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Showing posts from July, 2010

Exploring Northern Ireland in 2 Days, Part 3, Armoy Harbor, The Belfast Zoo, The Belfast Castle and The Cat Garden

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We stopped at White Park Bay overlook to take pictures of the beach on the way to the Armoy Harbor.  I couldn't take enough pictures of the water.  It's a pure blue that's just beautiful. Because it was early morning, it was hazy just as an Irish morning should be. The harbor was beautiful.  I love being on the water. And there was a little restaurant there serving breakfast, but we'd already eaten.  Darn. But we were so focused on the scenery and taking pictures we didn't really need to eat too. I swear the water looked like glass. We checked out of Lime Park and had a few hours before we had to catch the ferry in Larne. We decided to go to Belfast. We went to the Belfast Zoo.  I'm not a big fan of zoos I really think the animals, though they probably don't live as long, deserve to be free. But I had a few favorites that I got to see. Like the mercats. Don't they look comfortable laying in a pile. The ultimate family unit. I loved this

Exploring Northern Ireland in 2 days, Part 2, The Giant's Causeway, A Train Ride and The Rope Bridge of Carrick-a-Rede

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The Giant's Causeway is the 4th most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland.  It was created when hot lava or Basalt cooled too quickly and formed  unusual rock formations. On the way down to the site, which is about a 20 minute walk from the tourist center, I took some pictures of the coastline. 50 or 60 million years ago, the Antrim area of Ireland was subject to intense volcanic activity. During this period a lava plateau was formed by the eruptions. As the lava cooled it contracted and  the flow was constricted thus creating the unusal rock formations. And they really are most unusal. Some of them are hexagons, octagons, and they look as though they were hand cut to fit together. Some look like giant prisms. And others like stepping stones. What facinated me was how they shot straight up and factured vertically instead of horizontally. Some of these columns shoot 36 feet into the air. The Irish are known for their blarney. Just some.  One version of

Exploring Northern Ireland in 2 days, Part 1, The Ferry Trip and Lime Park

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We arrived in Ireland on the 6th of June. I hadn't been on a Ferry since I was very young. The guys who load them really know what they're doing.   The ships now have certainly taken a turn for the better.  I felt like I was in the bar of the Starship Enterprise. I don't know what it's like to travel in bad weather on the sea in a ferry, but our crossing was so peaceful that we both fell to sleep for at least and hour.  They even have stores inside.  I bought my son, Daniel, a Guinness Shirt and baseball cap.  Guinness beer is his favorite, and of course it's a very popular beer in Ireland and Scotland. Here's our sister ferry that docked just ahead of us. We weren't allowed to go out during the trip so this was my only shot at a picture. Look at how blue the water looks. It was that way the entire time. We chose to take the ferry and take the car since we were going to have to fly out of Edinburgh on June 8th and would need the transportatio