Belfast Child : Dublin to Glasgow (Part 2)

I love trains.

The 18:50 to Belfast rolled into the train station on time.

I was staying at the Room2 Belfast Hometel on Queen Street, a fifteen minute walk from the station. A central, quirky hotel with great service and free fruit-infused water in the casual lobby area. I had eaten on the train and had some emails to catch-up on, and wanted to call it an early night. During the train trip a friend who lives in Belfast had seen a post on Facebook and arranged to meet me for lunch the next day. if I had planned things better and contacted them in advance, they would have picked me up from Dublin, and put me up.

After a decent 'Irish' breakfast I went in search of the statue to Lord Kelvin (William Thompson) an Ulsterman, scientist and sailor who was born in Belfast. This entailed a twenty six minute walk to the Botanic Gardens, which were beautiful in the morning light. Belfast looks like a city worthy of a second visit. There was some very grand buildings visible on my morning walk.





 


Next up was a Black Cab tour - a highly recommended two hour drive through some of the more infamous areas of the 'Troubles'. Through the Shankill and Falls Roads and the walls that still divide this town. I grew up in London in the 1970s when IRA bombs were a reality on the streets of Belfast and London. It is clearly a complex story going back hundreds of years, and the pain and hatred has been passed down through families along with DNA. Since the Good Friday agreement of 1998 there has been a return to peace - but the walls and distrust still linger.




After a visit around the various 'Trouble' sites it was back to the hotel. My friend picked me up and we had a lunch in the Titanic Hotel in what would have been the draughtsmen office. I didn't have time to tour the Titanic Museum, which I understand is excellent. He then kindly dropped me off in time for my Stena line ferry to Scotland.




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