Belfast

We headed to Belfast to see the family and spend a few days catching up with them. Unfortunately we were a lot earlier than we had anticipated as we had seen everything we wanted to see. On the way to Belfast we stopped in at Ballyhalbert as this was a place my Dad visited when he was younger and somewhere I wanted to see.

 

Moving on, we pulled up to the house which I thought was Aunty Valerie's, but turns out we were bringing cakes to the wrong family! I am sure they wouldn't have minded though. The afternoon was spent catching up with the family which was lovely and a welcome relief from hanging out in our van.

 

This morning consisted of visiting a jail, but thankfully only to have a look around and learn about the history of Crumlin Road Jail, which is in the city of Belfast. This was an excellent tour, and something different as neither of us had visited a jail before, which is a good thing! We paid £16.00 for the both of us and we believe it was worth the money.

 

Another tour that was recommended to us, and was free, was the City Hall tour. It lasted 45 minutes and included information about the history of Belfast and about the architecture and furnishings of the City Hall. The tour guide was great and it was an extremely interesting tour. After this we spent a little bit of time wandering around the city and people watching (my favourite past time!) Heading back to the house and exhausted from all this learning and walking we had a power nap and woke up to the lovely aroma of Aunty Valerie's cooking.

 

Tonight we were visiting my cousin Kenneth and his girlfriend which I was really looking forward to as I hadn't seen two of my cousins since I visited Belfast in 1996. After having a few drinks in their apartment we staggered (only joking!) down the street to visit two pubs. We were lucky enough to be serenaded to, by a lovely man who seemed to be having a great night.

 

We had an awesome evening talking until the wee hours of the morning, its a shame that we cant hang out more often. The next day brought more sunshine and we spent most of the day with Aunty Maureen and Uncle David at the Titanic centre that was opened about a year ago (I think). The Titanic centre was great, LOADS of information about the building of the ship (two guesses why), storied from the survivors, discovery of the wreck and lots more. You can easily spend a good three hours there and is well worth the £14.00.

 

Our last day in Belfast consisted of catching up with Aunty Betty and enjoying a lovely fry up cooked by Aunty Valerie, the perfect way to kick start our day and prepare us for our journey ahead. I always enjoy going to Belfast and catching up with the family, but unfortunately we didn't get to visit the whole family.

A big thank you to the family for having us, driving us around, cooking for us, treating us and much more!

Our next journey was taking us back over the sea to a country we hadn't visited before and was highly recommended to us by many people. So on the ferry we go to Scotland!

View of the ocean - Ballyhalbert

Ashlea enjoying a bit of the sunshine

Outside the Crumlin Road Jail

Scary! This is the tunnel in which the convicts were transported to the Court house when they needed to make an appearance

Down one of the wings

Self explanatory - boy that bed looks comfy

This is one of the old doors that they use to have. It was wooden, and the convicts could wiggle the edges of it to open them. Therefore they needed to invent a better door, which is when they turned to the thick steel doors.  

The execution room - not a nice room to be in. The last execution was in 1961 and a total of 17 men were hanged here.

The doors - again not a nice room. They use to leave the bodies hanging for about an hour to ensure they were definitely dead.

The flogger - they would have their hands and feet tied to it and sheets would be placed on the contraption to avoid the convict seeing who was administering the beating.

Around the back of jail

The grass area is where the graves of the executed men lie

 

The city hall

Inside the city hall

Lovely staircase inside

Painting at the top of the staircase

Paul, I mean the Mayor of Belfast, sitting on his seat

A piece of furniture that was meant to go on the Titanic

Harland and Wolff - builders of the Titanic



This picture shows about a third of the height up from where the workers built the ship and worked only on about three planks of wood and with no safety equipment.

Picture from the trial run of the ship

Aunty Maureen and Ashlea

Paul and I

Aunty Maureen, Uncle David and me standing outside the centre. You can see the building is shaped like a ship's bow, and the bow is built to the actual height of the Titanic.

View from where the Titanic was built

Titanic productions - where a number of films have been produced

Our first view of Scotland

Another nice view