U.K. 2013: October 2013

Tuesday, 10/1/13 - Back to Manchester, and Atlanta on 10/2

We woke up this morning to rain. We have been so fortunate to have beautiful weather almost every day we have been in the UK. It has rained on us only about 3 or 4 days, and none of them were very heavy. Today, as we are preparing to leave Ireland, a weather front has set in and the forecast is for rain for several days. That is great timing as our sight seeing is done, and we are preparing to head home.

We miss our Scotties!
Thank you Ria and Brian for taking such good care of them. See you soon...

You want the ball, well come and get it!

Playing with his crackle toy.

You go right ahead and drink that coffee, I'm still sleeping!

Brian and Watson :)

Ms. Watson

Today we had very little activity.
We did a little shopping to replace Pat's purse which self-destructed yesterday, and she picked up a pair of good looking jeans for 15 pounds. Good score.

Then we walked through the drizzle rain over to the side of the Belfast City Hall to view the memorial to the Titanic victims. We heard it is the only memorial in existence which lists all of the victims of the Titanic. It is a beautiful garden with a statue and a long memorial where the names are all listed. We noticed there is no designation of class (first, second, third, or officer or crew) as was so prevalent at the time. And that seems right.

Back to the hotel, finished packing and then we sat in the hotel lobby and talked with Gerard, the concierge. He was such a treat to speak with. First off, he was a wonderful concierge. Everything we needed we went to him, and he delivered every single time. Especially with The Square restaurant, and also with the bus tour, just to name a couple. We spoke for about 30 minutes while we waited for the time for our taxi to arrive. We talked about the national healthcare system, taxes, farming, and life in Northern Ireland and the South (The Republic of Ireland). And he is very aware of the happenings in the USA, as most people here are. They know more about the USA than many people who live here. That is a sad statement about the citizens of the USA, but true.

We picked up our flight in Belfast to Manchester with no issues, and checked into our hotel at the airport, the Radisson Blu. It is directly attached to the airport, very convenient for us for in the morning when we need to catch our flight.

Dinner in the hotel and relax, and finishing this blog.... :-)

This time tomorrow we will be back in Atlanta.

We had a wonderful trip!

Titanic Memorial

Looking down one of the tubes of Manchester Airport.

OMG! Look what appeared.

Monday, 9/30/13 - Tour up the Northern Ireland Antrim Coast

On Monday we took an all day guided tour on a couch bus up the Northern Ireland Causeway Coastal Route, the Antrim coast. The tour was offered by McComb's Coach Tours. They offer an all day Giant's Causeway Tour. The bus picked us up in front of the Europa Hotel, just two buildings down from the Fitzwilliam, at 09:40, and it dropped us off at 19:00 after the tour. It was a full, enjoyable day of sightseeing.

The tour included these points:

-) A drive up the very scenic Causeway Coastal Route along the NorthEast coast of Northern Ireland. This is considered to be the 5th most scenic and beautiful drive in the world. The weather was OK, but not great. It was a little grey most of the day, so we did not have the bright green colors we had hoped for. The sun did pop out for us later in the day, and we were able to get to see some of the 40 shades of Irish green :-)

-) A photo stop at Carrickfergus Castle. This is a 12th century castle which still looks to be in pretty good shape from the outside. We did not have time for a tour. This actually occurred early in the tour, and I do not see any real value in this stop. Sure a picture of an old castle is OK, but if I cannot go inside, then why stop?

-) A stop at the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. We stayed here for about 1 1/2 hours, and we had time to walk to the bridge and take the 'walk' across. Now this was very exciting and interesting, and it was one of two reasons we booked this trip. The other was the Giant's Causeway. The bus drops us off at a small cafe and ticket center, and from there it is a .6 mile walk to the rope bridge. The wind was really blowing and it was in the mid 50's, so it felt colder than it really was.
This rope bridge is a big tourist attraction, both for the beautiful scenery and also for the adventure of walking over it.
It was originally built by fisherman who wanted to access the coastal waters of the nearby island. But they crossed the bridge with only one rope to walk on and two guide ropes. That took guts. The drop below is about 90 feet to rocks and cold water.

-) After the rope bridge we did a stop at the Old Bushmills Distillery. The purpose of the stop was to eat lunch at the cafe there, and also to try to distill money out of our wallets. Sorry, but the food was awful. I selected bacon wrapped stuffed chicken and it was cooked so long it was as dry as cardboard. Even the peas were wrinkled they were so dry :( In the UK, it's hard to get bad peas! They offer a Whisky sampling which I would have loved to try, but it is only for people paying for a guided tour of the distillery. We did not have time to tour the distillery, so no sampling for us. I was jaded by the whole experience and I was not about to buy anything there. So back on the bus...

-) The next stop was another quick photo snap at another 12th century castle, the Dunluce Castle. The castle was built dramatically directly on a cliff overlooking the sea. This castle was a residence until one day in the 1600's the kitchen part of the castle fell off the cliff and into the sea. The kitchen staff were all killed and the wife of the owner refused to live any longer in the castle. It has since fallen into disrepair and it now a monument in state care.

-) The final stop was the Giant's Causeway. This was the highlight of the day. The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption, and the slow cooling of the lava. That is one theory. The guides will spin tales of ancient giants of Ireland and Scotland and how they built the causeway. It is an enjoyable story. Either way, it is a beautiful place to visit and should not be missed.

We got back to the hotel around 19:00, and we were thoroughly tired after such a long day.

