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Left our Homestay at about 9am arrived at Stansted airport 10.15am. Tried to find where to do our bag drop for Ryanair as you have to pre check yourself in and print out boarding pass. I knew there was a 15 kg limit and had tried to repack before left but once the bag was on the scales it still showed a weight of 18kgs and it was going to cost 60 pound to check it in. So on the floor in the airport we tried to take more things out (everything I packed was so light that it was a joke trying to take out 3kgs of stuff). The problem is you are only allowed to take one carry on bag but it could be 10 kgs- mine was already stuffed full so in the end packed some stuff in a plastic bag and hoped for the best. My Bag came down to 15.5kg so there was no charge and we were on the way. Then I went to the car rental to sort out the extra charges they charged at start of the trip and found that they had charged us for 2 extra days that we had already
paid for. I got that refunded but now was running behind to get to the gate. Bags through x rays and guess what - my bag gets pulled aside and searched- I have liquids in it and, because I had to take items from big bag to make 15kg I forgot all about that. I was stressed from unpacking in front of everyone (mind you every 2nd person was doing the same). Finally let through and mad dash to boarding gate as our plane is now boarding, of course it was the furtherest away boarding gate. When we get there, there was a big cue but plane had just landed. time to calm down now. The Plane very full and there was no room for bags in the overhead lockers so everything was under our feet. (luckily only 1 hour flight).
Pre booked the car hire with a local company so it was 30 pound a day instead of the others that were around 60 pound. It is a brand new car and we meet them in the car park, quickly give us instructions and send us on our way as we only have a 10 min parking ticket so
had to get out of carpark. As we start off Greg said to me I have one question, as they drove in another car, how we pay them???? We drop the car off at different airport and they told us to leave it unlocked with the key in glove box. They have taken no deposit, no credit card number and don’t have our phone number. WELCOME TO IRELAND. As we get out of the rabbit warren of the airport there they are on the side of the road waving us down - we should have waved and kept going ha ha. The man comes to my window and says in a very strong accent I forgot to get some money of you’s. We all had a laugh as it made us feel like we were really in Ireland.
We had lunch in Belfast, then hopped in the car and drove North. We were meeting Robyn tonight, and she sent us a message with the location of the B and B. We would be staying in one of the most picturesque little towns in Northern Ireland for the night. We drove for about 2 hours to Portrush on the north coast.
We Stayed in a B and B overlooking the harbour. It was brilliant.
We woke up refreshed the next morning, and had an easy start. After watching a local (fun) raft race in the freezing waters of the Irish sea, we took off in the car to look at the local scenery. The north coast is so full of scenic points, that after about three hours I looked back to where we came from and you could still see Portrush in the distance. We had seen Dunluce castle, walked to the amazing stone formations of the Giants Causeway, and Robyn and Greg crossed the scary Carrick Rope Bridge. The Noth Coast was a highlight, and there is something new there at every corner.
We drove back to Newtownards, just East of Belfast for a night at Robyn’s Aunties farm and had a good old Irish meal of Spaghetti and rhubarb from the garden. It was nice meeting them all, and hearing the yarns of Ireland.
We set off next morning to see some tourist sights including the slipway that Titanic was built in and had planned on having an Irish stew for lunch at the oldest hotel in Belfast but
Ireland sleeps in on Sundays, so we drove out to the International Airport at Belfast, to depart for Edinburgh, Scotland.
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robyn
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was it a dream?!!
hi there Kathy and Greg, what a wonderful couple of days we had! I am back home and wading through my emails, so it was nice to get your blog and update and pics! Keep enjoying each day of your trip and hope you are doing your exercises - ha ha!! Robynxx