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Yesterday (Saturday) was the first day since the family's been here that Paxton's felt well enough to get out a bit. We started out the day by checking out the St. George's Market. I managed to miss last weekend's market - Friday at work, but Saturday I was just lazy. But today we got there in plenty of time, and wandered around a bit to get a feel for the food and tschotchkes available. Lots of organic produce and meats, lots of fresh-baked goods, and lots of fresh-caught seafood. We ended up taking home some salmon fillets for dinner (baked, very tender and mild compared to what we get in the States) and some tasty scones for the next morning.

After lunch, we drove up to Carrickfergus. It's a small town just north of Belfast, home to Carrickfergus Castle (satellite view). I was using a very detailed street atlas of Belfast that included Carrickfergus to navigate, and had found the castle on the north side of town. Fully expecting to drive through town to get there, I was pretty discombobulated to round a curve in the middle of town and see the huge Norman keep there! Needless to say I drove right on past it. Ginger eventually convinced me this was what we were looking for. After we parked, I looked at the map - turns out I was looking at the wrong castle! I found the "real" one is smack in the middle of town on the map - oddly enough, just where it appeared to be in person. Who knew?

The car park was a few hundred yards away from the castle, and on the epic odyssey there Chance and Paxton required a short break to play on the one of the town's playgrounds. That out of their systems, we proceeded apace to the grounds, where a summer festival was in full swing with bouncy castles, ice cream, and a local rock band cranked up to 11. Hearing "Summer of '69" echoing off the walls made it hard to get into the spirit of things - I wonder if the wedding going on in the courtyard had the same problem?

Like most medieval castles, Carrickfergus is simultaneously huge and tiny. Built in 1177, it was continually garrisoned until 1928. The keep walls are between 3 and 5 meters thick, and the tower is about 30 meters high - each stone essentially hand-fitted. But the tower's only about 50 feet on a side, and was likely home to several dozen people. I thought the exhibits were pretty good, if a bit on the martial and gustatory sides.

Total time to do the castle proper was about an hour; obviously plan for a bit longer if you hit the playground on the way out and back like we did.

Tomorrow: Ginger's first real pub Guiness, rainbows, and scenery!

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