Monday – The Giant’s Causeway

Dinner at the Anchor Inn last night was solid pub food, good but not memorable. I started with very good seafood chowder while Elaine had one of her favs, potato and leek soup. I had a Meat and Guinness pie for my main; Elaine had locally made sausages with garlic mashed. We shared an order of chips and a decent bottle of Australian shiraz.

The weather was expected to be cloudy but dry today. We decided to visit the Giant’s Causeway. We had been before, but it was mostly rainy two years back and we never visited the new Visitor Center. As National Trust members now we get free parking, free admission to the visitor’s center, and a free bus ride from the VC down to the main viewing area. A self guided audio guide is also included. The visitor center is modern and informative if you want to know a lot more about the history and geology of the formations.

We took the bus down to the formations and took a walk along the trail as far as we could go. The trail ends abruptly at the site of a landslip (landslide) some years back. It was nice to see the area without dodging raindrops and we also arrived early enough to avoid the big crowds that come here.

After viewing the interesting formations we headed back up to the VC and then immediately to the nearby Nook Pub where we enjoyed pints of Harp Lager and delicious bowls of seafood chowder. Just the thing for a cool day!  We chatted with a nice Australian couple who are doing a bus tour of Ireland with a busload of Americans. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)  I cringe at the thought of bus tours – “Have your bags outside your room by 6 AM”, “OK, we have ten minutes here for pictures”, etc,

Next we drove to Coleraine for a stop at the big Tesco to get some essentials that we missed last time. We plan to eat in tonight, so we bought some chicken and salad as ingredients for dinner. Elaine made a nice meal of chicken in sauce, sautéed potatos, and a lovely green salad. We had a bottle of Australian Wolf Blass wine. Wolf Blass seems to be our go-to wine in Ireland. It’s reasonably priced, very good, and seemingly available everywhere on the Emerald Isle.

CLICK TO ENLARGE PICTURES IN NEW WINDOW

Elaine at Giant's Causeway
Elaine at Giant’s Causeway

 

Looking Out to Sea at the Causeway
IMG_0578
Chimney Columns
IMG_0582
Stunning Views
IMG_0584
Elaine in the Giant’s Boot
IMG_0587
Reward for a Causeway Walk

2 thoughts on “Monday – The Giant’s Causeway

  1. Beautiful pix, love Elaine in the boot! Your weather has been magnificent. All good here, though Tom Brady is missing from the Patriots….he’s not ready for football, have you seen him there with Giselle possibly???

  2. I really am appreciating the quality of your photos! I especially love when one of you is in them. as it gives a greater perspective to the surroundings.

    The air show pics, from former posting, were scary they were so clear. Your narrative also is clear and presents a great picture of your travel moments. Oh, how I remember that seafood chowder. Eat, drink and be merry; we are over 50!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *