Tim & Gerri's Wild Ride
Email & Facebook Gerri:
  • Home
  • Worldwide Travel
    • Everest 2025 >
      • 2025 Everest Packing List
      • Everest Blog Summary
    • 2024 Europe Tour >
      • 2024 Europe Tour Packing List
      • Europe 2024 Blog Summary
    • Asia 2023 >
      • Asia 2022 Packing List
      • Asia 2023 Blog Summary
    • Eastern Europe 2022 >
      • Eastern Europe 2022 Blog Summary
      • Eastern Europe 2022 Packing List
    • Narrowboat Holiday 2022 >
      • Narrowboat 2022 Blog
      • Narrowboat 2022 Packing List
    • Ireland & UK 2019 >
      • Ireland & UK Itineray
      • Ireland & UK Blog Summary
      • Ireland & UK Packing List
    • France 2018 >
      • France Itinerary
      • Blog Summary
    • European Tour 2017 >
      • European Vacation Blog
      • Blog Summary
    • Southeast Asia 2014-15 >
      • Southeast Asia Blog
      • Packing List
      • Blog Summary
    • Afghanistan 2011-12
  • United States Travel
    • Great Lakes Sail 2020 >
      • Great Lakes Sail 2020 Blog
      • Blog Summary
    • Trans-America Bicycle Ride >
      • Blog Summary
      • Our Team
      • Equipment
      • Breweries Along Route
    • Pacific Crest Trail >
      • Pacific Crest Trail 2016 >
        • What is the PCT? - 2016
        • Why Hike the PCT? - 2016
        • Gear - 2016
        • Itinerary - 2016
        • PCT Blog Summary - 2016
        • Where are we now? - 2016
      • Pacific Crest Trail 2014 >
        • What is the PCT?
        • Why Hike the PCT?
        • Gear
        • Food
        • Itinerary
        • Blog Summary
        • Where are we now?
    • Motorcycle Ride 2014 >
      • Motorcycle Blog
  • Brewery Visits
    • 2025 Breweries
    • 2024 Breweries
    • 2023 Breweries
    • 2022 Breweries
    • 2021 Breweries
    • 2020 Breweries
    • 2019 Breweries
    • 2018 Breweries
    • 2017 Breweries
    • 2016 Breweries
    • 2015 Breweries
    • 2014 Breweries
    • 2013 Breweries
    • 2012 Breweries
    • 2011 Breweries
    • 2010 Breweries
    • 2009 Breweries
    • 2008 Breweries
    • 2007 Breweries
    • 2006 Breweries
    • 2005 Breweries
    • 2004 Breweries
    • 2003 Breweries
    • 2002 Breweries

Belfast via Glenariff Forest Park

9/3/2019

0 Comments

 

Tuesday, 3 September 2019

Another good night sleep.  We aren't in too much of a hurry today.  We have a 2 hour drive and one stopat Glenariff Forest Park on the way to Belfast.  We got up, ate breakfast, and packed up the car. We were on the road just after 10 AM.

​Another beautiful drive along the ocean.
Picture
We drove about 1.5 hours and arrived at Glenariff Forest Park.  Rick Steves suggested the 2 mile Waterfall Trail, so that's what we set off to do.  Here are the incredible photos of this green and lush area.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Find Timmy
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Tim continues photographing flowers:
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
It was a beautiful 2 mile hike that took us under 1 hour to complete.  It was definitely worth the stop.

The GPS says that we will make it to Belfast just before 2 PM.  The hotel check-in is at 3 PM, but we head that way anyway thinking that we could park the car and go explore the city before checking in.

On the road we passed this 3 wheeled vehicle on a trailer.  We have only seen this vehicle on American Pickers.  Tim quickly grabbed the camera and shot this photo.
Picture
If anyone knows Tim, you would know that he loves anything having to do with the Titanic.  With this in mind, I splurged with our lodging tonight and booked a room at the Titanic Hotel Belfast which is across the street from where the Titanic was built and is in the same building that the Titanic was actually drawn up and designed.

​Needless to say, he was very happy.
Picture
Our fancy Titanic room
Picture
Way nice bathroom
Picture
View of the Titanic Experience Museum out our window
Since we splurged on the hotel room, we decided to splurge on a taxi tour of the city.  This tour is going to tell us about the "Troubles" between the Protestant and the Catholics.  It will be similar to our self-guided walking tour of Derry, but this time we will have a local tell us the story.
Picture
Our tour guide Al made sure to tell us that he was Protestant, but his children married Catholics and his grandchildren are being raised Catholic.  He also said that he hasn't voted in the past 30 years.  This was all to set us up to think that he was telling the story from a neutral point of view.  Got it....lets get to the tour.

First stop is the Protestant side of the city.  There is a large mural of King William the Orange, the Protestant that came into the country in 1690 and defeated King James the second (Catholic) at the River Boyne.

Across the way and facing the William the Orange mural is a mural of Stephen McKeag.  He is responsible for many brutal killings of Catholics and Republicans and to many is considered a terrorist.
Picture
Picture
We were then driven to the "Peace Wall."  This wall was built to protect the Catholics from the Protestants.  I guess the tradition is to sign the wall.  Al had a pen ready for us to use.
Picture
Picture
This mural shows other places where there are issues that Belfast sympathizes with.
Picture
Check out this house on right on the Catholic side of the wall.  It has a fence over its back windows and patio.
Picture
Here is one of the most popular murals in Belfast.  A mural of Bobby Sands, the first of the hunger strikers in 1981.
Picture
Al told us about this Memorial commemorating the "Dog Squad".  One of the most deadly of the IRA squads of the time.
Picture
One last stop to see a wall of murals from worldwide organizations that sympathize with the troubles of Northern Ireland.  
Picture
Feelings of the current leaders of UK?
Picture
After about 1.5 hours the tour came to an end and Al dropped us off at a great pub that Tim didn't take a photo of.  We had one beer and headed down the street to the next pub, Kelly's.  We only planned on having one drink, but it started raining so we had another.  
Picture
Picture
Cool Guinness mural on Kelly's wall
It finally stopped raining, so we went 2 doors down for some fast food like fish and chips which for £7.50.  After eating we walked the 30 minutes back to the hotel.  I don't know who this chef is, but the artwork in amazing.
Picture
Albert Clock (1869)
Picture
Picture
Tunnel under a main street
Picture
Giant fish
We crossed back over the river and were now close to the hotel.  We came across this "Game of Thrones" sculpture.  Much of this series was filmed here in Belfast.  There was also this interesting Titanic sculpture.
Picture
Picture
This is the Nomadic.  We will be touring this tomorow.
Picture
We are finally close to home.  This is the Titanic Experience that we will be headed to tomorrow morning.
Picture
Picture
Finally back to the hotel.  We got a bucket of beer and cooled down a couple of beers we bought last week.  We are happy to return to the room pretty early and enjoy this great room.  The bed is so comfortable.  I can't wait to finish this blog so I can just sink into it and go to bed.  And this that...
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Ireland & UK Home
    Blog summary

    Archives

    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.