Belfast

We woke up to find we were in Millbay Inn and indeed there was a bay, and the ruins of a mill. We could see this because we had half an hour of sunshine.

Carrickfergus was the first stop - a magnificent Norman castle started in 11-something and still used during Victorian times. You could see the various layers of development quite clearly, right up to its modern use as a wedding venue. An inauspicious start for the one we saw... Last time I was here there were two milk bottles outside the gate. They seemed a little out of place, but I could picture a helmeted head popping around the gate to drop them, while all around the battle went on.



Then we hit Belfast. On my trip 16 years ago we drove through Belfast pretty quickly thinking that the Troubles weren't worth the trouble. Now that things have settled a little it was a very interesting stopover. Again we did the hop-on hop-off bus to get an overview of the city. In this case we would probably have been better advised to take the taxi tours, as we were after a little more in-depth commentary than we got. Still, there was lots to see and I found the sectarian areas the most interesting. Belfast was the home of the Titanic but there is very little left to see that connects with it except a couple of concrete slabs from the slipway buried amongst the rubble of the demolished ship-yards. There are some monster cranes in the what is left of the more recent ship-building yards, but they are not used any longer. We were told they have been considered as bungy-jumping platforms, or as a restaurant in the sky.

We found a B&B on the outskirts of town that had a huge room and friendly hostess (German, from East Berlin, and not happy with the way Germany has treated the Ossies). There was still time to go into Belfast for a beer and some traditional Irish music if we could find some. We did at Kelly's Cellar.

After the band finished we went to a famous pub, the Crown, for a short while. It was being refurbished by the National Trust so much of its ornate decoration couldn't be seen. The snugs were cosy though. It was still twilight until around 11:00 so it was pleasant wandering around the central city area looking for a taxi.

All our Ireland photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/Italythenandnow/Ireland