Thursday, August 16, 2012

Belfast - not a bomb in sight

Belfast is the oppisite of what I had in my own mind of what this place was, you hear all the stories about the violence and the bombings that occurred in Northern Ireland, the city centre is a very similar size to the civic area of canberra, no real tall buildings,it seems a very quite sort of place, it had one of the most famous ship building comapnies here - Harland & Wolff that built the Titanic, probably the most famous ship of all time. Yesterday I saw the Titanic memorial garden in the city that has listed all the people that died, then I went to the Titanic museum that opened up in March, but most of the tickets were already sold for the day, they let so many people in on the tour each hour, you can pre-book online up to 2 days in advance, So I was told to come back around 9ish next day to get one of the tickets that they just sell on the day. I cam back today, go there about 9.30 and got a ticket for 10.20, I thought it was tour, whereas it is a self guided trip thru the different displays, it is one of the best museums I have seen, they have about 8-8 fifferent areas setup, the earlier days ol Belfast, the setting up of Ship building area in Belfast, the actaul building of the Titanic, the fit out of the Titanic, the launch, the actual sailing, the sinking (which they did very tasteful without putting any blame on anybody, the rescue, the aftermarth, the inquiries, the search for it, I was in there nearly 3 hours. It is a very comprehensive display about the Titanic. Basicallly she was going too fast thru the area that was littered with Icebegs, there were not enough liferafts, thats basically it. After the museum I headed back to the hotel the waether was turning and ir started to pour and it was getting very windy, I ahd forgotten my umbrella, but I had my green plastic poncho that I had brought with me from Australia, which I used twice at the Olympics, when I was walking back thru the city, a lady asked where I had got it from I said that I had brought it with me, I am sure those sort of thing are sold in the UK. Tomorrow I am off to Dublin, I will probably catch a bus which leaves every hour from Belfast.

1 comment:

Flabmeister said...

Roger

There has been no follow up to this. I hope it wasn't a PREMATURE title.

Marti