Belfast Adventure

Our trip to Belfast has been excellent. I wish we had longer to explore this area. We have had amazing weather too. Two sunny,mild days to explore the city and take a trip up to the Devils Causeway.
Our arrival here was not as smooth as we had hoped. Our flight was two hours late leaving Gatwick so we eventually arrived at our accomodation at one o'clock.  I had rung and kept them up to date with our travel but we were not very popular on arrival. It is a comfortable place a little further out of town than we thought but on a bus routes so it is fine. We just catch the bus outside and it drops you into the City Hall.
Yesterday we decided to do the Hp on Hop Off bus tour to get familiar with the city layout and to see what other places we wanted to visit.
The bus trips were great value and came with a personal commentary in the gorgeous accent, I could listen to  all day. All the quids have a sense of humour with some fairly hairbrained stories to tell. Good fun to listen to.
There first tour took us around the city and places like The Titanic and ship building areas,the largest Celtic cross in the world,the City Hall,the Stornaway Parliament building set high on the hill with an elegant entranceway ,the Peace Gate and the walls that divided the catholics and protestants. The 'troubles' are behind us say the guides but work is still needed before the  walls come down. It was interesting driving around these areas of conflict as flags were flying following the 12 July Commemorative Parade and it was still evident the allegiances of the districts we drove through. Apparently the flags fly at half mast because the ladders do not go higher!!!!
Queen's University was a lovely area and we had hoped to get back and have more time there but time is running out. The City Hall was another one, Ace worth a visit but maybe we may fit it in before we leave on Wednesday morning.
The second tour took us out to the Castles. There are two castles, one is a recent one donated by Lord Shaftesbury and it is now a tourist attraction with lovely views over the city. It had attractive gardens, one in particular was the cat garden where a mosiacs cat was a centrepiece.
The other castle was at Carrick Fergus and it dated back to William of Orange days when he defeated his cousin King John and took over the castle. A little man standing four feet tall, there is a life sized statue of him outside the castle ruins.
This tour went along the coast and up the hill above the city so great views on a lovely balmy day. We enjoyed this tour in particular.
After the tour finished we popped into the Information Centre and arranged our trip to the Devils Causeway for Tuesday as the weather is still to be settled.
After that we walked along to the Titanic Centre and went into see the display. This is a world class event. It was voted top visitor attraction in the wold recently and you could see why. A lot of planning obviously to present something to this level.There were amazing audio visual effects,the sounds of ship building and the interactive screens brought the era alive. The cabins and furnishings of the different classes below deck was interesting and the personal stories added reality to the experience.  You even had a ride in a shuttle through the different levels of the ship.
It was a very absorbing experience which took about two and a half hours to see so it was a long day by the time we got back to our accomodation and found somewhere to eat.
Tomorrow
is the Devils Causeway to look forward to.