A Tale of Gigantic Proportions

Tuesday morning the girls were up and at'em early on the bright green Paddywagon Tours bus en route to the giants causeway. First though the bus stopped off at the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which was originally built by fisherman so they could spread their nets off one of the little islands off the coast. Back then it had only one rope handrail, but fortunatly for Lauren (who is not a fan of heights) it now has one on each side, plus wire reinforcements. This gave Lauren sufficient confidence to cross, and th girls explored the tiny (but very very windy) island. Back on the bus, they were regaled by their tour guide Troy with the story of how the Giants's Causeway got it's name. In brief, an Irish giant named Finn Mccool built the causeway so he could cross the ocean and woo the Scottish giant Una. He did so and they returned to Ireland but were later persued by another Scottish giant who wanted Una for himself. Finn knew he could not win the fight, so Una tricked the other giant and as he ran in fear back to Scotland he tore up the causeway so Finn couldn't follow him, and so all we have left today are the ruins left behind. What the causeway actually is is basalt rock formations from when underwater volcanoes erupted and the lava cooled in the ocean, but that's a much less interesting story so the girls and I are sticking with the giant version.
After the causeway it was on the city of (London)Derry for a VERY wet walking tour and then onto their next hostel. After drying off and warming up the girls followed a tour group that was staying at the hostel to a traditional Irish pub for some Guinness, Baileys and music. In the wee hours they returned to the hostel, and consequently did not get up in a timely fashion this morning. When they did get going, it was time to check out a museum, walk the city walls, and do some shopping. After dinner it was out to a comedy show with some of their new friends, then bed for all. Tomorrow they head to Larne for day then they say goodbye to the Emerald Isle and start making their way back to London and Heathrow.

Cheers,
Tim