Breakfast Thursday morning at Darnley Lodge was near perfect. Eggs as requested, a breakfast sandwich such as we hadn’t seen before - a long English sausage layered over their very thick bacon, topped with an egg, all on a hamburger bun. A lot of food, but very tasty. Also the traditional Irish breakfast with black and white “pudding”, eggs, bacon and sausage with the obligatory grilled tomato. All totally satisfying, accompanied by orange juice and coffee. And all included in the room price of $119 per night!
We set off towards Belfast this morning, leaving Athboy behind. We motored up the east coast, enjoying the scenery of a very pleasant and sunny day. We arrived in Belfast shortly after noon and found our way to our Inn for the evening - Tara Lodge. This hotel is a gem! One of the top 25 hotels in the UK, the receptionist was a professional young woman - Rachel. After tagging our luggage, she made us comfortable in the lodge and began a very thorough outline of places to go and things to see. She recommended and reserved a restaurant for evening meal; she recommended and booked a Taxi Tour of Belfast and then outlined the many areas of the city we could also visit.
At 1:30, our Taxi Tour arrived, piloted by Stevie. This was a two hour eye opener as we drove back and forth around the “troubles” neighborhoods, viewed the famous murals around the area and got a total
lecture regarding the cause of the Troubles, the historical context and the current status. The Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods are still very separate, being fenced off with walls every evening at 7:00 and reopened at 5:00 the next morning, plus all weekend. We toured the neighborhoods, saw the current living conditions, learned of the major fighting in the 80’s and 90’s, the Good Friday Agreement brokered by Bill Clinton, the residual after effects of the agreement and how life is slowly, generation by generation, to become integrated. The fighting only stopped 24 years ago, and it may take 50 to 100 years before the integration is anywhere near complete. There are echos of the current USA situation in the polarization that drove these two separate societies to the fighting. Not a pretty thought.
We arrived back at the hotel around 3:30 and then struck out to explore. We headed to the Ulster Museum (formerly the Irish branch of the British Museum) to view all the displays, the Egyptian mummy being one of the most intriguing. This was not an art museum, but a history museum and it lived up to it’s billing. We walked through the Belfast Botanic Gardens and then stopped at our original first choice restaurant, Molly’s Yard. They had not been able to accommodate us for dinner due to a previous private party booking, but they were able to serve us some delicious brown oat bread, hummus, tasty olives and a bottle of Pinot Noir. Our server, Collette, was as interested in our take on the world as we were in hers and we had a fun and lively conversation. As driving duties were over for the day, Mark also enjoyed a lovely Red Ale.
Following this cocktail hour, we walked the two blocks to our dinner reservations at Holohans. Here we enjoyed a salmon steak and three different versions of a Boxty. This local dish is basically a large, flattened 9” circle of mashed potatoes, flattened and grilled, then filled with a choice of fillings, and flipped over like an omelette or crepe. We sampled chicken and mushroom, chili beef and a seafood example. All were wonderful. A shared helping of an ice cream sundae capped off the meal. We returned to the Tara Lodge, our wonderful rooms and passed out, more educated and very sated with wonderful food and drink - also a good day’s walking.
Friday we awoke to another beautiful day, weather-wise. The Tara breakfast was even better than the day before, a pair of perfectly prepared Omelettes, and a spot on fried egg with bacon, grilled tomato and sausage and bacon. We struck out this morning headed eventually to Bush Mills on the north coast. First stop along the gorgeous Coastal Causeway was the famous Rope Bridge at Carrick-Rede (rock on the road) which spans the sea, perched some 100 feet over the water. The bridge leads from the main land to an island from which fisherman launched their boats to reach their salmon fishing nets. We negotiated the parking scheme with our National Trust parking pass and then, thanks to the National Trust membership we had purchased in the US, we gained free entry to the cross the bridge. Shortly thereafter they shut down further entry as they had hit their limit of people allowed on the path , the bridge and the island. The walk to the bridge was challenging, just over a kilometer, but up and down. There was a line to cross the bridge as it is only one way at a time. The only way to the island is over the bridge - also the only way back.
Once we crossed the bridge and reached the island, the hardest portion of the walk began. The rock path was treacherous to old slow people such as ourselves. Only one slip up as Mark took a knee (actually a sitting position) coming down an especially rocky trail, but no injuries. We walked the kilometer back to the parking lot and headed next up the road to the Giant’s Causeway, anther National Trust and also a World Heritage site. This set of hexagonal pipes rising from the sea is the remains of an ancient volcano in the area. It gets its name from the myth that the giant Finn McCool used these as stepping stones between Ireland and Scotland. We wandered the steps, and then part of the crew took the last trolley up the hill while the other half walked up. We rendezvous in the parking lot and head to our final destination, some 5 miles up the highway at the Bushmills Inn. After check-in, we adjourn to the pub for a refreshment and then into the dining room for our 6:30 reservation. The food was very good, although rather upscale in setting and number of servers. We enjoyed roast sea cod, roasted lamb rump and duck breast, all accompanied by wine. Dessert was a chocolate lava cake and a caramel sundae. The service here was slow, and a bit diffident considering the number of employees meandering around. Also, they were unable to provide separate checks, which meant spending 15 minutes at the checkout splitting the bill into its two segments. Also not an inexpensive meal - $145 to $180 per couple.
The Needelmans did a short walk about the town while the Coverts retired for the night. Today was a long day with plenty of hiking/walking. It was very informative and filled with never before seen sites; however, it did point out that some of us are in better physical shape than others. Any guesses? Still a great day on our great adventure.
