31 July: Peadar O'Donnells

Yesterday we walked into Derry. M and Steve wanted to watch some of the Dublin Super Cup football (i.e. soccer) match. The game wasn't being televised on any of the channels we get, as sports channels are premium upgrades for most cable and satellite packages here. We looked in the windows of several pubs to see if they had the game on. When we arrived at Peadar O'Donnells, a Derry pub known for traditional Irish music, we were surprised to see that there were signs for music but the TVs were on and tuned to the game. Surely, they couldn't be planning both music AND the game, could they? But that's what they were planning: one room of the bar had the game and the other had a local trio. The guys got front row seats at the bar in the room showing the game and I got to listen to Irish music. Something for everyone! :)

Now it's time for me to walk to St Columb's Park and pick up M after the first day of his soccer camp.

28 July: Cars 2

Hi. It's M. I went to the movie Cars 2. I liked both Cars movies but they were very different because in Cars it could happen except for the cars talking and in Cars 2 it has a lot of James Bond-like stuff.

Mom and I joked that the previews were almost as good as the movie. The best 2 were Puss in Boots, where the narrator says "Nothing can distract him from his brave quest" and then he starts chasing a spot of light around, and then there was a short Toy Story film. In the short film, Barbie and Ken try to stow away to Hawaii and after failing, the other toys make pretend Hawaii. When they spread the sand, Buzz says in Spanish "We removed the poop from the kitty litter" and then Mrs. Potato Head says "Oh, Spanish is such a beautiful language"!

We had dinner at Gary and Laura's. They both work at Seagate like Daddy.

16 July: Tower Museum

We're spending the weekend in Derry, after being on the road the last few. The weather is rainy and very cold (13 C, 55 F) so we decided to go to the Tower Museum. M and I went the first week we were here but Steve hadn't been yet. Also there is a temporary exhibit on megaliths in Northern Ireland that Steve and I wanted to see.

The temporary exhibit is developed by a local Young Archeologists Club and had great information about the different types of megalithic tombs, which include court tombs, stone circles, and passage tombs. The types are classified by the number of chambers, shapes of the chambers, and court tombs have an uncovered u-shaped court in front.

A staff member at the Museum built wooden models that can be taken apart and rebuilt. M enjoyed building the tombs.

Once we entered the permanent "Story of Derry" exhibit, a staff member showed us a tomb that had been found near Derry and moved to the museum. In the tomb's cover, he showed us a face carved into the stone. Can you see it?

At the end of the "Story of Derry exhibit," there is a table with blocks that look like the city walls and the buildings within the walls. M played with the blocks and built the High Cross Town that he wrote about in his post today.

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16 July: High Cross Town, UK (Tower Museum)

Hello to all in my fourth post!! (This is M). We went to the Tower Museum (more on that from Mom) and at the end there was a wooden village with a temple/church and castle inside wooden walls!! You were allowed to move everything around... so I did and made High Cross Town! It's one of the few UK towns to have democracy since the Middle Ages. In High Cross Town, the houses were closer to the walls so that everything was protected. There are three regions, which are Kildare, Ulacht and Napoleon. What I think should be the top 5 attractions in High Cross Town:

5. "Airborne Albus"

Description:

A cannon on top of the city walls. Closest to the south entrance, it gets its name from the period which it sat on top of the south entrance, which was 1552-1975.

4. The Southwest Point Museum

Description:

One of the six lookouts on the walls, it no longer remains one (a lookout) but a museum, mainly showing High Cross Town from 1489 (when it reached 1,003 people) to 1975 (end of the famines and Airborne Albus's reign).

3. The Citizen House

Description:

The house where the citizens and current government come together to decide important decisions (and, every decade, to recap it all). They first came together in 1481 and will celebrate their 250th meeting in 2015 when they choose the new president!!

2. Bri Temple

Description:

This is where from 1975 to the present day they worship Zeus (yes, they believe in the Greek gods and yes, this is 73 feet in the air and overlooking the sky). Why 1975? When the famines ended, they thought it was Zeus that stopped Hades (the famines) and ever since have worshipped him. (Bri means Power).

1. Border Castle

Description:

A castle that was built in 1399 (finished in 1481) that represents High Cross Town united together. It has Kildare's flag (green with a blue cross like the Scottish flag), Ulacht's flag (red with a white stripe), Napoleon's flag (yellow with a black canary), HCT (High Cross Town)'s flag (green with a white stripe and a black canary) and the UK flag. The 30-minute tour is totally worth it! The prices are: Adult=£10.00 Senior=£7.50 Child (u17)=£5.00 Family=£19.99.

