Welcome to the United Kingdom! Today I learned about the political history of Northern Ireland (or the “north of Ireland”, as the Irish prefer to call it) on a black taxi tour and visited the iconic Giant’s Causeway, both included on my full-day bus tour with Wild Rover Tours.
I should start with the disclaimer that guided bus tours are my least favorite form of travel. I prefer the freedom to do things on my own schedule and at my own pace, so I find guided tours to be quite confining. However, I don’t know that I would travel to Northern Ireland to see those attractions on their own, so a guided tour seemed like the best option. For a variety of reasons, it wasn’t my favorite day of vacation. I’ll just hit the highlights of the day.
Belfast After a two-hour drive to Belfast, we had the choice of two different activities: a Black Taxi Political Tour or a visit to the Titanic Museum. I chose the former as I had read good reviews online. The tour was given by Kevin, a native of Belfast. It was a very different tour than anything I’ve done before. There were 5 of us in the cab, and we stopped in a couple of different places to talk about the political history of the north of Ireland. The most fascinating part of the tour was seeing the wall that separates the British neighborhoods from the Irish neighborhoods. The gates in the wall open every day from 6:30AM to 8:30 PM. Once closed, the only way from one side to the other is through the city center. There are murals all over the area we visited, the most famous of which is called the Peace Wall. We were encouraged to sign the wall and write where we were from (I kept it simple). The wall is painted over once per year and new visitors add their names. The tour was both very informative and very political. It was interesting to hear an Irish citizen’s perspective on the relationship between Britain and Ireland.
Dunluce Castle We were given a mere 30 minutes to visit the ruins of Dunluce Castle. Apparently, it served as the basis for one of the settings in Game of Thrones, which means nothing to me. I could have wandered around taking pictures for a couple of hours, but the 30 minutes included getting off the bus, walking to the castle, “touring” the castle (hardly time to read all the information panels), a bathroom stop, and getting back on the bus. You can see why guided bus tours are not my style.
Giant’s Causeway We had two hours to visit the Giant’s Causeway, the iconic shoreline with basalt columns on Northern Ireland’s Antrim Coast. If we wanted a meal, this was also the time to do that. I stopped at the Nook Pub for a quick ham and cheese sandwich and then opted for the longer, more strenuous, Red to Blue loop to see the Causeway. The route starts high above the sea and follows the top of the cliffs before dropping down 162 steps to the Causeway. The Causeway itself was… disappointing? The weather was cloudy, but I had an idea that it was much larger than it actually is and less filled with people. You can walk out onto the rocks to take pictures, and the surrounding cliffs are impressive, I just wanted more. I also wish there had been more time to walk the other trails and take more pictures. Instead, I was constantly checking my watch to make sure I had time to make a bathroom stop and get back to the bus on time.
I didn’t feel like a big meal after getting back to Dublin, so I brought my laptop down to the hotel bar/restaurant and had summer pudding (bread pudding with summer berries and ice cream) and a Rockshore cider while editing pictures and listening to an excellent musician.
A couple of random things from today… We stopped at a rest area on the way back to Dublin, and there was a “launderette” in the parking lot with washers and dryers (photo below). When I got back to the Charlemont tram stop in Dublin, there was a fox walking down the road. The tram stop and my hotel are right next to a canal and a local told me they are very common to see here. Lastly, when I was enjoying my dessert/drink in the hotel lounge, not one, but two Emirates flight crews arrived. If you’ve ever seen the Emirates flight attendants, it is an impressive look to see them all walking into the lobby together.
Traveling with Laura 