We left the castle yesterday and traveled northeast to Glenveagh National Park. It was a “liquid sunshine” day but it cleared for a bit while we were in the park. The castle tours in the park were booked up but we had a lovely walk around the castle area along the lake as the drizzle dried up for the time we were there. It’s a lovely spot in the middle of some rough, mountainous territory.
Then it was on to Derry or Londonderry (“the first six letters are silent”, as we were told by a Dublin family earlier in our trip). The name controversy relates to “The Troubles” that were focused here in the Catholic/Protestant communities, culminating in “Bloody Sunday” in 1972. We’re not sure if all of the differences have been fully set aside(see the sign we saw from the wall below), but the city’s history and name illustrate the difficulties.
We’re staying at Bishop’s Gate Hotel, which is within the walled city and appears to be a wonderful location from which to explore the area. We walked along part of the top of the wall last evening after having a great luner in the pub within the hotel. They were also having a wedding show in the hotel, so Laura enjoyed talking with one of the hosts about how weddings are done in Derry. He wasn’t aware of any flute quartets working in the area but most of the recent weddings involved more traditional Irish bands.
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