Saturday 3 june
Took advantage of the good weather for a last minute trip to Northern Ireland. Drove to Birkenhead in the evening for the overnight ferry to Belfast.
Strawberry moon.
Sunday 4 June
Off the ferry before 7am and in Derry for just after 8! Lovely and sunny for a quiet wander round the city.
City walls.
Over the Peace bridge.
Derry girls.
Went to look at the Bogside murals which were painted by three local men years after they had witnessed a local march which culminated in the events of Bloody Sunday.
The three were dubbed the Bogside Artists and they decided that they wanted to memorialise this and the subsequent sectarian violence. Sort of a blurring between art and propaganda ..
Got a text at 1pm to say our room was ready so we booked in early and had a rest.
Out again later to look for food and try the pubs which had been recommended by our b n b. Very busy in the pubs and all seemed to have (mostly bad!) live music.
Walk along the river Foyle to the Hands across the Divide monument designed by a local woman. Lots of demolition around it - think this was the site of the former shirt factory which was a huge employer in the area at one time.
A lovely city where everyone was so friendly - saying hello or asking if you needed help if you looked a bit lost or were looking at your tourist map. And without fail all cars were courteous and stopped for you to cross the road - even if you weren't really intending to 😁
Monday 5 June
Breakfast and then off towards the Giant's Causeway along the coastal route.
First stop Gortmore.
Mussenden Temple.
Portrush harbour.
Dunluce Castle.
Eventually got into our room at Causeway Hotel. Everywhere was extremely busy - turns out it was an Irish bank holiday!
This is the view just over the high hedge outside our room.
The Giant's Causeway is just the other side of this - about a 1km walk from the hotel.
Had a meal while we waited for the masses to go home.
Not impressed with the food. Chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli - with onion rings - and - a pepper sauce! Odd! Mike's medium rare steak sandwich definitely wasn't 🤣 And not cheap!! But we were hungry so we ate it.
Walk down to the causeway when all the buses etc had gone!
Then a beautiful sunset right outside our door.. 😁
Tuesday 6 June
As we were awake early we decided to take advantage of it and drive to the Dark Hedges about 10 miles away. We had the place to ourselves.
As we ate breakfast later we watched the coaches start to roll up 🙄😁
We went for a look at the Bushmills distillery. First distillery to get a licence in Ireland - 1608.
Then a drive down the coast First stop less than five minutes away at the ruins of Dunseverick castle.
White Park bay.
Man selling his oil paintings at Ballintoy Harbour.
More GOT.
More basalt columns.
Carrick a Rede bridge. Me not crossing it.
.. and with his certificate 😁 We just happened to see a sign at the ticket kiosk on the way back which said you could get one for a donation - so we did!. 🤣 It was probably for the kids 🙄😁
Mike's view of Carrick a Rede.
Ballycastle harbour.
Fish and chips at the award winning Morton's chippy 😋
Too late to see anything else so need to go back.
Geologists say that the causeway was formed by lava crystallising and contracting into honeycomb shaped columns as it cooled.
Others say that it was made by an Ulster giant warrior named Finn MacCool who built a stone bridge over to Scotland so that he could spy on his rival. He found that the Scottish giant was much bigger than him so he fled back to Ireland and asked his wife to dress him as a sleeping baby - just in time before the Scottish giant came over to spy on Finn!
The Scottish giant saw the sleeping giant baby and was shocked at the thought of the size of his parents so he fled back to Scotland in terror.
Breathing a sigh of relief Finn took off the baby clothes and knocked down the bridge leaving just the scattered remains.
I know which story I believe.. 😁
We set off thinking we'd just quickly travel past the bit of road we'd already looked at. We didn't 😁
Decided to go to the elephant rock just a short walk from Ballintoy harbour that we'd visited yesterday.
When we arrived at the harbour there was a coach load of people on a GOT tour. All kitted out waving shields and swords and reenacting bits 😁 All very happy to be in a GOT location.
Walk to the elephant rock.
point above Carrick a Rede. Full of buses from the cruise liners based in Belfast and just up for the day.
One girl asked us if you could walk on the bridge and I said yes but it's about a one km walk to get to it from the actual ticket office which was a few km back down the road.
'Aah' she sadly 'Guess this is as near as we'll get then on our 20 minute stop'. So near yet so far! I suppose the main port of call for the buses would be the Giant's Causeway which again has a 1km walk from the drop off point!
Looking back down to the bridge where Mike was walking yesterday.
Next stop Kinbane castle - we still hadn't reached Ballycastle which we thought would be our starting point for the day!
A beautiful place - but so many steps! 🤪
My knees will be complaining tomorrow.
