The Crystal Weather Bubble Has (Well and Truly) Burst

A note to start this post - don't look at the dates; we're already home. There was so little time at the end of the cruise, when we finally got in a couple of ports, that we had no time to write. Better late than never, though!

We had barely left Dublin when Captain Vorland announced that the weather for Galway was not looking good. Another big low pressure system was heading in from the North Atlantic and it would be bringing heavy winds and very rough seas, with expected swells in the 25 foot range.  If the ship would have trouble in that weather, imagine trying to send out a tender!! So head office and Shorex got busy again and managed to get us a second day in Belfast to replace this cancelled port.

Once we arrived in Belfast, the weather wasn't much different than usual - cool, overcast with intermittent showers. We hadn't planned any tours here as we'd been up to Giants Causeway farther up the coast on our last trip, and had seen the Shankill Road and murals in the city, but we hadn't yet been to the Titanic Museum. That would be our goal for the day.

We took advantage of the Late Riser's Breakfast in Tastes, having a slight variation on our usual Sunday brunch, and then, umbrella in hand, headed off to the shuttle. We had stopped by the local tourist office desk onboard and got some information, which included discovering that, although we could see the Titanic Museum from the aft end of the ship, we would have to go into town to get to it! 

The shuttle buses were operated by the local Tourist Authority and took us to the Tourist Info Centre in Belfast. As soon as we got off the bus, all the guys from the various Hop On, Hop Off bus companies were right there. We have found that the Original Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tours company is the best one in all the cities where we have used them, so we started off with their rep. At the same time, one of the other guys was giving Larry a hard sell for his tour and not getting very far. If there's anything we don't like, it's a pushy salesperson.

The good thing about the Hop On, Hop Off pass was that it was good for two days, in case we needed the extra time to see anything in Belfast. We climbed aboard and took the bus to the Titanic Museum. Of course, it started to shower quite heavily just after we got off the bus and our umbrella was just big enough to ward off the worst of it as we ran to the building.

We had no idea just how busy it would be on a Sunday and they have some crowd control measures in place to keep the exhibits from getting too crowded, so we had some time to kill once we had bought our tickets and went outside to look at the slipway where Titanic and her sister Olympic were built. Fortunately the rain had stopped and we had a good look around.

Looking down the Titanic slipway at Serenity. A subtle reminder
of how the past has shaped the present.

Some of the original Harlan & Wolff buildings
beside the new museum.

The Titanic wasn't the only engineering and architectural masterpiece in Belfast in 1910. In order to build her, a huge gantry had to be built first. The Arrol Gantry was 220 feet high, the largest in the world at the time, designed and built by Sir William Arrol, whose company also worked on the Tower Bridge in London and the Forth Bridge outside Edinburgh in Scotland. The light standard poles along the slipway representing the gantry are only 1/3 the actual height. The 'crew member' stationed at the gantry display inside later told us that the first thing any new Titanic worker at Harlan & Wolff had to do was climb to the top of the gantry; if he couldn't do it, he wasn't hired.

The slipway has been turned into multiple exhibitions: A life sized outline of the main deck of Titanic is embedded in the actual spot where it was built; along one side of the slipway there is a grass and timber representation of the proportion of people in all 3 classes, as well as the oft-forgotten crew members, who survived and those who died. And something we didn't even realize until doing a little research afterward - the wooden benches around the slipway actually spell out Titanic's last SOS message in Morse code.

The white outlines depict the main deck; the light standards are
gantry frames. You can just see the grass and timber
along the right side. The raised area in the middle is a
memorial to those who died, and to those who built Titanic

The Titanic Experience is the main exhibition and includes artefacts, photos and interactive presentations, even a couple of rides - one in an elevator to give you an idea of the height of the gantry, and another Disney-like trip to bring riders closer to the sights and sounds of the building process. It covers the design, build, launch, fit out, and all the stops she made on her maiden, and only, voyage. Here are a few photos of the exhibits; it was quite busy and difficult to get good pictures.

White Star Line posters. The Titanic Museum
is star-shaped to represent the line.

A First-Class cabin aboard Titanic. Relatively
large even by today's standards.

Of course, Titanic's striking the iceberg and sinking were also well covered, as well as the inquiry into the event that resulted in many of the safety at sea requirements that are still followed today. But one of the best presentations is a film showing some close ups of the wreck and parts of the debris field around it. You can also get a topside view of the wreck, looking down as the wreck passes slowly by underneath.

The Titanic Experience is a great way to spend about 3 hours (don't plan on any less) in Belfast and we were very glad that we finally got there.

Once we left the museum we thought we would be able to catch the next Hop On Hop Off bus. We saw it driving up, but were about 3 steps too slow and it took off just as we crossed through the gate to get to the pickup spot. Not wanting to wander around for another half hour, we went looking for a taxi, and eventually got back to the ship.

That evening we were also treated to a local music and dancing group, all Belfast natives. They write many of their own songs, some with a historical twist and a Titanic or shipbuilding theme. They brought with them three dancers who were also quite good. The one in the vest looked a lot like Colleen...

One tip that the tourist office person had given us was to check PRONI, Public Records of Northern Ireland, to look for ancestry information for Larry's father's family. Fortunately it can be accessed online so it wasn't necessary to make another trip, although the office is near the Titanic Museum.

The original plan was to be in Londonderry on the 4th, but this reschedule had moved it out to the 5th.  We weren't planning to go anywhere there, so we had booked massages (yes, even Larry) for that day, which we couldn't change. Monica couldn't get hers moved up to the morning from the afternoon, so we weren't able to get off the ship on our second day. Oh, well, that just meant more time to get the blog up to date.