Bob:

Our ship entered Belfast harbor just after 6:00 a.m., but this time we were assisted by a tugboat attached to our stern with a big, thick hawser. It was fascinating to watch the tug help spin us around 180 degrees when we reached the area of the dock. Apparently our bow and stern thrusters were not up to doing that kind of a pirouette unassisted. Possibly the tug was just acting as an "emergency brake", so to speak, but its propellers were churning up the sea so it was definitely actively involved in our maneuvering.

We edged up to the wharf right at sunrise, and sunlight and water often make for interesting pictures. The arms of the harbor in Belfast look a bit like the tines of a fork. We were on the inlet closest to the city, and then came one or two more inlets where cargo ships docked and unloaded. On the far side of the harbor lay the main runway of the Belfast municipal airport. After sunrise we saw airplanes landing there, and beyond that were some low green hills with small pastures outlined with hedgerows and trees.

Monika:

Bob:

Since the double-decker shuttle bus was free, courtesy of the City of Belfast, and we wanted to conserve our energy for walking around the city, we took advantage of it. The drop-off point was downtown on a street leading to the city hall. We were amused to see a smaller version of the "London Eye" Ferris wheel sitting right beside the city hall. Since the city hall was a grand, stately old building and the Ferris wheel was, well, a huge white ring of a thing with glistening spokes and big plastic cabins, it looked almost as incongruous as the London Eye that sits across the Thames River from Parliament. Many of the other buildings in the immediate downtown area were also old but quite charming.

Monika:

Bob:

The city fathers of Belfast also had someone at the dock to hand out city maps and answer questions about where to find various sites, which was a service we had sorely missed in Dublin. The cute young lady marked Shankill Road and Falls Road, where a few murals from the time of sectarian strife were still to be found, and we decided to walk out on Shankill and then cut down to Falls Road. We wanted to see as much of the folk art as possible and both from the Protestant or Loyalist side, which was Shankill Road, and the Catholic or Republican side, which was on Falls Road.

I was glad we were walking because we could circle around to get a good view of some of the the murals. Rather than being on Shankill Road proper, we found most of the murals were located about a block North of Shankill in a gritty, working class housing area and adjacent small park. We could tell that several of the murals had recently been painted over by the city because the "government-sponsored" ones all had immaculate painting and a scroll that explained the historic scene depicted on the wall. Those were deliberately educational but certainly not inspirational.

In contrast, the murals that we thought were authentic were much less artistically polished but far more forceful. Those murals were not only designed to be inspirational but downright inflammatory. The paintings focused on remembrance of those killed in the strife as well as raging at the perpetrators of a long list of deadly incidents and vowing vengeance. Loyalty to Queen and Great Britain was also a theme of some murals, and the British Union Jack was fluttering everywhere. A lady actually walked up to us while we were photographing and described a store further up Shankill Road where we could purchase postcards of some of the murals that have now been painted over.

Monika:

Bob:

We walked South toward the Catholic enclave on Northumberland, and I was curious if I would see where the division point between the Protestant side and the Catholic side would be. Well, it turned out to be quite obvious indeed. I found two sets of big, metal gates about 50 yards apart that could close off both the road and the sidewalk. They were very strong gates topped with sharp spikes, and the walls on the side were topped with barbed wire. So clearly those gates could effectively seal off the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods.

The murals on the Catholic side of the wall, however, struck us as very different. The Catholic side also had its garden of remembrance for those who had died in the fighting or died in hunger strikes in prison, but the murals did not focus on specific incidents during the sectarian strife as the Protestant ones had. Instead, the Catholic murals on the "International Wall" focused on revolutionary movements in several other lands. In fact, Cuba, Palestine, and the Basque area of Spain were the focus of sympathetic murals. President Bush of the United States was derogated and roundly criticized as a war criminal.

I liked best a beautifully done, intricately colored mural with a Celtic motif painted on a small side wall. Unfortunately some vandals had spray painted designs over it, which in my view was a true shame because I thought it was a very nice piece of artwork indeed. Since it didn't appear to me to have any provocative or militant intent, I really couldn't understand the vandalism.

