Apr. 27, 2019 - Toronto, ON

Ireland Day 13, Cabra Castle, Kingscourt, IE  to  Dublin Airport

Shades of Ireland: 13 days

Saturday Apr. 27, 2019

7:15am suitcases

8:15am bus departs

9:40am Dublin airport

• Check luggage (Sharon 19.3 kg, Tom 19.0 kg)
• Pass thru security
• Flight AC843 Dublin to Toronto
• Saw Rob Lowes and Anna Schleifenbaum!

11:45am boarding

12:25pm departure

• Watched Papillon

7:55pm (2:55pm Toronto time) land

• Customs
• pickup bags
• shuttle to SkyPark

Drove to Lynn's in Oakville (shopped at Rexall and Sobey's first)

4:55pm at Lynn's

5:00pm - 7:30pm Tom sleeps

7:31pm - 11:00pm Tom watches Bruins and Blue Jackets (happy to miss double overtime!)

11:01pm - 4:45am Tom sleeps

Apr. 26, 2019 - Kingscourt, IE

Ireland Day 12, Belfast, NI - Kingscourt, IE

Shades of Ireland: 13 days

Friday Apr. 26, 2019

7:50am suitcases

9:00am bus leaves

On-Bus tour guide Ken McElroy

• Cork WW (whisky and wild women)
• Belfast TT (Titanic ?
• Dublin GG (Guinness and ?
• Industries: ships, linen, rope, aircraft, tobacco
• Belfast, city of inventors
• Belfast City Hall
• Titanic Memorial Garden
• Late Victorian early Edwardian architecture
• Royal Avenue shopping stores
• Ulster Hall: Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin (first public performance of Stairway to Heaven)
• The Dublin Road, The Golden Mile (best bars in the city), The Old Coach Road to Dublin
• Trinity, Cork, Galway, and Belfast have institutions of higher education
• Queen's University Belfast, 1840’s, Tudor, gothic oxford-ish design, Sister to Queen's University in Kingston, ON, Canada
• Scotland is 12 miles away
• The Peace Wall is 2 miles long
• Shankill Road
• Prison, Crumlin Road Gaol driveby
• McHughs Bar, Queen's Square driveby (Road has the old river under it)\
• Titanic Quarter
• PRONI (Public Records of Norther Ireland) for ancestry
• Johnathin Swift, Gulliver' Travels, Cavehill looks like a sleeping giant

Belfast toast: "There are good ships, and there are wood ships, The ships that sail the sea. But the best ships, are friendships, And may they always be."

10:45am - 1:15pm Titanic Belfast

Lunch at Titanic Museum (soup and bread)

1:27pm RISE (aka 'Balls to the Falls') spherical metal sculpture

2:02pm intersection A1 to Dundalk (branches to A25 Newry, Camlough)

2:08pm County Louth (back in Republic of Ireland)

2:57pm Cabra Castle, Kingscourt

Rainy tour of courtyard

Drinks in the bar with Don, Sheila, Marlene, Ken, Lynnette and Terry

Dinner with Amanda, Mary, Don, Sheila, Marlene, Ken, Steve and Janet

Apr. 25, 2019 - Belfast, NI

Ireland Day 11, Derry. NI - Giant's Causeway - Glens of Antrim - Belfast, NI

Shades of Ireland: 13 days

Thursday Apr. 25, 2019

10°C 

7:00am suitcases

8:00am bus leaves

Song: 'The Town I love So Well'

Song: 'A Soldier Song/Ireland's Call' (Famous Rugby song)

Song: 'Congratulations'

8:50am River Bann

Causeway Coastal Route

Royal Portrush Golf Club (British Open) driveby

9:05am We can see Scotland

9:06am - 9:16am scenic view of Dunluce Castle 

9:25am Bushmills driveby

9:30am - 12:01pm Unesco Giant's Causeway

• volcanic rock of basalt
• Legend  of two giant's

Irish Finn McCool and Scotish Benandonner

Finn's wife Ina hides Finn in a baby blanket

Benandonner says if the baby is this big, how big is the father, Benandonner retreats

Finn throwing rocks creating the causeway towards Scotland

12:02pm On bus

• Antrim coast
• Game of Thrones country

12:12pm Ballintoy driveby

12:20pm - 12:30pm Portaneevey scenic view 

• View of Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

12:38pm Hayes Caravan park driveby

View of Rathlin Island

12:41pm Town of Ballycastle driveby

12:50pm Ballypatrick forest

12:52pm Loughareema, The Vanishing Lake

1:00pm Glendun Road viaduct bridge

1:07pm Cushendelltown

Glenariff beach area

1:30pm - 2:00pm Carnlough pee break, ice cream, Game of Throne Harbour scene

Glenarm

2:20pm Ballygally

2:30pm Larne

3:00 pm Belfast Bel means 'mouth'   Faest means 'sandbar' 

St. George's Market driveby

3:10pm Europa Hotel (the most bombed hotel in Belfast!)

Walkabout, Belfast City Hall, Donegal St. shops

6:45pm Dinner at The Crown Liquor Saloon, a vintage gin distillery, with St. Louis Jim and Pam. Black Cabbies

Piano bar chat with Dennis and Lori. 'Someone' wants to get bombed at the most bombed hotel in Belfast

Terry meets her long lost relative!

Apr. 24, 2019 - Derry, NI

Ireland Day 10, Derry, NI - Malin Head, IE - Derry, NI

Shades of Ireland: 13 days

Wednesday Apr. 24, 2019

7:30am breakfast

8:30am bus to Ronan McNamara walking tour

• Murals in Bogside
• Bloody Sunday Mural
• St. Columb's Cathedral
• Magazine Tower

9:42am Tour ends

10:03am Bridgend driveby

10:10am Burial site of Agnes Jones (Florence Nightingales' second in command)

10:12am Amazing Grace Country 

10:15 am driveby Bun Cranncha

10:40am - 10:45am Cardonagh Crosses

10:54am Malin driveby

11:00am Five Fingers Strand driveby

11:17am - 11:25am Scenic view

11:35am - 11:55am Malin Head, sunny blue skies, windy!

• Banba's Crown (A Martello Tower)
• Star Wars (The Last Jedi)

12:15pm at Farren's Bar, Irelands MOST northerly bar, Malin Head

• Smithwicks and Irish Coffee
• Star Wars stuff, yoda, Millenium Falcon

1:00pm leave Farren's Bar

1:30pm Quigley's Point then Back in Northern Ireland

1:37pm Culmore Point driveby

1:49pm back to City Hotel

• Guildhall Museum
• Downtown Derry walks
• Upper wall walk
• Murals
• Grocery shop for dinner: baguette, cheese, meat, wine, Hop House 13

Dinner with Don, Sheila, Marlene, Ken in Room 428

Rained all night as we slept