the day started like yesterday: with irish breakfast for nina and porridge and continental for me. after check-out at the hotel we drove up north and had our first stop at the flagstaff viewpoint[03-15], which also was our first stop in northern ireland. one really gets an amazing view over the area. and although there were quite many parking lots, we were the only ones here. when we drove on, we noticed a really big viaduct. so we tried to get closer to it, and parked somewhere near it. we then continued on foot, and finally arrived right under the craigmore viaduct[16-25]. this viaduct seems to be largest one in all ireland. soon we arrived at the dark hedges[27-48], a road with old beech trees on either side, that build a dark, atmospheric tunnel. it got famous for being a film location for "game of thrones", and thus our guide book said it will be lots of people and traffic here. again, since it is off-season we were pretty lucky, and only a few cars and people were around. the dark hedges really is a cool place. but it seems it is in great danger, as from the initially 150 beeches that were planted here in the late 18th century, currently only 90 survived. most of the trees were destroyed by storms and heavy winds, but also increased traffic became a danger to the trees with their partially exposed roots. a one hour ride later, we arrived at portrush[49-77], where we would spend the night at the harbour heights b&b. so we checked in, left our luggage in the room, and went for a little stroll through the small seaside city. portrush is most famous for its golf courses, its sandy beaches[50-51], an amusement park and the largest nightclub complex. all of this was not our main reason to choose portrush for our place of accommodation. it was more, because from here you can easily reach sights by day trips. but still we enjoyed the walk along the shore line, again with not many people around; mainly people walking their dogs. as the b&b is fully booked for the next night, we had to find another accommodation in portrush. too bad we have to move, it would have been more convenient to just leave the luggage there. but the other b&b is just a few hundred metres away, so it's fine. yet the view from our window[49] was awesome. it seems halloween here really is a big thing. that is why, even in off-season, almost all hotels and b&bs are fully booked. that was a surprise to us. today it was - again - mostly overcast and cloudy, with temperatures around 10°C. track for day 03.