Sunday

7:00 AM start, everyone was on time and loading on the bus. We left on time at 8:00!!!
Some good news was announced: Merideth and Aaron announced that they are with child!!! And the announcement came on Merideth’s birthday!
We’re on the way to Belfast and seeing how the day goes. It’s a bit wet again with the Irish mist.

Got up to Belfast around 10:30 and went through some different parts: the Nationalists versus the Loyalists. Passed by Sinn Fein and the Garden of Remembrance. Went to the loyalist part where they are preparing for the 12th of July.
We went to H&W factory where the Titanic was built. At one time it used to employ over 35,000 people. Now it employs 52 people to just maintain the facility.

Our next stop is at Carrick-a-rede, which is a rope bridge across a canyon to small island. It’s a very steep walk. The weather co-operated. It had been raining all the way up through Belfast and it cleared up. A bit chilly, since we were at the top of the island, but no rain.
After a 10 minute ride, we went to Giants Causeway. This is a place that you could spend a full day at just hiking. Unfortunately, we only had about 1 ½ hours. A few people went to the Bushmills Distillery.
All of Northern Ireland is Loyalists to the Queen. You can see the British flag everywhere along with the old St. George Flag.


We then are going to Derry. Derry was the site of Bloody Sunday. This is where the British police opened fired and killed 26 peaceful civil rights marchers.
It’s a very nice town, kind of quaint.

The trip to Donegal was pretty quick. The hotel is very nice. We had a group dinner upstairs where we sang Happy Birthday to Merideth.