Ireland – A Travelogue Part Two
Part Two
May 26-28
We left at 7:00 AM to get to Kansas City and the airport for a 3:16 PM flight to Chicago. My son, Danny, lives nearby and he was taking us to the airport and keeping my car at his house. It costs so much to park at the airport and you never really know if you’ll come back to a trashed vehicle, so we were grateful for his help.
I was so excited! I had packed the car the night before, only leaving one of my carry on bags to throw together in the morning after doing my hair and putting on my makeup. Now, I know for a fact that my daughter had her doubts about going on a trip with me. I would test the soul of a saint with my forgetfulness and I was testing her right from the start. I was actually running on time, so that wasn’t it. However, we got about five miles down the road and all of a sudden, I developed a terrible stomach ache. I told her, “We need to turn around. I forgot my passport.”
When we got back to my house, I retrieved my passport (and my credit card, hair brush, toothbrush, and shampoo). On the road again…
When we got to Danny’s house, we spent a little time visiting with my grandkids and then he loaded us up to get to the airport a couple of hours ahead of the departure. Kansas City is not a huge airport and even though new recommendations are to arrive THREE HOURS ahead of departure our travel agent, Denise, assured us that two hours would give us plenty of leeway. She was right and everything went smoothly during check in. I was mistakenly under the impression that we had secured Economy + tickets. The flight to Chicago was short, so it wasn’t awful, and on the flight from Chicago to Dublin, there was no one in the 3rd seat and we were very grateful for the extra room. Economy worked just fine for us! Laura was able to sleep a little during the 6 1/2 hour flight, but I just couldn’t. I’ve never been able to sleep on a plane – it’s so noisy!
That first day was spent mostly on the coach driving from Dublin to Belfast. The scenery was beautiful, but I was running on fumes and I honestly don’t remember much. I dozed off and on.
Our dinner that night at the Morning Star restaurant in Belfast was luscious. We had onion jam glazed pork belly for starters. The main dish was a 6 oz. sirloin steak, confit tomato, lager battered onions, and chips. The dessert was an elderflower panna cotta, poached rhubarb, and mint jelly. I have some advice if you come from a beef producing state: do not expect much in the way of beef while in Ireland. In this case, it was buoyed by the sides.
We needed a good dinner and a good night’s sleep because the next day was FULL of sightseeing. We started with a coach tour of the city central. Beautiful buildings are all around and the gardens were beautifully groomed. Lots of people took advantage of the warm weather and all the outdoor spaces were busy with tourists and locals alike.
Shankill Road and The Falls Road are important landmarks that tell the story of “The Troubles”. That period of time when Protestants and Catholics from Northern Ireland clashed violently for roughly 30 years. If you do not know about those years, may I suggest watching any one of the hundreds of available YouTube videos. Actually, the history of conflict goes back hundreds of years and is a lot more complicated than religious disagreements. It’s a sad history.
We got to visit the Peace Wall and the gates, which in the past especially during The Troubles, were only opened during specific times of the day to allow legal passage on the sidewalk from one side of the city to the other. The walls and the surrounding hills once were manned and observed by “militia” from both camps and the walls kept getting taller and taller as troublemakers became expert at throwing bombs over. We each took the time to sign the Peace Wall and I said a prayer for the Northern Irish people. I grew up watching all the violence on TV, much like growing up with footage of the Vietnam War, and it really brought back some thought-provoking memories.
Our next stop was at The Titanic Belfast museum, which is located on the exact site of the shipyard where the Titanic was built and launched. After I explored the museum, I purchased a sandwich in the museum shop and took it outside to enjoy the beautiful, warm weather. Everyone started trickling out of the museum and meeting up where we had planned. Time for a group picture! DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR LUNCH! A dirty, rotten, sneaky seagull stole my sandwich! It was pretty funny. He took the wrapper and sack with him, like he spent his own money on it. Well… he did have the receipt!
The next stop in Belfast was the Crumlin Road Gaol (jail). It was a huge, gruesome facility that was operational during the 19th and 20th centuries, closing in 1996. Young and old Loyalists were jailed for minor and major crimes. The exhibits were both fascinating and disgusting. It would take many hours to go through all the exhibits, but we did not have that kind of time. It was quite a hike back to the coach!
Dinner that evening was at Restaurant CoCo. Another wonderful restaurant with beautifully presented food! We had our choice of 3 starters, 3 mains, and 3 desserts. It was so hard to decide! My daughter loves fish and that’s what she had at dinner almost every time it was offered. She also enjoyed Irish Stew. I typically ordered whatever chicken dish was presented and I was never disappointed. Of course, with every lunch and dinner, we had our choice of Irish Coffees, Guinness, and whatever cocktail we fancied. I’ve never been a whiskey fan, but I did grow quite fond of Irish Coffee.
We covered a lot of territory in these two days and we were very grateful that we were staying in the same hotel we did the previous night. We did A LOT OF WALKING! Our accommodations for the two nights we spent in Belfast were at the Ibis City Centre. It was beautiful! One thing Denise warned us about is that they do not use washcloths in Europe. What’s up with that? So, most of us brought our own old holey washcloths and then threw them away because we didn’t want to pack anything wet in our suitcase. That was a tip from Denise. It also took Laura and I a few days to get used to the half-walled showers and the water taps that were different everywhere we stayed. If I got a decent temperature, I just went with it! The lights were another matter. Most of the hotels we stayed at, we had to use our room key card to turn on the lights. We brought electric plug-in converters, but some of the rooms we stayed in still didn’t make sense to us! An inconvenience we forgot about after a good nights’ rest and another nourishing breakfast.
Just like in the states, breakfast was included in our stay. The pastries and fruit were my favorites. I tried to eat some protein and discovered that their bacon was more like very thinly sliced fried ham. That was about the best I could do. Black pudding (or blood sausage) is a staple in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, but I passed on that. Several in our group tried the black pudding and really liked it. They were the brave ones! Since I’m so picky, especially with meat, I never tried any of the sausages.
If you like history, here are a couple of videos that will help you understand the dynamics and conflicts between the two countries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE3wAvnsx6c (Not for young children due to violence)
Northern Ireland vs Ireland: 7 KEY Differences in 2026
