Irish Times

Hello!

I spent my 46th (eek!) birthday in Belfast.

We walked for miles and miles and miles around the City, ate good food, visited Giants Causeway, and all in all had a fine old trip.  Here's some pics!

Belfast's smallest house - one up and one down.  A family of five
lived here in times past, allegedly the caretaker of the Baptist Church to
which the house is adjoined.

On the first day we were there, after a lovely Irish breakfast in a little cafe, we hopped on a bus and got delivered to the Titanic Quarter where we had a saunter around the dock.  

We had booked a couple of bus tours - the first one being a ticket which was valid for 72 hours, where we were allowed to hop on and off a sight seeing bus at our leisure.  Hm...  Not convinced by this one to be honest.  I'm not good at being shepherded anywhere and prefer to make my own way to see things at my own pace.  However, because we were only there for three days, I thought this may be a good way of seeing a lot of things in a short space of time.  Sadly the bus was a little antiquated and the guy who was doing the commentary spoke so quickly (on a malfunctioning microphone) that I was getting more irritable by the second and wanted to escape!  We saw the murals and the peace wall, the Shanklin Road and the Falls Road.... but I couldn't really hear what he was saying above the white noise of the microphone.  I do think they need to make a few improvements to their equipment as the tours aren't exactly cheap.  It wasn't explained when we got on that we were able to just ring the bell and get off whenever we wanted to either so I felt a little like a hostage until we decided that enough was enough and escaped at the docks!

The city landmarks of The Samson and Goliath gantry cranes

The sleeping giant in the distance against moody skies

Can you see him?  Enlarge the pic to see a little better

The new Titanic museum - we didn't go in as we're tightwads and 

refused to pay the entry fee of £30 for the two of us! We enjoyed walking 

through the gift shop and surrounding areas just as much.

Me. 

 Honestly.  Being all graceful like. 

A mahoooosive "Airfix"-like scale model of the Titanic

The Nomadic - the last surviving ship of the White Star Line

The Big Fish - a sculpture celebrating the regeneration of the River Lagan.  Each ceramic 'scale' is printed with
a story about the history of Belfast.  He looks a bit sad though doesn't he?!

We had coffee in the Havana Cafe (and gorgeous key lime pie - cos it was my birthday!)

They only charged us for the cake so we scarpered sharpish!  hehehe.. not before taking a pic of

their impressive ceilings though.  Lovely building.

Later in the evening after a quick shower and a rest back at the hotel, we took ourselves out for 

dinner. Cath Kidston had put on a birthday display in her shop window just for me.  How very kind of her!

A rubbish photo of my dinner (well - some of it!)

We went to a Chinese buffet restaurant and tried lots of different dishes

Mussels in black bean sauce, sushi, prawns, sesame toast and chilli and garlic king prawns

 on this starter plate!  

I think Blogger is getting cross with so many photographs and has gone on strike - I'll report on the Giants Causeway tomorrow. 

As ever, thank you so much for your visit.

Much love xx