As we walked back up the steps a young couple told us they'd just seen a pod of dolphins swimming past the back of the castle.
Right on cue they appeared - about 5 or 6 of them appearing and disappearing. Lovely moment!.. but hard to capture on a stills camera.. 😁🤣
After a lot of serious up and down single track lanes we ended up at Murlough Bay (yet another GOT location!) - stunningly beautiful and well worth the effort.
No idea where they used this in GOT - may have to watch it eventually just to see where the various bits of Ireland appear in it all!! Don't think the cairns were part of it!
Started a new cairn.
The older bloke then started telling us stories about dolphins and seals he'd seen in the area. All really interesting and I'm sure if we'd let him he'd still be telling us stuff now.
Just a little old Irishman enjoying a chat - much as my dad would have done years ago. We always said a short walk with dad would take hours as he had to talk to everyone 🤣🤣🤣
No idea what this was - need to read the small print and Google 🙄
No time to explore further as we were due at our b & b near Cushendall. The landlady Olive gave us useful info for food. So off we went to Laragh Lodge .. and what was on the menu??.. only chicken in pepper sauce, mashed potatoes, veg and.. onion rings!! It is obviously a thing round here 😁
The waterfalls were directly behind the restaurant so we had quick look then made our way back to our digs.
Another fabulous day but very tired - and we never did get to have a proper look round Ballycastle. 🙄
Thursday 8 June
Woke up to grey clouds this morning! Clouds!
But no matter - this was the still gorgeous view from my seat in the dining room ..
.. and this is the breakfast we were served..
pineapple smoothie then fruit, yoghurt and muesli for starters..
Then a full Irish with potato cakes and soda bread..
Plus toast (couldn't manage any!) and tea and coffee.
Absolutely delicious - couldn't eat it all so had the scones as a takeaway 😋
First stop just down the road was to look at the castle ruin at Red Bay
Glenarif - more GOT.
I saw several signs offering DULSE for sale. No idea what it was!
Now I know!
Yet another GOT location 🙄
Interesting to see all the buses coming out from Belfast to stop at all the same places in their way to the Giant's Causeway. So many buses!
The sun came out briefly but it was still chilly.
Well done Paddy the pigeon! 🏅
.. and in Spar we found Dulse! Haven't tried it yet though.
Larne.
Called in to The Gibbons to find out what I was. It's a dramatic coastal walk apparently but it needs to be pre-booked. Rather glad about that when I saw the pictures!.. 😅
Interesting to see that lots of abandoned or vacant buildings are not just boarded up but have specific sort of 'covers' made for their doors and windows - a lot of them depicting what the shop/premises had previously been used for.
Carrickfergus.
Still chilly!
We sat in the car with takeaway drinks and ate the delicious scones from breakfast 😍
Finally the sun came out ☀️
Pronounced Deviss apparently after noone could understand where we were going when I kept saying Divvys 🤣
Short walk at the NT Divis and Black Mountains.
Belfast in one direction..
..and the sea in the other.
Lovely sunset from our window. Had a quick walk to the fence - could see the sea in the distance but too cold and blowy to linger and look for a better viewpoint!
Another great day!
Friday 9 June
Mike's bucket list trip to the Titanic Experience.
He was very happy.
Falls Road
Interesting to see all the barricades and gates. Must have been a frightening time.
St Peter's cathedral.
Game of Thrones glass murals.
We decided to book on the hop on/hop off bus to see the sights around Belfast as we'd done so much walking over the week and were tired.
Belfast City Hall.
Beautiful stained glass windows.
First trip on the hop on/hop off tour bus.
Duke of York pub. Not serving food.
Kelly's Cellars pub - wasn't serving food either but Mike had a Guinness.
Lunch at the Morning Star pub.
Back on to the tour bus to go round again - Mike dozed through most of it 🤣
Another set of barricades which has lots of cameras on it so at the slightest sign of trouble it can be closed - automatically - from a police station over a mile away!
The Crown pub - fabulous inside with separate little cubicles - but so busy they couldn't fit us in for coffee and cake.
Eventually had coffee, scones and a sit down at a posh hotel.
Then back to the car park - £21 - but we had been parked for most of the day and we knew it would be pricey!!
Off to the ferry to wait in the queue.
.. and after nothing but sunshine all week it started to drizzle!
Sunday 11 June
Up early to get off the ferry. Lovely and sunny.
Then home with time for a shower before celebrating Luca's 5th and Callum's 23rd birthdays - and saying bon voyage to Molly who was off on her travels to work in a cat sanctuary in Greece!
Over the week we travelled only 388 miles and had a great time exploring Northern Ireland in the sunshine 🔆
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