A little back story. Heather (Klaassen) McCollum and I went to high school together. After high school we went our separate ways and lost touch except for the occasional Facebook post. When I moved back to Lindsborg, she was planning her wedding and getting ready to move to Northern Ireland. She and I were able to have dinner together once before she moved and reconnect. She joked that my first order of business should be to take a trip to Ireland/Northern Ireland. I joked back that my first task is to get a job and my second task will be to go visit her. Well, a couple years later and my first 'real, long' vacation started with me visiting Ireland and Northern Ireland. She called it.
I arrived at the Belfast bus station at about 8:30pm and thankfully caught a second (or third or forth) wind. When Phil was driving me to their home, I got to see a bit of the quaintness of Belfast. I also got a better idea of how odd it is to drive on the other side of the road. (You see how I didn't say wrong side there?) I will admit it was a little freaking sitting in the seat that I'm used to be the driver's seat and not driving. The part that got me the most was making a right hand turn.
I made it to Heather and Phil's house and got to meet Ciara and Lewis. Ciara was a little shy to warm up, but is a total doll. I would have loved to spend more time with the kids. I had a small snack of wheaten bread. This is one of those traditional Northern Irish foods I got to try.
While I'm usually a total night person, that night I went to bed early (for me). At that point a bed had never felt so good. And I was even able to get up fairly early to get as many hours in my day as I could. Heather was kind enough to fix me breakfast. Ok, ok she actually fixed it for herself and Phil, but made extra for me. It was sausage (but not the little American links) and eggs over toast. What a why to start the day!
While Phil did a little work at home, we decided to walk to the first tourist attraction. We went a few blocks from her house to the Malone House. It is an estate that is now used as a tea room and site for receptions and parties.
We walked through lovely gated areas and this wonderfully beautiful tree lined/covered walk way.
And then we came to this clearing that was the back of Malone House. The greenness of Northern Ireland/Ireland (yes, there is a difference) is exactly as it has been described in books and other stories I've read.
I tried to be artistic and get a picture of Ciara sticking her face between the railings of the staircase. She wasn't going to have it. She just wanted to climb up the stairs instead.
After Malone house we drove into the down town area to start my tour there. We did a lot of walking in a short period of time and Heather was a trooper pushing a stroller being a tour guide at the same time. Our first stop was St Malachy's Church. St. Malachy's is one of Belfast's oldest Catholic churches. Belfast has several beautifully built churches, some of which are sadly no longer in use.
St. Malachy's has some beautiful architecture inside as well. Especially in the sanctuary. However this church is still being used and I did not want to bother the patrons that were praying in the sanctuary, so I didn't take any pictures of those ceilings. The above photo is part of the ceiling of the lobby.
After admiring the church we made our way to the City Hall. Heather, being the smart tour guide she was, knew that the tours of City Hall were free. So in other words perfect for me.
She was also smart enough to pack lunches. So here we sat on the beautiful lawn of City Hall eating and taking in the sights and catching up a bit more. Ciara also loved to chase the birds and enjoyed being out of the stroller for a bit.
Before going in for the tour, we went and looked at the memorial they have for the Titanic. In this picture you can see memorial wall that has all the names of those who died when the Titanic sunk. There are 3 names that have an asterisk next to them, because the names listed on the manifest were not necessarily their names. No information could be found on these people.
The two pictures above and the one below are what you see when you walk into the main entrance of the City Hall. There are four different types of marble used in this building.
The following are parts of the grand staircase and heading to the Council Chamber. There are several stain glass windows and woven rugs throughout the building.
We now enter the Council Chamber. The Belfast Council and Mayor still use this room for their meetings. There were quite a few ceremonial items that are still used as well.
The tables in the middle are where the press sit, while the benches on the side are where the council members sit. The front chairs are reserved for the Mayor and the next two highest members.
We were asked to take a seat on one of the benches where the council members sit. This is what the desks view looks like. We were asked not to open the drawer as some council members might have left something in their drawers. This made it more tempting, but I was able to resist.
We were then allowed to take a picture while sitting in the mayor's chair. We were only supposed to take one, but the lady taking mine was kind enough to take 3 really fast so that at least one would turn out well.
The chair sits up high enough that there is actually a step block under the chair for some of the shorter mayors that have been in office. In front of the desk you can kind of see little holder on each side on top of the scrolls. These hold the scepter when council is in session.
The wood work in this room especially was beyond impressive.
Above is the viewing gallery and the Belfast 'B' that is all over the building. This one happens to be on the ceiling.
This is where King George V and Queen Mary sat when the council room was first open in 1921.
After the council room we went into the robe room. For usual council meetings they don't wear the robes anymore, but on special occasions they will put them on.
The first is the mayor's robe and is made with gold thread. The other robes are a little less fancy, but still cost several thousand pounds each. They are also all hand made.
