Saturday, September 1, 2007

Ireland Day 2: Derry, Giants Causeway

Today we drove to the Giants Causeway to view the magnificent natural structures. It also gave us an opportunity to try out Madison's back pack. The cause way is to rocky to take a buggy.

The drive to the Giants Causeway is about an hour from where we were staying, so we got a pretty good look at the countryside which was very like New Zealand. The two things about Ireland that have struck us so far:

1) There are bloody tractors everywhere - even on the motorway
2) Once off the beaten track, the roading is terrible. Very narrow and in ill repair as a rule. Probably because of 1)...

Driving through little villages and hamlets in Northern Ireland is strange too. They are very patriotic as in British and English flags flying proudly. Way more so than on the mainland. I guess after such a struggle they want to something to show for it.

Oh and a little history. Derry is also know as Londonderry. In the North the road signs all say Londonderry and in the Republic they say Derry. Also some signs have been vandalised to remove the London part. The original name was Derry, but when a bunch of London landowners paid for the city walls the name was changed to Londonderry in respect to them. History here

Anyway, we arrived at the Giants Causeway about 10:30 which was a good time. It was a public holiday in NI, so I think it was a little busier than normal, but not too bad. There is a bit of a walk from the carpark, but not too bad. There is even a bus for the lardy americans.

The causeway itself is formed from lava flows cooling or something. It is awesome and quite un-worldy. The pictures on the net etc, don't do it justice. Not much point trying to explain in words, but suffice to say it's well worth going to if you are ever in Ireland.

On the way back we stopped off at the Bushmills Whisky Distillery which would let Madison do the tour so stuff them. Jamisons is way better anyway.
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