Vacations: The Ireland Trip, Northern Ireland

The Ireland Trip
 In 2000 I was able to go back to Ireland since I finished my mission, in 1990.  And this was a trip that we went on with my parents.  The plan was to see the Island as I saw it as a missionary, so that meant that we focused the majority of the trip on places that I served.  We had mapped out our trip and had planned on staying at Bed & Breakfasts and two hotels why there.  We did get of the bitten path a little bit.  I chose to go the last week of May and the first week of June.  This would keep us out of the matching season in the North.  

 We flew on British Airways out of Phoenix right to London.  From London we caught a flight to Dublin.  We picked up our rental car and headed for our hotel room in Swords.  The Hotel had a restaurant called the Little Chef and that is were we had our first meal in Ireland.  Our plans were to travel up to Belfast for two days, so we arranged to leave the car at the hotel until we got back.

We got up the next morning and hired a taxi to take us  to the train station in Dublin.  We get there and get tickets for the afternoon train to Belfast.  We get on the train and my mom was excited.  She wanted to see the Belfast that I saw when I was a missionary, with all the soldiers on the streets and passing through check points.  But  my mom and Kim had fun talking to the locals, and they had fun talking to us.  They loved there accents and they wanted to know what was going to happen on Friends.  My mom was excited to see the border towers once we crossed into Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland 

Dunluce Csatle, Northern Ireland

We get to Belfast and the go to our hotel which is a Holiday Inn Express.  It was kind of cool, because as you used you door key to get into the room, you also use it to power the electity in the room as well.  We meet up with my parent and plan out the next days activities.  We want to travel up the coast to Giant Causeway and Dunluce Castle.  So my mom looked up tour companies and Kim make phone calls.  As soon as Kim start asking them question, she quickly found out that, that she did not understand them, so she handed me the phone.  The touring companies were a little pricey, so we decided to rent a car for the day. 

We got up the next day and got a taxi to the rental car place.  By the time we finished the paper work on the Rover I was driving for the day, we hit morning traffic and one of the most changing things to do.  Travel through a European Round-about.  Lucky I knew what I was doing and it did not turn into the a European Vacation moment.  (See National Lampoon's  European Vacation for the reference.)

Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland

I was going to take my family along a pretty drive up the coast to see Giants Causeway.  About 2 hours later we were at Giants Causeway.  There was not visitor center, because it had been burned down about a month before.  But they still had the buses running down to the bottom.  We got to the bottom and were there for about 15 minutes when it started to rain.  So my mom and dad got on the bus and back up the hill.   About 5 minutes late, it stopped rain, and we stayed down there for about half an hour. 

We moved on to Dunluce Castle and then drove down to Ballymena and had lunch there at a McDonald's.  I wish it had been there when I was there.  Our next stop was Carrickfergus to visit the Castle there.  This is where I found out that my mom had a fear of going up steps that had an opening in them.  We got there about an hour before closing.  after that me and Kim  walked the city center thereto the top where the was a old church with a cemetery in its court yard. 

When I was a missionary serving in Carrick, we would us this same court yard as a short cut.  One day we were doing this and I looked down and there was a head stone that said William Close on it.   This was one of my goals on the trip to find this head stone.  I could not find it.  I do not know why I never went back as a missionary to take a photo of it.  Wish I would have. 

We went to take the rental car back to the airport.  We found a black taxi to take us back to the hotel.  As we hopped into the cab, the cabbie said that for 20 pounds more, we would give a tour of the murals around town.  So we agreed to pay the extra and got a tour of the murals on both sides of the troubles there, and also of the freedom wall.  My parents loved it, and glad we got in the right cab that night.

The next day we check out of our hotel and headed back to Dublin on the train. Again the same experience as we travel up to Belfast.  They found us interesting and we found then interesting as well, well except me.  My mom and Kim had some nice chats with a bunch of women on the trip to Dublin. 

We picked up our rental car in Swords and headed to Finglas.  I wanted to stop by the Mission office and get the address and contact info for the branch in Waterford.  It was good to see the place again.  And the missionaries that were serving in the office were very friendly.  We got in our car and head south to Limerick.  My dad was amazed of the Dublin traffic and how I knew were I was going with out a map.

One note for the days spent up North.  The whole time we were there, we did not see one soldier or one police officer.  In fact I saw one police car and that was at a station on our way to Giants Causeway.  For me it was really strange to see, but was good to see that peace was coming to this part of the world.