Another day off – Rick arrives later so fancied getting to know Belfast a little. When anyone has said “Belfast” to me before, I always thought of IRA, bombs etc etc,so I John, Mike and I decided to go and find out for ourselves!
Wow! What an interesting city. It is far more vibrant and no where near as run down as we thought it would be!
Having dropped the car off at Non-Budget Rentals, we spoke with the woman at the tourist information desk who gave us details we needed. She told us it costs about £10 for the open top tourist bus trip, but suggested we try to get a good price by haggling, so when we arrived in Belfast and were almost immediately accosted by the rep from one of the three companies trying to get our business we were ready for him.
Are you ready for a touch of Irish haggling? Ours went something like this-
Rep “would you like to come on a bus tour? Its only £10
Me “oh thats far too expensive for us” (I was ready to say, how about 3 for the price of 2, but Mike interjected quickly with
Mike “how about £8 each”
Rep “How about 3 for £15” ………….what? Absolutely brilliant!
The funny thing was – he was American! He has obviously lived in Ireland for too long.
So we took the open top bus trip for a fiver each and it was worth every penny. I took a number of photos – of the fabulous architecture, the dividing wall, the murals and Stormont.
Each of these structures depicts a famous ship which was built in Belfast – including of course, the Titanic!
Stormont and the grounds in the estate looked fabulous! The commentary on the bus informed us that Belfast was one of the safest places to live, with one of the lowest crime rates in Europe – mainly because most of the criminals are busy running the country!
The “Titanic Quarter” under construction. So much investment in Belfast – this is set to be Belfast’s equivalent of Canary Wharf!
You sit on a bus in Belfast and the strangest people get on – can you see Superwoman and Supermario and all their friends?
Hurricane Higgins – a local lad!
One of the largest dry docks in Europe
I try to imagine how life was for the families in these streets during “The Troubles”
I grew up hearing stories of the troubles in N Ireland and people like
Bobby Sands
Peace Street – people are encouraged to write their messages on this wall – look down the street. See the dividing wall
It sometimes felt obtrusive to take some of the photos at times as many of the murals were on the side of peoples houses and the walls of their gardens, often with the residents sitting out in the afternoon sunshine enjoying a cup of tea, it must feel obtrusive for them to have regular tourist buses drive round their streets full of people with cameras in their hands!
A good tour – well worth taking if you ever visit Belfast – but don’t pay £8!
I had an appointment at the Apple Store for another one to one lesson on my new MacBook. So far I have been to Solihull store where it was purchased, then to the Bullring in Birmingham for my 1st lesson, followed by London’s Covent Garden for my 2nd lesson (incidentally the largest apple store in the world!) then to Brighton for my 3rd one! The guy in Brighton said he saw my “file” and wondered why I was visiting so many stores. He said at the end of our 50 mins together that he really enjoyed my lesson as I wasn’t boring like the normal clients! He must have enjoyed it so much, that when I appeared in the Belfast store the young man – Aaron (they all look about 18 and were weaned from breastmilk straight onto computers I think!) told me he was looking forward to teaching me as it said on my file from Brighton that I was a lovely woman!
Back to the boat on the train – we’ve “done” Belfast and ready to move on and ready to meet our new skipper.
Rick eventually arrived about 9pm when we were just on our way to have our last pint in Ireland – it didnt take him long to store his luggage on the boat and join us to begin the bonding process………..Goodnight!
