Blogs from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 4

“It takes a great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.” - Oscar Wilde We started the day sleeping in until 8:30 (!), followed by a delicious breakfast at the Bullitt Hotel restaurant. I has the veggie Irish (poached eggs, grilled halloumi cheese, mushrooms, potatoes, grilled peppers, tomato chutney, and sourdough toast), and Susan had the full Irish (poached eggs, mushrooms, sausages, bacon, black pudding, white pudding, and sourdough toast). Yumm. Well fortified for the day, we headed to the Ulster Museum, a nice smallish museum near Queen’s University. We visited the exhibit on the Troubles, which was well done, then explored the history floor, which encompassed Irish history from the Bronze Age to modern times, which was very informative. I enjoyed the small Egyptian exhibit, ... read more

“Sinking head down. Come soon as possible.” Titanic to Olympic, 1:10 am, April 15, 1912 We enjoyed our last breakfast at the Anchor House B&B in Dublin this morning. Both Susan and I had poached eggs on toast with beans. I’ve had more eggs and beans the last while than I’ve had for a long time ?. We left just before 9 am and walked about 10 minutes in the rain to Connolly train station, where we entered the code into the machines and got our tickets for the train to Belfast (we had booked the train tickets online). After a short while we boarded our train and found our seats. Most of the seating is laid out with four seats facing each other, with a table in between. A sweet older couple from Newry, Northern ... read more

The Other Half had checked her step counter and decided I had walked her too far the previous day. It was not Barcelona mileage, but she reckoned that over 9 miles was pushing it a bit far on her dodgy foot. She insisted a bus day ticket was the order of the day. I checked the timetables. Buses early on a Sunday morning were best described as sparse, but we intercepted a 7 on the way into the city centre. I purchased our 2 all day tickets at £4 each. The plan was to link with one of the shiny new Glider buses that ferry folk across the city, with a view to arriving at the Titanic Experience around opening time. We were ahead of schedule and the G2 didn't start running until 9:30 am, but ... read more

Thursday October 18 - We had breakfast again at the house before leaving. All of the airbnbs that we’ve stayed at on this trip have offered breakfast - some cooked and some continental, but all were lovely. Today we finished the Antrim coast drive. We headed first to nearby Dunluce castle to take a peek, and then to Portrush to look around. Next we headed to Whiterocks beach. We ate some chips in the car for lunch and then walked over to Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple. I’m glad we walked because it was pretty, and I think the site was closed, so I’m not sure we could have parked/entered from the front. The Demesne is an old large house that is in ruins now, after maybe 60 years of being unoccupied. The Temple was built ... read more

Tuesday October 16 - Didn’t sleep very well and had to get up at 5am to get ready for the flight. We got to the car rental return around 6am, a little nervous that there would be problems, after our hideous pick-up in Bristol. But it was very easy and they drove us a few others back to the airport without any problems. We checked in with Easyjet, dropped off our bag and found a place to sit down. Our flight was at 8:45 so we were a bit early. We ate our sandwiches and played around on wifi. My computer had been acting up, and I was very worried it would die, but it still worked, even if it took a few failed attempts to get it going. The flight boarded before they even really ... read more