Giant's Causeway Cancelled!

October 14, 2008

Cold and rainy this morning...just the way Ireland should be in mid October. We had breakfast at the hotel. Much better than the hostel in London...it better be for the price!

We decided to skip the drive to northern Ireland. We initially planned on visiting an area along the north coast called "Giant's Causeway." It's a very unique natural formation of hexagon shaped rocks. I don't recall what makes then hexagon shaped, and the homeschool-on-vacation-moment is lost so I don't much care anymore. I'm sure you could use the google.

Part of our decision was based on the locals at the hotel informing us the drive was about 4 to 5 hours! Which means we would have been in the car all day today and all day tomorrow as we drive to Dublin. So we skipped it altogether and decided to drive straight across on the N6 to spend the whole next day in Dublin.

We stopped in a little town called Balisone at a very cool little cafe for a cappuccino. Popped into an electronics store with the boys and found a 220v charger for their Nintendo DS' with the big, honkin' English adapter.

Got back on the, now M6 motorway, and continued east. The road turned into a "double carriageway" which Heather says sounds much more proper than "double lane road."

Listening to the radio in English was fun. We listen to the radio in the car back in Italy, but the DJ's and the news is all in Italian. We can pick out a few words, but they speak so fast we never understand what they're saying. In Ireland it sounds like there's a little leprechaun in the radio. I couldn't help thinking of having a bowl of Lucky Charms.

The Garmin Nuvi 270 (with North America and Europe Maps) came through again and brought us right to the front door of the apartment. It was a nice little one bedroom apt with a small kitchenette and a pull out sofa bed in the living room for the boys. We left the luggage with reception (because the apt wasn't ready yet) and set out for the visitors center around the corner. Bought some postcards and picked up a free map.

Next stop was the Temple Bar, an area of Dublin just south of the river, where we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Used our new membership and and everything! The burgers in London are better.

On the way back to the apt we found a big book store. We never shop the book stores in Italy because just like the radio...it's all Italian! So it was nice to browse a book shop where all the books are in English. We found a Euro coin book we've been looking for - but it was a few years old.

Made it back to the apt, got our bags and settled in for a nap.

Later than evening we headed back to Temple Bar. We heard the pubs were kid friendly until about 9:00 pm and we saw a family inside Farringtons so we ducked in.

Heather struck up a conversation with them as I ordered us a drink. They were on holiday from Wales and had two boys, a year younger and a year older than Nick & Tom. I got our drinks and we enjoyed our very first Guinness in a real Irish pub with a friendly English family!

I was admiring the Guinness bar mat - a friend wanted one as a souvenir - when the bartender told me they are free from Guinness. I guess you can't buy them from the gift shop at the brewery so he gave it to me!

We walked across the street after a couple halves (that's how the Irish say "half pint") of Guinness and had, you guessed it, pizza for dinner! A good Italian place called Botticelli. The bruschetta was different, but good.

Got back to our apt, the boys took a shower, I read a chapter of Narnia and we were in bed around 9:30 pm.