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Hey tks.

Good news here is that the 12th (326th anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne) passed without major incident up in Ulster, that being the season when the Unionists (AKA "Prods") march their grim Orange Order parades through Nationalist (AKA "Catholics" or "Republicans") areas. Nowadays with enormous police presence.

Also traditional for the Unionists to light tall bonfires on the night before (the 11th night). Unreal to see photos of where some of the places these things were built in Belfast.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-36780309

As good a place as any to post the pics of the two Orange Order lodges I seen parading through the Republican-majority town of Maghera ("Maherah") on Day 1 in Ireland, on that day in remembrance on the Centennial of the Battle of the Somme....



Stern-faced, determined marchers stonily ignored or quietly cursed by the few onlookers, Cops present.





Problem was the Native Irish never died off after the Scots-Irish took over Ulster, and indeed always outnumbered the Brits and their Scots-Irish allies in Ireland as a whole. Over the centuries atrocities were committed by both sides.

These Orange Order parades, often marched through Catholic neighborhoods, were a Protestant Unionist way of reminding everyone in Ulster who had won, and so naturally became a focal point of sectarian violence.

Thankfully, the historical gist seems to be that as political realities and generations change, those inclined to violence on both sides appear to be a shrinking minority. Usually we have reason for worry when the youth forget our history, but in this particular case, maybe not so much.




For those interested; the very roots of our Scots-Irish Frontier culture; Scots-Irish Presbyterians, as seen here at Tobermore Presbyterian Church....



Birdwatcher

The weird cows are either English or Belgiun blues.

Well dang, this sojourn in Ireland is coming to an end, I get the ferry to Cherbourg, France today.

First five days was 250 miles in a straight line southwest from Ballycastle to Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher.

The harbor at Ballycastle, far northeast end of Ireland, too small for anything but passenger-only ferries from Scotland.



First Irish breakfast upon landing, right on the harbor; the "big fry". Travelling by bicycle its all about the calories, ya eat like a starving wolf, grease is your friend.



Climbing out of Ballycastle away from the harbor...



In Ireland they don't buy so much firewood for their fireplaces as they do bags of coal, here seen outside a convenience store. I get the nostalgia, I myself can recall our fireplace being our only source of heat, even for hot water. The smell of coal smoke still takes me back.

Further south in the Republic you also find bricks of peat for sale, same places.



First view of the countryside. Yes Ireland is really, really green. Its green because it rains all the friggin' time and rarely freezes, both of these courtesy of the Gulf Stream.

The ideal on a bike trip is to crash out at night by the side of the road, failing that a campground. No campground? Then a hostel.

Ulster has few campgrounds and none at all away from the coast, no hostels that I found, and didn't look like a place to sleep in a tent in a quiet place. Consequently, the first two nights and 100 miles I stayed in hotels.

Here's the Walsh's Hotel in Maghera, same place the Orange Order parades went past.









'Nother shot of Irish green, here looking west towards the Sperrin Mountains, which I would cross into the teeth of blowing wind and rain, hardest cycling day so far.

The Saturday cattle auction at Draperstown.





..and the Sperrin Mountains in brief periods of time it weren't raining..

Day 3 in Ireland and the Republic at last.

Had to check; there was no "Welcome to the Republic of Ireland" sign. No border checkpoint, nada. Heck I could be here illegally fer all I know.

Here's the border southwest of Eniskillen.



...and a word on money. Since getting here I have carried Isle of Man pounds, English pounds, Scottish pounds, Ulster pounds and now I was into the realm of the Euro.

All of these have gotten away from paper to the point that the smallest paper currency is the 5 pound note (about $7.50) or the five euro note (about $6).

Ya end up carrying a lot of coins, I have to have a coin purse, its a pain.



Here was a surprise; freshly cut peat drying (ha ha) outside of Carrick-on-Shannon. Didn't see a bog, just a low spot with trees on it.





This was the end of the day and I was seriously tempted to camp there, but I pushed on and ended up camped out fer nothing on the grass behind a pub next to a canal. Two nights in a row I did the pub thing, making up for funds spent on hotels (like $90 per) in Ulster.



Bricks of peat for sale outside a convenience store.

Irish hair salon window...





A few days later, somewhere south and east of Limerick, a roadside monument to an IRA guy killed in a shootout with Irish Free State forces in 1923. This monument not put up IIRC until 2009.



Irish history is different from ours. I was in a pub listening to some guys b&tch about Maggy Thatcher for not giving in to the IRA hunger strikers back when. Heck at the time my sentiments were gratitude that she didn't give in to the murdering, terrorist bastards. Still is.

Thing is about the Irish is that they are stubbornly retro. and have their own way of doing things. Gaelic football and hurling still occupy most of the sports pages, traditional music and dance is mainstream.

