We chose Derry (aka Londonderry) in County Derry (aka County Londonderry) because it was the biggest city in the area we were driving through that day and it struck us with amusement that there was a city called "Derry Londonderry" on the map. Or, perhaps in our deep subconscious, we recalled hearing on the news about the tumultuous events that took place here in our childhood and had a yearning to visit this important historical site.

No, we just thought it had a funny name.

In any case, being an hour from our starting stop in Donegal and an hour from our final destination, Cookstown, it made for a perfect day trip locale.

Finally hungry enough for our Full Irish Breakfast, we partook greedily, then hit the road on this rainy morning. Only two highways, not too bad. My main concern was, again, driving in a big city and even more, parking. I had looked into parking lots earlier, but I was worried we wouldn't be able to find a spot near the city center.

Although the drive was not long, we did cross an international border in the process.

Being that Brexit is still in negotiation, I don't know how this might change in the future, but in 2017, there was no visible border. No gate or booth or guards or even a sign that says "Welcome to the United Kingdom!" We just crossed a bridge and were in the U.K.

You might ask, "Well, if there were no border signs, how did you know you were in the U.K.?"

Good question. I am only guessing it was the bridge because after we went over, the gas suddenly got cheaper. Well, it didn't really, the display merely changed to pounds. And the speed limit signs got MUCH lower. Not because they drive slower here, but because they were showing miles.

(We spent a fruitless quarter hour attempting to switch our car to display in miles. We never figured it out. But we did accidentally discover / activate the GPS we weren't supposed to have.)

There were other differences between the U.K. and Ireland. Some subtle. Buildings and landscapes morphed into English-country-house. Fonts, shapes, and colors on road signs changed. Highways were now "A" instead of "R,"N," or "M." Indeed, I felt a wee bit of culture shock.

We were just getting into the city limits when I had to make my first major "roundabout decision" quickly. Gah!

But...

To my delight...

One of the roundabout choices was a Car Park!

Really? Can it be that easy? Or would I get lost looking? Nope. The next several entrances were to a parking garage. We pulled in, found a spot quickly, and parked. I wondered if we were in for a long walk. But not at all. We were within three blocks of where we wanted to be. Thank you Derry Londonderry!

Now, we just needed the rain to stop.

Like Dublin, this city has an Old City Wall. Unlike Dublin, the wall is still intact and maintained. Not only that, you can walk atop it and get views of the city!

I already love this place.

The wall isn't very high, barely more than a two-story building, which is why we found ourselves suddenly on it without knowing! I'd been wondering how we would get up - was there a single stairway? A ladder? It turns out, there are plenty of stairs and one hilly spot where the wall meets the ground and you ramp up. We were at the top before we realized it.

On Wikipedia, I learned that this is the "only remaining completely intact walled city in Ireland." What a bonus! You can loop around the entire wall. It's only about a mile long! Along the wall are historical stopping points.

I seriously love this wall. It doesn't seem like it'd be effective against anyone seriously trying to get in, though. Maybe it was higher, or the rest of the land lower, back in the day? Or maybe there were lots of guards?

Like the Great Wall of China, it seems to work better as a tourist attraction than a deterrent to invaders.

Things you may see on the wall:

• Cannons
• Trees
• Tour Groups
• Gates and Bastions
• A Church (!)
• A Cemetery (!!)

The fellow at St. Augustine's church was extremely friendly. He showed us a handwritten list of names of members of the parish who had died fighting in WWI & WWII. Then he kindly answered a lingering question I had about cemeteries.

I noticed that here and in other Irish cemeteries, there are three kinds of headstones: ones like I'm used to that stick straight up out of the ground, ones that are stones with lettering lying flat, and another that is also flat stone, but lifted up like a table (looking eerily like a coffin.) He explained to me that the ones flat on the ground probably started as the "tabletop" kind and that, no, there isn't a body inside it!

That's kind of a relief.

