May 14 - 19, 2022 - Days 45 - 50 - Goodbye to Rostrevor and hello to Stockholm!

 We ate breakfast at Starbucks this time since Costa Coffee was open yet, packed up, checked out of the Radisson Blu, and drove out of Edinburgh. This was much easier on an early Saturday morning, hardly any traffic. We drove back to Cairnryan and caught the ferry back to Belfast and then drove to Rostrevor. This was the last time I drove the car and I was happy to park it for good, no more round-abouts, no more single track roads, no more sitting on the opposite side of the car and shifting with my left hand while driving on the opposite side of the road.

Lovely little cafe on the beach somewhere in Scotland where we had lunch.

There was a lovely full moon that night and we tried to get a decent picture of it while walking around Rostrevor.

For the next couple of days Don worked, and I cleaned the house so it would be ready for our hosts when they came home, and I did laundry in preparation for our trip to Stockholm. We also walked around Rostrevor one last time whenever the weather permitted, it had rained quite a bit and the Kilbroney River was quite high.

The Carlingford Lock with the mist shrouded Mourne Mountains in the background.

We had never seen the Kilbroney River this wide as it feeds into the Carlingford Loch.

Don takes amazing pictures, I think this one belongs on a postcard.

We had a bit of a worry when we found out a few days before we were to leave for Sweden that the Translink bus service was going to be on strike again. They were our only way to get from the Newry Bus Center to the Dublin airport about a 1 1/2 hour trip. It would have cost us close to $200 to take a taxi all the way to Dublin. However, they didn't go on strike and we were able to take a cab to just to the Newry Bus Center and then catch the bus to Dublin Airport. Here is the canal in Newry as seen from the bus station.

And here we are, landing in Amsterdam. Our flight to Stockholm from there was delayed and we didn't arrive until after 11pm. We then took a very expensive (695 krona, or about $70 USD) cab ride to Maria's home.