From Edinburgh to Belfast

We've had a busy past few weekends traveling, so I figured we should update you on our adventures. Two weeks ago we took a long weekend trip to Edinburgh, Scotland where we had a great time. We went to Edinburgh Castle, which was built on an extinct volcano- we enjoyed the views and an interesting talk on swords and weapons of Scotland. Based on the weapons' descriptions we should all be glad we weren't around to fight in Scotland hundreds of years ago! We also took a day trip to the Scottish Highlands where Brian and I finally got to see snow!! The countryside and mountains were gorgeous, even though we got drenched by pouring rain anytime we stepped out of the bus. We also stopped at Loch Ness, but unfortunately Nessie wouldn't come out of the water for Brian and I. Our last day in Edinburgh we walked around the medieval streets and did a hike to "Arthur's Seat", the top of a small mountain right outside of the city center. The best part of the hike for me was the view of Edinburgh from the top of the mountain. I think the best part for Brian was when he made me take an "alternate route" down the mountain, which basically involved me sliding on my butt for the majority of the way down. We enjoyed going out at night in Edinburgh, and of course Brian was happy because we found a bar that showed the Giants game on a big flat screen TV.

Our friend Mike arrived the following week and the three of us went to Belfast last weekend. Saturday we took a bus tour up the northern coast to Giant's Causeway, a beautiful area with cliffs and hiking trails right along the water. Giant's Causeway itself is actually an area of about 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns that were formed by a volcanic eruption- really an amazing sight to see. (Of course once our pictures are posted you'll understand better. I'm leaving the picture posting to Brian!). That tour also took us to an old historic town, Derry, and a famous rope suspension bridge along the coast (the bridge was closed, but seems like it would be cool to cross in better weather!) We also took a "black taxi tour" of Belfast where we saw all the great political murals around the city , and we learned a lot about "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. It was really interesting and hard to believe how most of the city is still divided between the Catholics and Protestants. Nightlife was good (not as good as Dublin though) and we had fun at a few old pubs. The best part of going out was when we kept getting rejected from bars because Brian and Mike were wearing "trainers". No, they weren't wearing diapers, but in Ireland they call sneakers, trainers. Needless to say, we ended up at a few pubs that were a bit less strict about footwear!

We had a lot of fun the rest of the time during Mike's visit (despite me being sick through most of it- sorry Mike!). We even went to the oldest pub in Dublin, the Brazen Head, where we listened to some good traditional Irish music. Well, that's about it. Now we have even more pictures to post, but don't worry, we'll get them up soon!