In Derry during our walking tour of the walls, we learned that this is marching season. I'd thought that there was such marching only around July 12th. Nope - very wrong. It starts in April and goes into the Fall, but not every day. To our initial surprise (around 8 pm this evening) we heard the beating of a drum, followed by flutes. Now at 10 pm (and it's dark) they are still marching. To our complete lack of delight by this time, the marching is taking place on the street where we are staying. Our living room overlooks the spectacle. Sadly there is no soundproofing. And those drummers are very keen. Enough already - go home and beat your drums somewhere else. Tonight was in honour of the Scottish Apprentice Boys, at least that's what the "schedule" seems to say. Thank heavens the next night is after we leave - or so we hope and pray.
The bands varied in size but they represent protestant groups from all over Northern Ireland. Often there are youngsters walking ahead of the group, many in the uniforms worn by the adult marchers, and these little folks are tossing batons. I wouldn't say they were particularly skilled but they were serious about what they were doing. The bands were made up of drummers, one very enthusiastic bass drummer, and pipers. Except for one band that had accordion players. By that point, I didn't care if they were made up of pianists or violinists as long as they stopped.
After about the 15th band I was ready to start my own protest, but there was an audience on the street and I wouldn't have wanted witnesses. They weren't cheering them on, just watching. And I didn't have any weapons useful for stopping hordes of marching bands. Bobby pins were the only weapons I could find, along with some kitchen knives I suppose. Useless.
Anyway, it's finally quiet and cars have once more started driving on the street. There's a chance we'll sleep after all.
So now I'll back up a little bit. Earlier today we left Limavady and took the shortest route to Belfast. This time, Google brought us directly to our destination. The Airbnb had not yet been cleaned and besides, it was not yet 3 pm which is check-in time. We were able to park and leave the car and then we took the bus to the centre of Belfast.
There we had lunch and took the hop on hop-off bus tour of the city and planned what stops to revisit tomorrow. We wanted to return to St George's Market but it closed at 3 and will again tomorrow so we'll get there early. On the tour, the guide pointed out a glass dome on the Victoria Square shopping centre that had a viewing platform giving a great view over the entire city and quite far out into the countryside.
We took advantage of the great sunny day to admire the view and took a few photos - mostly for other people who wanted to record their visit and include all members of their groups. And one of them returned the favour for us.
Using our one-day bus pass we returned to Queen's University and wandered through the botanic gardens. The greenhouse was closed but based on the heat and humidity of another pavilion it would have been stifling hot in there anyway.
We waited quite a long time for a bus back to the Donegall Square at City Hall, from which we caught the bus back to our accommodations. This time we unloaded the car and settled in. The premises are very nice, very clean and the fridge held some milk for our tea and coffee and best of all a bottle of Prosecco. There isn't much of that left. It was quite lovely.
Tomorrow we'll visit the market in the morning and the Titanic Experience later. And we'll hope that there is no marching down the street outside our window all evening.
Fatigue has set in so I'll try to post some pictures in the morning before we head out.
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