Oh, and one more neat thing about walking atop the city wall...

...you get an excellent view!

We finally got off the wall and wandered around within its boundaries. The "craft market" area was full of adorable little shops. We stepped into a bookstore that was playing Beatles, like our car radio was. I found out that it is Sgt Pepper's 50th anniversary. Aha, that explains it!

We sat a picnic table under a large rain roof and discussed options. It turned out we were literally sitting next to The Tower Museum, situated at one corner of the Derry Wall. The guidebook recommended it highly, so we went!

Since this is a border town, they conveniently took a 10-Euro note to pay for our two 4-Pound tickets and gave us change.

Before the extremely awesome "The Story of Derry" exhibit, we checked out the ground-floor rotating display of the Laurentic. Apparently, another ship sank five years after the Titanic, this one with a ton of gold on board (well, 43 tons) and no survivors. Another North Atlantic tragedy! Never knew about this one.

The Tower Museum, true to its name, had exhibits on every level going up until the tower on the 6th floor where you could go outside. It told the turbulent history of Derry from the 1500s-ish until today. I learned that the Unionists (British) vs. Nationalists (Irish) is a several-hundred-year-old feud.

We chose our restaurant based off the name. That seems to be our M.O.

My salad nicoise had tuna fish instead of seared tuna. And it had a ton of wedge potatoes. The caprese had some kind of bread or pancake on top. (May have been a potato pancake.) It was not our best meal but the location was fantastic, both because of the view of the church / square / wall and because we got to watch children in uniform going home from school, so cute! Also, the mochas were yummy and they also were willing to take some of these Euros off our hands.

No joke, this is some intense stuff. It's like a burst of unrest in the otherwise peaceful city.

Yet people were just driving by. Are the locals used to it?

The emotion felt very fresh, very current. Some of this is historical (and apparently, many such murals also exist in Belfast) but I don't feel the murals remain for preservation. It feels more like a temporary truce. Like acknowledgement of anger, reminders of past violence, of past and present atrocities. Resolution has yet to be achieved.

The above area with most of the murals is on the northwest side of the city wall, called "Bogside" since apparently, the walled city used to be on an island. The area of the "Free Derry" corner and the "Bloody Sunday" monument used to be the bog / river on that side. There's no sign of that bog now.

Sipping our mochas, we walked halfway across the curvy peace bridge. We needed some peace after the above.

This city had a little of everything. We loved it! And it even managed to stop raining for most of it.

On our way to Cookstown, using a mix of our map and our newfound GPS (which sorta worked), we hit traffic due to an accident. (Not us.) As we continued to drive through the grasslands of Northern Ireland, we noticed that our car occasionally beeped. It never beeped before! No lights lit up on the dashboard. What did it mean?

We ignored it and kept driving. We were still going slower than everyone, but we didn't know how much slower since all the signs were in miles per hour.

We only had to turn around once, then we found our B&B called "Belfast House".

There was some initial trepidation as the door to the B&B was locked. But the bar underneath was open, so we asked there. "Um, is there a B&B here?"" A young guy took us upstairs, gave us a key to a room, and asked us if we wanted a "cooked breakfast" and at what time. We said "Yes" and "8:30am". And, yeah, it occurred to me that this dude had no idea how to cook, but at least he was offering!

One other odd thing was that our door had no doorknob. Just a keyhole. Getting it closed was harder than getting it open and involved lots of trickery with key friction. Our room above the bar looking out to the streets of this larger-than-expected blue-collar town didn't feel like a proper B&B, even though it fit the definition. But, despite its weirdness, it turned out to have the fastest internet of the trip and the best breakfast of the trip. Combined with a spotless bathroom, I have to say thumbs up for Belfast House!

The remainder of our random evening was spent withdrawing some pounds at a local ATM and spontaneously going to see the comedy Snatched (starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn.)

12,113 steps, 32 floors, 4.89 miles

Tomorrow's agenda - the northern coast!