Northern Ireland in a day

Siblings at the Giant's causeway, originally uploaded by Racmol.

So, last Saturday we went to Northern Ireland for the day on a whim. Or not really a whim, exactly - I did look into apartments over Easter but everything was expensive and already booked and we couldn't face the idea of another night with four of us in a hotel room like the nightmare in Norfolk.

So we drove to the airport for an 8.50am flight to Belfast, picked up a car at the other end and hit the road.

Drove up the scenic coast road to the Giant's Causeway, played on the rocks, had a quick lunch and drove on to the Carrick-a-rede swing bridge. There is a little path along the white clifftops to get to the bridge, which joins two pieces of headland across a chasm. It's a lot like an NZ swing bridge now, but it used to be have a single rope to hang onto and fishermen used it to catch salmon. Just as we were coming back to the car it started to rain, so we timed the day perfectly.

When we got back to Belfast we had just enough time to stuff about a bit and almost miss our plane, (7.40pm) but not really enough to have anything to eat so we ended up running for the plane with some toasted sandwiches in a paper bag.

Fia and Willy slept all the way home in the car and we were all pretty shattered the next day but aside from that I would say it is just about doable as a day trip. Where next?