Northern Ireland: Belfast and Beyond

Belfast

City Center

Arriving from the airport there is a convenient bus that takes you to the city center in about 30 minutes. It was about a 5 minute walk from the station to my hotel at the Travellodge.

As I came into town, the bus passed city hall where a fair or food market was taking place during the long weekend. Monday is a bank holiday in the UK. I quickly checked in and then made my way back to city hall to check it out.

Crown Pub is a treasure https://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/restaurants/scotlandandnorthernireland/thecrownliquorsaloonbelfast?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb-homepage#/

Inside the bar, there are little cubbies to drink in.

I love the plaques on the wall that give interesting information such as this Goose Street, where Geese used to be driven down the road to go feed.

Carrickfergus Castle

Antrim Coast Road

Traveling north along the coast is the scenic Antrim Coast Road. There are plenty of picturesque villages and spots to stop along the way.

Carnlough Harbour

Game of Thrones fans might recognize this spot from a scene where Maisie dragged herself out of a river on those steps.

Carrick-A- Rede Rope Bridge

Our coach was too big to enter the area, so again, I was looking from a lookout site. It was closed down for covid, and when so many other species of wildlife came back, the government made the decision to ban large groups and coaches in the hopes that the wildlife would remain flourishing.

https://www.ireland.com/en-gb/things-to-do/attractions/carrick-a-rede-rope-bridge/

If you want to go on it, you must prebook your visit.

Dark Hedges

If you watched season 2 episode 1, you may remember a glimpse of these hedges from Game of Thrones, about a 4 second clip.

I never watched the show, but I can appreciate a good row of really old trees. Most of the trees were planted several hundred years ago and are reaching the end of their lives.

Fallen trees are made into doors and raffled to pubs along the Game of Thrones film sites.

Hysterically, the bathroom entrance was this door as well, but no signs, so I missed it, had to ask, and then come back. Love the sense of humor.

Of course, when you’re this old, there’s bound to be a ghost or two.

Giant’s Causeway

Huge basalt columns that can be found in Northern Ireland and across the water in Scotland. Caused, of course, by giants.

When I was here in 2001, there was no visitor center and hardly any tourists. I remember our bus pulled right up to them. Now there is a center and only park busses can drive to them.

There is a walking path for free that takes about 25 minutes walking down and the same coming back up. Once down there, there are several other walking trails that you can take to see the whole area.

If you’re not interested in walking down or up, you can catch the bus for a pound or walk along the top to another lookout.

Watch your step or your feet will get wet in the bog.

Dunluce Castle

I didn’t actually visit the ruins. I just took a picture from the road.

Bushmills Distillery

Here, I did pop in and spent way too much on whiskey. There are tours that you can do of the facilities but they run about 90 minutes and I only had 30 minutes.

There is a gift shop and bar attached where you can try a flight of 3 whiskeys for about 23 pounds.

Chasing Summer –