Bally Castle, Northern Ireland; Carrick-a-Rede rope Bridge; Dark Hedges; Dunluce Castle

There has been a "Carrick-a-Rede" suspension bridge for over 200 years.  Originally it was built by the fisherman who used to net fish off this small volcanic sea stack.  They needed a way to bring in the catch (in good years 300 fish per day) back to the mainland.  The Irish have not fished for salmon here since 1990.  But, now an upgraded pedestrian suspension bridge, which still swings in the wind, is there for the tourists.  I suspect the workers at this site, would have been fishers in the past.  Our AirBnB is only a few minutes from this site, so early in the morning we headed over to the bridge.  It is a pleasant 30 minutes walk from the parking lot to the bridge and I got there before anyone else.  I had the bridge and sea stack to myself for about 15 minutes.  This is a site heavily visited by tour busses, so the privacy in this beautiful and wild place was an unexpected and much appreciated bonus.  

Sunrise view from our AirBnB

The Bridge

Looking down from the bridge.  90 feet above the Atlantic Ocean

View back to mainland N. Ireland 

from the sea stack 

We stopped by the town of Portrush.  Portrush is the summer resort town with lots of seaside guesthouses and an amusement park on the pier.  We also saw the famous Portrush Golf Course which has hosted the British Open in the past.  We stopped for coffee and a scone, watched some wet-suited surfers and kite-surfers.  With the temperatures in the mid fifties these were committed surfers.

Portrush has a serious sand beach. 

The "Dark Hedges" is a beautiful avenue of beech trees planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century.  It was intended as a compelling landscape feature to impress visitors as they approached the entrance to their Georgian mansion, Gracehill House. Two centuries later, the trees remain a magnificent sight and have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland. In fact, the iconic trees have been used as a filming location in HBO's epic series "Game of Thrones", representing the Kingsroad.

The ruins of Dunluce Castle are balanced dramatically on a sea cliff separated from the mainland by a deep gorge and accessible now as it always has been only by a drawbridge.  It has been coveted by the powerful in the area, the MacDonnells, the MacQuillans, the King of England and the property has been passed back and forth a number of times.  In 1693 part of the castle (the kitchen) fell into the sea undercut by the constant wave action.  The countess of Antrim (a MacDonnell) had had enough.  The household was moved inland to Glenarm Castle where to this day the MacDonnell's seat remains.  We toured this site, and even as a ruins it was impressive.

A sea arch as seen from Dunluce Castle

We finished the evening back at our AirBnB with a fire in the wood-burning fireplace and finished off the cottage pie from last night.

 

Our Airbnb cottage and its wonderful view of the ocean

Ballycastle, Northern Ireland: The Giants Causeway: Old Bushmills Distillery

Our ferry docked in Belfast at 6:30AM.  After a pleasant night of a slightly rocking boat along with what I found to be a comfortable vibration from the engines, I was well rested.  This to me was a cost effective  way to combine traveling from one location to another with a hotel.  Some people saved even more money by not getting a cabin.  They simply booked walk-on tickets and slept in the chairs in the lounge.  Maybe when I was younger I could have done this, but now I need the comfy bed and a nice shower.  Upon disembarking, we grabbed a cab for £20 to drive us to the Belfast City Airport.  I later checked and saw the   same trip with Uber would have been £13 ... Lesson learned.

At the airport after spending some time with a pleasant couple from Australia we picked up our rental car and headed to the Antrim coast which vies with Dingle as being the prettiest area of coastal Ireland.  While the coast is certainly the star of Northern Ireland's show, the interior is no slouch.  The hills were taller than I expected and colors more vibrant.  Our goal was to reach the "Giant's Causeway" and the environs around it.  

The causeway is a natural phenomena that occurred after an ancient magna flow was quickly cooled as it flowed into the ocean contracting and forming basalt pillars.  Continued erosion helped to further define the the pillars, thus forming what looked like a causeway sinking into the ocean.  The Irish have their own story about two giants each trying to outsmart the other all around the building of the causeway.  

Driving through the interior

Antrim Coast

Giant's Causeway

These particular basalt pillars are about 30 feet tall

Basalt

Today's travels

After the Giant's Causeway we drove about 5 miles to the village of Bushmills which is the home of Old Bushmills Irish Whiskey.  Note that the Irish spell it with an "e", whiskEy, the Scotchmen drop the "e",  thus whisky.  At Bushmills they claim the "e" stands for excellence.  I have been waiting for the distillery ever since we left Lancaster.  Old Bushmills is the oldest licensed whiskey/whisky distiller in the world.  Although it is about to change, as of now, every bottle of Bushmills starts its life in one mash vat that is the center of the Bushmills' whiskey making operation.  In the future, as I sip my Bushmills it will be nice to know that it started its path to my glass at that exact vat.  

