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A little bit of a holiday (Part 2)

Posted in Home, tagged , , , , , , , on January 20, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I cannot believe it is almost 2 months since we went on our little trip, and I’ve yet to share part 2 with you!!

I apologise.

Day 2 of our stay at Groomsport was wet.  It rained, and it rained well.  Thankfully we had done all the outdoor stuff the day before!

On the agenda for day 2 was the Titanic Centre.  Many guests who have stayed with us, and been to the Titanic Centre had described the experience. However, it was still not quite what I was expecting.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the visit, but I just had a completely different idea about it in my head.

Titanic Centre

Titanic Centre, Belfast

I had expected to see dusty old drawing rooms, which I did, but only on film.  Even though it was late November, the centre was really quite crowded.

If you do visit, make sure to go across the road and visit the Titanic’s sister ship, the Nomadic.  It is the last White Star Line ship still ‘alive’.

As the rain continued to pour down we decided we’d go visit Queen’s University.  I had heard it was beautiful, but had never been.  And, I must say, even on a terrible wet November day, it is a beautiful building.  We had a wander around, checked out their wonderful silver museum section, admired those who have been awarded honorary degrees… spotted Brian O’Driscoll in among them.

Queen’s University, Belfast

There was time for a quick tea/coffee stop at The Pocket… a quirky little coffee shop across the road from Queen’s.

Then it was time to head back to Groomsport to visit their local pub.

For our final day, I was all excited to be going to St. George’s Market.  It was another dreadful day weather-wise but our spirits were high with the thought of all the lovely food we were going to be able to indulge in.  We had invited Laura and Matt for dinner, so we headed off to the market with a vague idea that we would just buy lots of gorgeous food to share.

How disappointed we were!  The market was abuzz, but most of the food stalls were of the take-away variety.  Neither of us are great ‘walk around eating food’ people.  We are more the sit down, be served and chat type.

There were some nice non-food stalls, but overall we were disappointed.

As we were leaving we did come across a mostly-organic vegetable stall… so suddenly dinner became steaks with organic salad and potatoes.  Good, but not what we had planned!!

Despite the last minute change to the menu we had a wonderful evening with friends sharing food, drinking nice wine, and finishing off with some delicious local cheeses.

A nice way to end our wee break.

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A little bit of a holiday (Part 1)

Posted in Home, tagged , , , , , , , on December 6, 2019| Leave a Comment »

For the first time in 5 years we had the chance to get away for a few days.  Besides doing bed and breakfast, it is the animals that are the greatest tie for us, most especially the dogs.  They are about us all day, every day, so if we go away we need to organise ‘company’ for them.

This year, friends, who had come into our lives as b and b guests, volunteered to come house-sit for us.  Other friends offered us a place to stay… so with a bit of juggling it finally all came together and we headed to Northern Ireland.  I thought I’d share with you how we planned (using that term very loosely) our days away.

We had three full days staying in Groomsport – a village located outside of Belfast. We were overlooking the beach.  Even in November this was wonderful!

Our view every morning

We had broad ideas of the things we’d like to do… me : Giant’s Causeway and Carrig a Rede Bridge; Alfie:  Bushmill’s and the Titanic Centre.

Our approach was this… we choose 3 things for each day, a mix of indoor and outdoor activities .. and then stay flexible as weather and time/daylight especially comes into play in November.

Our first day, Thursday, was bright and windy so we headed straight to the Giant’s Causeway.  We took the self-guided audio tour which is well worth it for the myths and legends that the guide was telling.  The views are spectacular.  It is quite a walk down to the Causeway.  Let me say, the columns are way way smaller than all those photos you’ve seen lead you to believe!

The columns are smaller than I expected!

We climbed to Finn McCool’s organ, and then even tackled the 162 Shepherd’s Steps.  Well worth the climb for the views.  I swear you could just about make out Scotland across the water.

Causeway View from Top

In total we spent about 2.5 hours at the Causeway.

As it started to spit rain we decided to head back into Bushmills about 2 miles away to visit the distillery.  This was where we got our first indication of the ‘currency’ charges.  Most visitor centres in Northern Ireland add an extra 30% onto the charge when you are using a ‘euro’ Visa card.  That was a shock!

We still did the tour, which is definitely worth doing (btw no photos allowed in there).  However, we didn’t buy any whiskey as weirdly we can buy it cheaper back at home!!!!

When we came out from tour, rain had stopped so a short drive over to Carrig A Rede bridge.  However, luck was not on our side.  As I say it was a bright and windy day… but the wind meant that the bridge was closed.  It was also at this point that we made the discovery that it gets darker earlier up North!  I know makes common sense, but hadn’t thought about it before we left.  There was at least half an hour in the difference!

While there was still a little bit of light left in the day we continued along the coastal route heading back towards Belfast.  Quite a spectacular route.

More details of our trip coming later.

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