Belfast and The Giant's Causeway

     After another late departure last night. To date this trip is completely opposite to the way we normally cruise. Sailing in the morning with free time and then in port in the evening. We did our last zumba workout until a few days from now. Today the schedule called for arriva lat 11:00 am with an 8:30 pm departure. We were late leaving. After this all the remaining ports will be morning arrivals and late afternoon departures.

Overlooking Giant's Causeway

Selfie At Causeway

     We were ready to go ashore shortly after arrival. We had a 6 hour ship tour to the Giant's Causeway which is about 2 hours north of Belfast. It is an UNESC World Heritage site and a wonder of the world. It is something that I taught in geography. It's formation is much like  Devil's Tower (Close Encounters of the 3^rd Kind) in Wyoming that has the 5-7 sided columns. However, they are only about 50 feet high whereas at Devil's Tower is is over 800 feet high. Despite that the area is quite impressive. The columns are about 18 inches wide vs 4 feet in Wyoming. They reminded me more of the basalt lava flows that you would see in Yellowstone park which were formed in a similar way. Despite that, it was a great place to visit.

Judy on Giant's Steps

Giant's Steps

The tour was late leaving because of 2 missing people. They handed in their vouchers but never got on the bus. After about 2 hours we stopped to view a mostly destroyed castle right on the ocean. After arriving at the Causeway and collecting our audio guides, we walked down to the formation and were able to use the stones to walk all over the place. There were hundreds + (?) of people there and from they looked like ants crawling all over the place. It's really hard todescribe what it looks like and we hope that the photos

On A Step

give you an accurate idea of the structure. After about a mile walk downhill, and the walking all over the structure (we were part of the ants!) we decided to walk the long way back to the visitor's centre. We were only given 2 hours to see the place. We could have done a lot more but needed to head up. It was a bit of a hike, especially after zumba in the morning but we got back to the bus area in time to have an ice cream cone. Most people were back in time which was amazing considering the distance that we needed to walk.

North Ireland Coast Slump

    We took the coast road back with some great views of the North coast of Ireland, stopping a number of times to see the landscape. We also passed through a number of small towns. Back in Belfast, we had a short tour of the city. This is where the Titanic was built and there are plenty reminders of that. A very modern museum is in front of the area when it was constructed. The paint shop still stands. In the city itself, the office where the ship was designed is also still standing. The guide made the point several times that the Titanic was good when it left Belfast. There is a mix of old and new and not much evidence (at least where we were taken) of the “troubles” as they called the conflict. This is marching season and many of the town that we passed through displayed their colours from which you could tell what “side” they supported. They refer to the situation now as “tolerating” each other. An interesting side note is that they have a hockey team. They built an arena to develop a “neutral” sport that could be supported by either side. In all a very good tour.

     After dinner we attended the country western night and then saw a production show.