Belfast - 26 May 2023

26 May 2023 - Belfast

Last night, we went out to eat. The man at the castle had recommended Dobbins Inn. Left to ourselves - it’s a place we wouldn’t have ventured in! We might have stuck to the carpets and tables - however, the staff were friendly - and the food was good. Tintin had a yellow Thai chicken curry - which he said was quite hot! Mine was chicken goujons - finally had some champ! along with mushrooms in a peppery sauce. Also had blackcurrant and cider - it’s like being a teenager again ( I wish!).

The pictures of the castle were taken about 21.00 last night - the evenings here are so light.

The little black headed gulls are everywhere - they like being on car roofs as well - they were harassing the people eating in the yellow car!

Being in a more general carpark, it was noisier than we’re used to, kids playing football when we were in bed, cars loud close to us - but all quietened down.

It’s been really bad timing, but Tintin woke up during the night with a headache, so didn’t know whether we’d go into Belfast or not. He dosed up on plink, plink fizz (solpadeine) a few times, and declared good enough to go. It might be Kraken that poisoned him?

Walked about ten minutes up to the train station. We bought ilink zone 2 cards, which meant we could use either the buses or metro, plus the trains all day for £23. Train arrived ten minutes later, took about 25 minutes to get into Lanyon Place, so arrived about 10am. Tintin might have had a ‘medicated’ brain, forgot his cap, but jumped back on the train to retrieve it just in time! Got straight on the Glider 1 bus towards City Hall.

We visited there a couple of times today - free to enter, and clean loos!

Went to the tourist information and bought tickets for the CitySightseeing Belfast tour (£40), as we thought it would be a good way to get a general feel for the city. Had to wait until 10.40. Unfortunately for us, there were two cruise ships in today - always means hoards of visitors!

Managed to get seats upstairs. There was live commentary, but because of all the traffic noise, felt it could have been a bit louder!

Lots of huge impressive buildings - hard to get good photos - either people’s heads in the way (which I’ve edited out!) or there are lots of trees (which is good!).

A very brief summary of more notable places - started at the city hall, went to Titanic quarter (probably the main place that people get off!), past St George’s Market (was open, and I’m sure lovely if we had time), Falls Road murals, International Wall murals, Belfast Peace Wall, Shankill Road murals, Crumlin Road Gaol (no photo - gone past before I realized!). Took about 90 minutes.

From today until Monday there’s the ‘Belfast Spring Continental Market’ - basically a food fest in the grounds of the City Hall.

By now was lunchtime, so had pizza made and cooked in front of us - was tasty - £23.

From there back to tourist information to book our Titanic slot. The bus was at 12.58, and she booked the 13.20 time slot, which we made! Tintin’s ticket cost £19, and mine £24.95 - £43.95.

We know that our daughter and son-in-law enjoyed the experience, so we had high hopes.

The building cost £97m, and stands right next to the original slipways where the Titanic was built. It is six stories tall, clad in more than 3,000 sun-reflecting aluminum panels. Its four corners represent the bows of the many ships (most of which didn’t sink).

Firstly, the positive - beautiful building, really clever architecture. Next - think it was just too busy, or poorly laid out. It was very informative, however, the writing seemed quite small on some notice boards, so people stood close, then no one else could see. There were quite a few ‘bottlenecks’ on stuff that was more interesting! Also, it’s really quite dark in a lot of it. It’s really tiring being behind people all the time! Maybe I’m just lazy - capable of reading each and every notice board - but I’m sure they could provide a 10-15 minute video summary too!

We spent over 2-1/2 hours looking around, then onto SS Nomadic. Built by Harland and Wolff, alongside Titanic and her sister ship Olympic, SS Nomadic was the tender used by Titanic in Cherbourg as the port was too shallow for cruise liners. She has survived over 100 years - saw service in both world wars, but has been restored to her 1911 condition.

To be honest, we were a bit ‘can’t be bothered to read anymore’ by then - so just had a quick look around before catching the Glider 2 back to the city hall. The Glider buses look really strange when going around bends, the front is going forwards, but takes a while for the rear to catch up!

Sadly, it was 16.30 by then, and too late to have a free look around the city hall. The parts we saw looked beautiful. However, when only in a big city for 7 hours, there’s a limit to what you can fit in! We thought we did pretty well with all the train and bus connection times - weren’t hanging around for more than 10 minutes.

We caught the 17.15 direct train back to Carrickfergus, which only took 15 minutes, then a 10 minute walk back to Dave - who thankfully is still here as we left him.

As per the last few evenings, the sun is out and it’s a beautiful evening.

Tintin has survived, but looking forward to a good nights sleep, and hopefully waking up like a new man!…

So, overall - today just confirms what we already know - visiting cities is tiring, expensive, too many people - think I’m more content in natural surroundings! However, it’s that fomo that makes us continue 😊