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Belfast, Ireland
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Belfast, Northern Ireland, September 7
We had a late tour start of 9:45am as we got the second group departure on the 6 hour excursion to the Giants' Causeway. We had breakfast in the buffet first and got some good protein as there was no lunch included on the tour. Daryl has the omelet guys pretty well trained after 1 1/2 cruises and gets a small omelet with almost everything in it.
We met our guide, Roland or Rolly, at the pier and headed out of the city of Belfast, actually not seeing much of the city at all, for the 1 1/2 hour drive through the lush and beautiful countryside to the Giants' Causeway which is composed of 1000s of basalt columns which were either (a) pushed up over 65 million years by shifting tectonic plates or (b) thrown there by two giants who were making a bridge so they could meet to battle. Everything in Ireland has a legend attached. We spent 1 1/2-2 hours walking around another UNESCO World Heritage Site, listening to an audio guide full of more legends about the various formations. When we rejoined the bus, we continued touring the countryside, stopping at various ruined castles, looking at small towns like Bushmills the home of the whiskey, and a number of viewpoints either over the sea, a rope bridge or the rolling hills. Rolly knew all the history and legends, all the history of the "conflicts" as they call them in Ireland. He can even tell you what kind of cows are in the fields. His wife is receiving the CBE from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in London for all her public and volunteer service and he will be attending with her. I asked him at the end if he was a professor in his prior life and he said, "no, a policeman." Who knew! It was a marvelous and beautiful tour of Northern Ireland and we really enjoyed it. A great tour guide makes all the difference.
We decided to skip the Oceania Club Party for this leg of the cruise and just settled for our last dinner this year in Polo – Daryl had the lobster, of course.
