At 1:10 we boarded the bus, climbing the steps to the
upper level, where we sat for an hour-long ride. As we rode through the city streets, we
listened to the running commentary that told of the features of Northern
Ireland’s largest city – its industry and elegance and 19th-century
buildings that are a reminder of its prosperous past. We soon passed the very large Titanic
Museum. In the City Centre, we viewed
the Grand Opera House and Victorian and Edwardian buildings with elaborate sculptures
over doors and windows, featuring stone-carved heads of gods and poets,
scientists, kings and queens peering down from the high ledges of banks and old
linen warehouses. We passed the Queen's
University and the Botanic Gardens. Located
in these gardens is the Palm House, a structure of cast iron and curved glass
panels built even before Kew Gardens opened in London in 1839. We traveled down to the Shankill Road area,
an authentic working-class community, and the Falls Roads area where murals on
almost every gable wall tell the story of its violent past and its belief in
the future.
Belfast has had problems
reconciling their religious and political problems for many years. Large numbers of heavily armed men from the
Protestant and Catholic sides were ready for a battle in 1914; however, at that
time, World War started, and both sides joined in mutual defense of the British
Isles. After that, there were some
agreements and then, again, problems.
Belfast achieved international attention with the outbreak of the
"Troubles" in the 1960s, with the violence escalating in 1969. The conflict lasted until the Good Friday
Agreement of 1998. Our bus entered the
older Catholic section of the city, which looked distinctly different from the
rest, with signs all written in both English and Irish. The guide gave interesting facts about
Northern Ireland’s fight to achieve independence from southern Ireland and/or
England – against those who did not want to separate. High cement walls (erected by the English
about 45 years ago) still stand between the Catholic and Protestant parts of
the city. And there is a small area of
completely bare ground (like a “no man’s land”) that lies between the two
sections. The guide said that some bad
feelings still linger.
Popular art played a
prominent role during the "Troubles." The gable ends of houses were painted with
vivid murals to proclaim a neighborhood's political affiliations, and remain a
much-photographed part of Belfast's past.
At Cave Hill we viewed the Belfast Castle. MacArt's Fort, a rock where United Irishmen
planned the rebellion of 1795, overlooks the castle. We drove past the Harland & Wolff shipyard
where the Titanic was built and launched. We drove past the Stormont, a building
designed to hold Northern Ireland's parliament.
After
our bus returned to its starting point, we walked back to the shuttle stop
where we boarded the shuttle for our return trip to the ship, and were able to
board immediately this time. We were
onboard the ship by 3:30 PM, after which we went to the Horizon Court for a
light lunch and then rested in our cabin.
At dinner, we sat a table for two, but we conversed with
the couples sitting either side of us.
We didn’t get their names, but one couple was from San Francisco, CA,
and the other from San Diego, CA. After
dinner, we danced to the Janos Quartet in the Vista Lounge for about 30 minutes
before returning to our cabin. There
were only about seven other couples in the lounge, five of which were
dancers. So we didn’t have the large
audience watching us dance, as in the Piazza, which pleased Sally. Sally stayed up until after midnight working
on our blog. Due to the slow speed of
the ship’s internet, so far, we haven’t been able to make any posting up to
this time.
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