We broke our trip from Cobh to Dublin in Wexford. It was lovely to stretch our legs and wander the harbour quay and the narrow streets of the old town. The place was buzzing and the pedestrian areas were full of proud runners, glowing from their completion of a 10km fun run, enjoying the sunshine.

We made our way south, along country lanes, through rural towns and past a multitude of ruined stone buildings and lambing sheep. We bid County Clare farewell as we took another car ferry (our fourth so far), this time across the River Shannon. We landed on the southern shore at Tarbert in County Kerry. We made our way to our accommodation, a cute self-contained cabin about 15km along Tralee Bay with great views to across the bay and up to the Slieve Mish Mountains (and two friendly cats). We decamped, did a load of washing and lay in the sunshine for a while. Then we ventured west to explore the Dingle Peninsula.

Our entrance into the republic was underwhelming and extremely easy, as there is a very small sign (drove past it before registering what had just happened.) We were in Europe now, which meant it was all metric (yay – back to kilometres), everything in Euros (which made it feel more expensive, which it is as the AUD tanks) and still wonderfully green and sunny.

Monday was moving day, driving via the Belfast ‘Peace Walls’, which are scarily still closed at night to keep the ‘sides’ apart. We headed north and visited Ballymena, the ‘town of seven towers’ (point of dispute: don’t bill yourself so dramatically when you only have three towers left to see, and they’re not tall like Bologna’s or San Gimignano’s!). Then it was a detour to The Dark Hedges (GoT site, again lost on us) and then The Giant’s Causeway. What a treat that was. We walked the site in what we felt was the correct direction … clifftop first (a little droning), then descended the escarpment (some more droning) to a vantage point and doubled back to the Organ Pipes (and some more droning there!). A drone past Dunluce Castle and the Cliffs of Magheracross interrupted our trip to Portrush. It is a seaside town that entertains the northern coast of NI. A fun fair (closed, phew) and many amusement arcades provide attractions, as does the sandy beach and cute boat harbour (another one!). Lunch in the sun, a walk along the beach and feet in the bracing seawater rounded off our Portrush experience.

The cross-sea ferry to Belfast was a delight. We paid a little extra for priority boarding and access to the premium lounge. We snagged a table, sofa and swivel seats overlooking the bow. And then hit the buffet for a well-deserved snack plus wine (or five – the snacks not wines!). A very comfortable and smooth trip across the Irish Sea brought us to the mouth of the Lagan, the ferry terminal and our disembarkation point. Priority has its privileges and we were off the boat swiftly.