Ireland - Day 3

Today I'll be sharing Day 3 of our trip to Ireland.  If you missed Days 1 and 2, you can catch up HERE.  Disclaimer:  Not a single picture we took completely captures the beauty of the actual scenery.

After exploring Dublin on Days 1 and 2, we were ready to hit the road and see some of the countryside.  We had booked the Northern Ireland Coast and Belfast City Full-Day Tour with Wild Rover Tour Company for Day 3.  The scheduled departure time was 7:00 am, so we were up and out of the hotel early.

It seems several tours meet at Upper O'Connell Street, so when we got there we had to figure out exactly what we were doing.  It didn't take long to find a tour guide and he pointed us in the right direction for our specific trip.  Once loaded on the right bus, we sat back and listened to Kevin the tour guide tell us interesting facts about northern Ireland and Belfast as we worked our way to the first stop.

You had a choice of the political black taxi tour of Belfast or the Titanic Museum.  Eric and I chose to check out the Titanic museum.  Kevin had our tickets ready to go, so we bypassed the line and walked straight into the displays.

The museum is located on the docks where the big ship was built and first launched.  It opened in 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the maiden voyage.  We meandered through the creative displays which took us through the building and launch of this infamous vessel.  Our allotted time for this stop went by very fast.

Our next stop was the Giant's Causeway.  This stop was top on both Eric and my list of things we wanted to see in Ireland.  Legend has it that the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant.  The basalt columns are truly an epic sight.  We didn't personally count the hexagonal-shaped pillars that date back to almost 60 million years ago, but we understand there's over 40,000 of them!

We grabbed a bowl of seafood chowder in the visit center then loaded the bus to get to our next stop - Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  Originally designed for fishermen, this 90-foot-high bridge crosses a 65-foot wide chasm between two islands.  I'm not going to lie - Eric and I both questioned rather we wanted to do this.  It was a bit adventurous for us, but we were both so happy we did it!

The trek to the bridge was gorgeous - and a bit strenuous!  My fitbit was getting a workout!

Wasn't really sure how I felt when we ran into this ~

Eric and I marched right across like pros and felt pretty invigorated in the process.

After our exciting day, we loaded the bus to head back to Dublin.  Luckily, the days in Dublin were long.  It didn't get dark until around 9:00 pm, helping us see all the beauty for hours in every day.  We arrived and walked back to the hotel to grabbed dinner at the bar.  Over our meal, we reflected on Day 3 and planned Day 4.

Day 4 was taking us to the Wicklow Mountains.  I'll be summarizing that day soon.