Belfast, Northern Ireland

August 4 - Weather: Sunny, hi temp in low 60s

The ship was not in port in Belfast for a whole day, so we had to choose between seeing the city and the Titanic museum or going out of town to see the Giant's Causeway.  We chose the Giant's Causeway, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was about a 1.25 hour bus ride each way.  The basalt columns were formed when volcanos erupted, cooled and contracted about 60 million years ago.  The legends, however, involve an Irish giant named Finn MacCool and a Scottish giant named Benandonner.  Stories vary, but somehow the legend is that the causeway was made by one of the giants across the North Channel (you can see Scotland from this coast).  We also drove by the Bushmills distillery, a golf course that was once the site of the British Open and many beautiful green hills and farms.  Dunluce Castle and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge were interesting photo stops.

At Sea

August 5 - Weather: Cloudy, rainy, high temp in mid 50s

Our three ports in Ireland wore us out, so we were happy to have a sea day to recover.  We're playing lots of trivia but not improving our performance.  The ship is rocking tonight (a formal night) with bigger swells than we've had for awhile.  Coming up are three ports in Iceland.

© Jay 2020