Belfast - may all your troubles be over! Titanic - we know you were fine when you left Belfast!

 In Belfast and we are staying at the Titanic Hotel opposite the Titanic Experience. It is not normal to be this far away from the CBD but we wanted to go to the experience and the hop-on-off bus goes right past it. This is on the docklands, where the Titanic was built. The hotel looks like a red brick monstrosity but actually they have made it into a five star wonder! More about it later.

The first day was bus day, to see the sights and find out more about the 'troubles'. The guide on the bus straight away cleared up all the confusion about republicans (mainly catholic but not exclusively - they want England /crown out) and unionists (mainly protestant but not exclusively) who wanted to keep ties with the monarchy. No wonder they didn't like each other.

This wire statue is called 'beacon of hope' but Belfast people call her 'Nuala with the hula'.

This wall outside the house of Parliament was reinforced and made super-thick during the 60's - 80's due to bombs going off outside,

The old opera house.

This hotel Europa has gold balconies all the way up the middle!

Queen's University (after Queen Victoria), very prestigious, however when we went past it was having a Comic.con  and you could see the students all dressed up - see the Star Wars lot? Apparently exams have finished, and the fun starts!

Another flash statue called RISE - with two spheres (one small one in the other) stands for Rise of the sun and rise of hope after troubles finished  Again the Irish make their own names up and this is called 'Balls on the Falls'.

We went to the main area where the bombings and killings were and there are now peace murals and murals remembering the people who fought for their beliefs.

People are encouraged to write their own 'peace' comments on the wall.

From this side one minute down the road is the monarchy supporters who all went overboard during the King's coronation.

This was the court house in the area, now abandoned with bullet holes, bomb damage etc.

As anywhere in Ireland - lovely churches!

City hall

So, after a long day on the bus, we got off and went to the St. Georges Market, which is a huge indoor market. Had a look around, bought some things and hopped back on the bus. It was a coldish day, no rain though, and the market was warm,

At 5.30ish Dave decided that we needed to walk along the Maritime Mile (walkway from the docks, over a pedestrian bridge, into town.). Lovely walk, lots of people and things to see along the way. There were apparently 6 stained glass monuments at random around the place depicting Game of Throne scenes. Dave was very excited, me not so much/1

Pass the lovely, calm marina ....

pass this hanging down statue of the Titanic ....

looking back you can see the flash Titanic Experience building and our brick hotel over the road!

More Game of Thrones ...

and more! Until we crossed the bridge and found this little pub full inside and outside with people. We got a table then 2 hour wait for food .....

and ended up next door to a Scottish steak place. Very flash and very expensive but the best steak and scallops I have ever had. Dave had an entree with haggis done three ways!

Just thought you guys might be interested in the menu and prices. Didn't care as the food was worth it.

Of course then you have to walk the mile back! It is now 9,30 - full daylight. Below is 'the fish' in blue ceramic tiles.

These guys designed and built the Titanic.

So back to the hotel. I could not believe the inside of it. The bar is the original drawing room of the team who designed the Titanic. It  had these awesome ceilings and a model of the Titanic at one end.

The dining room (in fact all the rooms) had art work all over the walls to do with the ship-building trade. Check out the light fittings. Can you see what they are made of?

By the way the staff are wearing uniforms to look like Jack from the movie.

On the walls there are some prints of this very famous local artist Terry Bradley, who does dark impressions of working-class men that worked the docks.

We actually had a room in the new area, and the corridors are poorly lit, the doors are gold paint with rivets in them ...

another painting ...

and the room numbers are lit up like shadows onto the walls!

Now this is interesting. Out our window we could see this building across some wasteland. It is called the 'Titanic Studios' and was where some of the Game of Thrones was shot. It was busy during the day but couldn't see any super stars arriving in limos!

TITANIC EXHIBITION

Finally we get to go to this very strange building. We have noticed busloads arriving early every morning so worried about how packed it would get. We went before 10am and not too bad.

Looking down from the second floor there was a huge compass on the floor.

The walls inside were made of old rusted bits of steel salvaged from old ships.

This is of the design team designing all aspects of ship-building by hand! No internet or computers to help them. Note this is the room where we now have a bar!

You follow the path of the history of ship-building in Belfast, the working conditions, the firm that designed and built it (and its sister ship at the same time), the process involved from the design, to the building to the out-fitting, to the launch, to the people on board, to the sinking, to the aftermath.

It was very well done, this is a scaffold like the ones used by the workers. This is about 4 stories high and about a third of the height of the Titanic. No harnesses for them!

Looking out the window and you can see what is left of the slipways where the two ships were built.

Launching of the Titanic (no moving picture was taken or found anyway - only photos).

You can go on this ride which takes you around how the ship was built - by hand with workers working in dire conditions.

After showing you it all, plus the sinking messages that went out to other boats, you then discover how they found the shipwreck and you look down on this moving image going over the wreck now. Like looking into a watery cemetery. Still got to me, and I have seen the movie many times!

And yes you can play Jack and Rose for a photo!

Taking photos was tricky as there was so much information, and lots of videos to sit and watch. Very well done, and it was 3 hours worth.

Afterwards you could walk over to the dry dock and go aboard the SS Nomadic which is a large tender boat used to ferry passengers to the boat in France, where deep-water boats couldn't enter the port. We had small tenders on our cruise ships, but this was huge compared to them. It was also divided into class of passengers, just like the Titanic so they wouldn't need to meet.

You can see the two Titanic buildings quite clearly, but also the sides of the old dry dock the tender boat is resting in.