Up North, Day 1: Slieve Gullion, Titanic, Christmas Belfast

Our rental car was due on Thanksgiving, and since Dublin is over halfway to Belfast, we decided to save our Belfast trip for our final rental exchange.  That would save us 6 hours of driving.

So we left early in the morning, making it to Dublin by 9 am.  We've got the car exchange down pat by now.  I think they know me. 

We headed up toward Belfast, driving up the eastern shore.

Quick reminder.  The island of Ireland is divided into two countries.  26 counties in The Republic of Ireland, aka Ireland.  6 counties in Northern (not North) Ireland, which is one of the four countries in the UK, with England, Scotland, and Wales.  At the risk of great simplification, Ireland is mostly Catholic and pro-Irish.  Northern Ireland (NI) is mostly Protestant and pro-British (often referring to themselves as British rather than Irish).  There is a history of nested oppression, as in many places.  Minority Catholics being oppressed in majority Protestant NI, which was itself established to escape being oppressed by majority Catholic Ireland, which was itself established to escape being oppressed by majority Protestant England, which was long Catholic until Henry VIII wanted a baby boy and thus a divorce.  Got all that?  The division of the island was a condition of independence from the UK, and the island can be re-united with a simple majority vote on each side, although are a LOT of rules about when and how and how often votes can be held.  Reunification is gaining steam, but there may be a long way to go.  

Fun fact: even though we got online visas to NI, there is no official border crossing.  No signs, no lines, no checkpoints, no customs, no passport stamps.  It was like driving from Florida into Georgia, except no welcome sign or GPS alert or Exit 1.  We just noticed the signs turned from km/h to mph and realized we were there. 

NI: pounds instead of Euros, miles instead of km, still drive left, same outlets, no Irish on signs 

First we stopped at Slieve Gullion Forest Park, which had a neat forest walk through a storybook about giants.  Then we drove to the parking lot at the peak, but the weather was too aggressive to get out of the car - Kate and I sprinted up the path for about 100 yards, but we were entirely clouded in and it seemed a bit silly. 

We then made our way to Belfast proper.  

The Titanic exhibit:  I had no idea why there was a Titanic museum in Northern Ireland, when the ship sank sailing from England to France to Ireland to NYC.  I  quickly learned that it was designed and built in Belfast, and since that took three years (compared to the weeks it spent picking up passengers), Belfast is probably the most logical Titanic city, really.  Also, the museum referred to the ship as Titanic, not the Titanic, so I will adopt that nomenclature from now on, and harshly judge everyone in my mind who says the Titanic for the rest of my life.  I don't make the rules.

Anyway, when we entered the museum, I was whelmed.  Learning about Belfast's linen history wasn't exactly jaw-dropping.  And then some displays about the contracts needed to start a shipping company.  And then there was a little shuttle ride featuring people talking with hammers pounding rivets in the background, and I was like, okay, when do we get to learn about the Titanic though?   Soon, there was some more stuff about Titanic, and then more stuff, and then more stuff, and then MORE stuff.  It really was incredible how large and detailed this museum was.  By the end, I consider it one of the best museums I have seen.  From the shipbuilding and layout (with immersive visual tours), to the passengers, to the sinking, to the discovery/recovery.  It was powerful and educational.  For me the most powerful part was the displays of the final pleading communications between Titanic and neighboring ships.  700/2200 people were saved by a ship 60 miles away, but there was a ship 20 miles away with its radio operator asleep :-(.  Imagine had that operator been awake.

After the museum, we walked downtown in Belfast, where it was festive and active.  Clearly the Christmas season is in full swing (recall this day was Thanksgiving for us, and everyone we met wished us Happy Thanksgiving when they heard our accent).  We found a Christmas market and it was amazing.  So much activity, so much food, so vibrant.

We then proceeded to our super-cute AirBnB, where we played some Cranium and fell asleep.

On to the pictures.  I will sheepishly admit that I took a LOT of pictures of museum displays, so if you have an interest in Titanic, I would be happy to make a separate album with all those pictures.  Just reach out to Sam or me.

Slieve Gullion Forest Park

The storybook theme

Maestro at work

Dandelions are huge here!

The views at the top were cloudy but we persevered

Our closest yet.  All sheep are spray-painted, presumably as a "brand"

Cute rest-stop vacuum!

 

TITANIC

The exterior was beautiful.  It's hard to tell in the photo, but the buildings have a 3-D polygonal surface, not a smooth camo paint job.

Lobby

I took a lot of engineering photos.  You are being spared.

The gondola ride in the middle of the museum

The dock where it was built and rolled into the water.

The 270 degree immersive tour of the entire ship.

Letter from passenger excited to be one of the lucky onboard, looking forward to some relaxation.

The haunting message from Titanic telling nearby ships to stop cluttering the radio with iceberg reports.  Literally 30 minutes later was the collision.

Also haunting.

Display of the saved and lost, as well as interesting statistics about the survivors (80% of women survived, 50% of children, 20% of men)

An in-floor video passing over the wreck under your feet.

A lot of movie tie-ins toward the end.

Nomadic, in drydock next to the museum, is the last White Star Line ship in existence.  We missed the included tour by 10 minutes.

.

The building's 3-D texture when lit at night.

 CHRISTMAS BELFAST

The market is at City Hall

Sam's maiden name has Northern Irish roots.  She is a true descendant of Labhradha.

The Dutch food booth (note, contrary to the sign, these are poffertjes, not pannenkoeken/pancakes)

Ordering burgers

Mmm, hot chocolate.  The evening was cold, but comfortable.

 

The band playing Christmas favorites

An outdoor indoor alley

Another pub

Of course

Sometimes you just need to stop for McDonald's chocolate milkshakes

Ending the night with some Cranium provided at our AirBnB.  The blindfolded sketching was our most challenging category.

 

Amazing coincidence.  This card claims there are two actors on this list who have not played Batman, which was true in 2008 when the game was made, but no longer true after 2016 (Ben Affleck).  What are the chances they chose a distractor that later went on to play Batman?