Belfast

Today Paul and I decided to do our own thing. I went on the tour organised for the bridge group and Paul caught the shuttle into Belfast as he wasn’t keen on sitting on a bus for 7 hours.

First we had a bridge lesson on Bergen Raises. Then we met at level 4 ready to go ashore for our tour.

Greg had booked a smaller bus as there were only 19 going today.

We were surprised to see how ‘little and green’ our bus was. But all was well. We had plenty of room and it got us there and back.

Belfast has had a history of ship building (Titanic etc) but now they only repair ships.

Our tour was to go along the coast road to the Giants Causeway. This drive is one of the 6 most beautiful drives in the world. We were unlucky to have a drizzly day with low cloud, but it was still beautiful.

We drove past Ulster University which is the biggest in Ireland. It has 4 campuses with about 27,000 students.

Then we passed the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland. Our guide said all the records of the past 40 years of ‘troubles’ are housed there behind the huge walls.

Next we stopped at Carrickfergus castle which is over 800 years old. It has survived attacks by the Scots, Irish, English and French and served as an air raid shelter in World War Two. Entry was 5 pounds, 50 for adults and 3 pounds 50 for over 60s. It was well worth a look around.

 

We passed many places where Game of Thrones has been filmed. The one that amused me most was the Black Castle. On the roadside there were signs saying, no stopping, no slowing, no photos. It’s amazing how this can be restricted from a public roadway.

 

We are touring on a Sunday and shops in Northern Ireland can only open between 1pm and 6 pm on Sunday so the morning part of our drive is pretty quiet.

We drove through the area of 9 Glens (valleys) and I had to really strain to understand the Irish accent of our guide. For example he was talking about Bolly Golly, but when we passed the d sign I realised it was Bally Gally. It has a castle that was built in 1625 for some Scottish settlers, and because the wife of the owner could not bear children she was locked in the tower. She tried to escape and fell to her death. The place is now haunted. Our guide recommended it for a ‘thrilling’ place to stay.

 

As we drive along the North sea the road is reinforced with concrete to protect it from the tide. I am amazed at how beautiful all the houses are, and they all have beautiful wooded from doors even though they are exposed to the North Sea. We see lots of salmon farms in the water and sheep in the paddocks. At first we were passing farms with hedge fences and then t it changed to stone fences.

The area was famous for rock mining in the 1800;s and the rock was exported to make cobble stone streets.

About 1 pm we reached a beautiful w town called Ballycastle where we stopped for lunch. It is a tourist town that had s several caravan parks, that all seemed to have very modern cabins. It is very busy in July and August during the school holidays.

Most of us went to the Marine Hotel for lunch. I had the best seafood chowder I have ever eaten. The salmon was so fresh and the sauce base was delicious. I orders chowder, small fish and chips and a sav blanc for 20 pounds and 5.

 

 

After lunch it was another 30 minute drive to the Giant’s Causeway. We did not go into the tourist centre as our driver, and trip advisor says it is a waste of money. We walked down the hill to the actual rock structure, then caught the bus back up the hill for 1 pound. Some people in our group were surprised to find that at lunch time they were given Northern Irish currency as change and that was not accepted for the bus ride….very strange!

 

The Giant’s Causeway is renowned for its polygonal columns of layered basalt. It is the only World Heritage site in Norther Ireland. It resulted from volcanic activity 60 million years ago.

 

After this we returned to Belfast via the freeway which took far less time.

These last photos are of the port from our balcony.

Paul’s bit

Went into town to look around and found that nothing opened on a Sunday until 1pm so at 10am the town centre was dead. I jumped on a hop on hop off bus to see the sights. Nice town with trees lining most streets making it difficult to get any good movie shots from the bus. The town has many murals and a mile of Peace Wall highlighting the tumultuous history of Belfast with peoples struggle to strive for peace. The locals are extremely happy that peace has finally come to Belfast and allowed the economy to grow and the people to enjoy the entire city.

I had hoped to get off the bus at the ‘Crown Hotel’ renowned as being the most bombed hotel in the world which occurred during all the unrest in Belfast over the years but the bus only seemed to come around once every 45 minutes so did’nt chance it. Other similar buses came but they weren’t the same company so wouldn’t let you on. It would have been beneficial for time poor travellers to combine their services.

One building, the new hospital was opened by Prince Charles who commented that it was the ugliest building he had ever seen. The local dignitaries were so dismayed by the remark the named the building ‘Camilla’.