We decided on our last night in Belfast to go to an Irish pub. Just down the street is Robinsons, established 1895. This is an authentic Irish pub. You walk in and all you see are men enjoying their beers, and watching soccer on a handful of TVs hung high on the walls. Pat was the only woman in the place. It was not crowded, maybe 40 or 50 people in total, but it was still early, only about 20:00. I had the authentic Irish stew and Pat had a hamburger. I liked the Irish stew. It was thick and flavorful. The burger was, well OK, but it was pub food after all. I also enjoyed an authentic Guinness. And yes, it does taste better in Ireland than in the USA. I asked about when the Irish music would be starting and they told me since it was Monday night it would be slow, and the music would not start until after 22:00. We would not be out that late as we needed to pack for our flight out on Tuesday. The folk music will have to wait until our next trip to Ireland :(

Carrickfergus Castle

Drive up the Antrim Coast

The Carrick-a-rede rope bridge

Pat on the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. The wind was really blowing.

Mark on the bridge

What a beautiful view

View from the rope bridge

View from the rope bridge. The sun came out for us :-)

Beach on the Antrim Coast

The ruins of the Dunluce Castle

The entrance into the Giants Causeway

Giant's Causeway basalt columns

Pat at the Giant's Causeway basalt columns

Giant's Causeway basalt columns

Giant's Causeway basalt columns. These were huge!

Action Shot. Have to watch your footing!

Giant's Causeway basalt columns

Thought this pool was pretty cool

The hill at the Giant's Causeway basalt columns

Queen of the hill

King of the hill

I miss my Scotties!

Think I got a 900 number :-)

After a long day, Robinsons

And a perfect draw from the keg. This is actually from the Fitz William. OK, I had two.

Sunday, 9/29/13 - Titanic Day!

Sunday was a full day planned of Titanic activities, but I woke up and had a terrible sore throat and ear ache. Went through my medication bag (labeled "What if?") and found the right medication for the problem. Mark looked at me like I was crazy and said, "You have a bag labeled what if?" So, I was determined to be out this day no matter what, and off we went to spend the entire day on Queens Island!

We started the day by taking the sightseeing bus to drop us off at the Thompson Dry dock pump house. Mark had pre-purchased tickets for the pump house and thought we would do this tour and would be back to the museum in time for the 13:00 walking tour, which he booked this morning. When we first arrived we were about the only people there. It was about 11:00 on a Sunday morning, and the place was empty. We picked up our tickets and then sat at the cafe and had a breakfast sandwich and a cup of tea. My throat and ears are killing me and the wind is howling today....

We did the self guided pump house and dry dock tour and we were fascinated by the scale of everything. Seeing it in pictures is not the same as being there. Also, to think that you are standing in the very spot where the three Olympic class ships (Olympic, Titanic & Britannic) sat in dry dock, it was an awe inspiring feeling. After the tour we visited the cafe again and had another cup of tea. The temperature was in the high 50's, but the wind was very strong, and it cut right through you. I (Pat) second this feeling...

After the pump house we walked over to the Titanic Museum to pick up the Titanic walking tour at 13:00. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the tour to start. It was great timing. The walking tour was 1 1/2 hours, but the last half or so was about the pump house, which we had already done. The walking tour was nice, but it was still very windy and cold. She showed us where the gantries were built (Right next to the museum) and where the Olympic class ships slid into the river. She also showed us the Harland & Wolff design and drafting buildings, and we were able to look inside the windows. These buildings have been deserted for some time now and have fallen into disrepair, and they no longer are accessible. That is a shame. However, looking in the window you get the same vantage point as the famous picture with the draftsman sitting at their tables working on the plans for the ships. It was thrilling to be in that location.

We left the tour once it reached the pump house, which we had already done, and we walked back to Titanic museum and purchased our tickets. We were cold again so we sat at the museum cafe and had some tea and some light food. We also wanted to visit the Nomadic today, which is sitting right next to the museum in another dry dock. We checked online and found the Nomadic closed at 17:00, so we decided to leave the Titanic museum and go tour the Nomadic, and then come back to the Titanic museum. Sounds like a weird dream, huh?

The Nomadic tour was about one hour long and it was very interesting. The Nomadic was built to be a tender to ferry first and second class passengers to the Olympic class ships. It is the very last surviving vessel built by the White Star Line. The ship had a long and colorful life, and it was in France for many years. It returned to Belfast around 2005 and it has been refurbished back to almost original condition, except it has no engines. Pat liked this tour actually better than the Titanic museum.

Back to Titanic Museum for the third time today, this time we actually see the museum. I (Pat) was getting concerned that we would not have the time to tour the museum, and was a bit miffed!

About half way through we took the Disney ride which shows what work was like in the Arrol Gantry.

We proceeded only a short distance from the beginning when the ride stopped. We were stuck on the ride for about 10 minutes. Periodic announcements over the speaker system comforting us to let us know they were aware of the issue and were working on it. Then they decided to manually come let us out of the cars, and they led us to an emergency exit which led us into the interior hallways of the museum. So we got to see kind of a 'behind the scenes' tour' :-) They led us back to where we were in the museum so we could continue where we left off, minus the ride.

After we finished the museum we heard some of the attendants mentioning that the ride was working again, and they were asking people if they wanted to go back and take the ride. We followed and went back and took the ride for a second time. It completed the journey this time, yeah! Was it worth it to go back and take the ride? Yes, otherwise we would have felt like we missed something and would have always wondered what we had missed.

After we finished the museum we picked up a taxi at the entrance and headed back to the Fitzwilliam hotel. We had a dinner reservation at the hotel for 20:00, but we called and asked them if we could move it up to 19:00 so we could make it back to the room to watch "Downton Abbey". I was excited to see the first two episodes here in the UK :) Watch out for Evil Edna..... as the British papers say.