Wednesday 31 July 2013 /Thursday 1 August 2013
Well today we travelled to Northern Ireland. When we landed in Belfast (where it was bucketing rain) we found out that the World Police and Fireman games were being held in Belfast. This caused a slight hiccup as Anne had not booked a hire car and for a moment or two we thought we would not have any wheels. The lovely lady at the airport help desk came to the rescue and we got a car! The Irish adventure started... After we left the airport we made a wrong turn and we ended up in a Loyalist area. I was fascinated as there were British flags on display everywhere as well as paintings and flags depicting the Ulster Defence. While Anne was trying to work out how the hell to get out of there and making sure our doors were locked I was busy taking photos!!!!!!
We finally worked out how to get out of there and journeyed to Armagh (and we did get lost a few times on the way and every time we got lost I got the giggles and told Anne to think of it as an adventure).
We arrived at Seamus and Dimpna's home / farm and this would be our base for the next few days... We spent the next couple of days catching up with Anne's family, especially Uncle Patrick. Uncle Patrick is Anne's fathers brother and he is now in his mid 80's and the last remaining member of the Grimes family. We had a lot of fun and, as the irish do, we drank, laughed and talked till the wee hours of the morning. As the Irish would say we had good craic!
I was taken up the hills to St. Patrick's chair (which is rock formation in the shape of a chair) to make a wish. Legend has it that your wish will come true so let's wait and see!!!!!
I met so many cousins, etc and felt like part of the family. So much so I have now been invited to 2 weddings ......
