A quick stop in Northern Ireland

After our adventures climbing all over the rocks at Giant's Causeway, we headed East in hopes of getting to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge before it closed. Unfortunately we were a bit late on it so we missed going across the rope bridge. Despite this now putting us half an hour out of the way, we stopped and enjoyed the view as the sun started to set.

We all found the coast so beautiful and it was a dream just to be there taking it in. We talked to one of the caretakers of the area about the local birds and wildlife.

Before long it was time to jump back into our ride for our holiday which was a Mercedes B180. A lovely little automatic that had a lot of power and had the amazing feature that told me if I was getting too close to either side of the vehicle. I used this feature a lot later on in our trip as we ventured off roading and up crazy passes.

We still had a lot of road to cover to get ourselves to Sligo County where we had rented an Air BNB for the night. It's about a three hour drive from where we were stopped here to get to Grange where the Air BNB was located. As it was about five pm when we were stopped, we arrived in the dark to our stop for the night after stopping in a small village to enjoy some curry for dinner. Taking the time to stop as we thought if we pushed it all the way to Grange we might get there and there would not be anything open for dinner.  I admit we should have given ourselves more time to get there or stayed somewhere closer to Giant's Causeway but I think the driving would have been better if we had not been delayed at the airport. This was the only real slip up on the journey as it all went smooth as soon as we got to Sligo.

Giant's Causeway(Photo Heavy)

After our drive up from the Dark Hedges we made it to the main destination of our first day in Northern Ireland, Giant's Causeway.  The sky was mostly overcast as we arrived but the sun peaked out and shone across the Causeway. We headed down the path, following along the road towards the rocks from where we parked the car and entered through the buildings containing a cafe and gift shop.  There is a bus going down and back up but we chose to walk to stretch our legs.
(lots of photos)

Belfast, The Big Fish and Burgers

After finally leaving the airport, we made it to Belfast. Getting the hang of driving on the left side of the road from Belfast International to Belfast city centre, we were guided to Victoria Square Shopping Centre where we managed to enter the parking garage and find a spot without killing the car or ourselves.  Entering the mall from the lift we headed up to the viewing platform that was a draw to the shopping centre. The viewing platform is free and gives you a good look over the capital of Northern Ireland. 

Driving in Northern Ireland

Our very first day in Northern Ireland did not go off without a hitch. We landed in Belfast early in the morning and eagerly awaited Carol arriving from New York. After her arrival we headed to pick up the car that we would use to drive us around the Green Isle. I was to be the driver of our adventure and I thought we would have no issues. After all I had one brief lesson on driving on the left hand of the road with my housemate. I was a pro. Joking aside, I have driven manual transmission for a few years now so I feel myself to be pretty good at it. Well something about this car that we were picking up from the airport was hell bent on not letting me drive it.

Our excitement went from a 100 to 0 as I could not make it out of the parking lot. Giving up on the car, I abandoned my mother and sister and headed with Carol back into Belfast International Airport and back into the queue. The car rental guy was sure confused when we showed up again. After the set back of our time, we managed to get onto the road in our newly upgraded automatic Mercedes. Of course as I had been driving a manual in Canada for a million years, this automatic had a small learning curve but we got through it but not before I gave my family a bit of whiplash in the parking lot.

Our destination on our first day was Belfast, the Dark Hedges, Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and finally to Sligo where we would spend the night. This was a very ambitious plan but it was made even worse by our delay of getting onto the road.

The photos from this post were from when we were stopped or taken by my sister as I was of course driving.