DAY 76 SATURDAY JUNE 6 LONDONDERRY

We said farewell to Jimmy, who told us their home was available to any of our relatives, then Joan drove us to Drogheda Station and gave us a big hug before we boarded the train to Belfast at 8.08am

We bought a big "Hifibre breakfast" in the lovely first class carriage, together with free orange juice and newspapers.  In Belfast we only had to cross the platform for the train to Derry but we had nearly two hours to wait so we went upstairs to the lounge.  As we boarded the Derry train we asked the guard about first class and he said "All coaches are first class on this train".  We arrived in Derry at 1.30 where Pam and Ken were waiting for us and chauffeured us to the Rose Park B &  B.  Dropped our bags in out lovely room, ordered a big Irish Breakfast for tomorrow,  and hopped back into Ken's rental car.  He had heard from his relatives that a marching band event was on that afternoon, so we went up to the Irish Community Centre where two lads in uniform stood.  "Half two" they told us, so we drove back to town and returned later to find band players arriving from every direction.  It was either part of the Queen's Jubilee or practice for the "twelfth" (of July and August) or both, but whatever it was we chalked it up to serendipity again and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Too many bands to photograph them all:

Ken then drove us to St Coulomb's Cathedral, seat for the Church of Ireland established in the 400s AD
where       Alexander wrote "All things bright and beautiful",  "There is a Green Hill" and "Once in Royal David"s City" among 400 others.

The four of us walked around the high walls of the city which are still intact complete with canons as they were at the siege of the 1690s.  As we looked down on the city Ken told us how he left the city of his birth shortly before "the troubles" began.  He judged the IRA and the Protestant Group to be both very wrong in what they did and widespread unemployment to be a major factor in the violence.  He showed us the police station which was fortified to the extent that it looked like a jail.  We had dinner in a large pub while Denmark was beating Holland on the big screen.  They dropped us off at the B&B where we arranged to stay another night and sent an email to cancel Sunday night at our Dublin North Star Hotel, as Ken and Pam wanted to take us to the Giant's Causeway.

MEMORIAL MURAL