Trip to Ireland, Day #5
6:40 am: Up early and our breakfast a little rushed. We should have gotten up eariler. We walked to O'Connell Street today which is in downtown on the other side of the river. It took us like 1/2 to walk there. We weren't exactly sure where the bus stop was it just said, "City Centre" but we eventually found the right Aircoach bus. There is this very tall "thing" in the center. It's almost like a tower that goes very high into the sky.
The bus has rounds so we rode to the airport and then picked up a few people from there and from there we headed to Belfast. It was a little confusing since I asked about it at first and he told me something about it in a very thick accent but then later he denied he told me anything. A little odd. lol
Chelsea enjoyed the trip and took many pictures outside the windows. We could see the countryside and the green hills of rural Ireland. Very beautiful! As we got closer to Belfast we started seeing the "Union Jack" flags which is to say the British flag since Belfast is part of The United Kingdom. I got a "Welcome to Belfast, UK" text. :)
Titanic Belfast
We were dropped off at the bus stop and asked some general questions. We simply followed the signs for The Titanic Quarter. It wasn't too hard really. One of the first things we saw was the Belfast Opera House. I took pictures of that for dad. It is a beautiful place. They have a broadway type show going in honor of The Titanic. Titanic Boys it's called and about the steerage workers I think. It's a bit of a long walk out to the ship yards/Titanic Quarter but again very easy to find with the good signs all around the city. We walked over The Queen Elizabeth Bridge (there is a walking side of the bridge) that crosses the Lagen River in Belfast. From there we passed left over to The Queen's Quay and walk along the sidewalk near the river's edge and under the Lagen Bridge. Queen's Quay goes around a large theater where concerts and lots of events are held. I think it was called the Orephum. Continuing down to Queen's Road, you come around the corner and you see the truly amazing structure that is now known as Titanic Belfast, a museum and tribute to The R.M.S Titanic.Once I got over the initial giddyness of seeing it, snapping a few pictures, I noticed another structure being built. They are constructing a similar facility dedicated to The Nomadic.
We walked up to the front of the building. I was in awe really. Chelsea took some pictures of mom and I in front of the large metal sign that spells out TITANIC in front of the building. I asked Chelsea why wasn't she taking pictures of the place. She wouldn't really give me a proper answer just said she didn't want to. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to take picture of an amazing building. She'll never be here again I imagine and it's a sight to see. It made no sense to me at all. Anyways, we went in and I took it all in. There is a coffee shop to the left and the gift shop to the right. We stayed away from the gift shop until after the tour. So, I went to a kiosk and printed our tickets. I had a little difficulties but got it resolved with no problems. the tickets are for a specific time and we had about 30 minutes so we just hung around and looked at things. Finally our time came and we got in line and started up the escalators to the upper decks to start our tour. The tour goes from concept, building, launch, voyage, tradgety, and the legacy. Along the way we saw mock accomdations, furnishings, workers, the skematics/blue prints (digitally done so you could get a close look with details, notes and pictures of each section of the ship.
Exhibits: (via Titanic Belfast APP)
1: Welcome
2: Boomtown Belfast - History of Belfast
3: Linenopolis - Textiles in Belfast
4: Industrial Belfast
5: Shipbuilding
6: The Street
7: Travel and Communications - Interactive Telegraph
8: Olympic Class Ships
9: The Arrol Gantry
10: RIDE - ski lift type car takes you inside the building of the ship
11: Titanic's Construction
12: The Launch
13: CABINS & STATEROOM recreations & holographic elements
14: The Mechanical Fit Out - Interactive floor & blueprint sections
15: The Inner Fit Out -
16: The Maiden Voyage - I think this section has ineractive window that shows the Titanic in the slipway and then today's view
17: The Passengers
18: The Iceberg
19: Voices from the Titanic
20: The Rescue
21: The Aftermath
22: Public Inquiries
23: Myths and Legends - Movie references etc. . .
