Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Sigh

That was lovely! Northern ireland is so beautiful and everything went so well. Another day would have been ideal but we were lucky getting the time we did. I didn't think to take a picture of the outside of the hotel but I've pinched one from somewhere else













It was lovely, the staff were friendly and efficient, the room was nice, the bed was huge! This was the view from our room

















On the first night Mr Cledry treated me to the best dinner I've ever eaten, truly delicious and not to be forgotten. Then we sat in the bar, where there was a roaring log fire.


Next day it was off to the Giants Causeway. Luckily there's a shuttle bus that takes you down to the stones or I wouldn't have been able to make it. I pootled about round the edge and Mr Cledry scampered about the stones like a 12 year old - belying his 50 years - lol. Thank goodness for the zoom on my camera as I was able to get some nice shots of him. Here he is looking somewhat bemused (I was so far away he wasn't sure if I was taking a photo or just spying on him!)
















Next it was off to Bushmills distillery. You could smell it from as far away as the car park - gorgeous! It was an interesting tour but I just wanted to get to the bit at the end where you get a drink. The tour guide asked for 2 volunteers at the end to do a tasting and as 90% of the people doing the tour weren't from the UK they had to take a minute to work out what he was asking for - by which time I'd put my hand up and volunteered! I got to taste 5 different types and got a healthy shot of 12 yr old single malt at the end. Oh, that was awfully hard work - lol! We treated ourselves to a bottle of that to take home - strictly for very special occasions.

We drove back to the hotel the long way ( enabling me to have a quick doze behind my sunglasses to sleep off the whiskey) and found a little pub a few hundred yards from the hotel where we had a really nice and very reasonably priced pub meal. Then it was back to the hotel for a quick whiskey in the bar and then bath and bed. Next morning we enjoyed the sumptuous Irish breakfast in the lovely dining room overlooking a beautiful walled garden and, with slightly heavy heart, checked out. We were both quite sad to be leaving but it's always good to leave somewhere wanting more of it. The last time we felt like that was when we went to Skye. We were crying as we packed the car and the kids kept asking us what was wrong! Silly sods.

Anyway - we live in such a beautiful place that sometimes it's hard not to feel a little disappointed with other places but Northern Ireland truly didn't let us down. It's a stunning place and we would definitely love to go back someday. Now it's nose to the felting grindstone as it's only 3 weeks till Wonderwool - eek!

4 Comments:

Blogger artyfartykat said...

Sounds like you both had a fantastic time and in such a beautiful place.
Must have been terrible to HAVE to taste those whiskies, but someones got to do it!!

1:51 AM  
Blogger Artis-Anne said...

I am so glad you had such a lovely time in Northern Ireland ; just what you needed :)
Will look out for you at Wonderwool Wales ;-) I can't believe its that close now !!

12:10 PM  
Blogger Jo said...

Well volunteered!
Sounds as though you had a fabulous time.
Hope the felting goes well and that productive moods descend on you - I'm up to my neck in preparing work for the end of year exhibition at college. I've already made several folks go boggle-eyed at the knitting I'm doing!
Jo
xxx

11:45 PM  
Blogger Stacey said...

Thanks girls :)

Jo - I'll probably be going up to see my son's end of year exhibition so I'll pop in and look at the textiles one as well.

7:25 AM  

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