Heading north

We bid farewell to Dublin and boarded the bus bound for Belfast, Northern Ireland. The countryside was positively gorgeous , lush green fields bordered by hedgerows. We arrived in Belfast and headed straight to the Titanic Experience. Didn’t see that one coming. Turns out Belfast was quite the industrial city, with linen making and shipbuilding employing thousands of workers. The Titanic and her sister ship the Olympic were built here, side by side. Building the ship was quite a feat. Even though we’ve all seen the movie and we know how it ends, it didn’t make it any less moving. Many lessons were learned from that tragedy. The cafe was crowded so we ended up sharing a table with a British couple over on holiday. They clued us into checking out the nearby SS Nomadic, the last remaining White Star Line vessel that served as a tender for the Titanic to load passengers from the port of Cherbourg for Titanic’s maiden voyage. Afterwards we had a tour of Belfast, an industrial city still recovering from what our guide referred to as the “troubled times”. Peace Walls erected throughout the city, separating sections/factions and protecting vulnerable targets remain to this day, a sobering reminder of the violence that gripped this tiny nation through the late 90’s. Even though a peace deal was brokered, flags still fly in various sections to denote pro British strongholds versus pro united Ireland territory . It’s rather hard to wrap your mind around it. Lest we get too morbid, we ended the evening with our hotel’s Titanic Tasting Menu dinner. Hopefully there’s no icebergs on the horizon.Read more