Doing Derry

With thanks to Silversea for this cruise

This morning we slid into Derry/Londonderry (our enrichment lecturer insists people also call it Stroke City as a nod towards trying to reconcile those on opposite sides of the Ulster-Eire political divide).

Still struggling with what I am sure now must be the flu, since it is exponentially worse than a simple cold, I took the shuttle into town from our mooring here at an oil tanker jetty - our proper berth won't be available till tomorrow, which is when we were meant to arrive, before the weather hurried us up.

I didn't/couldn't do much - I walked around the four centuries-old city wall, uniquely in the UK still intact, and got good long views over the surrounding countryside and the rows of neat terraced housing outside the walls. Inside there was a cathedral, a church, lots of stately buildings, a war memorial and the commercial centre, none of which I got to.

I did have a look inside the grand Guildhall, walked out onto the Peace Bridge, and found the fairly new Derry Girls mural, which is beautifully done. That's a TV series that it's really worth trying to find: a comedy about teenagers, against the background of the Troubles. Very funny, with a dark thread.

But most of Derry's richness and long and eventful history passed me by today, because everything has been such a struggle. We'll still be here again tomorrow, though, so I hope to get a bit more of a handle on it.