The usual question - when to visit Ireland?

One cannot guarantee anything as far as the weather is concerned in Ireland but statistics over the years do give a good indication of the best months to visit the Emerald Isle. The following chart shows the average monthly rainfall. As you can see there is not a great difference between the wettest and the driest month but the spring and early summer would seem to be a safer bet than late summer or early winter. Equally as ,temperatures vary, you can rely on a maximum daily temperature during the summer months of 20C and a minimum of 11C.
Persoanlly if I were to chose, May or June are excellent months for seeing Ireland at its best.

Who says the Irish can't cook?

Some posts ago I mentioned the Bureau restaurant at Newtownabbey between Carrickfergus and Belfast on the shores of Belfast Lough. Last week before leaving as a special treat I visited the restaurant again and was far from disappointed. On the contrary it was a night to remember. For future reference and until they change the menu my personal favourites:
Starters


SALMON AND LOBSTER RISOTTO
CHICKEN LIVER

Main course

ROAST CHICKEN WITH BASIL AND APRICOT STUFFING

Desert

BELGIUM CHOCOLATE CAKE


It's a meal you will never forget.

Belfast - a changed city

Last Thursday I was in Belfast to see the first of the tall ships arrive for the Belfast Maritime Festival from 13 - 16th August. What an impressive sight to see these magnificent galleons sai up Belfast Lough. In all they had visited 4 continents on their journey, their most recent ports of call being Bermuda, USA and Canada. It was 18 years ago in 1991 that Belfast last played host to the tall ships participating in the Atlantic Challenge. The idea behind the Atlantic Challenge is to offer sail training experience on sailing vessels, some of them as old as the early 1900's. The race is from Nova Scotia in Canada to Belfast and the vessels are between 10 and 100 meters in length and a total of 40 took place in the event.
On Thursday an estimated 250 000 people visited the ships at Belfast harbour. Today, 16 August, at the end of the festival the ships will all sail down Belfast Lough in a flotilla.

Very disappointed by car rental easycar.

Sorry but a major disappointment. Having arrived in Northern Ireland and needing to hire a car, I decided today to book online with a company called easyCar. After I had booked I then called the contracted agent at the airport in Belfast to arrange when I could pick up the car. By the way I had a confirmed reservation. I was told by the contracted agent - in this case Alamo - that they had no cars available and that they could nto understand why easyCar was still accepting reservations when they had no cars. Alamo could accept no responsibility for the services of easyCar.

Great!