Travel – Page 15 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Ireland – Day 2

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Today was a good day. The morning started off with thick fog. But as the sun came up, it burned off and we were treated to some very nice sunny skies.

Our first stop of the day was the World Heritage Site known as The Giant’s Causeway. There was still some fog around so it was a moody visit in terms of weather. We were quite happy that we remembered to bring our hiking boots. The terrain is quite rocky and treacherous. Though I suspect it would have been far worse had it been raining.

It is a fantastic site to see and we had some fun climbing around the site.

After hiking around The Giant’s Causeway we headed over to the Carrick-a-Rede, a rocky island connected to the cliffs by a rope bridge.

Getting to the bridge is a hilly climb, up and down the hillside. But the reward is a frightening opportunity to cross a bridge made of rope that spans 20 metres (66 ft) and is 30 metres (98 ft) above the rocks below.

Cynthia was petrified and said that she waited 55 years to cross this bridge and once was enough. When pressed, she said if she lives to be 110 she would repeat the experience. Must remember to set a calendar reminder 🙂

Seriously, though. This WAS her idea. And it was actually a lot of fun.

From here we made our way over to Dunluce Castle to see the ruined structure before it completely collapses into the sea.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. When the sun was shining, short sleeves were just fine. But when the clouds began to return in the evening we were once again glad we had our heavy coats.

Tomorrow we check out of our lovely hotel and make our way to Derry and on to dear old Donegal Town.

Ireland – First Full Day

We got up bright and early and had ourselves the full Irish breakfast. Mmmmmm, blood pudding! Cynthia’s feeling much better after the whole incident with breaking my glasses.

We only chose to stay in Dundalk because it wasn’t far from the airport and made for a good jumping off point to head north.

After breakfast we packed up our gear, loaded the car and headed off to drive to Belfast and then link up with the Causeway Coastal Route.

The first place we wanted to see was Carrickfergus. We stopped to see the castle and take in the view of the sea. It was a pleasant stop.

The coastal route takes you along the upper north coast of Northern Ireland and is something to see. Beautiful landscapes along a winding, twisty road that sometimes gets down to a single lane for two way traffic. This can be quite intense as you drive along, having to yield to oncoming traffic with practically nowhere to go. To make matters even worse, there was a bike rally of some kind going on and we had to carefully and frequently pass cyclists along the way.

We made our way to Ballygally Castle around lunchtime and stopped to get some food.

We also paused to take a few photos.

From there we continued to wind our way to Portballintrae where we had a hotel reservation for a few nights. We got checked in and cleaned some of the road from our weary bodies and went for dinner at the Porthole Restaurant. The food was fantastic. We both had locally caught salmon and shared a bottle of wine to toast our success.

cynthiawine

For now we say goodnight to Portballintrae

Tomorrow we visit Giant’s Causeway, The Rope Bridge, Dunlace Castle and The Bushmill’s Distillery.

A Geek Loves His Toys

For this trip we have 1 iPhone, 1 iPad, 1 GoPro Hero 3, 1 Tep Wireless 3G Hotspot and 1 Garmin GPS. Keeping these charged in the car presents certain…challenges.

bitsandbobs

Arrival in Ireland

bmw

We made it to Ireland safe and sound. We picked up the car, a shiny BMW 3 Series, and made our way to Dundalk to check in to the Glenngatt House B&B. We were pretty tired and took a short nap before getting up and finding some dinner.

Our dinner was at a place called The Left Bank and the food was fantastic, especially the baked mushrooms with bacon and cheese.

We went back to the B&B and even though it was only 7:00 pm local time. we decided to go ahead and go to sleep as we were quite exhausted.

Sometime around 2:00 am Cynthia woke me up and she was crying. She had to get up and go to the bathroom and somehow managed to knock my glasses off of the table and then step on them…

glasses

I reassured her that it was no big deal as I always carry a spare pair just in case of such emergencies. She was able to calm down and we both went back to sleep.

We’re headed to Portballintrae today, via the coast highway. Sky is overcast and rainy but our spirits are high.

Look out, Ireland! Here we come!

We’re about to leave for our trip to Ireland. We’re very excited. Our first driving tour since the time we drove across the U.K. back in 2003. Cynthia may regret giving the OK on this choice. She already doesn’t like my driving here in the USA.

byebye

Ireland 2013

Our next adventure will be a driving tour of Ireland. This is the tentative route we are planning. Two weeks and a few days. 700+ miles, give or take.

Click image for larger version. Click outside of larger image to return.

La Crema Las Fallas 2013

This is the event that the whole Las Fallas festival leads up to. All those fantastic Falla sculptures are burned to the ground. There’s no way to see them all. You pick one you want to watch and stake out a spot. We chose the one named “Que se mueran los feos” which translates to “May the ugly ones die”. It cost over 100,000 Euro to build. It is located just north of the dry river bed and is easy to get to from our hotel and has the added benefit of not being in a cramped little street corner or the one in the city center, all of which are very difficult to get to and very, very crowded.

This is what our Falla looks like in all of its pre-Crema glory

We arrived just before midnight to stake out our spot. The burning was only about 20-30 minutes late as we waited for the fire men to get in to position. There was a sudden detonation of some aerial fireworks and then the lights went out and this happened.

And POOF!

All gone!

We walked back to our hotel exhausted, but satisfied. Tomorrow we head off to Madrid to spend the night and the fly back to Houston for some much needed rest and relaxation.

La Cabalgata del Fuego (Fire Parade) – Las Fallas 2013

The Cabalgata del Fuego (Fire Parade) is one of the highlights of the festival. The Falleras parade down the street followed by an amazing group of pyrotechnic specialists who put on one heck of a fire show. Words can’t really describe this event. Hopefully my photos will convey the spirit.

We were pretty tired after this, but we needed to stay up for the Crema which happens at midnight, give or take. That will be in the next update.