Monday, June 3 (Northern Ireland) (no pictures yet)

My weather forecasting gentleman was in the lobby again this morning, assuring me that we still had several nice days ahead so that was good to hear.  We chatted some more and it turns out he used to sing in a band with Enya’s father.  Her album ‘A Day Without Rain’ is one of my favorites and right now that is also my favorite weather forecast.  He was planning on going to London later in the week, so who knows I may run into him again.

Today we headed for Northern Ireland.  And by ‘northern’ I mean all the way to the top.  We went to the Giant’s Causeway at the northern tip of Ireland.  From there you can see Scotland across the sea.  The causeway is a volcanic formation.  The volcanic rocks cooled slowly allowing them to contract and crack over time to form honeycomb shaped columns which are exposed along the coastline.  We only had about 1 ½ hours to spend there which, to me and Jenny was far too little time.  There were other trails in the area which we would have liked to explore if we had the time. 

From there we drove along the coast a while as we headed toward Belfast for the night.  I’m old enough to have the image of Belfast as a city torn apart by terrorist fighting and a place that you just did not visit.  However the ‘troubles’ as they refer to them are long since over and the city has been working hard to draw in tourists.  It is a pretty city with a mixture of Victorian style buildings along with modern architecture.  It was in Belfast that the Titanic (along with other major ships of that time period) was constructed.  They have a Titanic exhibit which we are scheduled to see in the morning on our way out of town.  The tour director said it might seem odd to celebrate the construction of the Titanic but people from Belfast remind others that the Titanic ‘was fine when it left here’.  Belfast is still a major port facility as well as being known for the Irish Linens which come from here. 

So today was a less hectic day than some of the others, giving me a chance to get caught up on my daily summaries.  Now to get pictures loaded….