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Published: April 19th 2024
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We said farewell to Malaga/Estepona on a warm, bright sunny morning and took a 2 1/2 hour flight to Dublin where we were greeted with a windy, coolish day but some sunshine. With our car rental, it was a smooth exit from the airport for the 2 hour drive to Belfast along the M1 highway. A quick Hotel check in and a Steak and Guinness pie dinner capped off a long day.
Our hotel didn’t have a restaurant, however around the corner, we found a Tim Hortons and had an Egg McMuffin, hash brown and Coffee. In addition to breakfast, I negotiated with my dietician a donut but discovered the cost was equivalent to $3.50 CDN versus about $1.20 at home, so no treat.
The “black cab’ tour of Belfast covered mostly the divided neighbourhoods of the Unionist and Nationalist population, predominantly Protestant and Catholics respectively. It was a private tour, and our guide Paul was very informative and passionate about the “Troubles“ that took pace over the decades. It’s astonishing how people lived in the same neighbourhood with high walls that separated streets. In spite of all the bloodshed and fighting in the past, consensus seems to be
The wall separating the Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods.
The back of the houses have a metal cage that defend against grenades being thrown over the wall!! that Northern Ireland will soon join the Republic of Ireland. Part of reasons are; the 1998 Good Friday Peace agreement is holding, the changing demographics and increases in immigration. Nationalist now represents a larger share of the population than the Unionist.
Most of the afternoon was spent at the Titanic Museum which is one of Belfast’s main tourist attractions. It was a very large facility that provided an in depth background of the building, launching and ultimate tragedy associated with the Titanic. There were several conclusions made by the post disaster investigation including a simple fact that the look out tower failed to spot the iceberg in time due to not having access to the binoculars provided. Also there was an American ship very close to the location of the sinking and could have saved many more of the appx 1500 lives lost but there was no officer on duty to read the Titanic’s distress signal.
Next morning with rainy weather, we set out north of Belfast following the coastal road up to Ballycastle. The weather for most of the day changed from rain to sun to hail in addition to very high winds. We did manage to
Wall murals throughout the Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods in Belfast
These change periodically and are distinctly different on each side of the divide. enjoy some great coastal vistas along the way and wrapped up the day with a tour at the Giant’s Causeway just outside Portrush. This natural phenomenon is shapes of basalt rock that were formed by volcanic eruptions. Legend say the rocks were remnants of a causeway used by the Irish giant Fin McCool to cross the 6 kilometres of ocean to Scotland. Unfortunately the wind gusts were extreme and therefore reduced the amount of time we spent there. Giant’s Causeway is a major tourist attraction in Northern Ireland attracting thousands annually.
Our BnB in Portrush provided a comfortable night “stop over” before proceeding to Derry/Londonderry the next day.
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