Belfast, Ireland...

Sunday, September 29. Rain,  10 C.

It's a long way from Kirkwall to Dublin, so much so that it takes a full 24 hours of running at near top speed to get here. We appreciated the time to have a lazy sleep in this morning. We were at the top end of the Irish Sea when we awoke this morning. Another five hours before we get to Belfast.

Believe it or not we have only five more sleeps and then the great Silver Bird flies us home. We arrive back in Southampton in the morning, get on the coach and shuttle up to Heathrow where we leave  at 2:10 in the afternoon and arrive in Vancouver at 3:55, in the afternoon. All Lord willing of course.

About this cruise: We have only five more sleeps before we return home this coming Friday. Wow, about the shortest cruse for us in 30 years. And, to a non-exotic place like Britain! It is exactly what Fellette and I wanted. The last World Cruise we were on in the spring of 2023 was a bit of a disaster for us in many ways. I said that I had  'Hung up my cruising shoes' after that one. There were many reasons for that that I will not mention. This was a 'Test Cruise' to see how we liked cruising or if our 'Cruise Days' were truly over. At this point I can say that we still enjoy the life aboard. But, on a smaller and more sedate pace, like this one.

An Informative Afternoon.

On a Tour called The Titanic Trail, after lunch.

This is the Dry Dock that the Titanic was sailed into after it was launched. There, the hull could be painted and the propellors installed.

In the bottom of the dry dock. After floating the ship in, the water would be pumped out and the keel would rest on the massive cast iron  and wooden blocks running the length of the keel. The ship was propped up sideways by timbers from the sides of the concrete walls to the ship. The workers can then get to work on installing propellors and I suppose, the ridder mechanism.

A profile of the prow of the ship. It does not look to the right scale as the ship was massive in every way.

No expense was spared here. The whole dockyard area, acres and acres of it has been converted to a Shrine to 'Everything Titanic'. Almost to a Disneyland proportion, but this is history and not make believe. The building and displays that houses 'Titanic Belfast' is a very comprehensive and hands on on experience. It is amazing at how many adults can linger at the displays and stories inside this massive building. It was designed  and built to specifically be a World Class attraction to draw people to Belfast to stimulate the Belfast economy. I would say it has succeeded.

If you try hard, you can see the word TITANIC made from a plate of steel like the ship was made from.

Self explanatory.

All things Trans Atlantic.

Just a very pleasant booster for Belfast on display.

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I apologize in advance for the number of typographical errors in the blogs. The internet coverage up in northern UK is sparse as we were shown yesterday by our Romanian friend in the office for passengers  assistance for all things to do with internet at sea! I cannot proof-read my work because I risk the chance of loosing it completely, as I have done a few times this trip