Mom has some stuff (see way, way above this). Next from me: 5th post!! Woo-hoo!

8 July: Recap of Soccer Camp

Hallo, it's M! I had a great time at soccer camp! We played the Mini World Cup today to end it all.

My Career Stats:

Goals: 3

Assists: 3

World Cup Assists: 1

Matches: 35

Starts: 32

World Cup Matches: 5

Club: Oranges=7 matches

Greens=23 matches

National Team: Holland=4 matches

Northern Ireland=1 match (sub on)

The Mini World Cup was made up of Argentina, Northern Ireland and Holland. I think either Northern Ireland or Holland won it all.

I got a Nutty Krust goodie bag for participating. Along with some other things, it had a loaf of bread and a funny sticker that said "Do you know the Muffin Man?"

7 July: Top of the Hill Park

After I dropped M off at soccer camp this morning, I drove up to Top of the Hill park, where a taxi driver had recommended we go to take pictures of the city. What a beautiful view! I walked the park for about half an hour, taking loads of photos looking down on Derry.

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M continues to enjoy soccer camp and promises an update after tomorrow's mini-world cup! And then we are off to Dublin for a long weekend.

6 Jul: Rainbow

We didn't see a leprechaun or a pot of gold, but we did see the rainbow.

4 July: Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July to everyone at home!

The 4th isn't a holiday here, not even for Americans at Seagate. But Steve reports that the Seagate cafeteria decorated for the 4th and served hot dogs and other barbecue foods for lunch. There was even a band playing in the corner.

M started soccer school today and was excited to write his first post about it. I am sure he will have more to report as the week goes on.

We have our own barbecue planned for tonight. Here are the fixings.


No fireworks, though.

25-26 June: More pictures

Here are links to more pictures from our weekend. First, the Peace Bridge events and then Inishowen.

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Click here to view these pictures larger

25 June: Peace Bridge opens!

One of the first events we heard about when we found out we'd be in Derry this summer was the opening of the Peace Bridge, a pedestrian bridge connecting the downtown to the Waterside. Our townhouse is on the Waterside, so we have been excited for the opening. Two annual summer events, the Carnival of Colours (in our favorite St Columb's Park) and the One World Festival (in Guildhall Square, just outside the city walls) were planned to coincide with the bridge opening this year. The Walled City Market, an open air market that usually has stalls in Guildhall Square once a month, had an extra weekend date for the bridge opening.

We started our morning by taking the bus to town. We (ok, I) shopped the market, getting some curry sauces, a pair of earrings, and an art print. We walked into the Diamond, the area inside the walls, for lunch and, then walked through the Craft Village and Guildhall Square to listen to live music. We especially enjoyed local musician and DJ Aidan Logan. We rode the bus to St Columb's to see the Carnival. M enjoyed an improv group's tennis match. Steve got to see the playground for the first time.

At about 3:30pm, we joined the queue to cross the bridge for the first time. Halfway across, we saw and said hello to Caroline, who had given us a ride home from the Derry FC game last Friday! The long queues on both sides of the river spoke to how excited Derry citizens are to have the bridge to connect the Cityside (traditionally Catholic) with the Waterside (traditionally Protestant). We were glad to be able to celebrate with Derry. After crossing, we had an early dinner at Wetherspoon's before walking back across the river. On our second crossing, we saw our landlord and his assistant. We stopped back at the Carnival and then walked home.

this weekend in Derry

Just a quick note to share an article on the opening of Derry's new Peace Bridge.

22 Jun 2011: Quiet Week

Yep, we're still here. We've been sticking closer to home since our weekend in Donegal. M and I did go to the Riverwatch Aquarium at the Lough Agency yesterday. The exhibits are well-done but the aquarium is very small -- we spent more time on the two buses to get there than it took us to see all of the aquarium. Steve took the land yacht to be repaired and offered to pick us up at the aquarium. We were glad for the ride. We now have a Ford Focus, which is a step down from the Passat, but, as it's easier to drive a small car on the roads here and to get in and out of parking spaces, Steve is threatening to refuse to swap back after the Passat is repaired.

Other than the aquarium, we've been sticking to our usual haunts, the library, the grocery, and the parks. Tomorrow night, we are going to the Firebox Grill for dinner and Saturday is the opening of the Peace Bridge and, coinciding with the Peace Bridge opening, the Carnival of Colours.





Had to share couple of labels. "Change the world or go home."

Derry F.C. wins 3-0!

We started the weekend by going to the Derry F.C. game against Bohemians F.C. (who are one of three teams based in Dublin). The game is a big rivalry. Our taxi driver helped us find the shop that sells tickets, saving us from wandering the neighborhood, and a family of season ticket holders showed us a section of seats near mid-field that were marked "Reserved" but which are always empty. The stadium isn't as large as I had expected and I think all of the seats would have a good view of the field.

