Photos and the City

Tag: UK

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
Jacobite Train

When I walked around Edinburgh with Darina she told me about this “Harry Potter train”, an old steam train that crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct (like in the movies) and passes many filming locations not only from “Harry Potter” but also “Outlander” and “Game of Thrones”. I didn´t get that train out of my mind, put it on top of the bucket list and to be honest it was kind of my excuse to travel to Scotland during the summer. (As you would need an excuse..)

There are different compartments like second class, first class and first class “Harry Potter Style”, which I picked – I just love to ride in style!

There is also a little “Harry Potter gift shop on board. But even if you´re not interested in that wizard-stuff at all, the train ride from Fort William to Mallaig is one of the most scenic train journeys alongside Loch Eil, Glenfinnan Viaduct and Arisaig.

The route is also the same shown in the Harry Potter films. The company running the Jacobite service provided Warner Brothers with the train used as the Hogwarts Express in all of the movies and allowed them use of the Jacobite’s route for filming. The locomotive used to pull the Hogwarts Express in the films, the GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall, is presently located at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden and can be seen during studio tours. (Wikipedia)

The Jacobite Train starts from Fort William and ends 41 miles later in Mallaig.

The Mallaig Extension of the West Highland Railway opened in 1901 and was operated by the North British Railway. It was intended to help open up this rural and remote part of the Scottish Atlantic coast, and the building of the line was heavily subsidised by the British Government. It became part of the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923, and British Railways at Nationalisation in 1948. (Wikipedia)

Regular Steam Train services ended in 1967. In 1984 British Railways reintroduced a Steam Train on part of this route to boost tourism and called it the “West Highlander”, later renamed to “The Lochaber”.

After the privatisation of the British Railway, the licence for this route was granted to the West Coast Railway Company and they started their service in the summer of 1995 under the name “The Jacobite”.

The image above shows the Glenfinnan monument shortly before the Glenfinnan Viaduct. My seat was on the aisle side so I didn´t see the viaduct but I made that up on the way back.

A longer stop at the Glenfinnan station, to shop at the Harry Potter gift shop in the train and to visit the Glenfinnan Station Museum or just look around the station. There is also an old Dining and Sleeping Car, which I have to try out next time.

We´re approaching Mallaig – hello again! This was already my starting point for Skye. The train stopped for around one to two hours in Mallaig which I spent just sitting at the harbour. Had to take in as much sea as possible before going back to Vienna.

Wouldn´t that be the perfect place to write, relax and just switch off?

Meeting the afternoon train at Glenfinnan station. That was my clue to get out on the aisle and watch the train ride from the window in the door.

The first view of the viaduct and I´m not the only one peeking out of the window.

About an hour later we arrived back at Fort William and I spent my last hours walking around the town and boarded the Caledonian sleeper back to London in the evening.

And I can´t wait to go back to Scotland!

14/09/2017