We left Belfast this morning headed north along the Antrim Coast to the Giant's Causeway, a Unesco World Heritage site.
A bit of trivia, Van Morrison is from Belfast.
Northern Ireland is actually part of the United Kingdom, and uses the pound as their currency. Later today we will enter the Republic of Ireland, which is a separate country and uses the Euro as it's currency.
I didn't realize that peace had only been declared in Ireland in 1998. I remember hearing about bombings in Ireland as a kid, but didn't remember how recent they finally found peace.
We made a quick stop at a scenic spot at the northern tip. There is a rope bridge across to this little island. The building is an old fishing shack.
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| Sheep on top of cliff |
The name comes from legend that a giant, Finn McCool, carved these rocks from the coast. It's quite a funny story if you care to look it up.
The path is about half a mile down to the Causeway and then a steep climb back. Along the way was the Bay of Cows, with two grazing cows.
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| Enlarge to see the cows |
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| The giant's camel |
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| Beautiful scenery on the way down |
At the bottom are the basalt rocks. It's incredible how nature carved this!!
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| The small section |
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| The medium section |
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| Large section |
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| I'm surprised they let people climb on the rocks |
As you can see in the photos, the sun is shining. We had heavy rain last night, but by morning it was beautiful. It was very windy going down the path. I can't imagine doing it in driving rain.
We have been incredibly lucky with the weather so far. We're almost half way through our trip and have had very little rain.
We passed through the small town of Bushmill, home to the oldest whiskey distillery, operating since 1608.
We stopped in the walled city of Derry. The walls were built in the 1600s. According to our guide, Protestants live on the hill inside the walled city, and Catholics live down the hill outside the wall. There is apparently still a great divide in Ireland between the two religions, even though peace was declared.
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| Part of the wall |
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| Queen Victoria lost her hands in the explosion |
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| Reproduction stained glass windows |
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| Massive 1914 pipe organ, it's gorgeous |
Crossing over the River Foyle into the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the European Union.
A rainbow as we entered Ireland, pouring rain for a few minutes with the sun shining.
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| In search of the pot of gold!! |
I didn't know Ireland has mountains.
Our next stop was in Donegal where we visited the Triona Company. They produce Donegal Tweed on hand looms, the old fashioned way. We had a demonstration of how the loom works by a young lady apprentice. The master weaver is 82 years old, and has been weaving for over 50 years.
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| The loom is over 200 years old |
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| Their signature item is this purple cape, representing heather. Only 300 euros. |
We are spending the night in Bundoran, a seaside town where surf competitions are held. Too bad our view is the parking lot 😒
Our route today.