24: Titanic Beneath
25: INTERACTIVE Theater - Floor shows the wreck and computer terminals allow you to see details of ocean floor debris
26: Titanic Belfast
I took pictures, interacted with the exhibits. I think Chelsea enjoyed the exhibit. It was sad of course, all of it but important to learn about it and keep it in our lives today. You can wander around as you like and interact in all of it. After we were done we went to the resturant called Andrew's Gallery which is overlooking The Harland & Wolf Draft room buildings. They had all sorts of desserts and coffee/tea. I only had Euro's but they use British Pounds so the guy did the conversion and gave me pounds back so now I have British Pounds in my Money collection! :) On our way down there was a machine where you scan you flimsey ticket and in return it printed a nice souvenir Titanic ticket. So, we went to the gift shop after the tour itself. I spent $94.00. I got myself a Belfast Home of Titanic t-shirt, a money coin purse, a Titanic Belfast book, a magnet for Kim, another magnet, and a bookmark for mom. I could have gotten so much more!
From there we wandered a bit and then decided to go outside so I could take pics of the structure more and some of the surrounding buildings and sections. There was an old time British Cab out front. Sorta cool :)
I didn't want to leave really but we wandered back towards the city center. Along the outer walkway, different from the one we took to walk there was another section of th Titanic Quarter. There was a metal art of the ship hanging vertical though it looked like a model piece. There were also plaques on the bricked streets of famous ships, including Titanic, made in Belfast. It's a section that is still undergoing the revitalization and includes shops, apartment buildings and resturants. We sat on some benchs and enjoyed the breeze from the ocean. We made our way back to the bridge and discovered a sole pedestrian bridge and took that back. There was a large blue fish done by local artists and we sat for a bit deciding what or where to go. So, we walked in downtown Belfast and found the Titanic Memorial Statue and Titanic Memorial Gardens at City Hall. Which wasn't too hard to find (again great signage in Belfast). The City Hall building had a large screen and people were gathered on the lawn watching the Olympics. Also, besides that there were large life size cows on the lawn. Sort of like the flying pigs Cincinnati has now and then. All different in design, color and artisically done. Very interesting. Around 4pm we wandered the streets and went to Subway for lack of any other places we could readily find. Mom wasn't too happy about that but it was a place to sit indoors and rest. Around 5:30pm or 6 pm we made our way back to the bus stop and decided to just go back to Dublin. We arrived back in Dublin and walked back across O'Connell Bridge and to the hotel. I was pretty well pooped at this point. We skyped with dad and Lahny. Chelsea was in one of her moods and of course Lahny got pissed and then Terry texted me about how he was going on about her. Anyways we watched some TV, I read a little bit and wrote some things down. Mom fell right asleep.
The bus has rounds so we rode to the airport and then picked up a few people from there and from there we headed to Belfast. It was a little confusing since I asked about it at first and he told me something about it in a very thick accent but then later he denied he told me anything. A little odd. lol
Chelsea enjoyed the trip and took many pictures outside the windows. We could see the countryside and the green hills of rural Ireland. Very beautiful! As we got closer to Belfast we started seeing the "Union Jack" flags which is to say the British flag since Belfast is part of The United Kingdom. I got a "Welcome to Belfast, UK" text. :)
Titanic Belfast
We were dropped off at the bus stop and asked some general questions. We simply followed the signs for The Titanic Quarter. It wasn't too hard really. One of the first things we saw was the Belfast Opera House. I took pictures of that for dad. It is a beautiful place. They have a broadway type show going in honor of The Titanic. Titanic Boys it's called and about the steerage workers I think. It's a bit of a long walk out to the ship yards/Titanic Quarter but again very easy to find with the good signs all around the city. We walked over The Queen Elizabeth Bridge (there is a walking side of the bridge) that crosses the Lagen River in Belfast. From there we passed left over to The Queen's Quay and walk along the sidewalk near the river's edge and under the Lagen Bridge. Queen's Quay goes around a large theater where concerts and lots of events are held. I think it was called the Orephum. Continuing down to Queen's Road, you come around the corner and you see the truly amazing structure that is now known as Titanic Belfast, a museum and tribute to The R.M.S Titanic.Once I got over the initial giddyness of seeing it, snapping a few pictures, I noticed another structure being built. They are constructing a similar facility dedicated to The Nomadic.
