Last Day in Belfast

Sunday, May 27, 2012—Belfast

It was a long walking day today.  With sunshine and warm temperatures again, we headed out to Belfast Castle which is on a mountainside 3.5 miles (6 km) outside of town in the Cave Hill Country Park.  It was a slow uphill climb all the way.  The mountain itself can be seen from Belfast and has a rocky portion which is famous for looking like a head with chin, lips, nose, hair, etc.  In fact, it is said that Jonathan Swift came up with the idea of the story of Gulliver’s Travels based on his imagination of a man who would have a head the size of the one on the mountain.

Belfast Castle itself was a disappointment.  I don’t see why they list it in the tourist guides.  The building and the grounds are nice, but it is essentially a place that leases out rooms for parties.  We were there before any of the parties began, so we were allowed to wander and look at the rooms.  But later, no one would be allowed into the building because of the special events—mostly christening and first communion parties today.  One interesting aspect of the gardens was that there is a cat theme.  There are 9 ways cats are presented, and visitors are encouraged to find them—a hedge sculpture of a cat, two mosaics of cats, a metal bench with the shape of a cat molded into the bars that form the seat, a metal sculpture, a stone etching, two stone sculptures, and a T.S. Elliot quotation about cats.

Returning to town by foot again, we headed to St. Anne’s Cathedral which we had missed yesterday.  We were surprised to see policemen with dogs everywhere apparently looking for bombs in the surrounding area.  When we entered the church, however, it was obvious that the effort wasn’t related to a threat but was an effort to secure the premises before a special service honoring a police association.

St. Anne’s itself was different from the other churches we have seen.  It was also one of the friendliest we have visited.  A gentlemen brought a guide sheet to us, welcomed us, and encouraged us to tour the church by following the recommended path and reading about its special features on the sheet.

After that, we headed across the river to the Titanic Quarter of town.  The Titanic was built in Belfast, and everywhere you go in this town there are references to it.  The City Hall has a Titanic Garden and Memorial.  On the shopping street there are masts referencing ships built here including the Titanic in the most prominent location.  The Titanic Quarter is the dockyards area that is being redeveloped with apartments and a new museum that just opened Mar. 31 of this year called The Titanic Museum.  Unfortunately, the quarter has not been successful in general.  There are several apartment and office buildings that are either empty or sparsely occupied.  There is a shopping mall/arena complex that has hardly any occupants.  Right now, the museum is very successful with long crowds waiting for appointed times to enter and the gift shop doing fantastic business.  My guess is that it will remain of interest but will probably not remain as successful as they expect.  For one thing, it is a bit too far out the waterfront for most people to walk.  Also, after the locals have made their tour of the museum, it will be left with the tourist trade.  This year, tourists are quite interested because of the newness of the museum, the anniversary of the event, and the re-release of the film.  Anyway, the information about the exhibits did not sound and look that interesting, especially not interesting enough for us to decide to pay the $22 admission fee each and wait possibly 1-2 hours for our admission time.  We took photos of the building, went through the gift shop, and left.

Returning to town, we passed a 301-year-old pub named McHughs that had musicians playing Irish tunes outside.  We sat on a bench in the shade and listened for a while.

This is our last day in Belfast.  We stopped at the bus station to check the times for the bus to the airport tomorrow.  Then we went to our nearby pub to have a final drink.  We will order pizza from a nearby shop to eat in the room tonight, since we are tired from our walk (about 9 miles [15 km] total) and we have to pack to be ready for an early departure tomorrow morning.