Wednesday, July 13
Once again the ship provided a shuttle bus to get us to the city square, so we caught this and began our walk to Titanic Belfast in sunshine but with partly cloudy skies. The walk started at City Hall and took us past St.George's Market (which was closed as it is only a weekend market!), the Belfast Barge (a museum which was closed), Thanksgiving Square, the Albert Clock, Custom House Square and the Big Fish. We were only about halfway to Titanic Belfast as we crossed the Lagan Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge built above the Lagan Weir. The river walk took us around the huge SSE Arena and brought us to the SS Nomadic.
This vessel was used as a tender for the Titanic, and was based in Cherbourg, France, as they didn't have a dock big enough for Titanic to berth at. It was built at the same time as her "big sister", and is the last White Star Line vessel still afloat. The Titanic Experience covered 9 galleries across 3 floors, and included lots of interactive displays and the very clever use of multi media presentations to bring the story of Belfast and the Titanic to life. It even included a Shipyard Ride to take you from the gantrys to the keel and explained how the hull was built, the riveting of it and the fitting out of the ship. The most poignant galleries were the ones covering the sinking, the aftermath and the myths and reality about Titanic.
During our lunch break the rain returned - it started just as we got to Titanic Belfast, and now meant a change of plans on how to spend the last 2 hours we had on shore. We arranged a taxi tour to take us to the areas around Belfast that have seen so much fighting between the
Nationalists and Unionists, both between themselves and against the
Army who were sent in as peace keepers! Our driver Cam filled us in on the history as he drove us around, and we were happy we were in the taxi as the rain got heavier and more frequent. It reminded us of Melbourne as the sun would come out between showers/downpours.
We saw the political murals on buildings, the streets where marches and confrontations took place, the gates that are still locked at night and the "Peace Wall" that separates Catholics from Protestants (and vice versa) as well as the Crumlin Road Gaol where political prisoners/terrorists were detained without trial. Cam gave us a fascinating insight into Belfast and Northern Ireland's history and ongoing "problems", and we were sorry we couldn't spend more time with him.
Once again the ship provided a shuttle bus to get us to the city square, so we caught this and began our walk to Titanic Belfast in sunshine but with partly cloudy skies. The walk started at City Hall and took us past St.George's Market (which was closed as it is only a weekend market!), the Belfast Barge (a museum which was closed), Thanksgiving Square, the Albert Clock, Custom House Square and the Big Fish. We were only about halfway to Titanic Belfast as we crossed the Lagan Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge built above the Lagan Weir. The river walk took us around the huge SSE Arena and brought us to the SS Nomadic.
This vessel was used as a tender for the Titanic, and was based in Cherbourg, France, as they didn't have a dock big enough for Titanic to berth at. It was built at the same time as her "big sister", and is the last White Star Line vessel still afloat. The Titanic Experience covered 9 galleries across 3 floors, and included lots of interactive displays and the very clever use of multi media presentations to bring the story of Belfast and the Titanic to life. It even included a Shipyard Ride to take you from the gantrys to the keel and explained how the hull was built, the riveting of it and the fitting out of the ship. The most poignant galleries were the ones covering the sinking, the aftermath and the myths and reality about Titanic.
During our lunch break the rain returned - it started just as we got to Titanic Belfast, and now meant a change of plans on how to spend the last 2 hours we had on shore. We arranged a taxi tour to take us to the areas around Belfast that have seen so much fighting between the
Nationalists and Unionists, both between themselves and against the
Army who were sent in as peace keepers! Our driver Cam filled us in on the history as he drove us around, and we were happy we were in the taxi as the rain got heavier and more frequent. It reminded us of Melbourne as the sun would come out between showers/downpours.
We saw the political murals on buildings, the streets where marches and confrontations took place, the gates that are still locked at night and the "Peace Wall" that separates Catholics from Protestants (and vice versa) as well as the Crumlin Road Gaol where political prisoners/terrorists were detained without trial. Cam gave us a fascinating insight into Belfast and Northern Ireland's history and ongoing "problems", and we were sorry we couldn't spend more time with him.
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