Northern Ireland

Once we finished touring Dublin, we started driving north to Northern Ireland.  On our way, we made a couple of side stops that actually were still in Ireland.  Our first stop was Bru na Boinne which has Neolithic mounds, chamber tombs, and other weird stuff.  Apparently I'm not that interested in the "unexplained" types of sights. However, it was pretty interesting to think about people that long ago building this site. The one sight we saw was called Newgrange.  It was possibly a sacred spot for sun god worshiping. The tunnel you see remains dark except for 1-2 days a year when the sun lines up exactly right. Since the mound is up high on a hill, the wind was crazy and it was rainy which made it not a great sight for Jacob but we survived.

Anyway....after the strange mound thing we drove to Trim Castle. Trim Castle was used in scenes from Braveheart.  We had great weather for our time at the castle.  Check out the cool clouds in the pictures.

From Trim Castle, we drove on to Belfast in Northern Ireland.  Upon arrival in Belfast we headed straight for the Titanic Museum.   Belfast is where the Titanic was built and they have a very interesting museum on the whole story of the  Titanic from the beginning of building to the sinking.  They even has a little ride that takes you through scenes to make you feel like you are a worker building the ship which was a very dangerous job.  It was Jakes first "roller coaster" ride.

Original gates to the shipyard

After our long day of travel and sightseeing, we decided to pick up Subway for dinner and get into our apartment to rest and relax.  Every night on our trip, Jacob was in need of some freedom time to explore and play. He enjoyed our apartment and having so much room.

The next morning we were off on another driving tour along the coast of Northern Ireland.  Since the weather wasn't so great we decided to do the Bushmills Distillery tour first.  Unfortunately they wouldn't let Jake go on the tour and they wouldn't let us take pictures on the tour.  Bummer.  It was a pretty fascinating tour that showed every step of the whiskey making process.  They let us into the actual working facility so everything we saw was product actually being made.  I found the assembly line of filling the bottles and boxing everything up very interesting.

Jake likes the whiskey, j/k

After "warming up" at Bushmills we headed on to the Giant's Causeway.  This area has hexagonal basalt columns formed from volcanic activity.  The tops of the stones form a sort of pathway leading out to the sea.  It's called the Giant's Causeway because it looks as though a giant was building a causeway to Scotland with the stones.  Of course the Irish have a great myth to explain exactly what happened.  We had fun exploring and playing on the columns.  The weather held up some for us to be able to enjoy our time.

From the Giant's Causeway we drove a little farther to the Carrick a Rede bridge. This is a rope bridge that connects the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede.  It's said that fisherman used to put up temporary rope bridges while the fished for salmon in the area. However, its mainly just a fun thing to do with a slight fear factor and beautiful sights. The weather had kinda turned on us and it was a windy, cold walk but still fun.

We had planned to drive the scenic route back to Belfast after the bridge but the weather was so bad it made it not worth the extra driving time.  We drove a little ways on the scenic route before just hoping back on the highway to get back to Belfast.  That night we had to re-condense all our stuff and pack to make everything airplane ready.  This was the end of our fabulous time in Ireland.  Next up, Scotland!