On arrival at Belfast we picked up the hire car - just me to drive to save £50, and headed round to Carrickfergus. Driving through Belfast we saw the famous Harland and Wolff cranes where the Titanic was built and where there is now a major tourist attraction.
Carrickfergus
We had a short walk around the castle area and had lunch in the Sainsburys cafe before setting off on the coast road up to Glenariff. We drove up the valley and stopped at the top to take in the view but refused to pay £5 for the privilege of parking the car to do a short walk.
Glenariff
We went on to Ballycastle and walked along the beach then found a spot to sit on the dunes to soak up the sun and watch the world go by. Very pleasant - so pleasant that we didn't realise how late it had got and we had to make a move to drive to our airbnb.
Ballycastle
I'd searched for an airbnb to be not far from the Giants Causeway as we wanted to do a good coastal walk and found one in Ballymoney. The house was large and unusual.
The hosts (a couple our age) met us and showed us to our room whereby the chap talked at us for about 15 minutes! Finally he left us to get settled and we walked into town to buy something to eat at Tesco. On our walk I noticed a poster advertising a march that evening of the Orange order flute bands. After some discussion we decided to go and watch thinking that if there was any trouble we would go straight home. There were 40 bands from all over N Ireland so it was quite a spectacle and it was interesting to witness something we had heard a lot about on the news. The bands had plenty of young participants so it looks like these type of parades will carry on into the future.
I had planned our walk for the next day using the weak wifi in the airbnb - there was only one position - in the hall - where the wifi was strong enough which was a pain.
No comments:
Post a Comment