Day 6

Wow!  It has been a long day!  We woke up at 4:45 this morning in Belfast, Northern Ireland, boarded the bus at 6:00 with a "take-away" breakfast made by the hotel, and left on a ferry for Scotland at 7:30!

The ferry ride was two hours of fun for many as they toured around the many levels and rooms of the ferry.  It was like a cruise ship with lots to do!  I've seen some great pictures that people were able to take, too!  However, the rest of us were laying anywhere we could to try to sleep through the motion sickness - even with Dramamine!  A few people even discovered sea sickness for the first time!

We arrived in a very rainy Scotland around 9:30 and boarded our new bus with Kev, our Scottish bus driver that none of us understand!  Well, we're working on it. 

Kev drove us several hours north to Edinburgh (pronounced "Ed-in-burrow") where we stopped for a pre-dinner "snack" and some free time.  


We got some great pictures of Edinburgh Castle from afar and the William Wallace Statue.  

Remember Braveheart?  Mel Gibson played the part of William Wallace who was a hero in the Battle of Stirling.  I'm planning to watch that again when I return!

We were also able to take a few pictures of Stirling Castle as we passed on our way to the hotel.  The castles look just like what I had imagined they would.  So far we are LOVING Scotland.  We even had some beautiful weather this afternoon to really enjoy the scenery.

We are staying at Stirling University tonight.  So, the kids are getting a good idea of what it's like to live in a dorm!  They are loving it!


After our pre-dinner, we stopped by an old cemetery where our bus driver told us we could find a few people from Harry Potter.  This cemetery is across the street from the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling wrote the first HP book.  There were people walking all around the old cemetery.  So it did not take us long to find the grave site of Tom Riddle and Professor McGonagall!  The kids were excited to take their pictures next to the names and are looking forward to more Harry Potter adventure in London!

At 6:45, we were "played in" to the building for the Scottish Ceilidh by a Scot playing the Great Highland Bagpipes!  We found our seats and began the 4-course meal which included Scotland's national dish - Haggis!  We were a little slow to try them after we were told they were sheep innards.  Our tour guide tried to comfort us by telling us it was made out of the same things hot dogs are, but we informed him that was not really comforting! 

The Ceilidh lasted about 3 hours.  It was basically the story of Scotland told through music and dance.  We heard the violin, bagpipes and accordion along with singing and dancing!  It was really amazing.  I was afraid that it may have lost the students' attention, but when we boarded the bus afterwards, I asked them if they liked it, and they unanimously yelled "yes"!  It was an amazing immersion in the Scottish culture.

We are now in our rooms ready for a good night's sleep!  Tomorrow we will visit Edinburgh Castle, have some free time in Edinburgh and then take a train to London!  We are having an amazing time.  I hope you are getting great feedback from the kids! 

Have a wonderful evening!

Day 5

We are sitting in the hotel dining room waiting for our dinner as I write tonight.  It has been a lovely day!  We were all ready to get out of the city to see some of the Irish countryside, and we were not disappointed!

We left our hotel this morning at 8:00 a.m. and took an hour and a half hour's bus ride to Giant's Causeway on the coast.  Although there is a fun folk tale about how the rock formation was created, we learned that it was formed by a volcano eruption over 50 million years ago!  It was absolutely beautiful and so difficult to believe that it was a natural formation because it is perfectly geometric!

We had lunch in the town of Port Rush, Northern Ireland and then boarded the bus for Derry (or Londonderry, if you are loyal to the British Crown).  The ride was another hour or so, and then we stopped at a Visitor's Center for what our Tour Director calls an "insurance pee"! :)  While there, many of us were able to get our passports stamped with a souvenir stamp for Northern Ireland since we did not cross any type of hard border requiring our passports! 

Then, we met up with our Local Tour Guide, Ronan, whom we LOVED!  He was a fantastic guide and really helped us understand the conflict we've been hearing about for the past three days.  So here is the best synopsis I can give....

The Irish were living in Ireland when King James decided to send British loyalists over to "watch over" the Irish who were becoming rebellious.  The king then changed the name of Derry to Londonderry.  The conflict was basically two tribes who didn't get along and both claimed the land!  Eventually it became a disagreement and all out hatred between the Catholics from Ireland and the Protestants from England.

It has now been 18 years since the Good Friday Peace agreement in Northern Ireland and things are much better, but there is still much improvement to be made.  They still live across the river from each other and do not intermingle - even in schools!

Our tour guide also taught us a little about the story behind U2's song, "Sunday, Bloody Sunday".  It took place in 1972 which was the worst year of violence here - averaging 6 bombs a day just in Northern Ireland.  Bloody Sunday was actually a civil rights demonstration through the streets of Londonderry that ended in the shooting deaths of 13 civilians by the British Army.

After our walking tour, we boarded the bus and returned to our hotel for dinner.  We've just finished dinner and are off to our rooms for an early evening - hopefully - since we leave at 6:00 tomorrow morning!!  Our ferry leaves at 7:30 tomorrow morning to take us to Scotland!  It should be another fun-filled day!