Well, it's amazing what a good nights sleep will do for you! I woke up after my night on the love seat with my headache and fever gone, and my congestion much better. To be on the safe side, I accepted all offers of drugs given to me, so I made it through the day with the help of mucinex, Advil, some Irish cough medicine, and lots of cough drops.
I must say, none of our cottage occupants were sad to leave Hannah's close that morning - in fact a certain someone might have said something like "I'm so glad we're leaving this hellhole". We trekked our luggage through the little country lane out to the bus and made our way back along the coast to the pretty town of Downpatrick.
Most of our day was devoted to learning about and seeing some of the sights of St. Patrick. First of all, the church never canonized him, so he's not really a saint - who knew! We started out at the St. Patrick's Center, a museum dedicated to telling his story. It was very well-done, and we met the museum director there, who said he loves MN and comes ever year for the Irish Fair! The guys in our group also found the dress-up rack and had fun dressing up like monks and singing whatever random phrases of Latin they could remember like "carpe diem" and "Et tu, Brute"
We spent about an hour and a half there, and then walked over to the cathedral where Patrick is buried. It was a beautiful day out - we have had the most amazing weather here - not a single rainy day, which is unheard of. Now and then we've had some clouds, but otherwise it's been nothing but sun and temps in the 70's.
After seeing the big granite stone that marks his grave, we drove next to Saul Church, which was the site of Patrick's first church in Ireland. We didn't stop as we were on a tight schedule, but just did a quick drive-by for a photo op of the cute little stone church.
Grey Abbey was our final stop on the St. Patrick Trail, an old 10th century monastery, and one of the first examples of gothic architecture. It was cool seeing the ruins, but my favorite part was the medieval herb garden with all the medicinal plants. I had fun identifying them and seeng several varieties that I've studied but have never seen like valerian and wormwood.
We then caught the ferry from Strangford to Portaferry going across the Strangford Lough. The six minute ferry ride saved us about an hour and a half drive and put us right on the Ards Peninsula. We drove along the beautiful coast and stopped for lunch at a cool place called Harrison's, right on the water.
I hadn't eaten since my banana and yogurt for lunch the day before, and after perusing the delicious looking menu, my appetite finally returned! I ordered the creamy leek and potato soup with brown bread and butter, and also a "Cream Tea" - a fluffy scone, clotted cream, jam, strawberries, and a pot of tea! It was delicious, and everyone else loved their food too. We were a happy and full group when we met back on the bus.
Our final stop of the day was to see the estate called Mount Stewart, the home of Charles, 7th Marquess of Londonderry and his wife Lady Edith. I love touring historic houses, so this was right up my alley, and I was also hoping we'd have an opportunity to see one of the stately homes in Ireland, just to get some context on how English aristocracy was living in perspective to the Irish and how that could possibly cause some problems...
Politics aside, it was a beautiful home with lots of art and other treasures. Lady Edith was a big gardener, so the formal gardens were fabulous, and apparently the rest of the grounds are great too, but we didn't have time to explore the whole thing as we needed to get to Belfast and check in into our hotel.
The drive into the city took about an hour, and after sitting in traffic for a bit and then getting as far as the airport, mother announced that she wasn't very sure she liked Belfast. I told her you can't really judge a city by its airport, and 10 minutes later she'd changed her mind. We arrived on "Culture Night", a city-wide festival, and lots was going on - stages with music, bagpipers, art exhibits, and lots of happy people. Our hotel was right in the thick of all the festivities, and it was fun to be around such a fun atmosphere, especially first thing arriving in a new city.
We ate dinner in the hotel resturaunt, and then I went up to our room to shower and get ready for bed. Mother arrived about an hour later - she'd gone out exploring the festival and made friends with some band and a bunch of other random people. She kept exclaiming over how nice and happy everyone was and how much she loved Belfast!
After settling down a bit, we caught up in our emailing and journalling, and finally got to bed around midnight.
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