Blogs from Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

“It takes a great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.” - Oscar Wilde We started the day sleeping in until 8:30 (!), followed by a delicious breakfast at the Bullitt Hotel restaurant. I has the veggie Irish (poached eggs, grilled halloumi cheese, mushrooms, potatoes, grilled peppers, tomato chutney, and sourdough toast), and Susan had the full Irish (poached eggs, mushrooms, sausages, bacon, black pudding, white pudding, and sourdough toast). Yumm. Well fortified for the day, we headed to the Ulster Museum, a nice smallish museum near Queen’s University. We visited the exhibit on the Troubles, which was well done, then explored the history floor, which encompassed Irish history from the Bronze Age to modern times, which was very informative. I enjoyed the small Egyptian exhibit, ... read more

“Sinking head down. Come soon as possible.” Titanic to Olympic, 1:10 am, April 15, 1912 We enjoyed our last breakfast at the Anchor House B&B in Dublin this morning. Both Susan and I had poached eggs on toast with beans. I’ve had more eggs and beans the last while than I’ve had for a long time ?. We left just before 9 am and walked about 10 minutes in the rain to Connolly train station, where we entered the code into the machines and got our tickets for the train to Belfast (we had booked the train tickets online). After a short while we boarded our train and found our seats. Most of the seating is laid out with four seats facing each other, with a table in between. A sweet older couple from Newry, Northern ... read more

The Other Half had checked her step counter and decided I had walked her too far the previous day. It was not Barcelona mileage, but she reckoned that over 9 miles was pushing it a bit far on her dodgy foot. She insisted a bus day ticket was the order of the day. I checked the timetables. Buses early on a Sunday morning were best described as sparse, but we intercepted a 7 on the way into the city centre. I purchased our 2 all day tickets at £4 each. The plan was to link with one of the shiny new Glider buses that ferry folk across the city, with a view to arriving at the Titanic Experience around opening time. We were ahead of schedule and the G2 didn't start running until 9:30 am, but ... read more

So we arrived in Belfast this morning. After brekky we did a load of washing and then relaxed and read our books, being interrupted by the butler who was concerned about which shoes Tom was wearing to tonight’s formal dinner, and could he give them a clean, which he duly did. We had been given a choice of shore excursions but I was still grieving for the west coast ports we are missing out on and hadn’t been tempted by them. Tom wanted to go to the Titanic museum, whereas I didn’t like the idea of going to a sunken ship museum when I was on a cruise! So after an early lunch Tom went ashore on his excursion while I had a nap and did some sewing and reading. While he was out we received ... read more

I was collected from just around the corner from my hotel at 8:15 for the Game of Thrones tour. Here was me thinking I was lucky and was the only person in the tour! Not to be - this guy just drove me to the head office of Irish Tours so I could join up with the group - of 50 other people lol. Once everyone was on board, we were on our way. Our tour guide's name was Sharleen and she had been an extra in Season 6. She was a wildling that hadn't yet turned into a white walker so spent most of her time just lying on the ground haha. She did advise that it would be hard to meet someone in Belfast that wasn't somehow involved in Game of Thrones! The drive ... read more