Out looking for trouble (29th July)

Another 9am start, but this time we leave the Palace to go on the famous Belfast Black Cab tour. The great thing about these 2 hour trips is that they spend half the time in the Catholic suburbs and half in the Protestant suburbs. The drivers give a very balanced account of the history. We have to ask at the end for him to clarify which religion he is because we can't tell. Seeing the murals and the horrendously tall peace wall makes it all very real - and shows just how close these two communities lived to each other. The gates in the peace wall are still closed every night to keep each community on their side of the fence. We think it's amazing that they even need to do this, but the locals want it to keep happening because it keeps the peace. Most people want to move on and make a new Ireland, where they can co-habitate in peace. After the taxi tour we say goodbye to our friends who are travelling on the 10 day tour. We have all been grouped together, but this afternoon we head back to Dublin with the Belfast day tour driver and guests. It's an interesting concept to join groups together and break them up again, but there is only 7 of us on the 3 day trip it makes good business sense to do this. We check out Belfast Castle on the outskirts of the city. It is a lovely castle and the garden has nine different cat monuments in it as a symbol of good luck. If Shona isn't allowed a pet cat soon, then this might have to be her new project! The journey to Dublin is about 2 hours trouble is trying not to fall asleep! Overall Ireland has been a real let down. We have been fascinated with the history, but feel that the PaddyWagon tour was not worth the money. As Carmen described it - we could have driven the same roads with a guide book and received the same if not more information from it. It is a bus service and not at all about showing off the beauty or history of Ireland. At least on the way back we listened to three songs of U2!