Antrim Coast, Ireland

It seems like so long ago now, but no Tuesday we took a tour bus to the northern coast of Ireland to see Giant's Causeway. Sometimes called the 8th wonder of the world...apparently locals say that's because it is a wonder what the big deal is, but we disagree because the scenery was gorgeous. The tour started with a drive up the coast and a quick stop to take a look at a castle just north of Belfast, then we were on winding roads along the sea, with alternating cliffs and farmland on the other side. After a stop at some wonderful castle ruins and the Bushmill's distillery we came to giant's causeway.

We started with a walk along the top of the cliffs overlooking the beach, wow the water in Northern Ireland is so beautiful, bright blue near giants causeway, with large cliffs, sometimes red in color, rising above, and fields of green with grazing cows going up to the cliff's edge. We then walked down to Giant's causeway, which was supposedly built by a giant who wanted to cross over to Scotland to beat up a giant on the other side who had been taunting him. The other version of the story is that it was made by the cooling of lava millions of years ago, I think the first one is a little more romantic. Regardless, the dark columns of rocks were striking against the ocean, and reminded me a lot of devil's postpile near Mammoth in CA, where we camped several summers when I was a kid. We sat in the shade of the columns, and enjoyed some bacon cheese bread (that's right, bread baked with loads of cheese, and this delicious bacon that uses different cuts then the bacon in the states on top, mMMmmmMM).

Afterward we went to carrick a rede bridge, which is a small rope bridge that passes over ot an island where the ocal fishermen go to catch salmon. The crossing was overpriced at 4 GBP each, but we decided well worth it because the money goes to the national trust which also takes care of Giant's causeway. And when we got over to the island it turned out to be well worth the cost. The water is clearest I have ever seen, you could stand at the edge of the island and see straight down to the bottom of the water, and even see the individual seaweed at the bottom. We wanted to go swimming so badly, especially since it was such a gorgeous sunny day. It was so warm that I actually spent most of the day in a tanktop, and got a raging bright red sunburn across my shoulders to prove it.

We ended our last night in Ireland at the John Hewitt Pub in Belfast, where we enjoyed a pint of Guinness and wonderful local Irish music. We were both amazed by how quiet the streets are in Belfast. There are only 300,000 people in the city, and even in the middle of the day the streets are not very busy, even though everything in the city centre is within easy walking distance. And once night falls (figuratively, not literally, as the sun did not set until past 10), the streets become deserted, with everyone either heading home or hunkering down in pubs. I only wish that we had more time at our trip and could have stayed longer, but instead we were off to Dunkeld, Scotland and our next adventure, but more on that later.