A Challenging Drive

This for now will be short and sweet!   Getting into Londonderry was hell.  We need beer.  More to come later!

This is being written while we enjoy a beer in Maldron Hotel Derry.  It just might be the first of many!  Our nerves are shot.  Putting it mildly, driving today was a challenge.

The day started out really well.  We made our way back to Bushmills (the town) from our hotel in Portrush.  We had a 10:00 am tour and tasting booked at Bushmills (the distillery).  What a great way to start the day!  Our tour guide, a Brit, was great.  We were able to wander through most of the plant and ended with a tasting in their bar.  We tasted a 10 year old and a 12 year old whiskey.  The 12 year old was hands down the smoothest...and I have not been known to like Irish Whiskey.  That just meant a much more expensive bottle was purchased to take home.  And yes the plan is to actually get it home unlike the McCutcheon women of a few years back!

Our second stop of the day was at Dunluce Castle.  This castle was built in the mid to late 1400's and remained occupied until about 1680.  It is hard to imagine that something that has been sitting as ruins for that long can have so much of it still intact.  It also amazes me as to the vast wealth and power that these families must have had.  Despite the lousy weather...oh I forgot to mention it was a wet day....it was a great place to tour.  

Why then you might ask are we in need of multiple pints of beer?  It was all about our drive towards and into Londonderry.  We had been continuing our Coastal Drive until we ran into the River Bann.  This forced us to head south into the town/city of Coleraine.  By Google Maps things should have been simple.  That was certainly not to be.  You would think that being that we were travelling on a fairly major highway, the A2, and it is located on both sides of the river it would be simple to get across the bridge.  Not possible.  A series of one way streets guaranteed that we could not get onto the first bridge.  After going in circles for a while we were finally able to get there by going south and then coming at the bridge from that direction.  We saw a lot more of  Coleraine than we cared to.  I was also getting really sick and tired of round-a-bouts.  They are supposedly efficient at moving traffic but Jesus they were poorly signed.

So now we were headed towards Londonderry again.  To say that we were a little concerned about finding our way to our hotel would be an understatement.  Another river, the River Foyle, had to be crossed.  It turned out that was not to be our problem.  The area around our hotel turned out to be the real challenge.  Round-a-bouts and one way streets again were our nemesis.  We could see our hotel but had a quite a time finding a way to get there.  Eventually we found an alley that was steep beyond reason and bloody narrow.  By the time we found our parking under the hotel we were 'done in'.  Not sure how we will even get the car back out of the parking area under the hotel.  Could be challenging to even turn the car around.  However, that is for another day!  A day of wandering on our own 2 feet is in order.



Bushmills started in 1608...this is an old sign.

How Whiskey evaporates over the years while in barrels


Bushmills tasting


Dunluce Castle


Dunluce castle was built on the cliff edge


Dunluce Castle


Our first Smithwick's!


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