Adventure Day

Our only full day in Northern Ireland consisted of adventure and doing as much as we could squeeze in.  We were both looking forward to many of the activities planned in Northern Ireland so we got an early start and began with Carrick a Rede Bridge - or, Rope Bridge.  It's a bridge made out of rope that leads to a small island.  Back in the day fisherman would put up and cross this bridge in order to get to better fishing.  Now it's not used for that reason - just for people to say they crossed it and to get to some good views.

The day we were there there were 25 mph winds which made the bridge sway a good bit while we were going across.  The day before there were 45 mph winds and they actually had to close it down for safety reasons.  

Again, this was something I wanted to do and Matt just kinda went along with it, but I think he enjoyed it as much as I did.  He's not a fan of heights, but I think it's worth it once you get to the other side.

 A sigh of relief - it was quite windy!

That's Scotland out there in the background.

After we got our adrenaline rush for the day, we stopped over at another castle down the road called Kinbane Castle.  This one was pretty far down the mountainside and I thought I was going to die getting to it.  I was completely exhausted after all the uneven steps, but it was very pretty once we got to our destination.  And now I have thighs of steel because of it.

 See that pretty waterfall on the side of the cliff?

See how high we are over the castle.  Yeah, that's how many uneven steps we had to go down and then back up.  Oh, dear.

The next stop of the day was to see Giant's Causeway.  This was one of the first things we knew we wanted to do when we were planning the vacation.  It's a shoreline of the North Atlantic and it's filled with thousands of hexagonal-shaped pillars lining the coast.  It's just so bizarre to see and crazy how it formed this way.  They believe it's how the lava cooled on the rock and that's why it's shaped the way it is, but I think that's speculation.  Anyways, it's not man-made which makes it a pretty incredible sight.

 Here's a close-up of what the pillars look like.

Aerial view of a section of shoreline.  You can see how pixalated it looks because of the shape of the stone.

I'm so glad our Bed and Breakfast was just across the street and we were able to see this natural phenomenon.  We hiked up a mountainside after to get these aerial shots.  We considered not doing that because we were so tired from the morning hike, but we were so glad we did.  We made it higher than the birds were flying!  The views were awesome!

The final stop of the day was Bushmills Distillery.  It was just a 10 minute drive down the road and we were able to take a tour of the plant.  It was neat to get to see the step-by-step of the process of making whiskey - even if I don't have any interest in drinking it!