Our goal today ...Titanic Belfast!
We started the day with complimentary breakfast at our hotel before heading out for today's adventure. All these big breakfasts = no need for lunch!
We scoped it out yesterday and bought tickets for the Hop on Hop off City Tours Belfast, 10 GBP, or about $17 CDN each. We jumped on the double decker red bus with Moira as our guide & Mark as our driver. The bus route has 30 points they go through with the guide giving us information about those spots and places & events enroute, as the name indicates we could get on & off at any location along the way. It was really informative, especially for the price and for folks like us who were in town for a limited time.
Our first of two stops was Belfast Castle. There wasn't much to see in the castle, just a few rooms & a beautiful staircase.
It's a facility used for meetings & gatherings now, and in simple fact was just a large castle shaped house that a wealthy man had built for his wife. However, the views from the castle back to the city were beautiful! The gardens outside the castle were very lovely, especially the "Cat Garden".
Lots of beautiful plants (many of which we grow in Saskatchewan, but they don't get as big at home as they do here!) Also the Belfast Wall, which was built during the 'troubles' was very apparent in this area by the Castle.
Back on the bus and onto our big planned stop today, Titanic Belfast. On the way we travelled on one of the Motorways, a highway 12 lanes wide. It's located on (manmade) Queen's Island, in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast.
The attraction opened in 2012, 100 year anniversary of Titanic's maiden voyage, on the site where the original Titanic was built and the original slipway site is still there. The experience was all about the Titanic & Belfast as it relates to the ship. It was a varied exhibit with an array of written displays, films, artifacts and even amusement style ride!
The company that built Titanic, R&W, is still in business, but is now building things like wind turbines for generating electricity.
We also checked out the RMS Nomadic, a tender ship, the was used to ferry passengers and freight to the Titanic, when the Titanic couldn't dock in some smaller harbours. She was located in front of Titanium Belfast. All in all, we spent about 4 very interesting & informative hours there.
We jumped back on the Hop on Hop off bus for the trip back to downtown. There while wandering around we found a mall called Castle Court and discovered what would be the equivalent to our dollar stores and this was called Poundland.
We walked through more shops before heading back towards our hotel. We decided to stop at "The Rusty Saddle" for supper. We arrived just in time for the supper special...2 sirloin steaks with sides and a full size bottle of wine. We discovered 'champ' is mashed potatoes with scallions....so good! Food was delicious and we left more than stuffed.
There is a King William mural, just down form our hotel. Also here is an example of a road sign, as the real driving starts tomorrow, other side of the road, other side of the car and shifting standard left-handed. We got back to the hotel about 9pm.....just some time to do a little laundry, typing & packing.
Alison
2019-06-29
Oh Champ...a very sentimental fave of mine looks like you're doing it right. Hope you're having a great time
Ninesquirrels
2019-07-05
Do not succumb to cardiac arrest!!