2024 Trips – USA/Ireland/Iceland

Today we are on the bus heading north westish to see the Giant’s Causeway. The Giant’s Causeway or Clochán an Aifir is an area next to the sea of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. The Giant’s Causeway was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and is known as the fourth-greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom.

The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although some have four, five, seven, or eight sides. The tallest are approximately 12 metres high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres thick in places. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland, receiving more than 998,000 visitors in 2019.

So off we went on our first day trip of this tour! It also is looking to be a sunny day – which can be quite lucky when visiting the northern part of Ireland. I took WAY too many pictures today from the bus – that is the luxury of digital pictures – you can just delete them! I have tried to pare them down to just a few along the drive from Belfast to the a cafe in a park where we picked up our lunches (we had ordered them the day before), had a toilet break, and then resumed the drive to the Giant’s Causeway. We were taking the scenic route there and the motorway back. So here are the pictures on the way to the cafe in the park:

This is the park that we stopped at where at the cafe, the ladies prepared us bagged lunches – both gluten free and not, depending on what we ordered yesterday from a form. The property was beautiful and amazingly enough it was accessible too! Like most other properties, there were sheep grazing in the distance…

After picking up our lunches we made our way to the Giant’s Causeway. Again we drove along the seaside and I took some more pictures! Here are a SELECTION:

Apparently they are VERY strict with tour busses and you are given a 10 minute window which you must arrive within. We had no issues arriving on time however I can see, based on the small roads that wind around, why it can be a problem. At the Giant’s Causeway there is a Visitors Centre and it is actually free to walk down and visit the stone formations. However some people, like myself, will not do the hill, so we take the bus which was 2 Pounds each (as we technically are in Great Britain). The fact that the earth created these square pieces of stone jutting out is quite amazing! Here are the pictures that I took. Andrew and I also had our lunches down by the formations.

After visiting the store and the toilet which was a Changing Places toilet which was quite cool (fully accessible with ceiling lift and adult change table) we were on our way back to Belfast. We first went for dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant with Anne and Richard and then Andrew and I walked a bit around downtown to visit some sights that were pointed out to us on the bus. We looked at the Europa Hotel which is known as the “most bombed hotel in the world” after having suffered 36 bomb attacks during the troubles in Ireland. Beside it is the Belfast Opera House. Then, across the street we went into the Crown pub, which was pretty unique – I think it has a 2nd floor too but we did not go there. Beautiful bar area and then they have booths or snugs in it where groups can sit. When back at the Grand Hotel, we then met Anne and Richard on the top floor (23rd I believe) for an after dinner mocktail and to take some pictures of Belfast, as this is the tallest building in the city.

Well it is early to bed tonight! Tomorrow we visit the Titanic Museum and then we are on the road heading out of Great Britain territory (and the pound) and back into the Republic of Ireland to stay at the Kilronan Castle. See you there!

Here is our round trip to Giant’s Causeway via the ocean road there and highway back.

What is that noise??? It is the phone in the room is ringing! It was Anne asking if we are coming down to the lobby soon. I asked her what time it is and she said 7:45am – we were to meet them at 7:30am to take a taxi to the airport. Someone’s alarm did not work and that person’s name does not start with an L! So Anne and Richard took their own taxi and Andrew and I quickly packed and got on our way too, about 20 minutes later! On the way to the airport, Andrew realized that he had set the alarm for 6:30 PM not AM. Oh well, these things happen!

We had a great driver to the airport – very friendly and chatted the whole way there. His last name was Lennon which was cool too! He even dropped us off where our bus should have been, however as it was not there, Andrew and I went inside to the Arrivals area and met up with the people who had already arrived for the tour. There are a total of 23 people on this Gluten Free Tour, which has been arranged by a travel agent, Royal Irish Tours and two volunteers – Anne (who is here) and Liz (who unfortunately could not make it). Once everyone got through customs we were off to find the bus for the trip! Adrian, the bus driver had brought the bus around and we then all got on – with the “back of the bus” people already occupying the same seats that they had in Italy – they had stayed at the airport and the 6 of them were picked up first prior to swinging by the airport and acquiring the rest of the group of us.

We are on a very nice bus, other than it drives on the other side of the road! It seats about 50 people – very similar to the bus we had in Italy however it does not have a lift on it, which I knew prior to the trip. In fact I was told that there are no tour busses in Ireland with lifts on them.

Vinnie is our tour leader and he is from Wexford, which is on the south east coast of Ireland. He has the same hairline as Andrew and my father and he is quite outgoing and funny! He is also gluten intolerant so that is why he was picked to lead our group.

