Giving Thanks In Northern Ireland II

Let's just say by this time we were dying for a wee. I mean dancing in the seat, crossing the legs, and praying for a miracle. The miracle came in the form of a cute little café in Strangford done up in a bizarre combination of nautical theme and Victorian teapots. Weird.

After a mad dash for the loo, we perused our menus and decided on sandwiches. After all, we needed to leave plenty of room. We'd caught sight of the pastry case. And oh, dear, was it the stuff dreams are made of!

I ordered a simple grilled sandwich and Lyn ordered cold. I think maybe they had to kill the chickens or make the bread or something because two simple sandwiches took nearly 30 minutes. The pastry case was in danger of being devoured whole when they finally brought out the sandwiches. They were fine. Nothing special, but dessert was to DIE FOR!

If I remember correctly, Lyn ordered something of a cheesecake nature whilst I ordered something drenched in chocolate. Silence reigned (save for the occasional moan of delight) until every last crumb was devoured.

Back to the car for a tour of Strangford. Our grand tour consisted of driving two blocks and having to turn around because there was a large body of water in front of us. Sort of hard to drive on that. The most interesting thing about Strangford (beside the café and it's gorgeous desserts) was a cute little line of ice cream coloured cottages just off the bay.

We decided any more time touring Strangford might be a bit of overkill, so we headed off to castle number two: Killyleagh Castle. Now I swear I looked this castle up on the internet and it said that while the castle is actually still inhabited, it is open to the public. Unfortunately, it wasn't. There was a big sign telling us that we should feel free to snap as many pictures as we liked through the gate, provided we not step one foot on their property lest they loose the dogs, call out the guards, and hang us from the highest yardarm. We stayed outside the gate.

The castle was truly beautiful. Like something out of a fairy tale, or my trip to France. It was quite a disappointment we couldn't go inside. But there you are.

We took a quick walk around the village to see what we could see (not much), then headed home. After all, we had big plans for the evening!

The big plans included going out with Lyn's friend Connor to the local establishment for dinner and a few drinks. It also involved immense hilarity over the ridiculous antics of the rather drunk crowd of Irishmen (and women) who were old enough to know better but smashed enough to believe they were Snoop Dogg and seriously cool. In other words, they thought they were really cool. They weren't. They looked like headless chickens flopping about the dance floor. Good times, people, good times.

Saturday was my last full day in Northern Ireland, so Lyn took me around to see places from her childhood. Oh, and we did a bit of shopping! lol We didn't bother with castles this time, just enjoyed the time out and about.

It got a bit cold and rainy that night, so we stayed in with the telly and Indian takeaway. I do love a curry.

Sunday it was back home to England. I'm definitely visiting Northern Ireland again. It's a beautiful place. This time, though, I'm going in summer. And I'm making sure the doggone castles are open!