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"Left to Live" - A 23-Day Motorcycle Adventure Around UK and Ireland...

Day 10 - Sun, 02 Sep:

A day of aviation history, rainbows, church attendance, and more exploring of the beautiful Irish coastline.


450 km today! Unfortunately, we passed by some great places that would have been worth the stop. On a positive note, we are closer to being on our planned schedule for our trip. We were definitely ready for some sleep once we reached Northern Ireland.


Ask most Americans who was the first person to fly a plane non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean and they will most likely tell you Charles Lindbergh. They would be wrong. Lindbergh was actually the 19th person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic.


In a remote bog of northwestern Ireland known as Derrigimlagh,…


…two British aviators, John Alcock and Arthur Brown, completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919. They flew a modified First World War Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland.


Their landing wasn’t glamorous, but they completed the trip in less than 16 hours.


The hike out to the “landing” site is not difficult but it is shared by sheep. Watch out for their droppings.


The site where John Alcock and Arthur Brown landed was definitely a rough boggy landscape. It’s surprising they were not seriously injured in the landing.


A simple white cone marks the site where aviation history was made in 1919.


A display shows the damaged Vickers Vimy bomber where it “landed”.


Some may wonder why they decided to land here but it’s important to remember that the ground looks much different from the air and they had been airborne for nearly 16 hours with some pretty terrifying icing and storms.


The two aviators who made aviation history - John Alcock and Arthur Brown.


As if it wasn’t crazy enough, they brought two cats with them on the plane!! Actually, I read that wrong... Two toy cats were given to them for the journey. One of them, named Twinkle Toes, later flew a similar flight 60 years later in a RAF F-4 Phantom. The F-4 was a bit faster at only six hours and it landed without mishap. Twinkle Toes is in the RAF Museum in Cosford, England.

As an aviation buff, I enjoyed the remote and quite corner of Derrigimlagh. However, this experience made me question my education since I had no idea about Alcock and Brown growing up. Perhaps the textbooks in the United States tend to focus on American accomplishments? After all, Charles Lindbergh was an American born in Detroit.

We continued along the route, making good time in order to attend church services in the town of Sligo. Along the way, the rain clouds lifted and we had the joy of experiencing one of the brightest rainbows we’ve seen for quite some time.


It’s no wonder rainbows are often associated with Ireland. This was one of the most vivid rainbows I seen in recent history.




Along the way we noticed the Church of St Joseph and St Conal in the town of Donegal.


It was open so we peeked inside...


...to find this charming altar...


...and beautifully designed stained-glass window.

We decided to take a diversion to Bunglass Point, based on a recommendation from some motorcyclist we met at church earlier.


In many ways, I feel the BMW G650GS is the ideal adventure motorcycle. It's not too heavy, a world traveled proven engine with adequate power for riding on highways, gets great fuel mileage, has more cargo capacity than we’ll ever use, is easy to maintain, and doesn't cost much. The cost of purchasing, outfitting, and customizing our two mules was about 14K USD.


On our way to Teelin we stopped to take some picture of grounded, broken-hulled boats.


The Rusty Mackerel near Donegal looked like a nice place to eat but we only stopped long enough to snap a photo of their mural.


The mules parked at Bunglass Point.


Although, I would have liked to see more of the coast, the day was getting late. Bunglass Point ended up being our last stop before we reached Northern Ireland.


Welcome to Northern Ireland! Time to switch our GPS units to miles per hour, put away our Euros, and pull out our Pound sterling.
*Picture from www.thesun.ie

It seems many are in support of the Irish reunification where the whole of Ireland would be a single sovereign state. This is a complicated and emotionally charged issue for lots of Irish folks on both side of the border. As an American who was just traveling through, I don’t have the history or information needed to form an opinion. I just hope for a democratic and peaceful agreement for the future of Ireland.

Tomorrow is Day 11! Join us, along with some wonderful sunny weather, as we continue our travels clockwise around Northern Ireland…
 
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Day 11 - Mon, 03 Sep:

A few days ago, we were talking to a gentleman about our plans to ride around Ireland clockwise to Northern Ireland. He responded, “Northern Ireland is always rainy, cold, and cloudy.”
Our experience was the opposite - sunny and relatively warm. Luck of the Irish for us!


Only 102 miles (165 km) of riding today. We experienced the beauty of Northern Ireland’s north coast: Downhill House and Mussenden Temple, Giant Causeway, and The Dark Hedges. Then we rode south to Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland and the birthplace of the RMS Titanic.


