Photos and the City

Tag: Northern Ireland

Around Belfast

My bus from Dublin Airport to Belfast arrived in the evening and other than talking a short walk around my Airbnb and enjoying the bathtub I didn´t do much on that evening. I spent two nights in a beautiful Victorian Building in the Queen´s Quarter – a lovely residential area named after the Queen´s University and only a 20 minute walk away from the city centre.

Queen´s University (The Lanyon Building) – not only a beautiful building but also the oldest University of Northern Ireland, opened in 1849 with roots going back to 1810.

And right behind the university lies the Botanic Garden and another stunning greenhouse.

Victoria Square and a little statue in front of the (closed) St. George´s market. One can find a lot of Victoria and Albert in Belfast, even my room at the Airbnb was called “Victoria & Albert Suite”.

Murals are everywhere, absolutely everywhere! And on the right: The Albert Memorial Clock, situated on the Queen´s Square. Completed in 1869 it is Belfast “Leaning Tower” – as it was constructed on wooden piles on marshy land around the River Farset, the top of the tower leans about 1 metre.

After my Titanic Boat Tour, walking around the Titanic Quarter and a short bus ride to the Peace Wall (this will be the next post) I strolled back to Victoria Square and on top of the Victoria Square Shopping Center with it´s 360° view over the city. Can you spot the Albert Memorial Clock?

Getting lost in the little alleys around the square and ending up in Cathedral Quarter, a recently redeveloped area of Belfast with lots of contemporary restaurants, bars and hotels and St. Anne´s Cathedral (Belfast Cathedral). The foundation was laid in 1899 and several additions built over the years. The most recent one a 40-metre stainless steel spire was installed on top of the cathedral in 2007 and called the “Spire of Hope”. Illuminated at night it represents the hope for peace and is part of the redevelopment of the Cathedral Quarter. The biggest Celtic Cross is one side of the cathedral.

Belfast City Hall is located on Donegal Square. In 1888 Queen Victoria awarded “city status” to Belfast and the planning for the City Hall began. Construction started in 1898 and was finished in 1906.

During “the Troubles” Hotel Europa on Great Victoria Street was the most bombed hotel in the world after having suffered 36 bomb attacks (and more than 40 that didn´t detonate). Today it is a four-star hotel and was completely refurbished.

One of the most know pubs or former Victorian “gin palace” is the Crown Liquor Saloon on Great Victoria Street, also known as Crown Bar.

Opened by Felix O’Hanlon as The Railway Tavern, the pub was then bought by Michael Flanagan. Flanagan’s son Patrick renamed and renovated the pub in 1885.

The Crown owes its elaborate tiling, stained glass and woodwork to the Italian craftsmen whom Flanagan persuaded to work on the pub after hours. These craftsmen were brought to Ireland to work on the many new churches being built in Belfast at the time. It was this high standard of work that gave the Crown the reputation of being one of the finest Victorian Gin Palaces of its time. (Crown Liquor Saloon)

29/09/2017
Titanic Experience

It´s been 20 years since Rose didn´t make some space for Jack on that door – and yes it would have been wide enough – to celebrate that anniversary of a movie I once saw so often, I made my way back to Queen´s Island (now called Titanic Quarter) after my boat tour.

The regeneration of the waterfront and the area started in 1995, the largest development was the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction.

The SS Nomadic was launched in 1911 in Belfast and is a former tender of the White Star Line. She was used t0 transfer passengers, their baggage, mail and ship’s supplies from and to the RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic lying offshore, she is the last existing vessel from the White Star Line.

The Nomadic tendered until 1934 when the White Star Lines merged with Cunard Line.

During World War II, Nomadic again saw service; on 18 June 1940 she took part in the evacuation of Cherbourg. She was subsequently requisitioned by the Royal Navy and based in Portsmouth harbour, she operated as a troop ship, coastal patrol vessel and minelayer for the remainder of the war.

