Ireland: A Belfast City Tour, Belfast, Ireland

I only had a day in Belfast on my recent trip to Northern Ireland so I decided to one of those open top bus city tours. It promised a whistle-stop tour of Belfast and it was certainly fast – the driver sped around all four ‘quarters’ of the city at speeds that were a danger to hairstyles and the guide delivered commentary with super human fluency!

I’ve never been quite sure about Belfast (and Nova Scotia’s) enthusiasm for promoting Titanic nostalgia as a tourist attraction but here they have called a whole new quarter of the city after the ill-fated White Star liner. Well, as the builders of what was at the time the largest man-made moving object in the world said: “She was fine when she left here … why don’t you ask the English Captain or the Scottish Navigator what happened.”

The new Titanic Museum looks like a silver iceberg and cuts quite a figure amongst the mostly empty docklands. It has a recreation of the Titanic’s grand staircase if you want to channel your inner Kate Winslet. A newly opened attraction is the SS Nomadic, which once ferried first and second class passengers to the Titanic from Cherbourg. It is the last remaining White Star vessel afloat and has been beautifully restored. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).