the Giant’s Causeway, so that is in store for us tomorrow…and more