The Titanic, White's Pub & Irish Linen

We’ve bought tickets for the first session at the Titanic Experience today. We’ve all heard good things about it and it definitely lived up to expectations. It’s starts off showing the Industrial Age in Belfast with Linen manufacturing, machinery works and ship building. Then on to the designing and building of the ship, the launching, fitting it out, the layout, the storage and accommodation before going on to the first voyage.

Even though we all know the story, it was extremely moving hearing stories from the survivors, stories of people who were lost and stories of the crew. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did. They didn’t see the iceberg in time, they didn’t have enough lifeboats, they didn’t have binoculars in the crows nest and the nearest ship to them didn’t hear the SOS.

The whole museum was extremely well done. We all enjoyed it. We got the glider back to the city in the sunshine, but by the time we got off, it was blowing a gale and starting to rain. We were looking for somewhere for lunch, and just by pure chance, picked the oldest pub in Belfast, White’s Tavern. They were just opening and we were greeted by the friendliest barman, who brought us drinks, food and a tour of the old bar.

After hearing about Irish linen, Karry and I decided we needed a fabric souvenir so the search was on for a fabric shop close by. We found one down a little lane. What a cute shop and good to see it was really busy. A lovely lady in there found some Irish linen for us and we both bought a couple of pieces.

There are so many lovely old buildings in Belfast. We called into the Town Hall for a quick look on the way home. In 1888 Queen Victoria granted Belfast city status and it was agreed that a grand and magnificent building was required to reflect this. The Town Hall really is stunning, they really knew how to impress in the Victorian Era.Read more