Belfast

It was time to pack up and leave our cottage and head for Belfast. Mary, our host, turned up early because, as she explained, she had to look after breakfasts for her B&B. She read the meter, calculated the electricity cost and gave us a bill for a ridiculously small amount. Admittedly we had to stuff coins into a meter for the gas heating, but it was still peanuts for a nice cottage with a million dollar view!

Our trip to Belfast was easy as we ended up taking more major roads than little byways. This put us in Belfast a bit early for our unit, but it is always nice to know where it is and what the parking is like. Because there were few opportunities to park on the side of the road and put the actual address into the GPS we ended up in Belfast proper first. By then, of course, we had overshot the mark, and Madam Lash took us up some fairly narrow streets to get us back on track.

Parking around the corner from the unit was a breeze, so we headed down Antram Road towards town. As luck would have it a lady opened the (very shabby) door of our apartment block so I asked if Barry was in. The lady was the person who did all the housekeeping and was more than happy to let us in quite early. What a bonus that was. It meant that we could set ourselves up early and then spend the rest of the afternoon in town.

We walked in to Cathedral Square, had a look round, and then decided to have some lunch. The couple beside us in the patisserie, sort of locals, strongly advised us to take one of the Red Buses on a tour of the city. What a good suggestion that was. We had an hour and a half of a guided tour that gave us a brief history of much of the town. Robyn was especially interested in The Troubles, and travelling down Falls Road and seeing the murals and memorial gardens was very sobering.

Following that Robyn went shopping and ended up with three items of clothing, so all in all a great day.Read more