On Friday we took a trip to the south heading from Ballyliffin through Carndonagh to Quigley's Point to Muff to Derry, long ago known as Londonderry. Again we are passing into British Territory, known as Northern Ireland.
You would never know that you were crossing into another country unless you were looking at a map or noticed the British flags flying. Today we passed through an enormous amount of "Calming Zones" known as round-a-bouts. If you are not familiar with where you are going, it is definitely a two person job to maneuver through these because the driver must watch the on coming cars and the shot gun must read the signs of where to get off. I told Larry that when the next city is not on the sign you could just keep going around and around not knowing where the feck (an Irish term) to get off. (I'm sure you can imagine the two words that created that term.)
Derry was in the world's headlines when British troops shot dead 13 demonstrators in 1972. The English and Irish finally resolved their differences in 1994.
We found our way to the City Center and crossed over the River Foyle, parking at the Ebrington Square, an old Walled Fort that had been renovated for the opening of the Peace Bridge in 2011.
Inside the Old Walled Fort!
The Peace Bride is just behind me.
We walked
across the Peace Bridge wondering why it had taken so long for Derry to
create this masterpiece when the civil unrest had been over for so
many years. 
We enjoyed walking across the Peace Bridge.
Today we were headed to the Walled City of Derry. Built back in 1618 from orders of Queen Elizabeth I, the City Wall was built to defend the new merchant city from Gaelic Chieftains in Donegal. The walls measure 26 feet in height and 30 feet in width and have never been breached, not even during the siege in 1689 when 7000 of the local 20,000 people perished from disease or starvation. Among the best preserved city fortifications in Europe, it was so amazing to walk along the top of these old walls. Eight church steeples were within close proximity. The first church built here by St Columba around 546 AD.
Oldest church in the walled city.
One of four original entrances into the Walled City
Original cannons of long ago
We stopped in a UK Bank to get some money exchanged. We were astonished to find that each area has their own dignitary on their paper bills. The bank clerk happened to ask how long we were going to be in Northern Ireland. Larry told her that we were actually leaving and would need the sterling for our trip to Sumerset on the mainland of the United Kingdom. She proceeded to tell us that they may not take the Northern Ireland bills so she gave us bills with Queen Elizabeth on them. Each area such as Scotland or Northern Ireland have their own money printed, but sometimes they are not acceptable in a different area. How can that be in one of the richest countries in the world?
We had lunch and then drove back to Ballyliffin, enjoying the cloudy, rainless day. The scenery here is stunning along the Foyle bay. Simply a lovely day in Northern Ireland.
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