Albert Clock

After visiting the Peace Walls and Shankill Road, we drove around Belfast. The Albert Clock is a Belfast landmark built in 1865. It is 113 feet (34.4 m) tall.

Parliament Building

The Parliament Building, known as Stormont, opened in 1932. It previously housed the Parliament of Northern Ireland during Home Rule, which was later rescinded.

Belfast Titanic

We passed the Belfast Titanic building. We would go back to it later.

Albert Bridge

The Albert Bridge crosses the River Lagan and is one of eight bridges in Belfast.

Queen’s University Belfast

We stopped to visit Queen’s University Belfast which opened in 1849.

Belfast’s Botanical Gardens

The beautiful botanical gardens were next to Queen’s University. Flowers grow very well in the Irish weather.

My tour group stayed in the area to have lunch and then they would be picked up to be taken to Belfast Titanic. I had a coat to return to a store so I found a taxi to take me back to the Europa hotel, picked up the coat, then, because it had started to rain, took another taxi to the store. Lunch was at a Starbucks. Next, I took another taxi to Belfast Titanic.

I have put my photos of our drive around Belfast on a slideshow. Go to

http://www.peggysphotos.com/belfast–drive–around/

(Slide Shows, Western Europe, Northern Ireland, “Belfast: Drive Around”).

Titanic Belfast

The photo was taken from the bus this morning. It was raining so not a completely true representation of the very striking building. The Titanic Belfast building is on the site of the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast where the Titanic was built. It is billed as the world’s largest Titanic exhibition and also as the number 1 tourist attraction in Europe. It opened in 2012.

I thought the exhibit was fascinating in the way it was presented. I felt that I was part of the exhibit. I was especially interested in it as I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, last year and visited the Maritime Museum of the Pacific which has a Titanic exhibit and also visited the Titanic grave site where 121 victims of the Titanic sinking are buried. Halifax was at the other end of the Titanic disaster as it was from there that boats were sent to pick up the bodies of the victims who didn’t survive. Our tour director for the Maritimes and Nova Scotia was Blair Beed, an expert on the Titanic, who made the disaster even more dramatic.

Titanic Belfast: MOVIE

In the exhibit, there were small screens playing movies of the early 1900s, during the time that the Titanic was being built. People were silhouetted in front of the movies. Here is one of the movies.

Titanic Belfast

Part of the exhibition was showing the political climate in Ireland while the Titanic was being built. Ireland was controlled by England at this time.

White Star Line

Building of the Titanic

A very dramatic part of the exhibition was the shipyard ride down into the bowels of the Titanic. Here is a worker working in a very cramped space.

Building of the Titanic

The Titanic being built.

Launch of the Titanic

The Titanic was launched on May 31, 1911, at Belfast.

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