During the war, Cherbourg port was heavily damaged, so large ocean liners could no longer dock there. Nomadic was saved from the shipbreakers and again returned to tendering duties for the SCSR from Cherbourg. She served the ocean liners of the day, such as Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. She finally retired from these duties on 4 November 1968. (SS Nomadic)

After some years she was bought, renovated and converted into a restaurant on the Seine in Paris in 1974. After the death of the owner, she was towed out of Paris to Le Havre by the French authorities who were looking for a buyer. Private Irish and French maritime societies started campaigns to raise money to buy the Nomadic but failed. In the end, it was the Northern Ireland government who bought the vessel at the auction and brought her back to Belfast in 2006. Restauration works were finished in 2012 and now she lays in the historic Hamilton Dock.

The entrance and inside the Titanic Experience. Be prepared for a lot of people and to have to wait for an assigned timeslot. I used this time to walk to the end of Queen´s Island along the Titanic Studios and the HMS Caroline to the Pump Station and the Titanic´s Dock.

View over the historic slipways where Titanic and Olympic were built and from where they were first launched into the water.

Walk down the very slipway where Titanic was constructed and explore a life size plan of Titanic’s Promenade Deck which is inlaid in white stone.

Discover the positions of the liner’s lifeboats and funnels and have a seat at one of the benches positioned exactly as they would have been on board the deck of Titanic. (Titanic Belfast)

The Thompson Dry Dock, where Titanic sat on dry land for the last time.

Tour through the harbour of Belfast, this “flying part” was probably one of my favourites from the Experience.

The plaza seen from above. Titanic STudios to the left.

First Class

Second Class

Third Class

26/09/2017
Titanic Boat Tour

We´re doing a little time- & place jump – it was August, I needed a break from the heat in Vienna and went back up north – but this time to Northern Ireland and started in Belfast. Even so, I´ve been to Ireland several times, I´ve never been in the North.

By now you might have noticed if there is a boat tour I´m gonna find and do it. (Sometimes even twice a day)

The Titantic Boat Tour started near the Albert Memorial Clock and the Big Fish – a lovely old fisher boat waited for us on the River Lagan.

Accompanied by the commentary of the captain we made our way to the Titanic Quarter. A fairly new built and reactivated area, with apartment buildings and shops, but also huge film studios, the Titanic Experience (museum), regeneration on the waterfront, entertainment and historic maritime landmarks.

The SS Nomadic and the Titanic Experience on the site of the former Harland & Wolff shipyard, where the RMS Titanic was built. In the historic Hamilton Dock the last remaining White Star Line ship in the world: The SS Nomadic was launched in April 1911 and was built to transfer passengers and mail to and from RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic.

The Titanic Experience (seen from the other side), located on the Queen´s Island at the entrance to Belfast Lough, is a visitor centre and a monument to Belfast´s maritime heritage.

The building’s design is intended to reflect Belfast’s history of shipmaking and the industrial legacy bequeathed by Harland & Wolff. Its angular form recalls the shape of ships’ prows, with its main “prow” angled down the middle of the Titanic and Olympic slipways towards the River Lagan.^[8] Alternatively, it has been suggested that the building looks like an iceberg, and locals have already nicknamed it “The Iceberg”.^[12] Most of the building’s façade is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodised aluminium shards.^[9] It stands 126 feet (38 m) high, the same height as Titanic‘s hull.^{[12] (Titanic Belfast)}

The poles represent the massive steel gantry in which Titanic and Olympic were built and light bands show the outlines of the ships.

Right next to the Titanic Experience are the huge Titanic Studios were at the moment “Game of Thrones” is filmed. Drones above the area are forbidden and all the fences around the studio area are opaque. An armada of caravans was parked on the side of the studios….

The HMS Caroline served from 1914 until her decommissioning in 2011 as the second oldest ship in the Royal Navy. Now she is Belfast newest visitor attraction and anchors in the Alexandra Graving Dock. “…a graving dock refers to an enclosed basin into which a ship is taken for underwater cleaning or repair” (Titanic Belfast).

In the mid 1870ies, the docks became too small for increased sizes and numbers of ships and a new one was commissioned on the northeastern edge of Queen´s Island.

Seals seem to like Musgrave Channel – here lives Belfast’s large breeding seal colony – around 40 were counted in 2016. This was also the point when our boat turned around and made its way back through the harbour.

And we were back on the River Lagan and at Donegall Quay – the Albert Memorial Clock on the left and the Big Fish in the middle.

19/09/2017