Titanic Belfast Visit July 2014

Me and my Ayrshire walking friend, the 'Ranger' are finally making a trip we talked about over twelve months ago. We're taking the ferry to visit Titanic Belfast

(It's only a few minutes from the terminal to Cairnryan's free north car park, we saved money and walked)

We're also taking advantage of Stena Line's Wonderful Wednesdays offer.

A return ticket for £10 includes a 'Metro' bus card for all day use.

A warning about the free transport though, check the times. Buses to Stena Port are limited to a single decker and limited to arriving at the port one and a half hours before sailing times.

Because I'd have missed our booking time at Titanic, I'd already decided on a taxi. We shared a 7 seater with one other and were charged £8 for the two of us to the Titanic Quarter. 

I'll start with a few pictures from the boat, then a few from the attraction.

Corsewall lighthouse after rounding Milleur Point.

Ailsa Craig.

The 'Ranger' thought she was Marilyn Monroe as she had to hold down her skirt from the wind.

Two more Stena ferries and Kilroot Power Station, the only coal-fired power station in Northern Ireland.

Carrickfergus Castle.

It's possible there are a few of my readers who have never come across the song Carrickfergus.

One of the most beautiful ballads ever in the history of music. Almost every ballad singer of note has recorded it at some time or another. Fifteen year old Charlotte Church sang it quite beautifully back in 2001, but my favourite singer of it is Brian Kennedy.

I seem to remember identifying this big house on Belfast  Lough's southern shore once before, but at the moment it's slipped my mind.

I zoomed in for this picture from the boat. At the time I hadn't realized I'd got a sneak preview.

So, after disembarking, we did go round to the bus stances, but we'd have had to wait around fifteen minutes, and then we'd have to change in the city centre. We got the taxi.

Here then is the view of the centre as you approach.

Having booked online, we now had to collect our tickets from one of the kiosks just inside the entrance.

There's an official photographer who'll take a picture of you on your way in. We thought it was a compulsory  part of the experience since our way to the escalator was roped off. It was only after we'd had our picture taken we saw people remove the rope and head up the escalator. At £7.50 for the cheapest we decided against. I can take a selfie for free !

An escalator took us up to the first of  The Galleries. ...........

There are website links to each of these and I'll include them as we move along.

..............the first of these is called Boomtown Belfast

I wonder if our Mary is related ?

For anyone who wants to take in all the experience, you won't do it in a couple of hours. There is so much content that were we to stop and study every information board or exhibit we'd still be there.

Modern technology and very large exhibits work together with 'hands on' computer terminals to begin the story.

We move on to the Arrol Gantry and The Shipyard Ride

We climb into carriages for the Shipyard Ride This is like a fairground ride that ascends a replica of one of the giant pillars of the Arrol Gantry. As we spiral upwards, we see animations and reconstructions recreating the shipbuilding of the time. It's quite a trip !

There must be an amazing control room somewhere in the centre.

As we come to the top of the Shipyard Ride, there's a lot of noisy activity behind the bar doors.

We thought perhaps if they had the doors bursting open and someone falling out it would add more authenticity. More likely give someone a heart attack.

The next gallery is The Launch

There's a screen showing the launch (CGI I think)

Then somehow the windows are electronically wired up.............

..............which suddenly clear from opaque to a view of the gantry and the ship.

Before moving along to the next gallery, there's an opportunity to look over and down to the entrance hall.

It's a busy place so I can understand why they have booking times.

We're now into the Fitting Out gallery

I mentioned earlier that I thought there was a lot of CGI imagery, the web page for this gallery confirms it.

Before we reached this exhibit, I wondered whether they hired actors to recreate scenes.

It was only as we got closer I realized it was screens on either side of the mirror giving the effect of a hologram.

Very clever !

Second and third class compartments were really small.

A young lady goes about readying for bed.

Here we stand in The Cave. It's a 270°, high resolution, moving up through the decks, reconstruction of the interiors of the Titanic. It can make you dizzy, a woman nearly fell on to me. 

I took some video here, but I've since learned it's prohibited, but have a look at this link to see how it pans out.

Isodesign - The Cave

  

There are lots of Artefacts throughout the building.

The next gallery concerns the Maiden Voyage.

A window looks out on a very modern city. Well done Belfast.

We continue on to The Sinking

It's another electronic display..............

...............with an inevitable outcome !

Here there are stories of the survivors and those notables that perished.

The gallery of The Aftermath.

This reconstruction of a member of the enquiry board makes him out to be nodding off to sleep occasionally.

There'll be many an untold story yet.

Harland and Wolff

Titanic Layout

Myths and Legends gallery.

More views of the city of Belfast.

It's almost a cinema that begins the Explore the Wreck gallery.

After sitting watching on screen an underwater exploration, the gallery guide then calls us to the front.............  

...........where we watch 'Titanic Beneath' beneath our feet as Dr Robert Ballard's high definition footage scrolls by. A little imagination and you're in that submersible over the wreck. 

I doubt whether the 'Ranger' is considering the diving suit for her wardrobe.

Our last gallery is in fact not a gallery, but the Ocean Exploration Centre where live pictures are being beamed from the 'Nautilus'. There's a lot happening in the deep. Here's the dedicated website.

Nautilus Live.

Our tour over we headed to the souvenir shop.

After purchasing fridge magnets (I gave the baseball cap a miss), we headed out to find our bus stop.

Here we managed a self timer.

A dry dock holds the old and the new.

We found the bus stop for our journey to the city centre.

We had a short while to wait and as around half a dozen folk congregated, I handed out the wine gums.

