After a lovely stay in Reykjavik we spent a day at sea traveling to Londonderry, Northern Ireland. We chose to stay aboard because a) we visited here early in July on this cruise, b) it was a tender port, c) it was a 45-minute shuttle bus from the port to the city, each way, d) the ship didn't arrive until 1pm, and e) it was raining. Most of the guests had tours booked so the ship was empty for the afternoon. And it turned out that f) traffic was horrible, and most of the tours didn't make it back before 7:30pm. One private group almost got left behind since they just barely beat the 10:30pm return time for an 11pm departure. We felt good with our stay behind decision.
Today we skipped ahead to Belfast. We a) had visited in July, but not the city, b) docked, c) 10-minute shuttle, d) 8am arrival and e) it didn't start raining until 1pm and we were back aboard by then. And for completeness, f) traffic was bad, but the commute was short.
A sunny morning as we pull into Belfast harbor, best known as the place where the Titanic was built. Everything is green in Ireland, from the containers to the heavy equipment to the grass growing on the warehouse roof.
The shuttle dropped us off right at the center of town. The Belfast City Hall is a work of art, both outside...
...and inside.
Statue of Queen Victoria
Titanic Memorial
African War Monument (Boer War to us)
Unfortunately the market is only open Fri-Sun.
The River Lagan. Nautica is just up the river beyond the bridge.
Public art symbolizing unity. To me it looks like an advertisement for Olympic Rythmic Gymnastics, or a hula hoop.
The Big Fish, the Salmon of Knowledge. Honest, that's their name for it.
A close-up of the "scales" of the fish.
Prince Albert Memorial Clock
Oldest building in Belfast. It's a bar. Surprised?
The clock from below. Even though we walked a couple of miles in between, this clock is only about three blocks from the Queen Victoria statue.
Street art
UK version of the Dollar Store. Here you pay 30% more.
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This store was in a shopping mall. Big window display of sugary breakfast cereals, and inside was all sorts of familiar candies, and some not so familiar. One section is dedicated to Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies. I imagine they were relieved when someone bought the Hostess name and started again with Twinkies after the bankruptcy. (I also find it interesting that the spell checker in blogger does NOT question the word Twinkies. It flags Londonderry, Nautica and Lagan, but not Twinkies. I guess programmers were involved.)
This is a grocery store! Tesco. Imagine Publix, Harris-Teeter or Kroger like this.
Crown Liquor, a Victoria pub.
This is a "meter maid" uniform, looking more like the Royal Irish Grenadiers.
Not just a channel marker, but a bird sanctuary.
Walking around Dublin
