Where The Universe Makes Up For Yesterday In Wales With A Spectacular Day Not Spent In Belfast At All
Today’s excursion is to the Giant’s Causeway – about 90 minutes outside Belfast along the Atlantic coast, it’s a rock formation made up of basalt columns. The logistics were a bit awkward: we had breakfast around 8:30ish (?) with a departure time of 10:15. Obviously no room in there for lunch AND the excursion description makes it clear there’s no lunch included. But there will be a visitor center, so maybe we’ll be able to grab something there.
Oh and no bathroom breaks until we got there.
We were at the pier early, so the excursion director switched us from the second bus to the first bus – at 9:45, we were off!
We didn’t get to see much of the Irish countryside at the Dublin stop. Today made up for that. How gloriously green!
Along the way, our tour guide told us the Causeway’s origin fable – a giant, one Finn MacCool, created the Causeway so he could fight his Scottish rival, one Benandonner. Of course the details escape me now, but it was a great Irish tale, for sure!
We made one photo stop at the ruins of Dunluce Castle, which may look familiar to Game of Thrones fans: it is the location of the “Seat of House Greyjoy” – the “Castle Pyke”.
At 11:30 on the dot, we drove into the parking lot. We picked up our audio guides after the obligatory trip to the bathroom, and off we went.
One of the more annoying things about the Viking excursions is the lack of actual information in the descriptions – they are way too vague. The published description failed to mention the existence of a shuttle from the visitor center down to the main Causeway. I discovered this when I called Viking to ask for more information. The Google Machine also helped – there’s a 1 pound charge for the shuttle each way, cash only (though perhaps one of the buses has a credit card reader, nobody knows).
The shuttle made all the difference! The walk down to the Causeway is long (it must be close to a mile) and very steep. I’m assuming this is the trigger for the “moderate” rating.
The Causeway is spectacular!
If you happen to have knees that work, walking and climbing on the rocks is relatively easy, because the rocks are flat like patio stones. 1868 6815
And just like any other rock formation location, there’s names for the various configurations.
It just doesn’t get old <6822>,6819
We hoped to at least grab a sandwich from the the visitor center, and maybe walk just a little bit down a different trail, but we were running out of time. The crowd had grown considerably; even though a third bus had been added, we had to wait a while for a shuttle to take us back up the hill.
By the time we were back at the visitor center, we only had about 20 minutes left before we needed to get back on the bus. It wasn’t even enough time to buy a sandwich.
The photo stop on the way back was at the Cariick-A-Rede Rope bridge. This is a BIG NOPE.
The gorgeous countryside is mesmerizing
Once we were back at the ship, Andy went to exercise, and I went up to the “Wintergarden” venue for High Tea – scones! cucumber sandwiches! Earl Grey tea!
On the feedback form, I will be recommending that Viking could at least send along a “box lunch” on excursions with zero time for a lunch break.
Tomorrow: Ullapool (Scotland Highlands)
Maryland Meshugas 