Sunny with white fluffy clouds this morning.




Dry roads. No raingear. It’s going to be a great day!


Our first stop, and right along the northern coast, was the Downhill House. This palatial home was built in the late 18th century but was destroyed by a fire in 1851.


The nearby Mussenden Temple was built in 1785. It is perched picture perfectly on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.


An inscription around the outside of the building reads “"Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem."; meaning "Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore. The troubled sailor, and hear the tempests roar."


I imagine it was quite a nice place to study or just look out over the ocean below.


The Downhill House is now just stone steps and walls ever since a fire destroyed it in 1851. It was rebuilt but then fell into disrepair after WW2.


I imagine it must have been quite the elegant residence.


Since there were relatively few visitors, we launched the drone to capture some video and this photo of the Downhill House. Here is one of my favorites.


Looking down at the foundation and layout.


Passing through the seaside town of Portstewart.


Dunluce Castle sits proudly on the cliff edge surrounding by cows.


Originally built in the 13th century; the last resident lived there until the 1690s. It’s been slowly deteriorated ever since but is now managed by the Northern Irish Environment Agency.


The views from the coastal road are some of the best.

As we got closer towards Giant’s Causeway, I started to get a bit nervous. Were we heading into another tourist trap? The multitude of tourist buses and large parking lots suggested that it would be.

Travel advice: Do not park in the visitor’s center parking area and pay the £11.50. There are much cheaper alternatives that are just a short walk away. We parked by the train station for £5.00


The visitors center is definitely a unique architectural design that was built to compliment the basalt columns of the Causeway. We didn’t go inside because of the high cost.


The walking trails, Causeway, ocean views, and today’s sun was all free.
 
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Day 11 - Mon, 03 Sep (continued…)


I definitely recommend taking the Red Trail since it’s less crowded and give great views from the cliffs above.

[
There were even blackberry bushes…






Some benches had some informative wood carvings on them.




We even found this lady bug that kept moving making getting this picture difficult.


The Red Trail winds down the cliff and drops you into this picturesque beach.








Love the different colors of lichen on the dark rocks.


There are over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns that make up the Giant Causeway.


These unique shapes and columns are the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption.


The ocean waves splash against the lower columns turning them into a darker color.


Lots of folks!


The parking lot uses the unique but complimentary hexagonal patterns.

Giant’s Causeway, you surprised me! I thought you would be a tourist trap but your many miles of trails and views from the cliffs above the Causeway made the visit definitely worth the time.


The nearby restaurant called The Nook had tasty sandwiches and a side of potato and lentil soup.

We continued along the coast enjoying the views, and wonderful sun, along the way...
 
Aw come on man. You can't just leave us hanging like that. Please finish the story. It's like reading a book without the last two chapters. :scratch

Friedle
 
Day 11 - Mon, 03 Sep (continued…)


The northern coast continues to impress! White Park Bay.


Looking northeast to where the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is located. It would have been fun to cross the bridge, but it was very crowded, and we wanted to push on to Belfast before the evening.

On the way to Belfast, we stopped at the Dark Hedges. Signs directed us to a parking area since cars and motorcycles are not allowed to drive through the hedges.


The Dark Hedges. It was bright and sunny today, but the trees still do a good job of blocking out a good portion of the light. It would have been fun to walk through this area at sunset or on a misty morning.




A bit more menacing in black and white?


On the walking path back to the parking lot we came across a village of sorts with tiny houses made for Smurfs or something that sized.


Nice Smurf duplex! I would live next to Smurfette!


There was actually quite a lot of things to do in the area, but we had to press on to Belfast before the Titanic Experience closes.


This is farm country with narrow roads and wide tractors.


It was difficult to put down my camera with so much memorable scenery passing by.


Bummer! We arrived at the Titanic Experience a half hour to late. Apparently, the last tickets are sold two hours before the closing time. Read the fine print! We’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning if we want to see the museum. We decided to spoil ourselves and book a room at the Titanic Hotel. No more bummer!

Belfast, Northern Ireland is known for many things but arguably the most famous is the birthplace of the RMS Titanic. This modern architecture was created right next to shipyard, Harland and Wolff, that created this historic vessel. Besides being quite beautiful, it houses the Titanic Experience, a museum and interactive experience that takes you on a journey through the early 1900s. More about the Titanic Experience tomorrow…


A modern building shaped to represent the forward hull of a massive ship. The height of the structure is the same height of the RMS Titanic’s hull at 126 feet (38 m) high.