We walked up to the front of the building. I was in awe really. Chelsea took some pictures of mom and I in front of the large metal sign that spells out TITANIC in front of the building. I asked Chelsea why wasn't she taking pictures of the place. She wouldn't really give me a proper answer just said she didn't want to. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to take picture of an amazing building. She'll never be here again I imagine and it's a sight to see. It made no sense to me at all. Anyways, we went in and I took it all in. There is a coffee shop to the left and the gift shop to the right. We stayed away from the gift shop until after the tour. So, I went to a kiosk and printed our tickets. I had a little difficulties but got it resolved with no problems. the tickets are for a specific time and we had about 30 minutes so we just hung around and looked at things. Finally our time came and we got in line and started up the escalators to the upper decks to start our tour. The tour goes from concept, building, launch, voyage, tradgety, and the legacy. Along the way we saw mock accomdations, furnishings, workers, the skematics/blue prints (digitally done so you could get a close look with details, notes and pictures of each section of the ship.
Exhibits: (via Titanic Belfast APP)
1: Welcome
2: Boomtown Belfast - History of Belfast
3: Linenopolis - Textiles in Belfast
4: Industrial Belfast
5: Shipbuilding
6: The Street
7: Travel and Communications - Interactive Telegraph
8: Olympic Class Ships
9: The Arrol Gantry
10: RIDE - ski lift type car takes you inside the building of the ship
11: Titanic's Construction
12: The Launch
13: CABINS & STATEROOM recreations & holographic elements
14: The Mechanical Fit Out - Interactive floor & blueprint sections
15: The Inner Fit Out -
16: The Maiden Voyage - I think this section has ineractive window that shows the Titanic in the slipway and then today's view
17: The Passengers
18: The Iceberg
19: Voices from the Titanic
20: The Rescue
21: The Aftermath
22: Public Inquiries
23: Myths and Legends - Movie references etc. . .
24: Titanic Beneath
25: INTERACTIVE Theater - Floor shows the wreck and computer terminals allow you to see details of ocean floor debris
26: Titanic Belfast
I took pictures, interacted with the exhibits. I think Chelsea enjoyed the exhibit. It was sad of course, all of it but important to learn about it and keep it in our lives today. You can wander around as you like and interact in all of it. After we were done we went to the resturant called Andrew's Gallery which is overlooking The Harland & Wolf Draft room buildings. They had all sorts of desserts and coffee/tea. I only had Euro's but they use British Pounds so the guy did the conversion and gave me pounds back so now I have British Pounds in my Money collection! :) On our way down there was a machine where you scan you flimsey ticket and in return it printed a nice souvenir Titanic ticket. So, we went to the gift shop after the tour itself. I spent $94.00. I got myself a Belfast Home of Titanic t-shirt, a money coin purse, a Titanic Belfast book, a magnet for Kim, another magnet, and a bookmark for mom. I could have gotten so much more!
From there we wandered a bit and then decided to go outside so I could take pics of the structure more and some of the surrounding buildings and sections. There was an old time British Cab out front. Sorta cool :)
I didn't want to leave really but we wandered back towards the city center. Along the outer walkway, different from the one we took to walk there was another section of th Titanic Quarter. There was a metal art of the ship hanging vertical though it looked like a model piece. There were also plaques on the bricked streets of famous ships, including Titanic, made in Belfast. It's a section that is still undergoing the revitalization and includes shops, apartment buildings and resturants. We sat on some benchs and enjoyed the breeze from the ocean. We made our way back to the bridge and discovered a sole pedestrian bridge and took that back. There was a large blue fish done by local artists and we sat for a bit deciding what or where to go. So, we walked in downtown Belfast and found the Titanic Memorial Statue and Titanic Memorial Gardens at City Hall. Which wasn't too hard to find (again great signage in Belfast). The City Hall building had a large screen and people were gathered on the lawn watching the Olympics. Also, besides that there were large life size cows on the lawn. Sort of like the flying pigs Cincinnati has now and then. All different in design, color and artisically done. Very interesting. Around 4pm we wandered the streets and went to Subway for lack of any other places we could readily find. Mom wasn't too happy about that but it was a place to sit indoors and rest. Around 5:30pm or 6 pm we made our way back to the bus stop and decided to just go back to Dublin. We arrived back in Dublin and walked back across O'Connell Bridge and to the hotel. I was pretty well pooped at this point. We skyped with dad and Lahny. Chelsea was in one of her moods and of course Lahny got pissed and then Terry texted me about how he was going on about her. Anyways we watched some TV, I read a little bit and wrote some things down. Mom fell right asleep.