Last Day on the Emerald Isle

Booked a HUGE tour for my last day. Early 5:30am breakfast and bus to Belfast in Northern Ireland where we picked up our guide and more passengers. First stop today began with the Carrik-a-Rede rope bridge, a 23M deep and a 20M wide chasm. This bridge was originally used by fishermen for checking their salmon nets. The views are great and it is oh-so sunny! Next stop was the Giant Causeway. These 37,000 basalt columns were said to bridge the gap between Ireland and Straffe, an island in Scotland and has a great tale that goes along with the mysterious view said to be some 60 million years old. We all had lunch at the Causeway Hotel and then set out to Dunluce Castle for a quick photo stop. How crazy to drive north a few hours and have to change currency. Ireland uses the Euro and Northern Ireland uses the pound. Took a very solemn walking tour around Derry (or London Derry) depending on your view and learned a lot of history about Ireland's "troubles." I snapped some shots on the tour, but am glad to be leaving here because the tension is still palpable. Our bus driver told Irish story-jokes the whole way back to Belfast and from there we changed buses and started the last leg of the journey to Dublin. It has been a good day of sun, exercise, learning and photography. We just arrived back a little after 9pm and I am exhausted from the day.

Tomorrow Plans: Catch the shuttle to the airport and fly back to the USA