The building and experience were completed on 31 Mar 2012. The same day the Titanic was launched in 1911.


Modern architecture and sculptures make for a dramatic icon to the city of Belfast.


Inside looking out is also dramatic with views of the city and shipyard.


The building's façade is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodized aluminum shards. It glistens in the sun and some locals have, ironically, nicknamed the building “The Iceberg”.


The texture of the shards and dark glass contrast nicely.


As a photographer who loves modern architecture, it was difficult to put my camera down.


Quite a striking and beautiful building that will bring visitors to Belfast to remember the great ship RMS Titanic.
 
Day 11 - Mon, 03 Sep (continued…)

We checked into the hotel and then decided to walk around the city and get some dinner at the nearby shopping center.


That’s one fat pigeon! He was so fat and lazy that he didn’t move as I got near him for the picture.


We decided to walk into the shopping area and grab some chow. Along the way we enjoyed sculptures and architecture of Belfast.


A fun sculpture titled Titanic Kit reminds me of the plastic models I used to build as a kid. This sculpture was made by Harland and Wolff, the Titanic's original builders.


Belfast has some very modern architecture. The Obel Tower is the tallest storeyed building in Ireland.




The Boat by TODD Architects and Planners is a mixed development featuring leisure, commercial, and residential areas all in one unique building.


Holy Mackerel! That one big fish sculpture! Actually it’s a Salmon; The Salmon of Knowledge is a printed ceramic mosaic sculpture by John Kindness and is a whopper of a fish at 10-metre-long (33 ft)!


The outer skin of the fish is a cladding of ceramic tiles decorated with texts and images with each scale "telling a story about the city".


The Victoria Square Shopping Centre has many restaurants and shops.


The nice guy who was managing the parking garage gave us some dinner advise and recommended Cosmo. An Asian all-you-can-eat place with excellent food and service.


This was plate one of three! One of the best all-you-can-eat restaurants I’ve been to.

The evening walk to the hotel from Cosmo was also enjoyable...


The large dome covering the Victoria shopping center was lit up with purple lighting.


An interesting shrine sculpture just outside the Victoria shopping center.


Beacon of Hope by Andy Scott.


The Titanic Belfast lit up for the night.


Close-up of the evening colors.


Our home for the night - Titanic Hotel Belfast.

Tomorrow is a new day! We’ll be exploring the Titanic Hotel Belfast and the Titanic Experience in the morning, followed by a short ride to the Dublin area…
 
Day 12 - Tue, 04 Sep 18:


Only a short 150 km of riding today since we spent most of the morning in Belfast.

We enjoyed a relaxing morning touring the Titanic Hotel while taking in all the design elements and 1900’s era posters and pictures that decorate this unique hotel experience.


Titanic Hotel has a well-designed logo incorporating an anchor into the letter ‘T’.


Our room - 214! Even the room numbers are a classy shadow casting projected from a laser-cut metal plate.


The front door looks like a slab of riveted iron.


A nicely appointed room in dark, masculine, colors.


Nautical appointed lighting.


Posters from the early 1900s highlight the success of White Star Lines.


Photograph of the launching of Titanic.


The elevator is decorated with classy embossed coverings.


A stairwell in this hotel is one that you actually prefer taking over the elevator.




Artists representation of the launching of the Titanic and the Olympic.


RMS Olympic

After exploring around the hotel, we made our way to the breakfast area.


The Titanic Hotel knows how to do breakfast! This is the juice bar...


..and a small sampling of all the delicious food. Cheese and grapes are good with any meal.




Some of the details of wall decorations of the hotel.


Art and pictures reminiscent of the best years of the White Star Line era.


Posters are proudly displayed around the hotel.


Some of the furnishings that are in the lounge and bar area of the hotel.

After breakfast we made our way next door to the Titanic Belfast.


The reflecting pool makes for an elegant and bold architectural structure.


No Photoshop filter – this is an effect created from the reflection of the Titanic Belfast.

The Titanic Experience is a self-guided tour through 9 interactive galleries that explore the full Titanic story. Cost: £12.50 per adult. Well worth it considering that the experience lasts about two hours.


The tour starts in the early 1900s with Belfast being a booming town. Many people are employed in either the shipyard or textile industry. It seemed like a great time to live in Belfast, especially if you had money.


If you had money you could invest in manufacturing. If you didn’t then you were working to make end meet – working long and hard hours.


Irish-British relations were a point of contention in the early 1900s. Some would say they still are today.


A map of Belfast in the early 1900s.


