Monday was the last day of our trip. There were only two flights to Manchester, one at 9.30am and one at 10.30pm. We decided to take the later one and have the day in Belfast first, even though we knew it meant we wouldn't be home until way after midnight. Lee booked the Tueseday off work but I couldn't swap my days around due to other stuff, so I went to work on Tuesday and was actually fine. I had warned them I might be late but I wasn't particularly! I felt worse on the Wednesday and Thursday, as we had walked a really long way and I had pushed myself to do a lot. Fortunately I was able to rest both days and felt way better after that.
Again I had researched what to do in Belfast and had booked us to go to the Titanic Experience museum and to Home for tea. It was useful to be able to pre book and in some cases pre pay for things. It gave us structures to our days! Lee had looked at where the murals were in Belfast and was able to download a map which was very useful. We arrived at the Titanic museum and parked underneath it, then made our way upstairs. It was quite busy (staff said it was much busier than they would expect for a Monday morning) and there were people from all over the place, which I somehow wasn't expecting?! Apparently some people come on trips from cruise ships, which does make sense.
Now, I already know quite a lot about the Titanic and the disaster, but I was willing to learn more things. And I did! The beginning of the museum focuses on the workers on the shipyards (Titanic was built in Belfast) and the social mores of the time, and on the building of the ship itself. There's very little about the disaster (my mum pointed out that since they built it maybe they didn't want to focus on the fact that it failed on its maiden voyage, which was something I hadn't considered...) but there is quite a bit on the aftermath and particularly on the health and safety measures that were implemented after the disaster. I also learnt some stuff about the Carpathia (which picked up survivors) and the California (which did not rouse itself to go help Titanic - there's questions about whether they could have or not - but it is the ship that survivors were taken to New York on). There's also some really sad stuff about the last messages that Titanic sent.
It's a decent museum, we liked it. There's all kinds of tacky souvenirs in the shop; I just bought postcards. We had lunch in the cafe and then drove round Belfast looking at the murals. The only one of these that I actually knew beforehand was the Bobby Sands one, which is on the side of the Sinn Fein building on the Falls Road. But there's loads! But they're much more hidden than the Derry ones, and right in the middle of housing in a lot of places. A few people asked what we were doing - not in an aggressive way, just more wondering! It was truly humbling to see the Bobby Sands mural and I kept looking up the people in the other ones to see what their role was in the struggle for civil rights. I'm so glad we did this.
Next we parked in the Castlefield shopping centre and walked up to the cathedral quarter. The cathedral itself had just closed which was a shame because we might have gone in. The area it is in is really lovely and reminded me a lot of the northern quarter in Manchester, but there aren't the same indie little shops like there are in Manchester. It's a shame, because it would be way better if there were! We had a coffee in a cafe and then went back to the car, to move it closer to Home where we were eating.
The restaurant is really highly rated and inside it's got a nice atmosphere. It's a bit more expensive than you might otherwise pay, but we had decided to treat ourselves. We both wanted dessert, so decided to share some bread for a starter. It came with butter and tapenade and was totally delicious. Then I had Korean fried cauliflower and fries with truffle oil and parmesan, both of which were absolutely gorgeous. Lee had chicken supreme and a chicken and potato croquette, which he really enjoyed. Then for pudding he had sticky toffee pudding and I had espresso creme caramel and chocolate sorbet. I also had a white peach and bergamot cocktail. It was a lovely meal and really nicely rounded off our holiday.
After food we filled the car up with petrol and headed off to the airport. Departures was way bigger than arrivals and really quite big! We ended up sitting in Starbucks for a while before boarding the plane. We quickly got back to England and got the car and drove home. My mum had kindly picked up the cats for us and dropped them off at home earlier in the day so that they were there when we got home, so it was lovely to see them of course! We slept well after walking really far!
It was a gorgeous five days away. I really pushed myself in terms of activity but I did fine and I'm proud of myself. As I said before I was very tired on the couple of days afterwards, but I quickly recovered. This gives me hope for doing this kind of trip somewhere else - I'm considering near Barcelona or something!