The bad part of all that historically is that it extended to warfare and weapons. This is a representation of an Iron Age Irishman (500 BC??) at a cultural center.



The thing is, 2,000 years later the conquering English Armies under Elizabeth would run into basically the exact same guy. Same thing in the next century under Cromwell. And skipping backwards a few centuries before Cromwell, we've all seen this guy as an extra in Braveheart.

Speaking of Elizabeth, Ireland is full of ruined churches. Fer example I was given to understand Elizabeth had this one built, but that the next Century the Prods under Cromwell burned it and knocked it down.




Point of interest; according to the museum staff, the very first Irishman killed with a firearm was shot within sight of that church in the early 1600's by an Englishman. The staff had it that the Irish preferred to fight with blades.

Quick update; mon premier nuit en France was a quiet spot in the woods near St. Brieuc. 75 mile day yesterday, 'nother 75 intended today a Mont St. Michel, same again after that to Normandy.

I am way behind on posting pics, but here's a sobering one outside of Morlaix....

Great pics, Mike!

Thanks, and continued hopes for your safety.

No worries, out in Bretagne where I have been there is no sign of the looming demographic catastrophe occurring in France as a whole. They did have gendarmes with hardware present at the approaches to Mont St. Michel.

Anyone who has a 5yo granddaughter will know that it looks like someplace Princess Barbie might live....



Actually it sits way the heck out there on the flats in the middle of nowhere in a setting flat, arid and sunny, reminiscent of the Texas coast.

It is a work of architectural genius and I am glad we didn't have to blow it up in WW II. Speaking of which I am sitting in a cafe in Avaranches near a Sherman tank and a tall monument to Americans in that war. Likewise on the way in there was a marker commemorating how Patton liberated the area on his way through France.

Interesting stuff.

Photo for the day: The Patton Memorial, Avranches, Normandy.



Surprised the heck out of me, but Patton is regarded with much gratitude around here, as the impeccably maintained (fresh coat of paint on that Sherman) monument indicates.

On my way to St. Lo/Bayeax now.

Birdwatcher

Update and some pics....

The Bayeux Tapestry, 70 yards long, 1,000+ years old. Absolutely friggin' amazing. For those out of the loop it a woven narrative of the event as leading up to William the Conqueror's victory at Hastings in 1066...

The American Cemetery above Omaha Beach; much visited, surprisingly beautiful grounds, profoundly moving.



I was on Omaha Beach talking to a French gentleman, told him I had come to see the invasion beaches. "No, not invasion" he corrected me "liberation".

Looking west towards Pointe du Hoc



and east towards Gold Beach



Ruined German gun position on Pointe du Hoc



and the cliff those Rangers climbed....



I'm in St Mare-Eglise tonight, 30 days and more'n 1,000 miles on the bicycle so far, another 400 miles ahead back up through England and I'm done.

Got a boatload of pics when I get time.

Birdwatcher

fantastic thread Birdy

thanks for takin us along

Tks and yer welcome.

I gotta say if I ain't already that travelling in Europe ain't all that different from travelling in America anymore; a free mingling of people and languages, compared to how it was anyway.

Places I ain't been though are the big cities, where the Muslim enclaves are growing exponentially.

Anyways, just north of Carentan yesterday...



St. Come-du-Mont, 72 years ago swarming with fallshirmjager...



Dead Man's Corner....





...and the view from there looking south down Purple Heart Lane towards Carentan, 72 years ago a death trap; an open elevated roadbed running between flooded fields....

Thanks Mike!

That's a sobering look into the past, to a time when our country and men had some balls and took a stand against evil.

Quick update; on the evening ferry back to England a day sooner than expected (I was there already, and so was a ferry).

These ain't the White Cliffs of Dover like I had originally intended (didn't have the time in France fer another 250 miles to Calais) but they'll do...

40 days and 1,400 miles and I'm done, back in Blackpool now. In the 'States my mileage would be about exactly twice that but detail and history lay much thicker on the ground over here.

OK, random Irish pics.



Damn, I'm gonna miss the National Ploughing Championships...
http://www.npa.ie/



Athenry east of Galway, founded 1235 by the Norman invaders, they hadda put a wall up to keep the Irish out, who were decidedly uncouth at that time.





..and the ruined priory in Athenry. Ireland is full of church ruins. They were Catholic forever, then the 16th Century English under Elizabeth I built a bunch of Anglican/Church of England (later Church of Ireland) churches, then Cromwell's army tore down all of those a Century later.

Thank you for the recent posts Birdie, I am thoroughly enjoying them.

For the record, the Irish are still uncouth...it is why we let them in here.