We were a little worried about Brittany getting up because she wanted to sleep late, so we didn't want to wake her - but we didn't want her to oversleep and we thought she wanted up at 8:00 (it's now 8:25). We have the toast that our host left with "softer butter" and Nutella. Britt says that the butter isn't soft at all - but she wasn't promised soft butter... Just "softer" butter. And who knows what they're comparing it to. It’s much softer than the less popular “rock hard” butter.
We really didn't get to see any of Belfast other than our walk down to city centre last night, and I do regret that we didn't plan more time there, but we’ve seen so much, and something had to go.. sorry Belfast. We were just a little ridiculous with what we thought we were going to be able to do in one day (even more than usual). But when we looked up Belfast the only thing that really stuck out to us as a must see was the Giant's Causeway, and so we thought we could spend more time on Scotland instead. And yes, we’re always crazy ambitious with our schedule, but I’d rather have too many options and then cut them out as needed than be sitting in Ireland wondering what we should do. The plan for today is the Giant’s Causeway, and then possibly the “wobbly bridge” – we’ve looked at pictures and it’s gorgeous.. but no one is sure they actually want to go across that thing.. we’ll see.
It is WARM in the apt - those nice big windows have a green house effect and we feel like little orchids. I check email and contact our future hosts to make sure we're set with arrival times. One said that we hadn't yet paid - but we got it straightened out. I also email the Dublin people - I was fairly certain that I had already paid the full price for Dublin but when we got there to check in they said I had only paid the deposit and I still owed. I paid it to get the keys - but have checked Paypal and have proof that we paid twice for Dublin. Hope to get that straightened out. Glad that its through Paypal just in case we need mediation.
I check the weather and I have to tell you I'm a little (a lot) whiny about it (it’s a step above disappointed). Today is a high of 78 with 83% humidity. I was promised 60s.. jacket weather (except that I wouldn’t need a jacket). It’s supposed to stay like this through the end of the week, even as we get into the highlands in Scotland. My travel companions point out that its still cooler than it is at home, and that we've had really nice weather the whole trip. Really, in a country famous for rain (they joke that it only rained twice last week, one on Tuesday for 3 days and once on Friday for 4 days), we have only had rain on TWO days out of 15. And I am grateful for the lack of rain - just didn’t want to be so steamy on the trip.
We navigate the parking garage (I have a thing about them now), and hit the road to the Giants causeway. Its about 90 minutes away – not a bad drive, and just gorgeous green hills the whole way. Brittany is navigating again but when she needs a rest Patti navigates from the back seat, but no one will dare to sit up front.
We get there and park without incident (yay!). I did get honked at once in the roundabout - but that's just a learning experience. :) When I have one thing down, it’s just time to learn another.
I try to pay for my ticket to the causeway at the little ticket kiosk at the front (like those machines where you can buy your movie tickets), but it doesn't like our cards. They don't use the magnetic swipe here, they have a little SIM card in their cards that it reads. So I pay at the counter and tell him it's a "swipey" (that's how cashiers have referred to it before). And he says yah, here we have "the wee chip". I love the use of "wee" in a brogue..
We have an option of going for the live tour or for the self-guided audio tour and we all prefer a live person. We've done enough self guided, I'm tired of walking around with those devices up to my ears. The Causeway is part of the National Trust, so it’s similar to our National Parks system. There are cute old men that are our "entertainment services staff", and they hook is up with audio systems so that the guide can talk at a normal volume as we're walking and know that we're all getting it. Our guy jokes that he's just going to turn us on... (That Irish humor). The ear pieces we get are cool - They just go on one ear, hands free, and they have a little expandable rubber piece that goes up around the ear. Not that hard plastic like a blue tooth, and no uncomfortable ear bud. I need to find one of these.
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| our guide |
The guide is taking is all the way down the Causeway, that's more than I expected. I thought we'd get a little intro and then be set on our way. We love our guy - he tells us the legend and the science behind the causeway. I prefer the legend. There was a giant, Finn McCool - he was 54 feet tall and wore a size 93 shoe (they know this because he left one of his boots behind and figured his height based on the shoe size).
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| Finn's boot |
He had a camel that he rode, and that camel is still here... His name is Humphrey. See what they did there? The camel was really formed when their used to be soil there and there would have been a crevice that size and shape. The molten lava filled in the crevice, and then over the many years the soil has washed away, leaving the lava in that shape.
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| The "camel" is in this pic -- the center rock that looks like it has a hump -- the "head" is facing us, as the camel is lying down... see him? |
The causeway was "built" by Finn so that he could go and challenge another giant in Scotland - so the cause used to reach across the sea, and if you go to the place in Scotland directly across, you'll find these same rock formations. But Finn went over and saw that the giant was much later than he was and ran back home so quick he left his boot on the shore.. The other giant followed him back over, but Finn didn't want to fight him. Finn's wife had a plan and sent Finn off... She made a fake baby that was 54 feet tall, and when the other giant came in she said that Finn wasn't about, he was out with his brothers. Well the giant saw the size of the baby and figured if the baby is that big, he didn't want to fight Finn, how big he must be... And he had brothers! So he ran back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway on the way back.
Really the odd hexagon shapes (some have 4, 5 and 6 sides - and it's rare but you'll find a 7 side of you look) were made by lava drying in the sun. If you look at desserts and how the earth dries, it has the same sort of patterns, but this just happened to new with rock instead of soil. They just looks like stair steps everywhere. It's pretty amazing. I'm afraid the pictures won't capture it.