Our journey into the city centre didn't take long. 

We'd intended to eat somewhere, but we learned from our bus driver that our terminal bus would leave in twenty minutes. 

As I said earlier, this bus got us back to the terminal way too early.

We ate on the boat.........I shouldn't have had that muffin in the terminal !.

The 'Ranger' having had to leave in the middle of the night to catch the boat managed forty winks.

I took some pictures.

By the time we got to our vehicles the traffic from the boat was well away. I only had one slow car and one slow lorry to overtake. The 'Ranger' wasn't so lucky she got behind a tractor and a horsebox.

A great day out, but I'm still not back to full health. I'm tiring too easily still.

My round trip August 2011-part 2-Rosslare Ireland

I've enjoyed my extended weekend in County Cavan and Fermanagh but I need to get down to Rosslare since I'm boarding the boat at 8am.
In my 44 year association with Ireland the roads have improved out of all recognition.
And also in that time there have been many humorous incidents (although,possibly not while they were happening).I think this could be the time to relate possibly the funniest.

It was the late 70's and we'd flown over on this occasion from Leeds/Bradford airport.Our four daughters were aged between 4 or 5 and 11 or 12.
It was our last night in Glangevlin and a lift had been arranged to take us to Dublin Airport in the morning.
A certain brother in law was going to visit a cousin and he persuaded me to go along.The drink literally flowed.We got home at 2am in the morning after I'd pebble dashed the side of his car.

With the mother of all hangovers we waited for our lift,another cousin was taking us.Also going to the airport in the same transport was another cousin who happened to be a nun.
Cutting it a bit late the transport arrived.It was a Bedford van and the seating was a three piece suite.The nun was already in one of the chairs.

Our driver was Peter,he won't mind me naming him since he's already had quite a few glasses of porter on the tale.The only way to describe Peter's appearance is 'wild'.A long red beard sprouting in all directions and hair to match.There was only room for the driver in the front and some of the luggage.

My wife,the kids and the nun took up the suite while I,still very badly hung over sat on a stool in the corner.
It was a bone-shaking drive and I had my head in my hands for most of it.

Disaster struck around Swords, north of Dublin,we got a puncture.........
Peter popped his head in the back and said he'd be as quick as he could,we should still make our flights.

It was about this time a Guarda (police) van came along.Seeing a wild looking red haired man in an old Bedford van changing a puncture the guard got suspicious and stopped.
Now what I've neglected to tell you about Peter is the way he talked in those days.As well as the occasional stutter his words came out like a machine gun,staccato style.This made the guard even more suspicious and demanded Peter open the back of the van to see what he was carrying.

I can still see the expression on the guards face to this day as the back door of the van opened.A nun and a family wide eyed sitting on a three piece suite and me with the look of death and my eyes pleading with him to help me die.
When the guard had recovered from the shock of the situation and had received some goodly words from the Sister he rolled his sleeves up and helped mend the puncture.
His good deed hadn't quite finished yet though.Once he realised how little time we had to get to the airport,on came the blue light and we now had a police escort.The madcap rush that followed (I'm sure we were on two wheels at every corner) soon had me sober and we made our plane with just minutes to spare.The nun going on to New York also made her flight.
That's the story as I remember it.Peter, when he tells the story, has a few embellishments.

This although a long drive was very uneventful. I decide to go down the scenic route via Lough Allen,Leitrim and Carrick on Shannon.It's not long before I'm on the N4 at Longford.Then comes the motorways the M4 and the Dublin circular M50 leading onto the E1-N11 to Wexford.

Arriving at Rosslare Harbour my first task was to find accommodation for the night.I somehow didn't fancy the Hotel Rosslare,so I turned round and went back about half a mile to where I'd seen a B & B.

Thirty euros seemed very reasonable so I booked myself in.
St Ruanes is a big rambling 18th century house where the delightful Marie Ruane Doyle and her husband are the owners.
Every wall in the passageways,dining room and lounges has some historic artefact or historical references in pictures and press releases.It's almost a museum that you'd be pleased to pay to look around.
With free Wi-Fi as well I was well pleased and I'm happy to recommend it.Here's another link.
 St Ruanes

Settled in I can take a look around Rosslare Harbour.(Rosslare Harbour is quite a distance away from the village of Rosslare,but is just about a town itself with lots of facilities)

Like most ports in Ireland there's a statue of 'Our Lady' looking out for the seafarers.

It's a nice enough afternoon at the waters edge.I zoom in for a look at the brave man swimming with the shipping.Maybe he'll see this sometime.It's a bit cheeky to post his picture,but I'll leave it up for the lady viewers titillation .

An RNLI station built 1938.

The lifeboats have been at Rosslare Harbour for 160 years.

It's colourful along the clifftop walk.

And has a tropical look about it.

Now here's a modern looking railway train.

This anchor must've been off a big ship.

I've a feeling the cannons are reproductions,but maybe I'm wrong.

This is the Norman Voyager ready for it's weekly voyage to Le Havre in France.

After a great nights sleep at St Ruanes I'm down at the check in in plenty time.

Irish Ferries are heading for Pembroke.

Having once been a stevedore myself,I watch with interest our casting off.

It's a much bigger ferry than the Stranraer to Belfast,but apparently when Stena move up to Cairnryan they'll be bigger again.

The riots in the English cities are still happening and there's a lot of youths on this boat...makes me wonder...I shouldn't be so suspicious.

They did consume a lot of alcohol on the crossing mind you.

Three and a half hours later I'm driving off at Fishguard.