Giant's Causeway

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How does one give the Giant's Causeway Justice? Without photos I don't know if I'm up to the task or not. But I digress.....

The Trafalgar Tour is going nicely, not too hectic and with more free time than I anticipated. Hotels are great locations, nice staff, and the group is starting to get to know each other and warm up. Combination of Canadian's, Americans and Auzzies. We have young married couples through to grandchildren (adult) traveling with their grandmother (2 sets). Neat meeting everyone so far.

Our City tour of Belfast was a great introduction to the city (not that I hadn't had my own crazy version of it - suffice to say this was more sane) with our local guide, and afterwards we headed off to the Giant's Causeway.

I was on the right side of the bus (we rotate seats daily to give everyone a fair chance on different views) and had the coast line at my fingertips I felt. With the huge windows I felt like I could see for miles and how stunningly beautiful it was. Who knew Ireland has actual golden sand beaches? Seriously! Not saying it's excactly pull out your bikini and go for a swim beaches, but if you stayed inside where it is warm and looked out you could think that.........

Ned had ants in her pants by the time we got to the Causeway. The Conservation Fund is doing massive rennovations to the parking area, mainly to protect the region and protect the species from the humans who are innocently coming to explore this magestical destination. I found out that Trafalgar Tours donated over $2 million dollars last year into this project which made it seem that much cooler being there. *I* helped with that we all thought to ourselves.

It's even more magical in person. The story about the giant building a walkway between Scotland and Ireland makes it even more surreal and you actually believe that vs. the scientific balsalt, lava, cooling explanation. Science. meh! Romance and giants and folklore are one of the pleasures of this tiny island, and sound sooooooo much better than science!

I managed to explode away from the group as I wanted to walk as much as I possibly could of this beautiful spot. I walked down to the actual hexagonal rocks (soooo cool) then continued on to a beatiful lookout around the corner. Then up 168 stairs up a cliff wall, and proceeded to do a portion of the 5 mile walk that stretches all the way to the rope bridge 5 plus miles back the way we came.

The rock formations are nothing that I have ever seen before, and I happily played shutter bug and tried to get as creative as I could. Breathtaking scenery does not do it justice, and without photos I'm almost at a loss for words. This is definitely the highlight of the trip to date, not sure if it can be beaten, but racing back to the bus with 5 minutes to spare, windblown hair, rosy cheeks and lungs full of fresh salt water air was, well, it doesn't get much better:-)

Kay - must wonder off for breakfast before we head to the Pensinula tour.... more adventures continue!

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