The tour did a great job of showing how difficult it was for the workers. 56 hours was the norm and under harsh conditions with little, if any, safety gear.




This part of the tour took you through the process of heating a rivet, tossing it up to the workers, and then holding it in place and hammering the molten steel into place before it hardened. A ship the size of Titanic used three million rivets.


Monarchs of the Sea
 
Day 12 - Tue, 04 Sep 18 (continued…)


31 May 1911, the launching of the Titanic.


Original tickets to the launch event.


This shows where Titanic was launched in relation to the Titanic Belfast building of today.




An expansive window shows where the launching took place in 1911.


A balcony, located between displays, lets you see the inside of Titanic Belfast from the upper floor looking down.


Look at the size of these boilers! 24 double-ended and five single-ended boilers fed two reciprocating steam engines for the wing propellers, and a low-pressure turbine for the center propeller.


The 2 outer propellers had a diameter of 23 feet and the center propeller had a diameter of 17 feet.


An example of the White Star Line china used on the Titanic.


Sadly, the Titanic only visited three ports before crossing the Atlantic to New York. She never arrived...


... because she struck an Iceberg at 11:40 PM on 14 Apr 1912.


By 2:20AM she sank below of surface. She was only outfitted with 20 life boats which was a contributing factor in the deaths of 1,517 people - 832 passengers and 685 crew members.


The arrival of Titanic in New York City. Sadly, this never happened. Perhaps there is an alternate reality, where the Titanic successfully arrived in New York and delivers all of her passengers and crew safely to Pier 54. It makes me wonder what kind of future each of those people would have had?

Experiencing Titanic Belfast, the Titanic Hotel, and the Titanic Experience provided the best opportunity to learn more about the tragic story of the Titanic. It also gave me an appreciation of the building process and the legendary shipping company White Star Line.
 
Day 12 - Tue, 04 Sep (continued…)


The TX4 is a purpose-built taxicab manufactured by The London Taxi Company.


After the Titanic Experience we went across the street to tour the only ship the remains of the White Star Line fleet.


The SS Nomadic was built in 1911 as a tender to transfer passengers and mail to and from RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic. In shallow ports, a tender would be required to deliver passengers to the deep draft vessels like the Olympic and Titanic.


A photograph of Nomadic heading to Olympic.


An interactive hologram display tell the history of the SS Nomadic.


Cubbies for luggage being transferred.


She was well outfitted with different class sections that delivered you in style to the cruise ship.


The Nomadic was used in both world wars as a auxiliary minesweeper, patrol ship, and for ferrying troops.


These hulls have quite a history.


Some of the original sailors aboard. By the looks of the kid on the right, this was before child labor laws.


I always thought that large ships like the Titanic were built strictly to shuttle the rich and famous from port to port in opulence. A vast majority of passengers were regular folks migrating to the United States.


Just some of the details of the Nomadic. Rust and all.


A unique colored orange was used throughout the bottom section of the ship. Perhaps it was chosen to hide the rust?


The exhaust vents were not needed any longer once the engine were converted from their original steam boilers but they were kept to retain the look of the original.




After Belfast we made our way to North Beach Caravan Park. We went for a walk on the beach before eating a light dinner and then going to sleep.


A cloudy and cool September evening.






Two teen-age girls were laughing and enjoying the setting sun from the cliff above.

This is our last evening in Ireland. Tomorrow we board a ferry for the Isle of Man...
 
Day 13 - Wed, 05 Sep:


A short ride to Dublin to board a ferry to Isle of Man, followed by a ride around the TT Mountain Course, then exploring the north side of the island.


We woke up early enough to catch the sun rising over the Irish Sea.

13-2 by Travis Gill, on Flickr
Ireland!

Our ferry check-in closed at 10AM so we rode a short distance to the port in Dublin with plenty of time to check in.


Yikes!! The picture costed us €20 in toll fees! We wondered why so many cars were leaving the freeway. It turns out they were getting off to avoid the high toll fees (€10 per vehicle) of the Dublin Tunnel during peak times of 6-10AM.


Passing through the ferry terminal and getting our tickets.


Waiting at the parking area for our time to board the ferry.


This custom trike arrived just before boarding.


Cool headlight.


He seemed to be into the skull thing.


The mules all strapped down for the journey to Isle of Man.


Failt Ort “Welcome” in Gaelic. The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, celebrating its 180th anniversary in 2010.


HSC Manannan is high speed car ferry built in Tasmania, Australia. It was used by the US Army and Navy from 2001–2008 under the name Joint Venture (HSV-X1). In 2009 she was repainted, refitted, and renamed after Manannán mac Lir, the Celtic god of the Irish sea.


