Europe part 12 - July 5, - 18, 2015

July 5, 2015 - Back to Edinburg for 1 day before we go to the coast and get on a ferry to Larne,  Northern Ireland.  I did not realize that Northern Ireland is a separate country from Ireland.  Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain and uses the English pound for its currency and it sets its speed limits in miles per hour just like England.  The Republic of Ireland is part of the European Union and uses the Euro as its currency and measures speed in Kilometers.  The North is very green, hilly and has a great coastline.  We stayed at a place here that was about 50 miles from Belfast that was out in the middle of nowhere, but it was a great place that was HUGE.  It was a 2 bedroom that had a dining room, living room and a huge room that is similar to a sun room that use to be their restaurant.  It had great views of the ocean and was a beautiful place.

Went to Highland Games, (just outside of Edinburg), which is a big deal here and puts various sports together in a kind of track and field meet wearing kilts.  Very interesting.

 

 

 



 

July 6, 2015 - Went for a ride to Loch Ness to look for the Loch Ness monster referred to as "Nessy".  Nice lake. Very long and deep. Did not see Nessy, but heard a lot of interesting stories about the thousands of sightings over the years.

 

 

Typical road that is as small as my car and it is a 2 way road.

 

 

 

July 7 & 8, 2015 - Northern Ireland.  It is very wet and cool here.  We landed in Larne which is just outside of Belfast.  This is the B&B that we stayed at for a few days.  And all of the pictures are from the inside of our gigantic room.

 

We arrived to a rainbow in Ireland, but did not find any pot of gold.

 

 

Outside our room.

 

Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Not a very interesting city except for the fact that they have walls that separate the catholic side from the protestant side that closes and locks each night.

 

Part of the dividing wall.

 

July 9 & 10, 2015 - Went north first to a few places that had some interesting scenery including the giants causeway which is some very unusual rock formations that are very big and unique.  It looks like someone formed them by hand.  Then around to the western side of Ireland.

 

 

 

 

This is "Dark Hedges" from the show Game of Thrones.

 

Giants Causeway National Park

 

 

Unusual rock formations are the reason for the name.  Of course they have a myth about this being a giant's stepping stone to Scotland so that the giants from each country could cross over to battle each other.

 

July 11, 12 & 13, 2015 - Western and southern Ireland.  Ireland is not as scenic, mountainous or as historic as I expected.  But it was green! (translated as rainy - all the time.)

 

 

 

 

July 14 - 18, 2015 - Southern Ireland and Dublin.



 

 

 

 

Dublin, Ireland.  Not much to see here so we toured the Guinness Brewery.

 

 

Water for the brewing of Guinness.

 

Old barrels that they used to store the beer in. Now it is in the standard kegs.

 

A 2 ton carving about the history of Guinness.

 

This was used for one of their commercials.

 

The view from the 7th floor of the brewery where there is a bar for free samples and the

view of the entire city.

 

 

Leaving Ireland on the ferry for Wales.  See next blog section.