Traveling with the Jones — Sharing Travel Discoveries

Dinner at the James Street South Bar + Grill in Belfast, Northern Ireland

by Janis on September 23, 2015

One of our most pleasant surprises during our visit to Belfast was the impressive Northern Ireland food.

Following the advice of Paul, the executive lounge attendant at the Hilton Belfast, we sought out the Bar & Grill at James Street South for our first dinner in the city. It was a Sunday night and we did not have a reservation, but asked if we could dine at the bar.

The James Street South is not a traditional bar or grill, but offers a diverse, seasonal menu featuring fresh Northern Irish produce in a relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed the delicious food, the friendly and knowledgeable service, the local beer and the extensive list of wines by the glass, so much that we returned for a second dinner later during our stay in Belfast.

During our first visit, Mr. Jones started with a local Belfast beer.

With the bartender’s encouragement, I enjoyed a glass of the Allo white wine from Portugal. Later in the meal, I had a glass of the Umani Ronchi Montepulciano from Italy. Both glasses paired very well with my giant portion of squash risotto with 7 seeds, one of the richest, most-flavorful risottos I have ever enjoyed. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones enjoyed his roasted lamb shoulder, one of the Sunday night specials. This was young, tender, perfectly-prepared lamb, served with mash and a hearty plate of vegetables. (We had no problems sleeping through our first night in Europe after this dinner.)

On Tuesday evening, after we had worked up a major appetite climbing on the Giant’s Causeway and Crossing the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge during a day on the Northern Ireland coast, we decided to visit the Bar + Grill again.

Mr. Jones started with the Prawn Cocktail.

I ordered the soup of the day, which was parsnip. Parsnips have never tasted so creamy and delicious.

Mr. Jones ordered the tagliatelle with scallops, parsley + lemon, but when the entrees arrived, we switched. The green bits in this dish were bitter, which I enjoyed with the just-seared scallops.

The dundrum white crab + chili linguine was full of crab, complemented with a little kick of spice.

When our waitress inquired about dessert, we insisted that we were too full. She said, “We have a special martini for those who are too full for dessert.” How could we resist this? It was dessert!

The Bar + Grill at James Street South is popular, and was one of our top two favorite dining experiences in Belfast. While known for its beef, we highly recommend the seafood and pasta dishes. Be sure to make a reservation.

What is your favorite dinner spot in Belfast? Please share in comments below.

Check out these other posts on food finds during our travels:

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How to Use Pinterest for Travel Planning

by Janis on September 22, 2015

Are you planning your next cruise or other travel adventure?

We always like to have at least one “next trip” in the planning stages. It gives us something to look forward to, and new destinations to focus on for pre-trip research. We like “getting in the know” before we go.

According to Dutch research, planning a vacation boosted happiness for some people even more than the trip itself. While we love our travels, we also enjoy researching travel destinations before our trips. (Check out this list of Fun Facts we’ve learned about destinations around the world.)

This summer I have embraced another tool to help with our travel planning. My newest travel planning resource is Pinterest.

For those of you who are not yet among its 100 million users, Pinterest is an online pinboard, where users share visual content —known as pins—to their “boards” or collections of images around a topic. Anyone can set up a free Pinterest account, and “pin” from a desktop computer, a tablet or your mobile smartphone. There are more than 50 billion “pins” on Pinterest.

How to Use Pinterest for Travel Planning

Create a new board in your Pinterest account for an upcoming trip. For example, for a cruise to Canada and New England this summer, we set up a Canada and New England Cruise board. For a trip to Ghent and Antwerp in Belgium, set up this board named Belgium. For a trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland, we created this board: Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Our next trip is a transatlantic cruise from Barcelona, Spain to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and we’ve just started pinning to our board for this adventure ever-so-creatively named Transatlantic Cruise.

2. Search in Pinterest Using Your Destinations and Other Key Words. For our trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland, I generally entered “Belfast” and Northern Ireland in the search box. For cruises, I search each port destination. If we are looking for something specific, such as the best lobster rolls in Prince Edward Island, I would search “Prince Edward Island”, “PEI” and “lobster rolls.” Or, for finding good tapas in Alicante, Spain during our transatlantic cruise, I would search “Alicante”, “Spain” and “best tapas”. I also might try “Alicante”, “Spain”, and “things to do”.

3. Pin Images of Interest to your Pinterest Trip Board. It’s just like tearing pages out of a travel magazine, only easier and less messy. Pin whatever catches your interest. If you just have a few minutes, pin a couple of things. You can go back at any time to study them closer.

4. Continue New Searches as Your Trip Gets Closer to Departure. With 100 million people pinning, there is significant new content on Pinterest every day. Once you have a board set up, and have search terms in mind, it’s easy to do a quick search for new pins on your destinations whenever you have a few minutes.

5. Take Time to Click Through to the Source of Your Favorite Pins. Many journalists, bloggers, and other destination experts create “Pins” as a way to promote their content. If the image topic is of interest, Pinterest makes it easy to click “Visit Site” or just “Visit” on the mobile app to be redirected to the original place the photo was used, which is likely a travel article, blog, website or company that can provide more details on the subject of the image that you pinned.

