American World Traveler Winter 2018-19 Issue
Now in our 17th year of publishing, American World Traveler explores the culture and history of worldwide destinations, sharing the adventure of discovery with our readers and motivating them to make their travel dreams a reality. Published quarterly, AWT helps sophisticated, independent American travelers choose their next destination by offering a lively blend of intelligent, informative articles and tantalizing photographic images from our World’s best destinations, cruises, accommodations and activities to suit every traveler's taste.
Now in our 17th year of publishing, American World Traveler explores the culture and history of worldwide destinations, sharing the adventure of discovery with our readers and motivating them to make their travel dreams a reality. Published quarterly, AWT helps sophisticated, independent American travelers choose their next destination by offering a lively blend of intelligent, informative articles and tantalizing photographic images from our World’s best destinations, cruises, accommodations and activities to suit every traveler's taste.
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40<br />
WT Photo Library<br />
A Northern Ireland Walking Adventure from Londonderry to Belfast<br />
Article and photography by Cherie DeLory<br />
Festivals are a good place to kick up<br />
your heels and kick off a grand travelling<br />
adven-ture. This was true for<br />
my debut visit to Northern Ireland last July to<br />
attend Ireland’s largest maritime festival, the<br />
annual Foyle Maritime Festival in Derry-<br />
Londonderry. In anticipation of my trip I was<br />
imagining myself draped in a smart Irish<br />
Fishermans sweat-er made of Aran wool in<br />
celebration of the occasion. After all, Derry-<br />
Londonderry was a host stopover port for the<br />
biennial Clipper Round the <strong>World</strong> Yacht Race<br />
2017/’18, which coincided with the festival.<br />
I wanted to look my best while the handsome<br />
sailors were on shore leave.<br />
Striking 70-foot yachts sailed into the Foyle<br />
Port in the final leg from New York, before<br />
heading to the finish line in Liverpool,<br />
England. I got to meet some of the sailors,<br />
climb on board for a tour of their close quarters,<br />
and soak up the excitement of the festival,<br />
which ended with the fanfare of a<br />
parade of sail and fireworks to send off the<br />
crews.<br />
The Walled city<br />
No visit is complete to this pretty city on a hill<br />
without “wandering the walls”. Derry-<br />
Londonderry has a small town air, but is the<br />
second largest city in Northern Ireland next<br />
to its capital, Belfast. It’s the only completely<br />
intact walled city in Ireland, totalling about a<br />
mile of atmospheric wall with vistas of the<br />
city beyond the heritage stone. I took a his-<br />
torical tour with Martin McCrossan Walled<br />
City Walking Tour. You could say it’s a city<br />
with a wee bit of an identity crisis. Some call<br />
it Derry, others say Londonderry.<br />
Derry-Londonderry, or Derry as originally<br />
named, is the first planned city in Ireland,<br />
built between 1613 and 16<strong>19</strong>. The walls<br />
were built to protect the locals from settlers<br />
arriving from England and Scotland, and<br />
would later figure in the Great Siege of<br />
1689. During the planning phase was when<br />
London was added to the name to reflect the<br />
Queen's influence. Derry in year 546 was a<br />
monastic settlement founded by the Irish<br />
monk, Saint Columba, who to this day is one<br />
of three patron saints of Ireland. St.<br />
Columb's Cathedral, circa 1633, is the old-
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