We have to head out by 2:00 to make it to the ferry by 3:30 and we're right on schedule. We have about 30 min to check out the gift shop and grab something quick to eat. We take the bus back in the interest of time (we walked down), do the shop, and grab cold sandwiches at the snack bar. Everyone is so nice and polite - it's so rare that we see a cranky person, and it really sticks out when we do (the driver is cranky). The sandwiches are made fresh and they're really good - especially for tourist attraction food. We leave perfectly on schedule - just at 2:00 and head to Larne for the ferry to Scotland. But there will be no wobbly bridge on the agenda. Probably for the best, we would have been too chicken to do it anyway...
The drive is slow going at times - we're in a rural part of the country with narrow roads and tractors that go about 20mph, just like tractor traffic at home. I'm afraid it going to put us off schedule, but Tim assures us that we're still fine. And sure enough we arrive with plenty of time to spare. We check in at the gate and they give us a pink tag to hang in our car – we’re special and we didn’t even try to be special. We got to the “club” seats, but I’m sure that was our only option when we were looking at tickets – we have a code to get into an exclusive area of the boat. They tell us to “put your wee pink hangar on the marrow (mirror) for me..” - we go through another check point where they put mirrors (marrows?) under our car to make sure we’re not strapped with explosives, and they ask us questions like have we packed our own bags and if we have any dangerous sporting equipment (Irish humor again). They’re so cute. And they know it. We find it a little surprising that they don’t want to check our passports… but we get directed to a special lane, and we get to go in first… we are club level rock stars. Look out!
We park with no problem – no turning around or backing in.. and we head to our special club seats. It’s truly way cool, and we learn that it’s only 12 pounds more than the other tickets. It’s a nice little area with cush seats, a huge window to the world, and most important… free snacks and beverages. We only have a little over a 2 hour ride, but we raid that snack bar for all it’s worth. We also get free wine, like seriously, serve yourself as much as you want, we’ll just leave the bottle here for you – but none of us have wine. We gorge on shortbread cookies (they are so good), spring water (They insist that it’s the best water they’ve tasted – it’s really good water), cappuccinos (I think I had like 4) and diet pepsi (who knows how many each). We move three times... first we think we want this booth by the big window, then we want a better table… and we finally end up in the comfy seats that lay back. The only thing I would add is wi-fi and we’d be living like queens. The people in “steerage” are missing out – and there are a lot of them with children who run the halls and scream – as opposed to the 20 people that are in the club level. We arrive at in Troon about 6:15... we’re in Scotland!!! We learn that another benefit of our club level is that we get off the ferry first – seriously, that alone is worth the extra 12 pounds – and I know we ate and drank more than our 12 pounds worth.
Troon isn’t far from Glasgow – and the
roads seems a little wider in Scotland so far – at least in this part of
Scotland. We find it with no problem –
it being our CASTLE! We’re a little
psyched because we’re going to be staying in a CASTLE for two days! Dana points out that we woke up this morning
in Ireland and we’ll go to sleep tonight in Scotland… surreal.
We walk in and it’s totally cool. Totally castle like. Yah… we’re going to like this. We’re in two rooms, and Britt and Patti chose
their room, and Dana and I get the other room.
Their room has a BIG four poster bed, a nice armoire, and a claw foot
bathtub. Britt says that she can’t wait
to take a bath in that – and I tell her that she is not going to take a bath in
that… challenge accepted. I go to check
out my room with Dana – and whoa! We
have a slightly smaller bed, but the room totally makes up for it. We have like a suite, with the bathroom down
the hall, and a little parapet/tower/rotunda offshoot (I know that it has a
real word but I can’t remember it!!!) that has two chairs in it for a cute
little reading nook. We love our castle! We’re running around it like kids checking
out a new playhouse, when one of the staff come up with our tray of chocolate
covered strawberries! Dana or Brittany
told them to just bring both trays to our room, so she laughed a little and
said that she hoped this was right, she didn’t want someone stealing the
strawberries from the other room. We
toast to our castle with our strawberries…
We open the windows to get the rooms cooled
off, and there is a great breeze, and a person playing guitar in the courtyard;
just one of those perfect memories that I have now. Dana
gets one of the windows open that is in the nook – and in the process tears
down one of the curtains… it’s not broken, but the windows are too high up for
us to fix it. We settle in and then
just decide to eat in the castle for the night – we have to tell them when we’ll
be down for dinner…
The food is totally foodie food. Brittany gets this amazing pork belly dish,
and I get a fru-fru haggis appetizer. It’s
haggis with a bed of mashed potatoes wrapped in filo dough. It’s my first taste of haggis (I have really
been waiting to try it and I was sure I was going to like it) – and I love
it! I just wonder how much it’s been
cleaned up for tourist consumption – can’t wait to try the real thing. We went down for dinner about 8, and we’re
not back up in the rooms until 10:30. It
was a dining experience for sure – don’t eat here if you’re in a hurry. But we had dessert too – oh man, I had
berries and cream, and Patti had this lemon cheesecake that was Sooooo
yummy. I love a baked cheesecake – it may
be something we have to have again tmw night.
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| fru-fru haggis |
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| Pork belly |
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| lemon cheesecake |
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| yummy fresh berries and cream |
Tomorrow we do Glasgow – and we get
another night in the castle!
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