Belfast - Day 2

Today we started our planned walking tour at the Glasgow City Chambers to book a guided tour for the afternoon. From there we slowly worked our way past several points of interest en route to the Titanic Belfast Museum where we had entry passes for 12 o’clock.
The museum was fantastic. Located beside the Titanic Slipways, the Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices and Hamilton Graving Dock – the exact place where Titanic was designed, built and launched, Titanic Belfast tells the story of Titanic from her conception, through her construction and launch, to her maiden voyage and subsequent place in history. Everything from the exterior design of the building, which resembles the hull of large ship, to the way you are guided through the various exhibits is amazing.
How such a huge, complex piece of engineering could be built in the early 1900’s is beyond me. No computers to generate the thousands of blueprints with the design specifications or the templates needed to cut and form the hull pieces. The assemble process for the hull involved no welding. It was all assembled using millions of rivets being tossed in the air between workers from a forge to someone else who would hammer the rivet through precisely aligned holes, while white hot.
On leaving the museum we ate a late lunch and headed back to the Glasgow City Chambers, which is located overlooking George Square. We missed the guided tour, but nonetheless were still able to enjoy going through the lower floor of the building, which houses a collection of historical exhibits, on our own. This building has for over a century been the headquarters of successive city councils serving the City of Belfast and is one of the city’s most prestigious buildings.Читать далее