Slept okay, not great, but okay – dreamt that someone shot themselves, so probably not ideal.
Down for breakfast at a reasonable time, Kate stayed in bed to get some beauty sleep, me and Sian don’t need that anymore!. Great normal Premier breakfast, and we made Kate a bacon sandwich, then checked out. As we went for down the hotel had a massive leak of water from above reception, we guessed that someone had left the bath on, i guess that is an occupational hazard in hotel, but not seen it before, the water was pi%%ing down through the ceiling.
As we didn’t get to Derry last night we went down and parked in a dodgy place, recommended by the hotel lady. We walking thought he new “city of culture” square, and across the peace bridge (TM), into Derry itself. As it was Sunday and early, we walked the walls in relative quite, although nearin the end we met three guided fat American tours. You would not believe the size of the behinds of some of them. We made the circuit in quick time, seeing the all too reality of large fences at the loyalist end, and the IRA writing on the roofs of Bogside – it does make you think – and Kate worried.
After the quick tour of Derry it was time to get on the road to the continent, and within 20 mins we were on “top of the world”, and Kate and Sian shouted from the top. This was some sort of fort, which was tall, and well made, but not very big inside. It was about a six bedroom, with no second lounge sort of thing. The views were immense. This journey had some of the odd up and down roads again, which are fun, until you begin to get scared of hurting the car. Back into UK, the out again, then back in and the next stop was Omaghn. These places are quite sobering, in the sense of death and nonsense reasons, ut also have very little open on a Sunday morning. we did find a bar, and I accidental ordered a beer. Quick Heiniken, Latte and Coke and we headed off, with my head slightly spinning, into Enniskilling.
A day of town visits I guess today, but this was supposed to be good – it wasn’t great, I probably wouldn’t bother again – but we saw the square where the bomb went off, I realise this seems like a tour of bomb sites, but unfortunately a lot of N. Iron had it. We also had some food – which was good. Unfortunately we had a bit of an issue when I parked up, as I was looking for a toilet and had to walk for 2 miles to find it, I had my camera bad over my shoulder and was crossing my legs slightly – I had a lot of looks from normal people and quite a few from the mincers. We probably stayed too long here, but the pub was “busy” and it took ages for food – although Sian and kate had a free beer from it, I didn’t as by this time I had already had a couple of beers. we left and headed for the subterranean tunnels.
We finally got there about three thirty, and the queue was an hour long, as we had another hour plus home, we decided against it – thank christ. It would have been good to do it, but I was knackered, and the thought of leaving over two hours later made we happy for the choice. After an hour we arrived in Sligo and the Glasshouse. We parked underground and watched a dude slip over in front of us as we went in – which I am sure made him a little embarrassed – he even said sorry to us! We squeezed into a parking space (later we realised there was another two floors) and then checked in – cool room. Bathroom not as good as the room, but the room was massive and we had a balcony.
Down the bar, then into Sligo. We had some beers in some nice pubs – none serving food, but eventually we got to the final feeding pub. Looked great, really liked the interior, and they were obviously busy. I spoke to the waiter and he told me to have the rib eye. It was shit. As a “starter”, they gave us a loaf of really tasty bread with butter and a chilli “marmalade”, it was good. My steak looked good, the meat was grand, but it had bad fat and tough bits, it was rib eye from gods sake – the onion rings and thick chips were under cooked. I told the serving wench (the main man didn’t come back) and she didn’t seem to either give a shit, or know what to do. Sian’s was great, Kate’s wasn’t.
We seemed to get a beer for free, but no one came back over, and Sian paid to save me having a moan, so we came back to the hotel for a final beer – then bed – in our large, comfy room…!
Derry Walls – 6/10
The fort (views) – 7/10
Omaghn – 5/10
Enniskillen – 5/10
Roads – 6/10 (some 10/10)
Hotel – 8/10
Sligo – 7/10
Food – 5/10
Shower – 3/10