Day 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland

We all woke late after a good night’s sleep, and were ready for our trip to Belfast by about 10:30am. Today was overcast and it was raining when we woke.

As we had not seen much of the country side near our Airbnb in Blessington, Dad & Desma took the Lake Drive to connect to the N81 motorway. The Lake Drive offers amazing views over the Poulaphouca reservoir, which is the largest man made lake in Ireland, and the Wicklow Mountains, passing through historic villages such as Valley mount, Ballyknockan and Laken.

As we entered Northern Ireland the speed signs changed to miles p/h, which Dad did not immediately recognise as he slowed down to 60km p/h and wondered why other vehicles were speeding past him. Luckily the other passengers in the car were on the ball, so the speed was promptly ramped up to 60mph.

We arrived at our Airbnb in Lisburn after an 190km drive which was effortless as the motorway to Belfast allows speeds up to 120kph (70mph). We were met by our host, Christine, who welcomed us and gave us great tips regarding where to park in Belfast so we could go to the Titanic exhibition.

Our Airbnb can only be described as very spacious located in a peaceful rural part of Lisburn. We have 2 enormous bedrooms, each with a huge modern en-suite, a good sized kitchen and a large lounge. Great for the 4 of us.

We drove the 13km into Belfast, parked the car as suggested by Christine, then walked to the Titanic exhibition. It was approx. 2:30pm and we still had not had lunch. The solution was a bite to eat at the Titanic centre.

The Titanic exhibition was fantastic. We were taken through the industrial history of Belfast, the development of even bigger passenger ships, particularly to cater for the more wealthy clientele. We learnt how the Titanic was designed, built and fitted out. Stories of many of the people on board were presented for us to read, and the amazing stories of courage amongst those on board at the time of the iceberg disaster.

The story of how the Titanic wreckage was located by Robert Duane Ballard in 1985 was explained which was just as interesting given Ballard had developed new technologies and a new search strategy to hopefully locate the remains of the Titanic. The new technology was a system called Argo. This consisted of a remotely controlled deep- sea vehicle called Argo, equipped with sonar and cameras towed behind a ship, with a robot called Jason the tethered to it that could roam the sea floor, take close up images and gather specimens.

The system was sponsored by the US Navy who agreed for Ballard to use the equipment to look for the wreckage, on condition that it would be first be used to carry out a number of classified operations to locate sunken US nuclear submarines.

The Titanic left Southampton dock on 10 April 1912 with 2,223 passengers on board. At 11:40pm on the night of 14 April 1912, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg that lead to the sinking of the ship less than 3 hours later, resulting in the loss of more than 1500 lives.

The actual disaster occurred due to a string of events taking place, which included:
- the ship was carrying 20 lifeboats, enough to carry 1300 passengers. This was within guidelines, as it was anticipated that in any emergency other ships would assist with the rescue effort.

- the ship received 6 warnings of icebergs before the Collision.

- some of these messages were not received due to the ships’s telegraph operator being busy accomodating first class passengers needs to send messages back home

- the closest ship which was approx 11 miles away, did not receive the message for assistance due to the radio operator going to bed

- there was only 1 set of binoculars on the Titanic which were locked away. Unfortunately the sea man charged with locking up the binoculars was transferred to another ship prior to the Titanic sailing and the keys were in his possession.

After spending over 2 hours at the Titanic exhibition, we walked over the Lagan River to the Cathedral Quarter to find a place to eat, on the way we found the glass of thrones, stain glass windows made depicting scenes from game of thrones as it was filmed in the area..

We walked through beautiful streets lined with iconic pubs adorned with lovely flower pots. Stunning to look at. We came across St. Annes’s Cathedral (Belfast Cathedral) & we decided to have dinner at The Thirsty Goat, to initially be informed that as it was almost 8pm we wouldn’t be able to get any food (anywhere in Belfast for that matter - need for better research on my part in future). Another waitress then took pity on us and informed us that the chef would allow us to order food. Thank goodness for that as I missed out on the Titanic burger so was hungry and needed food to accompany the pint to come.

The pint of the day was The Thirsty Goat IPA brewed by Whitewater Brewing Co. in Castlewellan in Northern Ireland.

Our waitress, Eden, was helpful and pleasant. We were told by our Airbnb host that July 11 and 12 are significant dates in Northern Island with marches all over Northern Island, and we were warned to take care whilst out and about. So we asked Eden what the significance was and she kindly explained or as she said “if I had to learn about this in school, you may as well”.

Bonfires are lit in some unionist areas on 11 July to kick off the “Twelfth” celebrations. They mark the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III, also known as King Billy and William of Orange, defeated Catholic King James II. Bonfires were lit to welcome and guide King William.

Orange Order parades are held in many towns in Northern Island on the 12 July. They say the parades are a way of expressing and promoting the Protestant culture and heritage.Read more