The Causeway Coast: Northern Ireland

I don't know if there is that much to say about these pictures, but the northern coast of Northern Ireland is spectacular, and I must share.  One of the highlights for me was seeing a peak of Scotland in the distance.  I pictured Shawna and Greg over there waving right back at me. :)  We took the scenic route up the coast, stopping at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and the Giant's Causeway before heading back toward Belfast.

Some of the coastline--I love the colors!

What a cute little tunnel!

Coastline at the Carrick-a-Rede rope 

Chris and Andrea crossing the rope bridge.
It was pretty steady/reinforced, but still so high!

Perspective.

Chris and I.

Some of the stone @ Giant's Causeway--an incredible
natural formation from ancient volcanic cooling.

The scale on some of these formations
are overwhelming in person.

Bushmills is the oldest licensed whiskey
distillery in the world. Fun tour!

After our tour at the Bushmills distillery, we were feeling rather peckish (hungry) and asked some people who worked there for a recommendation of somewhere to eat in town.  They pointed us toward a pub that, as we found out, did not serve food.  But the barkeep did invite us to sit down and eat at their tables if we were to find some food to take-away.  We walked down the street and each ordered some fish and chips...thinking we'd get a nice snack sized meal.  We were wrong.  We were sent out with parcels of food wrapped in big brown bags stuffed full enough to feed a small army.  We popped back into the pub, and the barkeep was super friendly--he brought us flatware and napkins, salt and drinks. We shared our food with a guy at the bar who was three sheets to the wind. (it was about...5pm?  No biggie, it's Ireland.  time of day is relative for things like alcohol.) The greasy food probably did him well!  He couldn't believe we'd bought cod, (the good stuff) and a 1 minute conversation at the bar about cod must have included the word cod at least 100 times.  Maybe 1000.  I was a little dizzy with all the cod flying around and lost count.

We left the town of Bushmills with enough food for a 4th and 5th meal, even after sharing it all around.  Who can stomach cold greasy food when you've already had too much of it, though?  If we'd only known, we could have gotten by with one meal for sure!  Oh well, it makes for a fun memory. :)