Monika:

Bob:

We walked back into the city center on Grosvenor Road and turned right at the grand old Opera House to head South toward the Botanical Gardens. Along the way we passed the Victoria Street Railroad Station and quite a few nice 19th century brick buildings still being used as stores or shops of one sort or the other. We were both hungry by that point and stopped off at a Quizno sub shop for a quick lunch before continuing on toward the campus of Queen's University, which had a very pretty main campus building. Crowds of students ebbed and flowed around us, enjoying the warm fall day.

Monika:

Bob:

Just past the university we found one entrance to the Botanical Gardens. We had heard and seen pictures of the "Palm House" in the port lecture for Belfast, and that had intrigued us. As it turned out, we were not disappointed because the actual building was was composed of a white iron framework and curved glass panels that was just as graceful as what we had seen in the pictures.

An additional bonus of visiting the Palm House was that it was still a working greenhouse, with displays of plants and flowers changed according to the seasons. The "cold" wing of the greenhouse was filled with what I think was Indian Paintbrush blooming in a regular riot of color.

The high, domed, central section of the house had tall banana plants and other large shrubs or trees that I couldn't identify. Looking straight up at the intricate and complex array of iron latticework that supported all the glass panels, I though it looked rather like a man-made spider web in the sky. I also found a large, concrete alligator covered with mosaics who was hiding in the bushes, and that was of course a surprise.

The "hot" wing of the greenhouse had the more exotic, tropical plants. I could recognize the Bird of Paradise plant from our trip to Hawaii (Ausflug 35), but not much else. Monika thought she recognized a couple of the others as some kind of a blooming cactus, but there were still other plants that even she didn't know. Labels would have been useful, but it certainly was nice to see the beautiful flowers.

Monika:

Bob:

We had been walking for the better part of 5 hours by then and I needed a rest, so we sat on the park benches in front of the Palm House for a few minutes before continuing on through the Botanical Gardens to the River Lagan. There we joined a riverside walking path that led northwards in the general direction of downtown. Neither our map nor the GPS showed the path going completely through, however, so we branched off on Ormeau Road to return to the central business district.

We stopped off at St. George's Market, but found out that it was only open on Friday and Saturday, I think it was. I would have liked to see the interior of the old, picturesque, rambling brick building, but it was shuttered tight and we continued North to Waterfront Hall. There we had a nice view downstream toward the graceful Queen's Bridge and the old shipyards where H.M.S. Titanic had been built.

Monika:

Bob:

My attention was captured by an old Moto Guzzi motorcycle in the window of a cobbler's shop, so I stopped in to ask him about it. It turned out to be a post-WWII model built in 1952, and part of a collection of 12 antique Moto Guzzis owned by the cobbler. We chatted motorcycles for a bit and then Monika and I went shopping for some junk food. That is, I spotted an "Iceland" grocery store and we went in to see if they would perchance have wine or beer, which they didn't, or snack foods, which they did. We found butter cookie biscuits, chocolate, and a kind of "Rocky Road" brownie, but no pretzels of any kind. When I asked the cashier, she informed me that Irish folks just don't like to eat pretzels so stores generally don't carry that item although we saw plenty of potato chips (including Pringles) and other types of snack fare.

I also found a liter of Pepsi for 1 pound and a liter of Coke for 1.25 pounds, and as I can't really taste the difference that made it a no-brainer to buy the Pepsi. We sat outside to have some of the Rocky Road and liked it so much I went back in to buy another box to take back to the ship. That probably sounds weird to take junk food on a cruise ship, but some things, like pretzels, just don't show up on cruise ship menus or buffets, at least in my limited experience.

Monika:

Bob:

Limping back to the shuttle bus, we staggered on board with our bags of junk food. Monika found the last seat but I had to stand in the staircase between the first and second deck of the bus. It was hard to balance when he braked hard or went over speed bumps, but I had a great view and was able to take some more street pictures as our bus wended its way back out to the wharf.

Back at the ship, a drum and bagpipe band was playing to give us a fond farewell, complete with a couple of young girls dancing. Back in our cabin, I put my feet up to rest my legs while I brought my journal up to date. Monika rested a bit but then, as usual, was up and about the ship to watch it prepare for departure. Our Captain announced that bad weather in Iceland prevented us from stopping there, which was a bitter disappointment for me, but then it was time for another great meal and a nice relaxed evening.

Monika: