United Kingdom
Queens Island

Discover travel destinations of travelers writing a travel journal on FindPenguins.
Travelers at this place
    • Day 30

      Derry Drive, Belfast Boat, Go2Glasgow

      May 26, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

      Pretty much just a day of transport and transiting, our goal was to get to Glasgow.

      This entailed a 1.5hr direct drive from Londonderry to Belfast, boarding our slightly delayed ferry back to Cairnryan and then making the 2 hour drive to Glasgow.
      We bid farewell to ‘the land of 40 shades of green’ under blue skies and mild temperatures without having experienced a drop of rain.
      Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite wrangle our way into first class on the very full ferry - business class was the best we could manage this time.

      Having suffered the deprivations of the business class experience onboard, the drive from Cairnryan to Glasgow was quite enjoyable along a fairly scenic coastal route for the first part.

      Some few years ago, we had employed a lovely young Scottish dental assistant by the name of Zoe who had worked for us for 2 years before returning to Scotland with her partner Sean. I had lost contact with Zoe, but with the help of Steph Leckey, we were able to make contact a few days ago and arranged to meet them at their apartment in Glasgow for dinner this evening.

      After driving directly to our rented apartment - of course located on the top floor (again) with no lift - we settled in then headed off to the Southside of Glasgow - about a 12 minute drive away.

      It was delightful to see Zoe and Sean again after not having seen them for such a long time. Sean was cooking up an amazing dinner, Zoe showed us around their apartment which they are part way through renovating (including their roof top space) and we had an excellent meal with lots of conversation stretching late into the evening. They plan to be visiting Sydney in late November for a friend’s wedding in the Blue Mountains and we have made arrangements for them to come and stay with us for a few days either side of that date.
      Read more

    • Day 91

      94ème étape ~ Belfast

      November 1, 2022 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

      Après avoir découvert Belfast de nuit le soir d’Halloween (nous avons même eu droit à des feux d’artifices), nous l’avons visité de jour.
      Nous avons visité le fameux musée du Titanic. Il faut savoir que le mythique bateau y a été construit. Il a été mis à l’eau le 31 mai 1911 à 12h13. C’est aussi de Belfast qu’il a entamé ce qu’on attendait comme un prodigieux voyage. Malheureusement, tout le monde sait comment ça a fini…
      Le musée se visite en 2h. Il y a beaucoup de choses à voir et à découvrir.
      Read more

    • Day 11

      Belfast 2. Teil und The King

      September 13, 2022 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      Heute früh ging es direkt in die City von Belfast. Unser heutiger Besuch stand da schon im Gegensatz zum gestern gesehenen und erlebten.
      Aber auch heute hatten wir wieder einige sehr nette Begegnungen.
      Zunächst wunderten wir uns allerdings über sehr viel Polizei und einige Absperrungen.
      Grund war der Besuch des Königs…
      Nach einem spontanen und sehr leckeren Frühstück haben wir den Vormittag dann zum Sightseeing und natürlich shoppen genutzt.
      Wie des öfteren in der vergangenen Woche haben wir spontan die richtige Entscheidung getroffen und uns an eine Absperrung gestellt, an der glücklicherweise nicht zu viele Leute standen.
      Kurz darauf fuhr Charles mit Camilla an uns vorbei und haben nett 👋🏽
      Anschließend haben wir uns in der Belfast City Hall in ein Kondolenzbuch für die Queen eingetragen.
      Auf dem Weg zur Fähre mussten wir natürlich noch einen Stopp in einem Tesco Supermarkt einlegen.
      Da wir schnell einen Account angelegt hatten, haben wir auch ordentlich gespart.
      Nach einer kurzen Nacht erreichen wir dann morgen Früh Liverpool.
      Read more

    • Day 24

      Titanic Belfast

      August 29, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Located beside the Titanic Slipways, the Harland & Wolff Drawing Offices and Hamilton Graving Dock – the very 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.Read more

    • Day 17

      Titanic Belfast

      July 23, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

      We went to the Titanic Museum to see where the giant ship was built. It was so informative!
      Tip: if you go, skip the upstairs and go past the cable car thingy, then head downstairs to where they talk about the lives lost, then all the way down to where Captain Ballard is talked about. His story of seeking out the wreak of the Titanic is really amazing. And at the end we stood over glass and experienced the wreak from the eye of the camera. Highly recommend!Read more

    • Day 1 - Belfast, Northern Ireland

      July 10, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      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

    • Day 66

      Titanic Museum

      July 10, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

      In der Nacht begann es zu regnen, doch das machte uns nichts aus, denn heute war der Plan: TITANIC MUSEUM und danach Fahrtrichtung Fähre.
      Was für ein Museumsbau, außen wie innen und das Ganze direkt am Ort des Geschehens - exakt neben dem Trockendock, in dem die "401" (seinen Namen erhielt das Schiff erst bei Inbetriebnahme) zu ihrer enormen Größe "zusammengenietet" wurde!
      Dank der umfangreichen Informationen durch den Audioguide waren wir wohl an die drei Stunden da drin und es war zu keinem Zeitpunkt langweilig. Zuerst erfuhren wir, was für eine enorme Wirtschaftsmacht in der Welt Belfast vor über 100 Jahren darstellte (größte Leinenproduktion der Welt, bedeutendster Schiffbau in der Welt, und da war noch mehr, aber ich hab's vergessen...). Danach bekamen wir einen hautnahen Einblick in Planung und Bau dieses riesigen Schiffs, die Kiellegung, das Biegen der Spanten sowie das Vernieten der 9,00 × 1,80 m großen Stahlplatten zur Schiffshaut.
      Beim Stapellauf war die Titanic noch sowas wie ein "hohler Vogel" (besser Schwan?) ohne Kessel, Schornsteine und Aufbauten. Auch der luxuriöse Innenausbau fehlte noch gänzlich. Für uns unvorstellbar, dass das alles dann innerhalb nur eines Jahres, genau gesagt in 10 Monaten (31.05.1911 Stapellauf, 02.04.1912 Indienstnahme) erfolgte!
      Natürlich wurde ein umfangreicher Teil der Ausstellung dem Untergang des Schiffes am 15.04.1912, den Opfern, der Aufarbeitung des Unglücks sowie den vielen Suchaktionen nach dem Wrack bis hin zur Auffindung im Jahr 1985 und dem anschließenden Umgang mit dem Fund gewidmet. Die geschilderten Einzelschicksale wirkten sich sehr berührend und ergreifend auf uns aus und zutiefst beeindruckt legten wir im Mops erstmal eine Pause ein, bevor wir Belfast endgültig verließen. Es ging an die Küste von White- und Blackhead, wo wir morgen an einer geführten Wanderung auf dem Weg "The Gobbins" teilnehmen möchten.
      In Whitehead unternahmen wir in einer Regenpause von unserem Park- und Schlafplatz noch einen Abendspaziergang entlang der Küste und in den Ort, bevor wir in der Hoffnung auf besseres Wetter für morgen den Tag ausklingen ließen.
      Read more

    • Day 5

      Titanic Museum

      May 17, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

      While in Belfast we had the opportunity to go to the Titanic Museum. It explained everything from the business purchases that were made, to the discovery of the Titanic. It was pretty interesting and had quite a moving memorial near the end. I won't go into too many details except one. The sinking of the Titanic was Murphy's Law in action. From the keys to the binoculars being left on shore to radio messages calling for help not being heard because the radio operator falling asleep. And finally icebergs floating by when they weren't normally expected.Read more

    • Day 225

      Irish Nash Hash - Sunday Trails

      August 13, 2023 in Northern Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      We had an assortment of trails again today (ranging from 6 to 18 kms), for both walkers and runners . . . but in the end, hashers moved between groups as they all intermixed at the beer stops. We did see some sites along the way as well, including the site where the Titanic was built, right here in Belfast.

      We ended trail at the same place we did on Friday, the Deer's Head. We quenched our thirst, and were served a good lunch. Then we had to say goodbye to all our friends.

      Well done to Cockatool and the rest of the organizers. See all of you, and many of the other hashers next weekend at EUROHASH.
      Read more

    • Day 7

      Belfast

      September 21, 2023 in Northern Ireland

      Wieder entschieden wir uns für eine Landschaftsfahrt, per Bus "entlang der Antrim-Küste". Am Morgen war es noch sonnig, doch nach der Tour waren wir nass, schon wieder. Von der Stadt Belfast bekamen wir leider gar nichts zu sehen.Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Queens Island

    Join us:

    FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android