BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND: MORE ROCKS AND MORE RUINS!

Sunday, August 23, 2026
Belfast, Ireland
64F and mostly cloudy, some sun

I keep wondering when we are going to get to a warm port. Today was not as cold as 2 days ago, but we dressed in layers again.  This morning was a 6 a.m. wake up so we could be at the port for our private tour to Giants Causeway. I think I am going to need to learn how to write a shorter blog—you probably think I include every photo that I take, but I do not!!  I have gotten very good at shooting pix out of bus windows. At least I think so. I have been disappointed in my photography skills—at one time I switched to my Android phone for two days but went back to the DSLR for what I thought were better photos.

So today, since we have already visited Belfast (2024) and the fabulous Titanic Museum, as well as St. George’s Market, we opted for a Giant's Causeway tour. More rocks and ruins!

Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland is a world-renowned cruise destination famous for its maritime history, vibrant street art, and warm hospitality. Docking at the Belfast Cruise Terminal put us right at the doorstep of the city's spectacular industrial shipyard heritage, most notably as the birthplace of the RMS Titanic.  Belfast has an urban population of approximately 345,000 residents, with the greater metropolitan area encompassing around 675,000 people.  Northern Ireland has a population of 1.5 million people. 

Today our tour was with Best Price Shore Excursions (which was probably part of Viator). Our tour guide was Angelina, a native of County Antrim/Belfast. I asked her if she watched the BBC TV show, Derry Girls, because her humor reminded me of the characters in that show. She did watch the show and attended an all-girls Catholic school too!

By 8:30 a.m. off we went on a comfortable bus into the countryside of Northern Island along the North Antrim Coast. The Irish landscape that we saw today was not as rocky as the Outer Hebrides.  Hedge fences and stone fences dotted the countryside, some were pastures for sheep, others for cattle. Pine and maple trees, patches of peat. There were a lot more sheep in the pastures today.

Irish Gaelic is the native language, mixed in with Scot Gaelic, and Hibernian English. Angelina was easy to understand most of the time! She spoke of how superstitious the Irish are and that they truly believe in fairies. She showed us a few Fairy Trees along the route, and people do not dare do anything to harm them. (mostly black or white Hawthorne, some maple). Such trees stand alone in a pasture or property. Of course, I did not get a photo of any fairy tree.

Irish history is certainly convoluted, and it is difficult to put it all together—she spoke briefly of the past 1000 years. Currently Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom--monetary system is the Pound Sterling. Ireland is part of the European Union--monetary system is Euros.

She did speak of the “Potato Blight” or “Great Hunger” of the 1840s.  They do not call it famine because there was plenty of food. The renters had to pay the landowners with their crops and livestock which were exported from Ireland during the famine. The refusal of London to ban such exports was a continuing source of controversy.  It is probably this situation which contributed to the Irish issue in British politics, the anti-British sentiment, intensifying Irish nationalism, and the desire for independence. It certainly was a turning point.

Our first stop was Dunluce Castle, first built by the Anglo Normans. Subsequently many chieftains/clans lived in the castle until it was abandoned in 1690.  It is thought to be the inspiration for Cair Paravel in Chronicles of Narnia. Exterior shots were used in Game of Thrones for Pyke, House of Greyjoy. In 1973 its image was used in the inner fold of the Led Zeppelin album, Houses of the Holy.

Dunluce Castle ruins

Dunluce  Castle-closer

According to legend, an Irish Giant and a Scottish Giant Giants Causeway were building a stone bridge to confront each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant%27s_Causeway    In reality, the Giant’s Causeway is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption during the Paleogene period, 50-60 million years ago. Supposedly the cold air caused the unusual result.  This unique feature is one of Ireland’s most iconic places where myth and geology intertwine!

Neither TK nor I played on the rocks

TK makes a perfect model!

As rocks go, they are pretty cool!

I am so glad that we took a shuttle to the Causeway, a mile downhill (1 pound/each) That meant we could take the shuttle back uphill. I need to retain my energy!  That also meant we had enough energy to have coffee and sweets at the nearby hotel—a rather posh hotel!

A tidy breakfast: raspberry scone, clotted cream,

strawberry jam, butter, and black coffee

Sticky toffee pudding for TK

I wonder why no one in our group wanted to try the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge that connects the mainland to Carrick-a-Rede, a tiny island. I could see stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean without doing that! The first rope bridge was built over 350 years ago by salmon fishermen, a part of the local salmon fishing heritage

Rope Bridge

(that's an 80 ft. drop by the way)

Unidentified island near Carrick-a-Rede

Our final stop was Ballycastle, a small seaside town with great restaurants. We enjoyed fish ‘n’ chips here, fresh haddock from the sea!

Our view while waiting to eat at Salt House

Fish n Chips at Salt House Restaurant

Ballycastle, Ireland

some fries are missing

Our view from inside Salt House Restaurant

Entrance and landscape

Closeup-Identified by TK's app as Agapanthus

Finally, we took a tour of the area of great unrest in Belfast---even today one of the streets has its side’s views, and the opposite has other views.  Angelina said that when she was 11 years old (in 1969) she was sent to live with a family (not her own) to be safe, and our bus driver said he was 9 and was sent to Boston.  This period was called the “Troubles.”  The wall art on both sides of the street were remarkable. TK took a few photos. I do not think every Belfast visitor sees this. Angelina said there is still controversy, and it isn’t over religion—some want to be  united with Ireland again, and others want to stay with the UK.

"The Ulster State

Their footprints and songs

The Appalachian Trail"

--an example of the wall art--

It was a good day in Belfast!

TK’s Takes: No swimming pools today, but some very nice single family homes. He has never seen so much livestock in two days, sheep, cattle, one pig, some horses—mostly sheep, and no goats. He is a city boy after all.  Giant’s Causeway is a good place to exercise if you want to exercise.

