Belfast: Comfortable Irish family home, near city, countryside, sea and mountains
Home Description:
Our home is a chalet bungalow at the very edge of South Belfast.
It is a manse and is in a small development of quality homes.
Just across the road is a golf course and driving range and immediately
at the entrance to our development you are in rolling County Down
countryside. We have 3 bedrooms (1 double, 1 double with a single,
one twin, sleeping a total of 7 people), 3 reception rooms, 2
bathrooms, a large kitchen + dining area with tiny conservatory.
Our home is comfortable and well equipped, especially in the
kitchen, since Liz is a keen cook. We have the usual home equipment-
microwave, dishwasher, drier, barbecue, Hi fi, 2 TVs, though we
don't go in for too much hi tech equipment. We have an excellent
CD collection, since John is a classical music fan and a huge
number of books since Liz teaches English and we're all avid readers.
We have a small fragrant garden which is a comfortable place to
sit in the summer.
The Area:
Ireland is full of history with castles and ancient Celtic remains.
It is green and very beautiful- cliffs, bays, mountains, rolling
hills and pine forests,but it is best for its coastline, which
is rugged with long stretches of beautiful sand. We live in Belfast,
which, despite its media image, is a great city of * million people,
and is contending for European City of Culture 2004. It has good
restaurants, 2 great theatres, with regular visits from London's
West end shows, a fantastic new concert hall, excellent shopping
with the UK's biggest Mark's and Spencer's 15minutes from our
home. The city is surrounded by hills and you're always close
to the countryside. Belfast is very centrally placed for exploring
Northern Ireland. We are 30 minutes from the famous Antrim coast
road and 1hr 30 mins from the North Antrim coast with the amazing
Giant's causeway, a world heritage site, sweeping beaches and
coves and cliff tops. Going south we are 40 minutes from the
mountains of Mourne and the seaside resort of Newcastle. Also
South East is Strangford Lough, good for sailing and bird life.
To the West is the Ulster Lakeland where you can hire a cabin
cruiser, go on a boat trip or visit the underground caves. Further
afield is Dublin 21/2 hours South by car or rail and Donegal,
Ireland's most beautiful county, 2 * hours to the West. Scotland
is 1 1/2 hours away by ferry (50 minutes by plane) and London
1 hour away by plane. Since John is the Pastor of the local Baptist
church we have strong church links! And our congregation would
make you feel very welcome. We have great relationships with churches
of all denominations in our area and Liz leads a ministry to other
ministry wives in Northern Ireland.
Other Particulars:
We would want to exchange cars and we have a 5 year old 5 seater
Renault Scenic Megane ( hopefully to be replaced Spring 2004)and
a little 4 year old 4-seater Toyota.
We have a little tabby cat, Pistachio, which we'd love to leave
at home, but we could have her cared for. We are non- smokers
and want to exchange with non-smokers.
We have a PC available for use also bikes and a weights bench.
Our Preferred Destination:
Preferably costal USA. Open to other suggestions in Europe or
beyond.
Dates of Exchange:
3-4 weeks in July or August 2004. Or 2 weeks if we can arrange
a 2nd follow on exchange.
Who We Are:
We are John, a Christian Pastor, and Liz, a published writer and
part-time English teacher, and are in our early fifties. We have
four children, all living away from home now: Emma 27,married
to David and with a baby daughter, living in Scotland, Nathan
25, also in Scotland, Philip, 20 and Charis,18, who is currently
doing a Discipleship Training School with Youth With A Mission
in Jacksonville, USA. There will probably be just the two of
us on holiday this year.
Contact:
If you are interested in a home exchange with these people, please
contact them directly by sending email to liz@hansford4.freeserve.co.uk
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