Land Cruise to Derry

Peace Bridge over the River Foyle in Derry

On Friday, the Northern contingent of the Irish Cruising Club held their Autumn lunch in Derry. I had not been to Derry and have wanted to visit for ages. This was a good excuse. We have a nice new car, the drive is only 3.5 hours, and the north beckoned before Brexit. So I booked a B&B just inside the old walled city near the Bishop's Gate. The restaurant, Brown's of Bonds Hill, was on the other side of the river.

What we didn't know when we booked is that Alex was going to be in agony. His back, injured when he was a young man, took a turn for the worse while he was in Dublin for his long-range radio certification class. He couldn't walk any distance and could only be comfortable while seated. So being in the car was okay, sitting in the restaurant was okay. Walking was not. But it was all worth it.

Derry was a remarkable experience for many reasons. The drive up was gorgeous - a sunny but crisp day with lots of autumnal colour, something I'd been missing in Ireland. It seems that this year, the leaves have remained on the trees long enough to turn. In years past, they've been blown off or dried out into brown crisps by gales. We haven't had strong winds since Hurricane Lorenzo passed through. The road passed along Loch Foyle and, remarkably, Google dropped us off right in front of the restaurant. I parked the car in the last remaining spot on the street, and we had a fabulous three-course lunch. Lots of chatter with new friends and old ones. A truly convivial experience.

After we'd checked into our B&B townhouse and carried the luggage up five flights to the top floor, I got lucky and found a parking space in a residential lot, the only free parking in the city, I learned later. We tried to see some of the city, but Alex couldn't walk very far without stopping to take a break. The walls were right in front of our building so we at least managed a glimpse of the massively constructed ancient fortification, which is paved along the top. Tanks could have travelled along these walls. We walked to the Bishop's Gate and down to the River Foyle, past the Guild Hall, and saw the Peace Bridge. We could see the Tower Museum but didn't get to it, nor to the churches recommended for a visit. Next time.

We then worked our way back to the B&B from the pub, to Bistro, to pub, stopping for drinks, light supper, and more drinks. It was all very interesting.

Back in the room, we watched a Star Trek movie we hadn't seen, and relaxed as the sky started to threaten. The back of the building faces a central courtyard with several ruined buildings mixed in with some beautifully restored ones. We wondered what had happened there.

In the morning, we met our host, Kieran. Terribly nice man. He told us about growing up in NI, the history of the area, and his return to Derry after many years abroad. The area behind the Townhouse had been a convent, and the building we had been looking down on was the laundry. That knowledge lent a whole different meaning to the place. It is about to be re-developed by a community group.

We had a nice breakfast but the day was bleak. It had rained and hailed viciously overnight and was now just drizzling. Not a great day for walking the walls. So we got in the car and drove home uneventfully by a totally different route than the one we came out on. It, too, was lovely and wooded. We talked about the different aspects of our brief trip to Derry the whole way home.