Titanic Belfast

The Peace Wall - Belfast

Titanic Belfast Exhibition Centre - Belfast Harbour

The two cranes at Harland and Wolf shipyard

What a wonderful weekend. We decided to visit Titanic Belfast after watching a programme on TV and of course it is a hundred years ago that the great ship sank on her maiden voyage to New York.We sailed from Cainryan on the West coast of Scotland straight into Belfast harbour by Stena Line.We managed to get a great deal: our price of £23.00 per adult included the ferry crossing, coach transfer to the exhibition and the entrance fee to Titanic.Our crossing was flat calm with the sun shining - a rare treat on the Irish Sea.On our approach to Belfast Harbour the first thing you see is the two giant cranes from the Harland and Wolf shipyard - they have been there forever and are a landmark to Belfast. The coach took approximately 10 minutes to the exhibition centre and as you approach you see the most amazing building - built to represent the Titanic.We had timed tickets, which means you can enter at the specific time and are then free to wander around, taking your time to see everything - lots to see and do.the tour starts in Belfast with the planning of the Titanic and her sister ship the Olympus and includes what life was like for the workers in 1900. The Titanic took 2 years to build and fit out before her launch in 1912. The exhibition contains photographs of the people who sailed and worked on the ship. Perhaps the two luckiest workers were fireman who missed the departure as they were drunk in the pub and a photographer, who was offered a passage but decided at the last minute to leave the ship and go home. The whole exhibition offers the greatest insight into the life of the Titanic. The last room to visit shows her as she is to-day, lying on the seabed. Photographs and images from a camera that were takern earlier this year. I really felt I was there, experiencing the sights and sounds as she wnet to her watery grave.The coach collected us again at the said time and we were taken on a tour of Belfast city. It muist be some 20 years since I visited the city and so many changes - new buildings and a more peaceful place. We visited the Peace Wall which still stands and thousnads of people from all over the world have written messages of peac over the many piees of art work. Still a bit spooky with the electric gates that close every evening and at the weekends, but peace is uppermost in everyones minds and who knows one day the wall may come down.

Hello and I am back

Oh! boy have got alot of catching up to do. Home for the summer and just never got back to blogging. Missed everyone who dropped by and now I have to make time for me and for you. The Village Show leaflet dropped through my letter box last week. This is our annual village show where everyone can enter their crafts, baking, garden produce and almose anything really. I have decided to enter some of the categories for fun and will attempt to make a bag, a floral decoration in a jug, bake a traybake and some brownies and maybe have a go at a limerick. I have been searching for ideas how to make fabric flowers as I feel they will go well in a jug. So better get back to being creative and will post my ideas once everything is completed. Hope you all have a great weekend and good to be back.