British Isles: Ullapool and What Day is This?
Our day started slowly, thank goodness. We are still sailing from Belfast to Ullapool, and we don’t expect to land until 1:00. Later we figure it out – at this time of year, there can be huge morning fogs. Most of the time it starts burning off around late morning. You can’t see much through the thick fog.
Some people are sleeping in, some are doing laundry. We have breakfast with our friends, then we hit the spa. We are ready to kick back. We are having a lot of fun, enjoying all the activity, and the truth is also – we are aging. We need to rest. I need time to process and integrate all the new sights I am seeing and cultural differences I am experiencing.
We are excited about our tour today, The Scenic Assynt. We tendered in, and boarded our bus. It got off to a surprising start. We were all aboard and the bus started. Two minutes into the trip, the air conditioning went off and the bus became stuffy very quickly. Formerly civil Viking tourists became rude, and shouted that we needed AC, but I think the driver needed the extra power to attack the hill heading out of the port. The bus rumbled and shuddered, and the guide was doing her best to soothe the savage beasts but was also on her phone to headquarters trying to get a back up bus and there wasn’t any.
It got better. The AC came back on, and we stopped at a geological reserve.
Here is where I have to make a sad confession. This reserve was wonderful. It had special stations to demonstrate how very old rock had extruded and somehow become above the much younger rock.
When I uploaded my photos, of this trip into the Assynt, and the next trip, in the Orkneys, I somehow didn’t save them to the desktop, and carefully deleted them from my camera and card.
Fortunately AdventureMan took some photos, and I had some on my phone, but sadly, the trips were both wonderful and I can’t show you how greatly wonderful they were. I am so sorry.
We also stopped by the ruins of an old castle en route to the small fishing village of Lochinver, very beautiful, very small, and I took a walk in the opposite direction of the others, and it was so QUIET.
One thing you don’t get on a cruise ship is a lot of quiet. Viking ships are quieter than most, but you get 900 people together, there’s going to be some noise. For the first time ever, we have a loudly quarreling, quarrelsome couple on one side of us. Fortunately, it is sporadic, not all the time.
With the fog rolling in to this small fishing village of Lochinver, it was so silent. It wasn’t even muffled, it was silent. My ears were ringing with the silence! I loved it!
I rely on my photos to tell the story, and without them, I can’t remember all that I saw. What I do remember is the warmth with which we were greeted at Ullapool, in the Scottish Highlands, that they truly made us feel appreciated. I remember thinking I would love to come back to Ullapool, so small, so isolated, with so few tourists. There were families, and hikers and people from many nations, but not the thousands that come in on the ships. We were the only ship in port this day.
Much of the time is foggy in Ullapool, in August, and then there are times when the fog burns off. Then the fog comes back again, and then, just as the sun is setting, it might break through.
We have reservations this night at Manfredi’s, the ship’s Italian specialty restaurant, and are shown to a quiet table by the window in the back of the restaurant. We love it. Our waiters are kind and funny, and help us make great choices for dinner.
British Isles: Belfast and the Days Run Together
I am laughing as I look at these photos, because I remember every day as being sunny. I don’t remember the early morning clouds. It almost always cleared off by noon. I don’t remember any rain, either, but I can see here in Belfast we did get a little rain. I think it happens more often than I would like to think. I would be willing to swear my memory is correct, and – it is not always.
We had anticipated and studied Chester. Belfast caught us by surprise. It looked so drab in all our looks at YouTube videos and trip reports, but it has become a vibrant, future-oriented city and one I could see living in.
I apologize for the quality of these photos, taken as best I can from a bus with rain-drop smeared windows. Below is a square in homage to the author C.S. Lewis. Under that is a statue of his lion from the Narnia series.
Our guide is Sean, and he is full of jokes, but also full of history, some old history, but most of it about the “troubles” and how the peace is working out. As it turns out, peace is very difficult. People have trouble learning to trust one another after all the years of shooting at one another, but groups are finding ways to work together on projects, and rubbing shoulders with one another helps reduce fears and prejudices, and helps contain small problems from becoming big problems.
Belfast Castle below:
We start looking for the nine cats hidden in the gardens:
Sean tells us that most of the flags and nationalist art is created by the working class, who are still living with some resentment of the ruling, more liberal class in power. Most building flying Palestinian flags are those of the soldiers and those protesting the status quo.
The art of those in power is mostly about sacrifice, and history of service. This art increases feelings of positivity and acceptance of the status quo. All of this was imparted to us without any indication of which Sean’s position.
We had not anticipated liking Belfast as much as we did. I spite of the divisions, there is a vibrance in having the devisions out in the open, and a commitment to working out the differences. Belfast is now one of the safest cities in the world. We visited a large university, very impressive, and I found myself thinking how wonderful it might be for one of our grandchildren to attend a university where people openly debate the significant political positions. It lends life and energy to upper-level studies when new and challenging ideas can be confronted and evaluated.
We met up with our friends back on the ship and shared our impressions. Our backgrounds are similar in some ways, very different in others, so we always have lively and entertaining discussions when we meet up. They have a substantial collection of Starbucks cups, and strive for one from each city. I like cups, too, but sometimes I want something locally made. I always love seeing what they find.
And Belfast reminds us of why we travel. We see a country perpetually at war over religion, culture, customs, and willing to try to kill each other. Now, they are putting in the hard work of reconciliation, trying to find common ground. It isn’t easy. I like that all voices are allowed to express themselves, and that it is a situation where compromises are emerging. No one gets everything they want, peace is not taken for granted, and they persist through the discomfort. Maybe we can learn something.
Sun setting as we leave Belfast.
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