Thursday 2nd September - Belfast to Armagh

There is no train service for this leg of the tour.

thou shalt not travel
by train when thou so please-th
get a bus instead

I've got used to travelling by small towns of a familiar shape, density and texture. Moira, one of the passing through places was small and stylish and its police station could have been something out of an old English Village. There were no high perimeter fences, Nothing grey - in fact it was a kind of pastel blue. In contrast to this - new flats were being added to its side and the general melee of developments in Northern Ireland.

Dromore Road pushing towards the centre of Armagh are currently hosting even more re-development of housing.

It's the Magh in Omagh and Armagh that always used to throw me. Armagh has a far more pedestrianised shopping arena and has a dedicated grass area called the Mall, around which businesses can base their names, The Mall Taxidermy etc (hey - only kidding).

The bus station is just at the bottom of a string of s.m.e's, mostly accountants, insurance brokers and estate agents. Apparently the glut of these businesses spreads further.

There’s a lot of commuting going on. I’ve been told there’s no real main industry here so there’s lots of to-ing and fro-ing.

The hotel I stay at is De Averill House. A small warm-hearted place that, even though I’d arrived hideously early showed me my room, gave me a key and let get on with it…so I did.

I remembered the tourist information set by the multi-story car park and just by the barrier. The barrier, though not down, still seemed to be quite prominent in its viewing. I’ve never seen Armagh as a place severely down at heal. Shopping and eating was a struggle (Chinese Restaurants seemed to provide the staple diet for us in the olden days in most major areas of Northern Ireland) but there was a buoyancy in the arts which has obviously shown itself in the springing up of its pure white arts centre at the turn of the millennium.

Armagh library was high tech, bang up to date and entirely flexible when I realised I had to contact another library to arrange a workshop. Once explained, there was no problem about using the phone.

I'd about five days to contact and set up a session in Newry and in Banbridge. The latter was to be the day before I flew back. I like to push myself.