Titanic Belfast 1
Titanic Belfast is the formal name of the Titanic museum. I got there about 10 am on a Thursday in late June, and there were plenty of people there. I was kind of surprised until I saw all the tour buses in the parking lot. Anyway, it was well worth the price of the ticket, even with the crowd. The focus, of course, is on the Titanic, but there's also a lot of great information on the history of Belfast, Harland and Wolff, ship building in general, working conditions in the early 20th century, how the wreck was found, and the Titanic in popular culture.
The museum included a ride, like an amusement park ride, that recreated the atmosphere of the shipyard. I took a couple of videos during the ride.
Maritime Mile
The next day, while Ellen was working, I retraced our steps to the Lagan River. There are a bunch of attractions along the river, on what Belfast calls the "Maritime Mile." The famous ocean liner Titanic was built in Belfast by Harland and Wolff, who, at one time, were one of the biggest shipmakers in the world. At their peak, they employed about 20,000 people in Belfast (if I remember rightly). Their 2 big gantry cranes, Samson and Goliath, are Belfast landmarks.
One of the attractions along the Maritime Mile is the Titanic Museum. You can see it in the background in the photo above. It's the strangely shaped building between the yellow cranes on the left and the apartment building on the right.
Trip to Belfast
We took a quick trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland for a meeting for Ellen's work. The only reason I heard about Belfast when I was growing up was when it was in the news because of The Troubles, and that was not infrequent. But according to the taxi driver who drove us into town from the airport, "We're all friends now." That was good to hear, but we heard a different story from a tour guide 2 days later.
On our first evening there we took a walk through downtown to the Lagan River.