Our first stop was the Man O’ War pub for a light lunch. It was only about 10:30am however as half the group had been travelling overnight, it was best to start them on a proper eating schedule! The pub had opened up especially for us and had a lovely GF spread of tomato soup, variety of GF sandwiches and a plate of GF cookies/sweets. There were also gluten options for those who were accompanying us. It was the first time for me having bread on this trip and I almost could not tell that the white bread for the egg sandwich was gluten free – it was that GOOD! While egg sandwiches are not my favourite thing to eat, the “mystery meat” sandwiches I was not going to take part in. Even those who eat meat were wondering what the meat was!

The pub both smelled and oozed history – there were items on the ceiling that had been found when grounds around the pub had been dug up. It was all wood panelled and had that awesome “pub” feel to it! Here are some pictures that I took:

Now back on the bus, we are heading towards Belfast, in Northern Ireland. When we got to Belfast, prior to checking into the Grand Hotel, we did a City Tour – all those photos are below!

Still on the City Tour, we are now going to visit some historical areas between the Protestant and Catholics challenges that have happened in Belfast.

We then arrived at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast where we would be staying for 2 nights. It is a beautiful hotel! Other than needing a pole vault to get onto the bed, we had a very nice accessible room! Here are our pictures!

Tomorrow, we are off to check out the Giant’s Causeway! Here is the drive we took today:

Today, despite the jetlag, we got up early as we had to be at the Guinness Storehouse (basically the Guinness Factory and Visitor’s Centre) that is in Dublin at 10am for our scheduled entrance time. What an amazing set of buildings this is and a beautiful visitors facility! This is also the number one tourist attraction in Ireland, with the Titanic Exhibit (and some others) claiming to be in 2nd place.

The Guinness Storehouse was an AMAZING experience – even for someone who does not drink! The funny part was that Andrew was on an accompanying person ticket and I was on a full ticket – so I got the ticket for the beer at the end and he got the ticket for the soft drink (which is appropriate for a carer ticket). Needless to say those were exchanged pretty fast! It is 7 stories high with a glass bar as the 7th floor that is above most buildings in Dublin and has a great view – would be even better if it was not raining cats and dogs! Yup, the cats and dogs in Dublin look very similar to the ones in Vancouver – I am saying that for my dad as I knew that question was coming up… They had elevators for those who needed them that at the beginning when to the next floor you needed to be on and then once past the 2nd floor (keep in mind in Europe the floors start at Zero or 0) there is both a main elevator and a secret smaller elevator for those in the know 🙂 So off we go!

From the Guinness Storehouse Andrew and I then caught a taxi to take us to Trinity University where we were going to meet Anne and Richard and go for a tour of the University and see the Book of Kells and the Library. The taxi driver was not very good and dropped us off at a large intersection and told me to go to the glass building as that is where the Book of Kells exhibit is.

Needless to say, after about an hour of walking around, including 3 two block circles, AND asking for directions at an information desk where they sent us in the opposite direction (thanks Math department) along with being unable to get up to the street as elevators were broken; I finally sat down and called (via Skype) the Book of Kells exhibit where we were supposed to be and asked them how to get there. I had already heard from Anne – the tour had started at 2pm without us and it was now 3pm. The ladies on the phone were very nice and got us turned around and on our way to the correct building. We also found out that Trinity University is pretty well a walled university – so the cab driver could not actually take us to where we needed to go – only to the nearest intersection. That would have been nice to know.

Now at the correct building, the lady was actually outside waiting for us to arrive, which was pretty nice – she then told me that due to the storm the previous evening (we were not aware of one however we could not see or hear much in the matchbox room) that a lot of the power was out for the elevators (we already found that out) including one that takes us to the majority of the exhibit – the Old Library. So they ended up refunding our tickets and letting us see the Book of Kells anyways. That was really nice! At this time I thought Anne and Richard were upstairs as I had told them we had arrived and they said they would meet us in an hour. Low and behold, we went through the Book of Kells entry and they were right there! So we saw the exhibit together and then they proceeded upstairs to visit the Old Library while Andrew and I went and hung out on the campus and people watched!