She offers a great forward deck with lots of windows for visibility.


HSC Manannan has four Caterpillar diesel engines and pump-jets to propel this vessel up to speeds of 42 knots, although efficient cruising speed is closer to 20 knots. It takes just under three hours to motor from Dublin, Ireland to Douglas, Isle of Man.


The cost of the ferry to and from Isle of Man was a bit expensive at €132.50 per person plus motorbike, but I was excited to ride the famous Mountain TT Course. Was it going to be worth it?


We made it to Isle of Man. Technically this is not a country but a self-governing British Crown dependency. It’s got a flag - good enough for me.

We ended up making a new friend on the ferry! Monsignor John Devine was returning from his own motorcycle trip and offered to let us stay in one of spare bedroom at his congregation of Saint Mary of the Isle in Douglas. I asked, “How many Catholic Priests ride motorbikes?” His reply, “Not many.”

John led us to the church where he quickly said hi, showed is the room and gave us a key, and then escorted us through the streets of Douglas to the beginning of the TT course.


At the end of the TT Mountain Course is the famous Grand Stand. Right next door are a police station and a gravesite. Coincidence? Those that survive the Isle of Man Mountain Course race get a speeding ticket by the police. Those that die are placed in the gravesite.


The Mountain Course is one of the, if not the, most dangerous motorcycle race courses in the world. There have been 242 competition deaths in its 107 years of existence. It also happens to be the oldest race in motorcycle history.


The TT Mountain Course is 37.73 mi (60.725 km) long with 219 turns. All on public roads. Each year, the roads are closed for the Isle of Man TT in the spring and the Manx Grand Prix in the late summer.

We were not here to break any records, especially on a weighted down, 47hp, single-cylinder, adventure bike riding on knobby tires. It was more about experiencing this legendary roadway.


The course runs through the city of Douglas and the nine other towns and villages.


Although much of the course is open two-lane roads.


Crash barriers for those that lose control after a sweeping curve to the left.


Cars, tractors, speed limits, and stop lights all do their best to keep your lap time down.


Each of the sections is marked on the left. The miles are marked on the right.


I only ended up passing five cars, and was passed once by a Kawasaki sport bike rider.


A beautiful day! Even with traffic, stoplights, and slower cars it was still a great road with nostalgia in spades.

On the longest straightaway I only felt comfortable reaching a speed of 72 MPH before braking for the next turn. Professionals reach speeds of over 200 MPH!! Insanity!!!


My time, around the course, was 56 minutes and 47 seconds, with an average speed of 39.8 MPH, and a top speed of 72 MPH. Chantil wasn’t far behind at 60 minutes and 54 seconds. No close-calls or accidents, so it was fast enough for us.
 
Day 13 - Wed, 05 Sep (continued…)

After we reunited at the Grandstand (finish line), we made our way back to mile 26 to explore a bit


At mile 26 along the TT route is this building with a mural of Joey Dunlop on his famous No. 3 Honda.


A statue of Joey Dunlop astride his Honda overlooks the Bungalow Bend at the 26th Milestone area of the TT course. This bend is appropriately named "Joey's".


Joey Dunlop was the king of the TT where he won a record 26 races and 40 podium finishes.


This area is also a memorial to those who died pursuing their motorcycle passion. Sadly, Joey Dunlop died on 2 Jul 2000 during a race in Tallinn, Estonia.


After the TT course we explored some remote roads on the north side of the island.


Wildlife refuge areas to the north were all but abandoned except for us. Miles of beachfront property all to ourselves.


This chalk marking points north to the next country on our list - Scotland!


The Point Ayre Winkie Lighthouse recently sold for only £10,000. It sounds like a bargain however it doesn’t have a bedroom, kitchen, or bathroom. But it does have some great views!


It would be a cool house if it had electricity and plumbing.


The beach was made of millions of these flat rocks.




The newer Point Ayre Lighthouse is a bit further up the beach. The flowers around it were an amazing yellow and purple color.




Making our way back south to grab some dinner.


For dinner we stopped at the The Famous Creg-Ny-Baa located between the 34th and 35th milestones of the TT.


A historic food stop for many a hungry motorcyclist.

It was well after dark when we returned to our unique accommodation for the night at the Saint Mary of the Isle in Douglas Catholic Church.

Tomorrow we will continue to explore Isle of Man and then make our way back to England via the city of Liverpool…
 
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