Day 9: Saint Patrick and Titanic

We didn’t have to leave the cottages until 11:15am today, so I got a bit of a chance to sleep in. I got up around 9am and then decided to do some laundry. Well, laundry didn’t go so well because it took much longer than 2 hours, so I had to leave it in the washer and dryer until we got home later today.

The first thing we did after leaving our Dundrum cottages was stop at the Saint Patrick Centre. We spent about an hour and a half there and we went through the Saint Patrick exhibit. The exhibit explains about Saint Patrick’s life. It talks about him being captured into slavery and the events that followed afterwards. The exhibit was also accompanied by an IMAX movie, which flew all over Northern Ireland. After the exhibit, we stopped at Subway for lunch because it is right across the street from the Centre. I got the 6-inch sub of the day, which was spicy Italian for only £1.99. After a quick lunch, we headed to Saint Patrick Cathedral to see Patrick’s gravesite. We then headed to Saul’s Church, which has a stained glass window depicting Patrick. The last part of our Saint Patrick tour was driving by the largest statute of Patrick.

(Saint Patrick's Grave)

Following our Saint Patrick tour, we headed to Belfast for the Titanic festival. Before stopping at the festival, we visited the dry dock where Titanic was built. The dry dock was huge and it was crazy to think that the giant ship was built there. What was even more mindboggling was the fact that the ship was larger than the dock because the dry dock was only the size of the Titanic’s more narrow base. I cannot imagine the size of the ship had we seen it actually in the dock. We also got to see the Caroline, which was a warship that is in the water right by the dry dock.

(Me by the dry dock where Titanic was built)

Then we headed to the Titanic festival. Basically, this was just a festival dedicated to boats and it had a lot of food and jewelry venders. We went on a boat that looked similar to a pirate’s ship from Pirates of the Caribbean. There were a few other ships, but we didn’t actually go on those ones. Then we walked around by the vendors. I got an ice cream cone, but didn’t get anything else because most of the vendors didn’t seem unique to Ireland. I kind of felt as if I was at Summerfest because several of the vendors were similar to those I would see in Milwaukee.

(Ship that we got to go on at the Titanic Festival)

After Titanic festival, we took a short bus tour of the city of Belfast. We were originally going to stop and walk around, but we didn’t have much time. We drove by the museum, BBC headquarters, and Queens University just to name a few. We also stopped at Belfast City Hall to take a few pictures. The city hall there is very gorgeous and it’s located in the heart of the city near a number of other buildings.

(Belfast City Hall)

The rest of the night was ours to relax. Mainly, I spent the time finishing my laundry, making some pasta for dinner, and taking a shower. Now, I think I’ll catch up on some email and just relax.

Until tomorrow, goodnight!