Causeway Coastline, Northern Ireland- Monday, August 5

After a decent night's sleep last night, and breakfast at the hotel, we were all refreshed and ready for a big day.  Our first stop was a laundry to drop off our load.  Apparently, there aren't any self serve laundromats around, and our only real choice is to have a service do it.  That means that we don't have to do it ourselves, but they won't be able to finish it until 11:00 AM tomorrow.  

So we were off to our first real stop- the Giant's Causeway.  According to legend, the Irish giant Finn McCool challenged a Scottish giant to a fight, and built a causeway of stone to cross the water to fight him.  There's more to the story, but to get to the gist of it, the unique rock formations that are found there today are said to be what's left of that legendary fight.  The rocks themselves are quite famous for the strange landscape they make-- thousands of hexagonal shafts pushing up to different levels creating a very unnatural looking pile.  We went through the visitors center and looked at the exhibits, got audio guides, and began the long walk down to the causeway.   When we got to the causeway itself, Julie and Anna were the bravest, climbing a long way up and out.  Emma eventually joined them and the girls looked into a tidal pool below the rocks.  Scott climbed too, but with a bit more caution.  To return, we hiked the scenic route up the tall cliffs behind the causeway.   Along the way, we saw various formations that "prove" that the giant once lived here-- his haystacks, his gates, his chimneys, and even his boot, now all turned to stone.  The view from the cliff was even better than the view from the causeway because we could see the ocean and the wild rocks a long way down to our right, and the rolling farmland of Ireland to our right.  

The weather was very nice, if a bit cool, as we were out on the Causeway and the cliffs.  We ate lunch when we got back to the Visitors Centre.  It was then that a rainstorm rolled through, but by the time we were done with lunch, it had stopped raining, and it was fine the rest to the day.

After lunch, we went to nearby Dunluce Castle.   It has several things in common with Urquhart Castle in Scotland.  They are both just a shells of ruins now with picturesque towers and some walls of stone; and they are both probably best known for their setting and the romantic look that they give it than for any single historical event that happened there.  Dunluce's ruins sit over the sea on a beautiful outcropping of rock, a short distance from the Giant's Causeway.  The girls were the ones that had an audio tour this time, and it was set up like a scavenger hunt.  A character named Randall took them through the ruins and described what each place was like for him 400 years ago, and had them look for an object that was "lost" in the castle.  Each object was actually an artifact that archeologists found.  We explored the castle along with the girls.  When climbing into the tower, Julie fell and hurt her hand, and when coming back down the stairs, she hit her head.   She thought the castle was trying to beat her up. 

After the caste, we continued along the coast to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  We had a tight squeeze driving down into the "overspill" parking area because of the two-way traffic trying to use a one-lane drive.  Julie called the experience "harrowing."  Once parked, we had to walk about a kilometer to the famous rope bridge.  The bridge looks cool in pictures on calendars, but after the long walk to it, it's a little disappointing.  It's about 70 feet long, and hangs about 100 feet above the water.  Being a rope bridge, it bounces and sways when you walk on it.  However, you are rushed across the bridge because there's a line of people waiting to use it.     While one line of people are crossing, another queue is forming to cross it the other way.  As a result, you don't really have chance to stop in the middle to admire the view or take pictures or just catch your breath and contemplate the wonder of it.  If you do, one of the workers on either side of the bridge calls out to you, "Keep moving!  People are waiting!"  Anna, Emma, and Scott enjoyed walking across the bridge.  Julie was a little panicked by it at the time, but later in the day said that she was glad she did it.  After crossing once, you have a chance to explore the large rock that it goes to, but then you've got to cross the bridge again quickly and trudge the kilometer back to the entrance and the car park.  The girls enjoyed trying to catch butterflies from the thistles as we walked, though.

We had a few hours of daylight left, and no real reason to go back to the hotel, so we drove to the Glens of Antrim.  Specifically, we went to Glenariff Forest Park. We had seen pictures of a beautiful waterfall there. We certainly saw some great scenery on our way in, but when we got to the park, we changed our minds about looking for the waterfall.  It had gotten much colder in the evening, Anna and Emma didn't want to leave the car, and it looked like the trail to the waterfall was closed for some reason.  We took a quick picture down the glen to show the great scenic view and left.

We had the possibility of one more stop left, so we went back to a place we were too tired to look for yesterday.  We set "Lizzie" to take us to the small town of Toome.  There, it was relatively easy to find the river Bann, and the bridge across it, but after driving around a few times we still couldn't find what we were looking for.  Julie asked for directions at a gas station, and we were a little embarrassed to find that the monument was almost across the road from where we were.  It is a large stone cross to remember Rody McCorley, who was hanged for his part in the Rebellions of 1798 on a bridge that stood near this spot.  Scott has liked the song about this event for a very long time, and has sung it many times with Rush the Growler.  Julie took Scott's picture here, and of course Scott played the song on his MP3 player too.  It was a moment Scott has been looking forward to. When he got back in the car, he asked Anna and Emma if they knew why they were here, and started playing the music for them.  After just a few notes, Anna said, "Yeah, yeah, it's 'Rody McCorley.'  Ugh, I can't believe I know this song."  Scott was very pleased.

We stopped at a KFC near Toome because it was getting late and we needed something.  After ordering inside, Julie had to walk through the drive-through because they couldn't swipe her credit card inside.  We made our way back to Coleraine, to the same place we were at last night. There's a lot of shopping places around, so we shopped at a supermarket called Sainbury's for some necessities before turning in for the night.  It's been a really good day today.

In other news: They announced that the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who will be played by a man named Peter Capaldi.  Too bad we just missed being in Cardiff when he was announced.