Enjoying an after tour whiskey

My distillery purchase was this bottle of 12 year single malt.  Note the label, personalized for this trip.

At the end of the day we checked into our AirBnB and prepared an Irish Cottage Pie.

Views from the living room of our AirBnB

Views from the living room of our AirBnB

Our cottage pie

The Irish Sea: Passing through England

 At 9:30AM we were set to leave the Lille-Europe on the Eurostar Line. That is the one that connects London and Paris via the Chanel Tunnel known better as the "Chunnel".  We were ready, but the train was not.  Arriving from Brussels there was a delay.  Ordinarily not a problem but today we had a very tight schedule changing trains in London where we arrived at St. Pancras International Station and were to leave for Liverpool from another station, Euston Station.  They are a little over a half a mile apart and through unfamiliar territory.  The Eurostar's delay was due to personnel problems.  I can't help but wonder if it is not related to the sporadic rail strikes that are occurring all over Europe.  At any rate, we went through the Chunnel exactly 20 minutes later than planned.  Cutting the transfer time down from 70 minutes to 50 minutes.  Arriving in London, we immediately went to the taxi stand where we found a huge line of taxi riders and no line of taxis.  It was one of those moments when nothing need be said.  Sandy and I made eye contact and immediately started hot footing it to Euston Station.  We made it with time to spare.  The good news was that British First Class Rail Travel really is first class, along the lines of airlines.  We have been traveling by rail for the last 5 weeks on Eurail First Class.  The British trains stand apart from the others. 

The Lille-Europe, Eurostar Station from our hotel room

Standing in the queue for our train to London

Today's Travels

Waiting for our platform to be called at Euston Station

That's our train, Liverpool Lime Street

Sandy enjoying her Teriyaki Noodles on the train.

England from the train window

England from the train window

England from the train window

We arrived in Liverpool in a cold, driving rain.  This limited any site seeing to the area around the train station which is essentially the center of town.  Even though I had hoped to do more, I was glad to get to see some of Liverpool's public buildings and statues.  Liverpool is very much a work-a-day town and you can see it in the buildings and neighborhoods. 

The Liverpool Lime Street Station

Queen Victoria

Lastly we grabbed a cab to take us to the Stena Terminal where we had reserved a cabin on the Ferry to Northern Ireland. Tonight we are to sleep on the Irish Sea.

Sailing away from the busy port of Liverpool

 

Lille, France: Belgian Waffles

 This morning I had some travel housekeeping to do.  Confirm reservations, check the train strikes, convert some cash to euros.  Also had some financial stuff to stay on top of so much of the morning was taken up with me in our hotel room at my computer.  We did have time to go out and enjoy a Belgian treat that I had not yet enjoyed.  The Waffle.  Sandy and I found a restaurant that served them perfectly.  The "House of Waffles", this is an unfortunate name because it resembles the name of an American pancake chain "International House of Pancakes" or IHOP.  Believe me, the House of Waffles is a whole different thing.  They make matters worse by having a walkup window like all the other touristy waffle houses in Bruges but, because of advice from a local we learned that if we squeeze past all the tourists and down a skinny corridor, the back of the house opens up into a pleasant restaurant.  At least on the tables surrounding us, only Sandy and I were speaking English.  Sandy got the waffle with blueberries and mine came with wild cherries.  This was time well spent.

My Belgian Waffle with Cherries

The guys in charge of the Waffle Magic

Today we moved into France.  This is the fifth time Sandy has been in France, but she never tires of it.  As the train approached the border and more signs were in French she felt a sense of comfort.  When the announcements on the train started coming in French she expressed her happiness.  Sandy is a good traveler, a good sport, but above all a true francophile.  We got into Lille-Flanders station just about 4:00PM after changing trains in the town of Courtrai(French)/Kortrijk(Dutch).  Though we were more prepared for it this time, it is always good to know both the French and Dutch spelling for train station towns.

Bruges to Lille-Flanders via Train

Train Station (Gare) at Lille-Flanders

After settling into our room we walked into the downtown section of Lille.  It was so much more than I had expected.  A number of market squares all surrounded by impressive buildings, department stores, boutique shops, and uncountable cafés.  We ate at "La Chicorée" where I had mussels and Roquefort...it was delicious.  Surprisingly, Lille has become (since 2016) a center for Welsh Rarebit.  Not a single café failed to have a section called "The Welshes".  It seems to have taken off after a Welsh rugby team spent some time here during an international tournament.  It has become so popular that some native Lillians consider it the official dish of Lille.  I truly love Welsh rarebit but didn't get it because it didn't seem French enough.  Now knowing the story, I wish I had.  On the walk back to the Hotel the sun had set and the city was lit up in primarily blue lights.  It was stunning.

Mussels with a Roquefort sauce