SUNNY BELFAST AND THE RMS TITANIC!

Regal Princess/Belfast
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Sunny, 58F

Janie on the bow of the Titanic

Port of Belfast

Early this morning, 8:30 a.m., we disembarked the Regal, hopped on the Princess shuttle ($17 RT each) to the Belfast visitor center, bought tickets for the Titanic Museum Experience (25 GBP each), and easily caught a bus (1.80 GBP each) to the site where the Titanic was built, and the museum was created. 

First, I couldn’t believe we were in Belfast, and it is a lovely big city with a population of 348,000. Béal Feirste in Irish, it is the capital city and the principal port of Northern Ireland and stands on the banks of the River Lagan, connected to the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Exterior of the RMS Titanic Museum

This was one of the cars for the ride

Furnace for ironwork

Chain

Launching the Titanic

The launch, witnessed by 100,000 people

This is a partial view of a first class stateroom

My photos of other staterooms did not turn out 

and because of my photo issue I cannot edit them

By the time we were finished with the experience we felt as though we had helped build the Titanic and joined the passengers on its maiden voyage.  

Since this ship was the largest ever built at the time, many people from Ireland and Belfast were involved, from metal workers, carpenters, to seamstresses, officers, and crew, and so much more.  The story, shown in enlarged photos on the walls, drew us in.

One could easily imagine the noise, the need to finish the work on time, the last minute details.  There is even a ride reminiscent of an amusement park ride that takes the rider up and down several stories of the hull as it is being built.

After the building of the ship, one sees the first, second, and third class staterooms, china, carpeting samples, tickets, handbills, and so on that make one feel part of the ship.  TK and I were thoroughly engaged with the workers and the passengers, and then the ports of call as the Titanic picked up passengers in Southampton, Cherbourg, and Cobh. 

Everyone knows the ending to this story.  Toward the end of the museum experience, Robert Ballard’s film of the Titanic undersea as it rests today was shown in the most unique way, two stories down, under glass. We could see the fated ship as the camera passed over it—it was almost as if we were viewing it from beneath the ocean too.

 On a nearby wall was a list of the survivors and those who died. I noted that there were three Phillips men who died, and two Phillips ladies who survived.  There was a Bennett woman who survived, and a Walker male who died. An estimated 1517 people died and 712 survived, 32% survivors.  When one is introduced to this ship so personally while walking through, and then feels the impact of the sinking ship and the results, it is very very overwhelming.  The people of Belfast, who so proudly created this ship were monumentally affected too.

At the very end there are placards that state causes and changes since the Titanic:

• Weather-- I did not realize that the weather had been a little warmer and the icebergs floated further south into the planned route of the Titanic.   The warm and wet year 1908 created the conditions for a huge iceberg to travel in the early autumn of 1911 near southwest Greenland.  Today the U.S. Coast Guard monitors icebergs.
• Ice Warnings—necessary but not done
• Binoculars—no binoculars in the crow’s nest. That is a maritime regulation today
• Speed---the captain did not feel the ship should slow down, that it could plow through the ice
• Flooding—bulkheads were not high enough to prevent water from flowing over them
• Lifeboats—there were 20 lifeboats, but they were sent off with few people in them. Also, there weren’t enough lifeboats. Today there has to be lifeboats with capacity for every passenger and crew.
• Evacuation—lack of safety drills. Today cruise ships cannot leave port until every passenger has viewed the TV safety drill and reported to their Muster Station (this is how Princess does it)
• Distress Calls---the nearest ship did not hear the distress call because the crew member had gone to bed. Today someone must monitor the radio system 24 hours in every ship at sea.

 After this emotional visit, we toured the SS Nomadic, the last remaining White Star Line ship in the world. It served as a tender boat for the Titanic and other White Star ships.  It was much larger and opulent than any tender I have been on!!

SS Nomadic, a Tender boat

A beautful interior on a tender, like I have never seen!!

I really hate to say this, but now TK has caught the same disease I have--taking photos in the bathroom, today on the Nomadic---------------

I don't know if this is the sink or urinal and I 

am not going to ask

Toilet paper holder

Toilet part

Aside to Donna: We need to lobby for tenders like this again!!

We hopped on another bus to go to St. George’s Market and Victoria Square. This time I found sfogiatelle, the best pastry on the planet—called “shell” here in Belfast, but the vendor was Sicilian.  Florida, Trader Joe's, Germany, now Ireland!  This little Italian pastry goes far!

Janie at the Market in Belfast

Cheeses

 

Italian baked goods, including sfogiatelle

Janie's favorite (top right)

Many items for sale at the market

On our way back to the ship-------------------

Victoria Square

The two great yellow-painted gantry cranes Samson and Goliath have

 become icons of Belfast, dominating the entire city skyline. 

Constructed to service the vast new graving dock at 

Harland and Wolff, Goliath (the smaller at 315 ft) 

began work in 1969, and the 348 ft Samson five years later

After dinner I went to the Production show, “John and Paul.” These two men from Liverpool sound exactly like Beatles John and Paul—and they played early favorites. Priming us for Liverpool tomorrow!!

I also stayed in the theater for Pete Best, who came on the ship for a program. TK knew who he was, and I bet some of you do too—the Fifth Beatle! He told wonderful anecdotes about how they played in his mother’s Coffee House, the Casbah, played in Hamburg, Germany, and some troubles they got into.   I read about him before the show at https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/pete-best/   

It is late now and I do have nice photos, but I fear I must get off to bed for another early start tomorrow.  I’m hoping I wake up to a text from my brother about the “Gender Reveal” party we are missing tonight in the States!