6. Have the Pinterest App on Your Tablet and/or Smartphone for Reference When Traveling. When you are traveling, and want to find that tapas bar in Alicante, Spain that you pinned, just find Wi-Fi and pull out your phone. The Pinterest mobile app makes it easy to review your pins even when you are exploring your destination, as long as you have data or Wi-Fi.

7. Upload Your Favorite Photos/Videos to Your Board When You Return From Your Travels. Adding your favorite images to your board will give you an easy place to look back on your trip. When friends ask for your recommendations from your trip, you can refer them to your Pinterest Board. Plus, you will provide valuable content for others who are planning their trip to the same destinations that you just visited.

Do you use Pinterest for travel planning? What tips do you have to add? Please share in comments below.

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Climbing on the Giant’s Causeway in Antrim County, Northern Ireland

by Janis on September 21, 2015

Forces of nature generally do not favor straight lines.

If you travel to the northeast coast of Antrim County in Northern Ireland, however, you can climb on 40,000 interlocking, straight-sided, basalt columns created by a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago. Each polygonal column has between four and eight straight sides.

The Giant’s Causeway is Northern Ireland’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is a nature reserve managed by the National Trust. These unique rock formations serve as a natural rampart protecting the picturesque coastline from ferocious Atlantic storms. Every year, more than a half a million people climb on these rocks located three miles from Bushmills – the town famous for its whiskey distillery.

The mostly hexagonal or six-sided columns date to the Paleogene Period, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau.

As the lava cooled, horizontal contraction fractured the plateau, creating downward cracks that left pillar-like structures.

Gaelic mythology and legend have a different explanation for The Giant’s Causeway. Here’s our favorite version of the story:

The Irish giant Fionn MacCool was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Accepting the challenge, Fionn built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet.

When Fionn sees how much bigger his foe Benandonner is, however, he tries to hide. Fionn’s wife, Oonagh, saves the day by disguising Fionn as a baby and tucking him in a cradle. When the Scottish giant Benandonner sees the size of the ‘baby’, he assumes that the baby’s father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. Benandonner flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow.

There are identical basalt columns (part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, likely influencing this “Giant’s Causeway” legend.

Visitors can make the half-mile walk to reach the basalt columns at the edge of the sea without first taking the time or paying the fee to enter the Giant’s Causeway Visitor’s Center opened in 2012.

After the walk down to the site and then somewhat strenuous climb back up, we were hungry. Our tour driver/guide from Odyssey Coach Tours had recommended having lunch at The Nook if we had not brought a packed lunch.

The Nook was a good recommendation. The cafe serves pub-style food and this open-faced shrimp sandwich was a hit. (Yes, there was bread under all of that shrimp and fresh salad.)

Mr. Jones’ had the hearty pastry-topped stew.

We visited this destination and several others as part of our day-long Giants Causeway Tour with Odyssey Coach Tours, and highly recommend both the tour and the company.

Have you visited Northern Ireland? What’s your favorite attraction? Please share in comments below.

Other posts on our visit to Belfast you may want to check out:

In preparation for our trip, we created a Belfast and Northern Ireland board on Pinterest.

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Or, check out our boards on Pinterest and/or our photos on Instagram.

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Crossing the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge in County Antrim, Northern Ireland

by Janis on September 18, 2015

Would you walk across this rope bridge?

I paid to walk across this 66 ft. bridge that is nearly 100 ft. above the water below while touring the coast in Northern Ireland last week.

Located near Ballintoy in County Antrim, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (pronounced carrick-a-reedy) links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede. Historically, salmon fishermen erected the rope bridge nearly 350 years ago to check their salmon nets. It seems they didn’t have to pay tax on the fish caught from this “unattached” island.

Today the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is a tourist attraction owned and maintained by the National Trust. The bridge is open all year round (subject to weather) and people may cross it for a fee (currently £5.90 per adult.)

Those bold enough to cross the bridge are rewarded with fantastic views of Rathlin Island, Scotland and the Causeway Coast.

This woman in front of me dared to look down over the short bridge “railing.”

I considered myself brave to look down and snap this “shoe” shot looking through the bridge “floor.”

I snapped this view down just as I was stepping onto the bridge, which gives a bird’s eye view of the clear, green water flowing around the ancient caves and caverns below.

Even scarier than the bridge is climbing back up the steep stairs that lead to and from it. Monitors make sure that no more than eight people are on the bridge at one time.

To get to the bridge, first you must walk about 20 minutes along a coastal footpath that leads to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.

On the way, there are fantastic views. The Carrick-a-Rede area has been recognized as an area of special scientific interest due to its unique geology, flora and fauna.

On the walk back, we marveled at the sheep grazing on the steep hills.

The coastal walk to the bridge is exhilarating, even if you decide not to cross. Very tall folks like Mr. Jones (who’s 6’6 inches or 2 meters tall) will find the sides of the rope bridge quite short. Even if you don’t want to cross the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, it’s worth the admission to get close to the site.

We visited the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge as part of our day-long Giants Causeway Tour with Odyssey Coach Tours, and highly recommend both the tour and the company.

Would you walk across the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge? Please answer yes or no in comments below.

Check out these posts on other adventures we experienced around the world:

Check out our Belfast and Northern Ireland board on Pinterest.

Follow us on Twitter or interact with us on Facebook

Or, check out our boards on Pinterest and/or our photos on Instagram.

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