Belfast, Saturday

We did not know what to expect when visiting Belfast. Would it be like Dublin? Feel like Dublin? We are spending 2 full days here, 3 nights. The hotel room is super comfortable. It's a new hotel right behind the train station, (only been open for 12 weeks) with the best shower so far!! 

Saturday we did the hop on hop off bus - to get a general feel for size and shape of the city. We stayed on for the full 1 1/2 hr tour. It all seemed just like any normal city until towards the last bit when they took us through the area of "The Troubles": The Falls and Shankill. We were both surprised to see that there is still a high wall separating parts of Belfast, barbed wire and many political murals everywhere, with flags flying so it is easy to tell where local sympathies lie - although there has been peace for 20 years. It doesn't feel good to me, feels wrong. 

I was glad when the trip was over but also glad that we did it to get a better understanding of how all this started and how far back in history the Troubles really go. 

Our bus stopped so folks could write messages of peace on this huge wall built between areas of the city.

Another fence along a common road, dividing areas. 

Felt great after getting off the bus to go into a cafe for a lovely latte.

One of the most interesting buildings in downtown Belfast is the Presbyterian Assembly Buildings built in 1905. They are the largest group of Protestants in N. Ireland, originally from Scotland. The bell tower holds Belfast's largest set of pealing bells, with 12 bells.

We found a great restaurant just a block from our hotel and managed to get a reservation (it's very busy on a Saturday night) and then found it was the one some friends had told us about. The Hope Restaurant is a "bring your own bottle" kind of place. We had a wonderful meal, I had sea bass with the most delicious sauce of tomato and pesto. Wendy had a seafood risotto which was also excellent.

seabass in sauce with root veggies underneath.

Seafood risotto

 

One of our favorite New Zealand wines. Remember - no local wine in Ireland.

And a dessert to die for... Sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce and ice cream. Oh Heaven!! 

The only issue was the noise level in the place. There were a couple of large groups and we could not believe how much noise they made. We couldn't wait for them to be fed to see if that would quiet them down a bit. For us, it was a dinner to remember.

An Irish coffee for Wendy's dessert.