Fiddle dee dee -potato (28th July)

The bus is leaving at 9am, but Shona is up at 6:30am because there is one shower between 12 people and everyone knows just how much she loves/needs her showers. Michael gets one too and we have our breakfast and write up our diaries to pass the time - totally worth the early start. We're on the road to check out the Giant's Causeway. Known because it used to go between Scotland and Ireland and a giant ran across it and smashed it up. It depends whether you are Irish or Scottish as to which giant smashed it up. It's really an amazing formation of rocks, that we wanted to see and hence the reason for the trip around Northern Ireland. Our first stop however is 10 minutes up the road for petrol. We can't believe that we are wasting our time in a petrol station when the driver could have filled up last night. Not a good start to the day. Unfortunately it gets worse. We are dropped off to the causeway and it is totally amazing. We have an hour and a half to look around, but we really needed 2 - 3 hours. Why didn't we leave at 8am we wonder? Lunch is around the corner at a pub. The food is expensive (think 9 pound for a burger) and there are no other options to order from. Two minutes down the road and we are at the the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, there's also an historic lime kiln and quarry... but basically everyone is there for the rope bridge - which generates $70m pounds a year in revenue! Not at all bad for a simple bridge. The views are pretty stunning however and Mike was able to cross the bridge even though heights are not his thing. Interestingly there is a quaint little coffee shop right at the car park over looking the ocean... our suspicion is that we didn't stop there because the profits go to the National Trust -ie the English Irish 'side'. Next we were off to Belfast - we get dropped there at around 5pm and were left to our own devices for the night... more and more this seemed to be a bus service rather than a guided tour, but the random wander around the city was ok even with the rain. High score of 'count the CCTV cameras visible from one spot' = 17!

Ps when Shona spied the classic kiwi "tomato sauce container" she knew something was up. Two NZers have set up a burger joint here so Mike got a Kiwiburger for dinner :o)