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My breakfast at the Bullitt Hotel
Smoked salmon and poached eggs on buckwheat pancakes, with avocado. Yumm. - Oscar Wilde
We had the morning in Belfast, as we were taking the train back to Dublin in the afternoon. We woke up quite early (no crazy 8:30 sleep in like yesterday?). We made coffee in the room, and had some orange juice from the “grab and go” bagged breakfast the Bullitt delivers to your room if you want (we thought we might as well get it, and have it on the train later). We headed down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Susan had the vegetarian Irish, and I had poached eggs with smoked salmon on buckwheat pancakes, with avocado. Another very good breakfast. We both had Irish breakfast tea rather than coffee. I’m quite liking the strong Irish breakfast tea.
We decided to do the hop on, hop off bus this morning. We bought the tickets from reception, and walked to the nearby pickup spot, which was where the bus starts its route. We got the first one of the day, at 10 am. We found seats upstairs in the open top section (it was a lovely sunny day this morning, which was
Us on the open top bus
Beautiful sunny morning but a bit cool, especially in the open top when we were moving fast. a nice change!). We soon found it was really windy, particularly when the bus was moving quickly, but it was worth it for the good view.
There was interesting live commentary, provided by a nice staff member in her lovely Irish accent, as we travelled along. We went through the streets of Belfast to the Titanic Quarter, and got a different view of the Titanic Exhibit from the top of the bus. Sections of the building were designed to look like a ship, and they are the actual size of the ships built in that location, including the Titanic. We got a good view of the Harland and Wolff massive cranes (nicknamed Samson and Goliath).
We went out to Stormont, to the Northern Ireland Parliament. It is a very impressive looking building, located at the end of a long drive. It‘s a bit outside central Belfast and this is when it got REALLY windy in the open top part of the bus - it was fun though. We went down the Newtownards Road, a Loyalist area, and saw more political murals.
We decided to get off at St. George’s Market, which is an indoor market, with vendors
Belfast clock tower
This time in the sun! selling fresh fish, fruits and veggies, clothes, artwork, and gift items. It was an interesting place and we would have liked to have spent more time here, but we only had time for a fairly quick walk around the market. I bought a package of “Belfast Brew” Irish Breakfast tea (they like their tea strong in Ireland) and a small loaf of soda bread. I will have to find Irish soda bread back home, because I really like it (also Guinness black bread, it’s SO good).
We got back on the bus, but initially couldn’t find seats upstairs. At the next stop a bunch of people got off so we zipped upstairs and found seats with a much better view. We travelled around the streets of Belfast, passing the Europa Hotel, and more (Republican) political murals. We went past a section of the Peace Wall which really showed how massive it really is.
We eventually ended up back where we started. The bus was fun and we enjoyed the ride. It provided a good overview of Belfast in a short time.
We walked back to the Bullitt, packed up our bags, and went down to the lobby
to have an Irish coffee before heading to the train station. It was an excellent Irish coffee, like I said I’m getting addicted to Irish coffees! ?
We were on the 2:05 pm train to Dublin, and this time nobody was sitting across from us, which we were really happy about. It was a very comfortable ride, and we had our yogurt and granola and OJ from our breakfast bag. It clouded over as the afternoon progressed, and by the time we got to Dublin it was lightly raining. We walked back to the B&B we stayed in the last 2 nights in Belfast, the Anchor House B&B, where we would get the city bus to our hotel near the airport, the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport. We could get one of three buses, and one came along after a bit, and we hopped aboard. It took about 35 minutes to get to our stop, which was a short walk to the hotel. It was about 6 pm by this point. The hotel is very comfortable, and finally we have a king bed!
We settled in the room then went to the bar for a pint of Guinness and
dinner. I had potato and leek soup and soda bread (it was the soda bread that sold me), and a toasted cheese and pickle sandwich. Susan had a very enormous burger and fries (they called them fries not chips, I guess because lots of North Americans stay in the hotel). We redistributed things in our bags for the flight (we had three bottles of alcohol to safely pack away). We had a very comfortable night and were up quite early. I made coffee in the room, then later we went down for breakfast. The hotel has a really good breakfast buffet with lots of options. I had a fried egg, grilled mushrooms and grilled tomato, soda bread, and fruit and yogurt. Susan had eggs, and various meat options. We both accompanied our breakfast with pots of tea.
We got the 8 am hotel shuttle to the airport, found the Air Canada check in, and went quickly through security. The airport was much busier this morning than when we landed 12 days ago. We got a bottle of Five Farms Irish Cream liquor (from county Cork) at duty free, and settled in to our gate. Goodbye Ireland! We loved getting
Titanic Exhibit
It looks like the bow of a ship to know, at least a little bit, this beautiful country filled with friendly hospitable people. I’ll write up a final blog reflecting on our trip in a few days. But for now, I hope you have enjoyed travelling with us via the blog!
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Faye Mom
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My last Irish breakfast
It looks very tasty!