Busy Day in Belfast

Saturday, May 26, 2012—Belfast

With great weather again, we spent the day exploring three parts of the city.  We started downtown by going to the St. George's Market.  It was fantastic.  There were at least 12 bakery stalls with wonderful goodies!!!  But there was much else, too.  A couple of musicians played Irish music as everyone shopped.  One interesting aspect of the market was the section of stalls selling sports memorabilia.  That drew men to the market along with the usual crowd of women.

I took the computer and tried to get online. McDonalds requires a local mobile number where they will text your access code to a local (UK) mobile phone.  The problem is that I did not have a local mobile phone number, so I couldn't receive the access code.  Starbucks uses a company that requires you to click a link sent via e-mail.  The problem there was that I had no Internet connection to allow me to get into my e-mail to find the link!  I finally got on line for a short period under and alternative plan at Starbucks (very limited time and only 3 times before you had to enter the code), but the e-mail with the message with the code had not come into my mail yet for some reason.  I published my entry I had written earlier.  Guess I won’t be online again until I am at home.

From downtown we headed to the Queens Quarter of the city.  We explored the Queens University campus and then went to the Ulster Museum, a multi-purpose museum with exhibits related to history, science, art, etc.

The day was beautiful and warm, so everyone was out at the parks.  We visited the Botanic Gardens and found a place on the grass among all the sunbathers.  We watched people and relaxed in the sun ourselves.  To stretch our legs, we went through two tropical houses (one wet and one dry) and then returned to sunbathe further.

Toward the end of the afternoon, we explored the Cathedral Quarter of town.  Unfortunately, the cathedral was already closed when we got there.  However, the MAC, a contemporary arts center, is located just behind it.  We saw all the exhibits there.  The best was by Robert Therrien, an American artist, who creates oversized furniture.  We stood under a giant table with 4 chairs.  Our heads were about even with the seats of the chairs.  Another interesting permanent exhibit was a “rainbow” of strings that were installed across the upper level of the high-ceilinged lobby.

We bought tickets for a concert at Ulster Hall.  It was the Ulster Philharmonic performing with the Belfast Philharmonic Choir and the Belfast Philharmonic Youth Choir.  It was an excellent concert in a 150-year-old hall with wonderful acoustics. They did two pieces by John Rutter along with a few other pieces.