Bushmills and the Giants Causeway

More good times in the vicinity of Derry.  I'm sorry, Londonderry.  Or... well whatever.  I definitely recommend the area - beautiful little downtown, nice bit of water, and it's the gateway to the best-known Northern Irish coastal sights.

Sarah and I took a little evening walk in the wind and rain across the brand new pedestrian bridge from downtown to the former army/police barracks which are being transformed into fancy condo housing.

The next morning we strolled through the sun to the train station, and took a train to Colerain, about 45 minutes away.

Then some extremely helpful Ulster Bus people put us on a special bus to the town of Bushmills.  That's right, Bushmills of Bushmills Irish Whiskey fame.

The police station tries to duplicate the Berlin Wall

Bushmills is a tiny, cute little village.  Yet check out their police station above.  It looks like a 21st century concentration camp headquarters!  Remnants of the Troubles.

Sarah and I went on a distillery tour at Bushmills.  It's a bit touristy and they don't give you access to anyone who can answer real distilling questions, but they do take you through the working factory, unlike most other such "tours" (ahem, Guinness).  I say factory because, well, it is a factory, just like a large-scale brewery.  Not a lot of art going on here, just pipes and pumps and measuring tools.  They produce a LOT of whiskey, and they only make a few types, so it's all about volume.

(Unfortunately Bushmills, in addition to many more of the world's best-known brands of alcohol, is owned by Diageo.  And I'm feeling decidedly anti-Diageo these days.  You can expect a post over on the hoplog blog about this in the near future.)

Sarah has a wee dram of factory-exclusive 12-year-old before lunch

Chad tries to remember if he put his bottle of 16-year-old Bushmills in an accessible spot in the storage locker or not

After the tour, we had a picnic lunch in a cool wind on some nearby picnic tables.

 Then it was off on an approx. 4 km walk along a nice bike path to the Giants Causeway - the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Ireland.  It was sunny, but extremely windy along the coast.  In peak season, a tourist train will give you a ride there on this narrow gauge railway.

After a few kilometres of golf courses and grasslands, we got to the coast which was stunning.  The wind had whipped up some significant surf, which looked brilliant in the sunlight.

Sweet manor house on the lovely coast.

 Greenery and wildflowers are finally starting to bloom in Ireland.  So late this year!

We made our way past the half-constructed 36 million-pound-sterling new visitor center and down to the Giants Causeway proper.  The surrounding cliffs and coast are gorgeous, though the Causeway itself is a bit small to be calling itself "Giant."  It's a collection of hexagonal basalt columns, formed by long, slow cooling from the molten state.  Neat looking, and crawling with tourists.

Chad does his best "Karate Kid" crane style moves

You feel a bit like you're in a game of Q-bert

After a day of sun, our return bus showed up a few minutes after it started raining - all in all a well-timed day out on the Northern Irish coast.