After an early breakfast and check out, we went to pick up our rental. Carol accidentally left her water bottle in the room, but realized this before we left. It took us almost 30 minutes to drive 1.5 miles. That’s when George realized he left all of his travel documents in the hotel lobby. Fortunately they found them, but the luck of the Irish was not with us this morning. Or maybe it was.

Our first stop was Newgrange or Bru Na Bionne, a prehistoric landscape dominated by Neolithic mounds, chamber tombs, standing stones, henges and other prehistoric enclosures, some from as early as 35th century BC – 32nd century BC. We were looking forward to seeing this but when we arrived at 11:30, they told us our timed tickets were for 1:30, and it was a 1.5 hour tour. So we decided to leave for our next destination – Castle Ward, which was in Northern Ireland.

We drove around the Mountains of Mourne, a granite mountain range in County Down It includes the highest mountains in Northern Ireland and the province of Ulster. We questioned the effectiveness of our GPS many times when it seemed to take us on a very scenic route. We must have gone around 50 round abouts, and George was doing a good job driving on the left. The countryside drive was very beautiful. The farmland plots were divided by stone walls, and the grass just seems greener here. The greenery along the road made it difficult to take photos, but we saw horses, cows, sheep and hay. The cottages and quaint small towns were charming.

The GPS had us make a left turn, when there was clearly a sign for Castle Ward going to the right. This one lane back road had signs for Castle Audley, which we hadn’t heard of. We stopped next to a cow pasture on a lake with a sailboat and small town in the background. Still no castles. We continued down the road and finally caught a glimpse of a Castle. We seemed to accidentally find the back entrance. Fortunately they let us enter there. No one was there. We learned that both castles were in Game of Thrones. Ward was featured in episode one as Winterfell. It was small, seems to be drawing GOT fans, and we were glad we stopped.

When we arrived in Belfast, we quickly checked in. Mom, George and Carol were going to catch the black cab tour, and I hopped in a cab for the Titanic Museum. Unfortunately the black taxi rides end at 4, so that didn’t work. They were going to hit Belfast Castle, but that closed too. So they all took naps or chilled. The museum opened in 2012, a monument to Belfast’s maritime heritage on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard in the city’s Titanic Quarter where the Titanic was built. I got a half price ticket for a one hour self-guided tour. The tour was good, but my favorite part was the building itself. The building design was to replicate four 38 m (126 ft) high pointed hulls, the same height as the Titanic. The exterior façade is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodised aluminium shards which provide a shimmering effect in sunlight. With two-thirds of the shards having a unique geometrical design. The building cost 77m to build. Locals call it the iceberg.

We had a lovely dinner at the Barking Dog and plan to get up early for the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge and the Giants Causeway.