For those who do not know what the Book of Kells is – as I did not know until Anne told me about it – here is an overview – it is a Celtic manuscript, written in Latin, containing four Gospels of the New Testament. It was created in about 800 AD, in a monastery in either Ireland or Scotland, with other contributors. It is a beautiful example of calligraphy and illustration. Book takes its name from the Abbey of Kells, County Meath, which was its home for centuries. There are 340 velum leaves or folios; with each side of the leaf totaling 680 pages in a 13 inches by 9.8 inches volume, one for each Gospel. Lets take a look! No pictures were allowed of the actual book, however here are some pictures of the display prior to seeing the official copy.

We then walked to a restaurant for dinner that Anne found on a Gluten Free app. It was awesome! Anytime I can have GF fish and chips and that is the same GF fish and chips the whole restaurant eats so there is no possibility of wheat contamination, it is a good day! After a great dinner in a very unique restaurant, we walked back to the hotel (2.2 km) to work off our dinner!

Now back at the matchbox hotel room, Andrew decided to take a shower while I, after walking about 10 km today, decided to give my legs a little bonus time on the heating pad. So I plugged in the plug converter and then the power bar and POOF! the lights went out and there was a pop sound! To me, it sounded like a breaker had shut off which is weird as I had not plugged in anything requiring power. It was cool though that two small emergency lights in the ceiling turned on, however Andrew was in the dark in the shower and that he was not impressed with!

Andrew got dressed and went down to the front desk to get the clerk and they tried putting the breaker back (which was in the room) but to no avail. So then, they moved us to another accessible room which was BIGGER! Yahoo! Andrew can get to his own side of the bed without crawling over me! Also the power supply works 🙂 Time for sleep as tomorrow we are getting up early to take a taxi back to the airport with Anne and Richard to meet all the people for the Gluten Free Ireland tour!

Lights are on and we are now awake while on the Dreamliner to Ireland! I neglected to mention that we almost did not stay in Business Class, where we had booked our seats for our flight to Dublin. At about 4pm on Sept 28th, day of departure, we received a phone call from Air Canada, which I thought it was another call from the Mobility department about my walker, and instead it was an Air Canada agent telling us we have been downgraded to Economy – not Premium Economy, but Economy. I asked her why and she said the plane that they were going to use had to go in for maintenance and instead they were going to use a “smaller” Dreamliner – 787-800 instead of the -900. That plane change only has 20 people in Business Class instead of 30. So they had to downgrade 10 people to Economy, as Premium Economy was full. I was tired of dealing with Air Canada at this point so I said that they had broken my walker and that I did not think I was able to be downgraded as I do fly with medical information on my file. She said we probably would be downgraded but she would call back. Well, she did call back and told us that everything was fine – we can stay in our 1K and 2K seats. Yipee! Lie flat seats so my back does not get sore!

We got through customs and found our bags pretty fast and we were escorted to the coffee shop next to the Arrivals area, which was where we were going to wait for Anne and Richard, as they were coming in on the WestJet flight from Calgary. It worked our really well – we ended up getting to the coffee shop at about 9:45am and then I looked up their flight, which was due in at 11am and it was arriving early at 10:30am. Sure enough, they popped out of the Arrivals area just before 11am and we then took a cab to our hotel – Dublin One, which I have nicknamed the Matchbox Hotel! The Dublin One would not allow us to check in until 3pm, and it was currently about 12:30pm so we decided to walk to get a spot of lunch! We left our luggage at the hotel and off we walked – about 2km to a local pub which Anne and I had looked up the menu for online. Looked really good – both gluten free items for us and vegan for Richard!

We got there and it was a really authentic Irish pub! Only downside was the menu that was displayed on the website was not being offered – they only offered what was on the whiteboard next to the serving station! No vegan options for Richard! Only suitable item for me was curry chicken – which suited me just fine – that was until she put it on a plate and it was MASSIVE! So Anne and I ended up sharing the dish, I cannot remember what Andrew had and Richard’s food issue we solved on the way back by visiting a Tesco grocery store! As this was late afternoon now, we thought we would go out for a walk, however Anne and Richard were pretty tired (8 hour time change for them) so we all just rested for the evening and were going to connect the next day!

As for the Matchstick – the room was so small that I could not take a realistic picture! The bed was against the wall, so Andrew had to climb into it, there was limited floor space with only a very small desk and a stool and luggage rack, no side table for the bed, and then a huge wet washroom with roll in shower! The accessible washroom was almost the side of the bedroom if folded up! Cute but no where to put one’s luggage other than on the floor and then if we did that, no where to walk or roll a walker around!

Time to get some rest – we are off to the Guinness Storehouse tomorrow morning! The number 1 tourist attraction in Ireland! Probably the 1st Guinness of many for Andrew too!