Giant's Causeway Tour

One of our last big trips with Carrie and Jon was a tour of the Giant's Causeway! Mom and I were excited to check out Northern Ireland for the first time as well!

We left on the tour bus from Dublin around 6am and I proceeded to fall right asleep until our driver work us up for a tea and coffee break announcing we were in Northern Ireland.

We drove through some gorgeous scenery and caught glimpse of a rainbow through the dark grey sky. 

The sun did come out for awhile and lit up the gorgeous fall trees changing color!

Our first big stop on the tour was at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.

It's about a 15 minute walk from the car park to the bridge, but there are lovely coastal views on one side and sheep grazing on the other. 

I love this little "doorway" to the bridge that you can see the water through - it looks like it leads to nowhere. 

The bridge itself was pretty exciting to cross, but not at all as scary as our guide and others had been making it out to be. They do only allow 8 people on the bridge at a time, but there was rope to hold on to and under our feet so it felt quite secure. But I do enjoy being in the air :)

The views from the tiny island we crossed over to were amazing; even on an overcast day, the water color was incredible!

So fun to be there with Carrie and Jon! Mom who is not a fan of heights - decided not to cross the bridge, so I'm glad they were there with me!

Beautiful!

We walked back an alternate route to the bus then headed on to the main event - Giant's Causeway!

By the time we got there, the weather had decided to turn totally Irish on us, but I think that added to the atmosphere.

Being surrounded by these incredible rocks is an unreal feeling. Amazing what nature (or a giant named Finn McCool...) is capable of!

I loved watching the water crash over the rocks and flow down like mini waterfalls with each wave.

It's like tile cut and laid perfectly in geometric patterns.

I think these pictures speak for themselves. Although, looking at them now - they don't even begin to compare with the feeling of being there, standing on the basalt rocks feeling the ocean mist on your face is something neither words nor photographs can truly express.

After a quick nap back on the tour bus - we had a little time to breeze through Belfast.

We only had one hour, and it was already getting dark outside, so we stayed right in the center of town just walking around a bit. I definitely want to come back the Belfast though - an hour is not even close to enough time to explore! 

After a thoroughly exhausting amazing day, we returned to Dublin and took full advantage of the hotels great shower (with our little low pressure electric shower you really start to appreciate normal showers!) and relaxed with visions of rock formations and rope bridges still in our heads!