We hopped on the Hop-On-Hop-Off (HOHO) bus tour just outside our hotel yesterday morning. The first thing we heard was that our Europa Hotel was the most bombed hotel in Europe. The guy added “not to worry, it hasn’t been bombed in over a week”. He later changed that to years and we later on found out that it’s probably been since 1993 or 1994 since it was last bombed as part of “The Troubles”. They succeeded only 37 times in 43 attempts apparently. That made us feel better also.
Anyway, Belfast really is a nice city but all of the “walls” and murals showing the divides among the people got a bit old after a while. While they haven’t had any violent outbreaks since the mid-nineties, I’m not sure I’d point all of that out as part of a tourist bus tour. And that’s why I’m not running the tours in Belfast. In between the walls and murals we got to see the parliament building, a number of churches and the Titanic Experience building (which is near the Titanic Studios, for those “Game of Thrones” fans out there the first 3 seasons were filmed here along with other outdoor locations – we, however, have never seen GOT).
The H&W Shipyards still hold the two large ship cranes (Sampson & Goliath) near the Titanic Experience, which we also toured in the afternoon. It was quite well done and quite a moving experience. We decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to tour this facility shortly before taking an ocean cruise. Fortunately for us, our next one is over 3 months away…
We hopped back on the HOHO and finished the tour in front of our hotel. Across the street from the Europa Hotel is the Crown Bar, one of northern Ireland’s best known pubs. We chose that for our luner and were entertained with “rappelling for charity” going down the face of the Europa Hotel across the street through our window at the bar. It was great entertainment for a day that alternated from bright sunshine to driving rains for most of our stay at the bar. Did I mention that the beverages were refreshing and that the sticky toffee pudding was even better than the Bushmills Inn Restaurant?
Laura’s found a new favorite dessert – with custard instead of cream this time!
Well, there were no bombings last night at the Europa Hotel so I guess we’ll have to head for our Dublin airport hotel today for some excitement. And then a plane flight back to Orlando tomorrow, we hope. Haven’t heard much from Florida yet this morning other than that Irma is now a Category 1 hurricane, down from a 3 last night. We’re hoping for no major excitement regarding the plane and the hurricanes over the next few days. We’re also praying for the safety of family, friends, and neighbors right now and over the coming days. No word of major troubles there yet either although we’ve heard of some power outages from a few friends last night.
evertstouring 