The "Town" of Belfast

Today we went into Belfast, Ireland.  Like Dublin, Belfast is a large seaport but it has a whole different feeling. We started the day out by over sleeping and having a rushed breakfast before leaving the ship to board the tour bus (Of course I took a few quick photos off the Ledo deck first.)

We had about a 10 minute ride from the dock into the "town" of Belfast. Our guide said, "Belfast is big enough to be a city but the locals all refer to it as a town." After spending the day here I can see why. The people are very friendly and it has a very home town feel to it.
Our tour bus took us through the city and the guide pointed out various historic and interesting locations. Belfast has a mixture of styles and like most towns some neighborhoods are more well off than others.  

Here are some of the points of interest on the tour:

The spot where the Titanic was built, its memorial, and its sister ship the SS Nomadic (it is 1/3 of the size of the Titanic). The SS Nomadic was located a few years ago in France where it was being used as a floating restaurant. They brought it back to Belfast where it was restored to its original glory.

The building below is the Titanic Museum, It was built in the shape of the ships bow and is the height of the deck of the Titanic. The benches around the Museum are sized to represent the Morse Code Message sent by the ship asking for aid.

The outdoor set and Titanic studio where a lot of The Game of Thrones is filmed.  

Our first walking spot was the Belfast Castle which is known at "The Cat Castle" because it has  "cats" around the grounds.

The castle was built by a gentleman who was a known gambler and never paid his bills. When it was completed he was unable to pay the workers so he arranged for his eldest daughter to marry into a wealthy family who then covered his debt.  When he died the castle transferred to the wealthy family and they gave it to the Town of Belfast. The castle was beautiful and the gardens lovely.

We hopped back on the bus and traveled to see this beautiful government building.  It was built when Queen Victoria ruled all of Ireland and is currently used by the northern Irish government for meetings.  It is very grand and built in a style similar to Buckingham Palace.  (Fun Fact: This entire building had its walls covered with manure during WWI to hide it from overhead bombers)

Next stop the Botanical Gardens at Queen's College for a stroll through the gardens and the palm house which is home to many different species of warm climate plants.  

  

We hid our first bottle on a wall outside of the gardens.

After the beautiful gardens we headed for the Peace Wall. Many of the historic buildings in Northern Belfast are behind bomb proof walls others have no lower windows. Many are covered with colorful murals related to politics and social justice. 

Besides religious differences the people in Northern and Southern Ireland also have socio-economic and political differences and a history of extreme violence including shootings, arson and bombings.  The "Peace Wall"  is the largest of the walls built to keep the peace between the Northern Ireland Protestants and the Southern Irish Catholics. 

Unlike many of the murals across Belfast the Peace Wall is covered in murals designed to support the peace process..  Standing in front of the wall where so many peace keepers and world leaders have stood including Nelson Mandella, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barrack Obama was amazing. There are several smaller walls in the city to keep the peace. All of the walls are scheduled to be removed in a few years and the people of Ireland hope that peace will remain once they are all gone.  

We hid our second bottle across the street from the wall.

Then back on the bus and a trip to City Hall where we left the tour to explore the city on our own. Since it was only noon and most shops and restaurants don't open until 1 PM on Sundays we grabbed a cup of tea in the City Hall Cafe and then toured the grounds. 

On the grounds there is a memorial to all of the Irishmen that enlisted in the British army in WWI and lost their lives. Standing at the foot of it and looking at the small bodies was very emotional.

After our walk we headed into town to get a bite of lunch at a local pub the Rusty Saddle where we ordered Black Bush Whiskey and toasted our fisherman friends in Cobh.

After lunch I hit the souvenier shop for a post card of Belfast.  (Note: I have been buying them in each port we have landed in) and then we took a quick trip back to the ship on a pink shuttle bus.

Once Back Kerry took a nap in our room and I headed for the top decks to get a few more photos and a short nap in the sun.  

After my nap I also decided to start blogging early today (last night I was up until 2:15 AM). I enjoyed some tea and cookies and watched Billy Joel on the big screen. Life is good.

 Tonight we depart after dark so the pilot will have to wait. Instead we went to see a cabaret show which was very entertaining.  The Entertainer was a piano player named Ray Coussins who had played for Frank Sinatra for years and many of the other greats like Sammy Davis Jr., the Beatles, Lucile Ball and more. 

Tomorrow we head for Greenock Scotland Where we meet our guide for our personal tour of our ancestors' castles.