June 4 - Belfast and Ballywalter beach Northern Ireland

Another relaxing easy breezy day... rain off and on windy chilly cold for a little while, then the sun comes out it's nice and 58 or so... back and forth all day... M taking another day or relaxation, she got the sudoku bug lol i bought a book of 250 puzzles yesterday she's hooked... so she just stayed here all day ate up all the food we have cuz tomorrow AM we are out of here by 10 on the train to Dublin by 1:00, get to Dublin 330 our check in southwest city after 400 so going to bed early tonight it's still light tho almost 10:30 and it will be bright and sunny by 5:00 am... I well felt guilty having a car rented and not using it... lol... no really, at the City Hall yesterday they had a couple exhibits about the Troubles fascinating me for some reason, so I looked well some of the worst stuff Bloody Sunday was over in Derry/Londonderry, it's about 75 miles west I was going to go there but as i got ready to go it was pelting down rain dark windy dreary for a long drive even the fast roads here are not divided all the time and sometimes one lane which turn lanes come and go and lots of roundabouts which are like bumper car scenes so...

i looked up the troubles and see the Ulster Museum here in Belfast has an exhibition called The Troubles and Beyond, so I went there, first to the Botanic Gardens

and then to the Ulster Museum, it was a very interesting couple rooms,

well the big question everyone asks, what cause the troubles to start ? And no one knows... there's no good answer, i will post some items here i suggest you go online to find out more... the most comprehensive resource i found is The CAIN Archive https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/ Interesting things i saw today, the rubber and plastic bullets i always thought they would be the same size as regular bullets... nope

and a bunch of period artifacts and first hand accounts of people who were kids then... it's in the botanic park and as i found out close to The Queens University of Belfast which you can see is very pretty... there was a guy out there cutting the lawn real short with a mower like they use on golf greens... But overall it was a pretty somber tone... left there feeling hm... shaking my head and thankful not to have to be a part of that type of stuff, one final take away... there was a short little wall with a plea for support for Gaza... the writer of this poem, along with his wife, sister, and 3 children, ... were killed not long ago...