LONDONDERRY AND GIANTS CAUSEWAY- August 22, 2011
On our way this morning to the beautiful Antrim Coast to the Nine Glens of Antrim and Giants Causeway. The drive was a beautiful scenic drive along the coast of Northern Ireland. You have never seen greener hills and clearer water, just beautiful. We arrived at Giants Causeway around noon, had lunch and then hopped the bus to explore the 60 million year old rock formations. INCREDIBLE! Everyone was having a great time climbing the rocks and taking photos. It was such a unique and different excursion and I would highly recommend going to Giants Causeway if you are ever in Northern Ireland, it was one of the high lights for our group. But be sure to spend some time here, you would be amazed on how much there is to see. **Tip on escorted tours... there are many good things about being on a tour and probably the only negative thing I can say is there never seems to be enough time, but they do cover a lot of area, so when on a tour if you go to an attraction that you would like to spend as much time at, skip the tour guides suggestion on having lunch first, I would suggest skipping lunch, see the sites and just grab something quick for the way back on the bus, there seemed to be so much time wasted eating... but that is just my opinion.**
After Giants Causeway we stopped for a photo of Dunluce Castle ruins then on our way to Londonderry. The hotel Everglades was OK the location was not! In the middle of nothing and nowhere. So basically we had dinner at the hotel and then to bed. Nothing to do in the area and too far from the city.
DONEGAL, GLENVEAGH CASTLE AND LONDONDERRY- August 23 2011
Left for Donegal to visit Glenveagh Castle in the National Park- Beautiful. Glenveagh National Park lies in the heart of the Derryveagh Mountains in the north-west of Co. Donegal. It is a remote and hauntingly beautiful wilderness of rugged mountains and pristine lakes. We first toured the inside of the castle then on our own around the gardens and grounds and again, it was beautiful, not as elaborate as Mount Stewart, but beautiful in it's own right. We really enjoyed Glenveagh, plus we were blessed with a warm sunny day. We had lunch at the Tea House on the Castle Grounds and then on our way to Londonderry for our tour of the city.
When we first arrived in Londonderry we were suppose to go to the Tower Museum with our group, but we decided to skip out on the tour and do a little shopping at the Pound Store (Like our Dollar Store here in the States) and stop off at a local pub. We then walked over the the Peace Bridge, a beautifully constructed bridge in Derry with was funded by the EU's Peace III programme under the Shared Space initiative which supports projects that bring together communities that have been formerly divided. "One of the key objectives of the European Union is to bring people together to live in peace, with a common respect both for shared values and for diversity. So the idea behind it was wonderful.
The City tour of Londonderry was a walking tour with our local guide Martin and he was fabulous, very interesting and entertaining. Londonderry had a very interesting past during their "Trouble Times" and a lot of history as well. Derry is the oldest and longest inhabited place in Ireland . We walked along the medieval walled city of Londonderry formally known as Derry. Long and interesting reason for the name change that you can search on line for. It was a really nice tour and learned a lot about the history and the people. After the tour we headed back to hotel with some time to relax before Dinner.