One section at the end of the stadium was reserved for Bohemians fans, who were a noisy and aggressive crowd. At the end of the game, we met Caroline and Mike, Derry residents and avid fans, who told us that because of the rivalry, the defection of the Derry manager to Bohemians, and a little racist attitude on the part of a few Bohemians fans toward Derry's top scorer Eamon Zayed (who scored two of Derry's 3 goals on Friday and who M tells me is the league's top scorer), the visiting fans on Friday night behaved much worse than fans usually do at the games. Caroline was worried that a fight would break out in the street after the game and insisted on giving us a ride home rather than have us wait for a cab. Another example of how kind people are here. In talking, we learned that Caroline has several aunts in the Minneapolis area. What a coincidence!

And, of course, it's always good when the home team wins.

Friday 17 June 2011

Yep, we're still here. It's been a quiet few days after our trip to Portrush on Tuesday. This morning, we checked out another branch of the Northern Ireland libraries, one that is walkable from our townhouse but in a direction we hadn't walked before this morning. While the Waterside branch is smaller than Derry Central, Waterside does have a larger children's area and M found many books he'd like to read.

Now we're home for a quiet afternoon, before the start of a busy weekend. Tonight we are going to see Derry F.C. (football club, football meaning what Americans call soccer) play and tomorrow M is going to a birthday party. After the party we are driving to County Donegal and spending Saturday night in Bunbeg. I'll post photos on Sunday or Monday.

Have a good weekend!

A Trip to the Dentist

When Steve was helping M floss his teeth the other night, one of M's fillings popped out. No pain to M, just a hole where the filling used to be. Steve asked one of the Springtown managers, who has four kids, for a dentist recommendation and learned that the manager has a cousin who is a dentist and whose practice is five minutes from our townhouse. Katherine, the dentist, was able to see M this morning. She quickly cleaned the tooth and filled the cavity, in much less time than it has ever taken a dentist to fill one of my cavities. Steve and I were impressed with how good she was with M. Before we left the States, I scheduled an appointment for M with his regular dentist for a cleaning and now am glad for the timing.

After the appointment, Steve went back to work and M and I filled our day with postcard writing (M), cleaning (me), and a walk to the playground at St Columb's.

We also learned that M will be invited to a birthday party this weekend. He is excited to meet some kids and to play laser tag.

Exploring the City

We've been taking advantage of the local buses to explore more of the city. On Wednesday we went to the Tower Museum and walked the city walls. The Tower Museum has two main exhibits: a history of Derry and an exhibit about La Trinidad Valencera, a ship from the Spanish Armada that sunk outside Derry in 1588 and was excavated in the 1970s. Both exhibits were well done. We learned were that Derry means 'Oak' and that Springtown, the part of town where Seagate is, was formerly a World War II American naval base. I also enjoyed the short film about Derry as a seaport for Irish sailing to North America. M liked reading about the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). M wrote a few postcards when we got home.

Yesterday, we headed back to St. Columb's Park. In the afternoon, we rode back into the city and walked along the river. Steve met us at the end of the footpath and we all had dinner at Chilli's. Dinner was yummy.

And, today, we rode the bus back in to pick up some odds and ends for the townhouse. Steve met us for lunch at the cafe at the top of Austin's department store. It was a clear afternoon and the views from the restaurant were well worth the cafeteria lines. After Steve headed back to Seagate, M and I walked to the Derry Central Library and got library cards. We both found several books -- even though we're also both in the middle of great reads on our Kindles! :)

This weekend, the plan is to drive to Giant's Causeway tomorrow and for me to practice driving in town on Sunday. "Stay to the left, stay to the left, stay to the left."

M's comment on being caught in a couple of brief rain showers this week: "Of course, you're going to get wet in Ireland. Well, if you stayed inside all day, you wouldn't. But then you wouldn't get to see St. Columb's Park and a bunch of other awesome stuff, so that wouldn't be good."

Our first day (6 Jun 2011)

M and I arrived last night. Uneventful travel = my favorite. M was very excited that the newsstand in Heathrow's Terminal 1 had Match Attax cards. Steve picked us up in Belfast and then we went to dinner at Icon, just 5 minutes from our townhouse.

Steve took the day off today to show us around town and to help us run some errands. I got a cell phone and we picked up some groceries. We walked about a quarter of the way around the city walls. Later in the afternoon, we went to Kilfennen Park, which is about a 5 minute walk from our townhouse. Steve and M brought a soccer ball and practiced passing and defending.

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