Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Giant's Causeway


October 8, 2012

What a busy day!  Lots of hiking and seeing interesting things.

Guess what?  In Ireland the city is called Derry.  But in Northern Ireland they call it Londonderry.  Since it is in Northern Ireland, I guess they win. 

We left Londonderry and immediately could see the British influence in the buildings, homes, food etc.  It is still beautiful scenery, but it’s just different. 

We headed for the Giant’s Causeway.  We passed through Greysteele, Walworth, Ballykelly Forest, Downhill, Coleraine, Ballytober, and took a break at Bushmills.  We sprung for the tour of Bushmills and I’m glad we did.  I’m not much of a whiskey, scotch, bourbon drinker, but it was interesting to see how Bushmills has been making Irish Whiskey since 1608 when they got their license from King James II.  Of course the tour ended with a taste and I opted for the hot toddy.  Perfect!  Bc got a taste of the 12 and 10 year old whiskey. 


Back in the tin can car, (which is looking pretty tough with all the dents and dirt!)  we continued on to the Giant’s Causeway using Annie Smythe.  She’s pretty good, though not as good as Annie O’Brian was. In any case, we found the back of the entrance and a nice young man asked us “Are you doing ok?’  We said, “we don’t know”.  He just laughed and showed us to the entrance.  We paid for our tickets and picked up our talking guide things from the young man that had shown us the entrance!  Off we set.  It is a 1 ½ kilometer walk along the water looking at the most amazing hexagons shaped rocks.  I can’t do it justice in words so you’ll just have to look at bc’s pictures.  It was a beautiful day.  The sun shone, though it was cold and kinda windy.  But altogether we’ve had great weather. 



After we finished up at the Giant’s Causeway, we headed to Carrack-a-rede Rope Bridge.  We passed Ballentoy and parked.  Again, we bought our tickets, and headed out on a short 1 kilometer walk.  Now, if anyone from Ireland tells you “it’s a 5 minute walk to town, it’s a few blocks to your hotel, or a short kilometer to the rope bridge” don’t believe them.  It was a nice walk, even via the steep stone steps, and of course it was delightful on the way back!  Really though, we were tired but it was well worth it. Here is the easy part of the path.


When bc asked me if I would do the rope bridge I said “sure”.  I’m glad I did, but halfway across this bridge I kept thinking “This is really swaying and it’s really high up (100’) and I have to walk back across it!”  Again, the pictures tell the story better than I can. 



Here's a view looking down from the bridge.  Notice it was 2 widths of plywood wide.  


By the time we walked the “short” 1 kilometer back to our tin can car we were hungry and tired.  We drove through Armoy and asked at a pub where to eat.  “Around the corner.”  We found a “Tasty Bites.”  We ordered fish and chips and a cheese chips to share.  We nearly fell off our plastic chairs when they brought us the food.  Needless to say we left about 2/3 of it.  I guess we should have gotten the special.  Baked potato with refried beans and cheese.  Ugh, makes my stomach hurt to think about it!


We were on our way to Belfast, going through Balleymoney (no free samples there), Ballymena, Kildrum, Antrim and then we got into Belfast traffic and Annie Smythe assisted pretty well.  We had a hard time finding our hotel as the name of the hotel is not on the outside of the building.  As the nice lady we asked for help said “We like to hide the names of the buildings.”  Ok. 

This is the Ramada Encore hotel.  It is very European with hard wood floors and a shower w/no door. Last evening while at the bar fighting with the internet to post the blog we learned that you must go up to the bar to get served.  They walk right past you and don’t ask if you’d like anything.  It’s ok.  Once we got the hang of it was fine.  Think of all the money we saved on tips! The breakfast they serve is not at all as nice as the Irish breakfasts.  Again, very British.  No fresh cheese, orange juice, etc.  It’s all prepackaged and not that good.  Its ok, we saved the 4 pounds of chips from our lunch yesterday!  Just kidding!

We will stay here tonight.  Today we have tickets for the Titanic exhibit.  Stay tuned!
 Take care, bc and gc

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