You can just drive to the Giant's Causeway visitors centre and do the short 1km walk down to see the rock formations. But since the (very helpful) tourist board website recommended approaching the causeway via a coastal walk from Dunseverick, and we've turned into such ardent hikers on this trip, we opted for a ~7km hike instead. We have had so much stunning weather and scenery these last few weeks, that it's almost become a bit ho-hum. This walk was beautiful, with each successive headland revealing another spectacular set of cliffs and bays. But the causeway rock formations are the
The good weather followed us from North Wales to Ireland, and we've been blessed with glorious (and probably quite unseasonal) days of sunshine. We're staying in a cute little cottage in Ballycastle, a 5-minute walk away from the water. It's a beautiful corner of the world. A beach playground just around the corner from our house? This is the stuff five-year-old dreams are made of. The kids had their first ever horseback ride. Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge — one of the more famed attractions in Northern Ireland, in part due to its featuring in Game of Thrones — is just a ten-minute drive
View from our window: Ballycastle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. 9:01am, 19 April 2023.
Once our visit to the Titanic Museum was complete, we didn't really linger around Belfast, preferring instead to head to the Causeway Coast for more outdoor adventures. But we still found a little bit of time to wander around the city centre. Belfast City Hall St. Ann's Cathedral The view out over Belfast from Belfast Castle.
Our children are Titanic obsessives. It started with an innocent trip to the Toronto Aquarium, which happened to have a temporary exhibit on shipwrecks. Since then it has moved on to cover shipwrecks of all kinds, with a special emphasis on ships sunk in battle. But Titanic is still their first love, and the Titanic Museum was the single stop they were most excited about on the whole trip. It did not disappoint. The museum is so well done: both comprehensive and moving with everything from whiz-bang interactives and like, a database of every ship Harland and Wolff ever built.
View from our window: Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. 8:59pm, 17 April 2023.
Having decided that an ascent of Mt. Snowdon was a bit more than little legs could handle (and possibly the big legs too), we set out on a crisp, clear Saturday for Llyn Idwal, one of the more popular hikes in Snowdonia. We were at the carpark by 8:45, but that proved to be not quite early enough to secure a spot, so our hike began and ended with a bit of a walk along the road from the next closest parking site. That aside, it was a terrific day from start to finish. The views were tremendous, and we
The "Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd" are a UNESCO World Heritage Sight, and we made it our mission to visit all four during our stay in North Wales. Caernarfon is the largest of the four castles. It also boasts some extensive indoor exhibits on the castle's history. On the day we visited, it was blowing a gale, and you could really feel Caernarfon's proximity to the ocean. Looking back towards the town of Caenarfon from the Eagle Tower Conwy Castle is much more compact, and feels much more connected to the medieval town walls. It was windy at
Emboldened by our Bath Skyline hike and our climb up Hay Bluff, we wanted to do some proper hikes while we were in North Wales. On this particular day, the forecast was not so great for the mountains around Snowdonia, but much nicer out in Anglesey along the coast. We found a 7km hike, and set out while it was still raining back in Llanrug. Worryingly, it continued to rain as we drove across Anglesey. But then, like magic, as we arrived at Cemaes Bay, the clouds cleared, and we were rewarded with a glorious sunny day with calm winds.
Because of its mining history, Wales is dotted with narrow gauge railways. Nowadays, they are mostly built by charming steam engines for the benefit of tourists. We booked a ride up to Blaenau Ffestiniog, which was once a slate mining town. The trains have been really nicely restored, and it's a beautiful way to see the Snowdonia landscape. The train sets out from the harbour station in Porthmadog Sailboats at Porthmadog Some beautiful views as we depart Porthmadog