This is the scepter that I mentioned earlier. (Don't mine the reflection of the light in the glass. I didn't have time to adjust my camera angle.)
The first picture is the first ladies chain that goes on her robe and her medallion pin that she wears for official business. The second picture is the mayor's robe chain. You might notice that his medallion pin is not in the case. That is because he was in New York at this time on official business.
These are some of the stained glass windows in the upstairs area. The first two were in a meeting/banquet room and I think depict different areas of Belfast and Northern Ireland. The bottom two are from the Grand Ballroom. The one on the left I thought looked like the Swedish Crowns, while the one on the right is Queen Victoria. These two windows along with the others that were in this room were taken down during WWII and stored. It's a good thing that they did that as this side of the building was hit and took some damage.
This piece might have been my favorite of the whole place. This buffet was ordered specifically and hand built for the Titanic. However it took a little longer to make than thought and missed the boat.
This was the last room of the tour and is the Grand Ballroom. They had just finished a meeting in here and were getting it ready for an event that night. The carpets were hand woven and can be removed. There is a stage in front and a little balcony in the back.
Overall it was a great tour and well worth the time if anyone needs a travel tip.
After the tour I met up with Heather again and we headed off to Victoria Square Centre. On the way we walked down this street. The tall curved sculptures are actually supposed to represent the ships hull on the different large ships that were made in Belfast Harbor. These included the Titanic and her sister ships, Olympic and Britannic.
Victoria Square Centre is pretty much like a shopping center. So why did we go? Because at the top of the shopping center there is a glass dome that gives you a 360 degree view of the city.
In the above picture you can see the cranes that are still used to make ships in Belfast.
After taking in the views, Heather treated me to a real British tea. Ok, so I had something else to drink, but we did go to this cute little spot (where several were actually drinking tea) and we had a biscuit (cookie) and a scone and a really good chocolate, caramel graham biscotti type thing that I actually ate for breakfast a few days later. Even Ciara enjoyed her juice and biscuits.
After tea it was time to go back to Phil's church and pick him up from work.
Why did I take a picture of a pew you might ask. The reason is that I couldn't figure out why they all had what looked like hand towel racks on them. Phil explained that those are umbrella holders and that there is a little gutter along the floor. This is so the rain can drip off the umbrellas and go down the gutters and not be all over the floor. Crazy that it rains that much that they need gutters in the church for the rain water.
While Heather and I were downtown we had been asked if we wanted to do a bus tour. I didn't have time to do this, but as she had a couple sisters coming to visit a couple weeks later we took the brochure to look at. This would come in handy. After heading back to their house for a yummy supper of mango chicken (I got really lucky that all of my hosts were very good cooks) we headed out to see some of the sights by car.
Unbeknownst to Heather and I, Phil had grabbed the brochure and decided he could do most if not all that was on the bus tour, plus a little more. First stop Queen's University Library.
Technically to get into the library you are supposed to be a student or faculty of Queen's University. But as we only wanted to see one thing, the nice guard at the door let us in. We went up to the C. S. Lewis reading room in order to see the 'The Door'. The wardrobe door that is. I didn't realize when I first went up there that this was the actual door from the movie, but Heather made sure I touched it so I can say just that. I also went through the door. I'd tell you what was on the other side, but you wouldn't believe me. ;)
Down a path from the library is the botanical gardens. We took a short peak of the guys playing sports in one of the fields and here is one of the green houses.
Across from the library is the Quad of Queen's University. This the back of the main building. It'd be like going to college in a medieval castle.
This is the grand hall, all set up for an event. Heather and I came up with some sort of story that Queen Victoria once dined here to celebrate something cool sounding. Obviously we need to work on our story telling abilities.
The front of Queen's University.
In the left photo is the Rise sculpture. It's two spheres, one inside the other. The two spires in the right photo are St. Peter's Cathedral.
We then went to look at the peace walls. As you can see on the top of the wall there is barbed wire.
This gate gets closed in the evenings and there is another about 500 ft. on the other side that gets closed as well. These separate the two opposing sides of town. The dead space in between is so that things can not be thrown over the gates (which you can see have pointed tops) at the people on the other side. Somehow this doesn't seem very peaceful to me. It was surreal to know that someone I know lives this close to this major of a conflict.
As we drove on into the nationalist side of town, Phil made the joke that if we were pulled over Heather and I were to do the talking.
A few blocks down he pulled over and I couldn't tell what we were looking at. There was just a street of houses. Then he said, "A couple of Kansas girls need to have their picture taken here". Apparently a lot of the streets in this area are named after different states.
Heather informed me that she had been waiting for me to have an AHHH HA moment. Our next stop would be that for me. Unfortunately for you my blog can't be longer, so you'll have to wait for Part II.
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