We spent the night in Derry/Londonderry, woke up, staggered bleary-eyed to the restaurant, begged coffee (Cristi), looked out the window, and saw this:
The view from breakfast
Then it was up and at 'em for a Walking Tour of the wall (but it was only about 1/2 the wall. We then walked the entire wall on our own. Scratch that. I walked. Vivian ran.)
Pretty hill in the distance
Segregated walled town within the walled town
The Bog Side
The mural on the right: Annette McGavigan (1957 – 6 September 1971) was a 14-year-old girl fatally wounded by a gunshot in crossfire between British soldiers and the IRA on 6 September 1971. After three years of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Annette was the 100th civilian and the first child to be killed.
On the evening of 6 September rioting was going on in and around the Little Diamond area on the edge of the Bogside. British soldiers were in position in the grounds of the old post office between the Little Diamond and Frederick Street, confronting a number of local youths in the Little Diamond, Fahan Street and Eglinton Place area. After the rioting had ceased at around 18:00, Annette, still wearing her school uniform, had gone with friends to collect the rubber bullets that littered the ground. She was shot in the back of the head while standing at the corner of Blucher Street and Westland Street. No one was charged with her death and no investigation carried out.
Annette is the subject of a Bogside murals entitled "The Death of Innocence", located on the gable wall of maisonnette on the junction of Lecky Road and Westland Street close to Free Derry Corner, and unveiled Wednesday 1 September 1999. Above and to the left of her head is an unfinished butterfly and at her right side a rifle. In June 2006 the mural was repainted with the butterfly coloured in and the rifle redrawn broken, reflecting the lack of progress of the peace process. (thanks, Wikipedia)
This is a better picture (not mine):
On the evening of 6 September rioting was going on in and around the Little Diamond area on the edge of the Bogside. British soldiers were in position in the grounds of the old post office between the Little Diamond and Frederick Street, confronting a number of local youths in the Little Diamond, Fahan Street and Eglinton Place area. After the rioting had ceased at around 18:00, Annette, still wearing her school uniform, had gone with friends to collect the rubber bullets that littered the ground. She was shot in the back of the head while standing at the corner of Blucher Street and Westland Street. No one was charged with her death and no investigation carried out.
Annette is the subject of a Bogside murals entitled "The Death of Innocence", located on the gable wall of maisonnette on the junction of Lecky Road and Westland Street close to Free Derry Corner, and unveiled Wednesday 1 September 1999. Above and to the left of her head is an unfinished butterfly and at her right side a rifle. In June 2006 the mural was repainted with the butterfly coloured in and the rifle redrawn broken, reflecting the lack of progress of the peace process. (thanks, Wikipedia)
This is a better picture (not mine):
The peace mural
A better picture (not mine):
A better picture (not mine):
That's an old canon - the 1600s
Bathroom break in yet another cool bathroom (why are their bathrooms so great??)
Perspective of canon size in relation to child
Yes. The canons point at the church.
Whoops!
How about this way-
I had to stick my hand through gates to get this picture.
After the tour, we walked through a mall to get to the other side (and practice escalators again) and I thought you'd like to see what their candy display looks like.
Then we stopped for lunch and Vivi had a HOT DOG.
It wasn't until we had lunch that we passed by this place and felt like we'd missed an opportunity, but Viv's stomach was too full of HOT DOG to eat anything else.
Oooooooh! A Derry/Londonderry caterpillar!
We walked across the Peace Bridge.
This is a weed growing, but I think it's really pretty and wouldn't mind if this was the weed overgrowing my yard instead of what's overtaking it right now.
A lot of churches couldn't maintain the funds to stay open so the buildings were sold. This one is a gym now. (squats??)
On the train ride home, a family got on and there weren't enough seats for them to sit together so I repositioned so the girls could sit next to each other. They smiled at each other, then Vivi handed her an ear bud and they listened to The Magician's Nephew until Viv's new friend disembarked.
There were signal issues so the train was about 30 minutes behind schedule, but that gave us a chance to see the pretty, pretty sunset.
Oh, sure. Why not? Have an Oreo shake. But I'm going to make you walk a mile home to work off that sugar.
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