Tuesday
August 13 involved a lot of driving. We started in Derry, visited the
Giant’s Causeway in the far northeast, then the Titanic Museum in
Belfast, then returned to Dublin.
The
countryside in Derry and Antrim; I didn’t note when we crossed from
one county to the other.
We
passed a few wind farms during the trip. Our driver said that much of
Ireland’s power generation is still coal and oil.
We stopped briefly for pictures at Castle Dunluce; it was apparently used as Castle Greyjoy in Game of thrones, which I've no plans to watch.
The
major landmark of the day was the Giant’s
Causeway in County Antrim, a world heritage site. According to
myth it was built by Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), an Irish giant
who wanted to reach Scotland to fight Scottish giant Benandonner, who
turned out to be much larger. Finn ran away, pursued by his enemy,
but his quick-thinking wife disguised him as a baby. Benandonner
thought if that`s the baby, how big must the daddy be?
and ran away himself.
If
you check this
map of the whole site, you can see Portnaboe, the Stooken, Port
Ganny, and Port Noffer; I walked from the visitors centre about
halfway round Port Noffer. Portnaboe:
The
Stooken:
The
Onion Skin rocks; weathering has been peeling off layers like an
onion, hence the name.
The
start of the Causeway itself. I stayed on the path because after a
shattered elbow three and a half years ago I’m no longer willing to
risk a fall on slippery rocks.
The
Giant’s Organ.
The
Giant’s Boot, which Fionn lost while running away. It would be a
size 93, indicating Fionn was over 50 feet tall, five stories. Which means the Scottish giant was even bigger!
The
end of my walk. Continuing involved a steep climb, which I had
neither the time nor the energy for. You may just be able to make out the path heading up the side of the cliff.
Afterwards
we drive south through County Antrim
and County Armagh to Belfast.
On the way as we went through a roundabout we found our exit blocked;
we had to go back in the general direction of the Causeway for many
miles before the diversion took us back onto the main motorway to
Belfast.
The
main attraction in Belfast was the Titanic museum, sited where the
ship and its sisters Oceanic and Brittanic were built. This view from
the top floor shows where the Titanic was built, on the left, and
where the other two were built, on the right. The rusted beams show
the outline of the huge gantry used to move the gigantic beams and
plates that comprised the ships.
We
had dinner at a seaside restaurant about forty minutes north of
Dublin. The tide was out, and the slope so gentle that the sea was
barely visible across the flats.
Finally
we reached our last tour hotel. Today (Wednesday) I moved to
the Spencer hotel near the Conference Centre Dublin for Worldcon.
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