Monday 6th June

As my brother Shaun had arrived in Northern Ireland yesterday (this was purely a fluke that we had decided to visit the same country on our holidays at the same time!), we thought it would be a good idea to meet up and do a day together, also because we had many of the same things on our list to do in the area.  Shaun was staying in Carrickfegus for about 4 days before moving on north, and given the weather, we decided that the Titanic Museum in Belfast was a good one to go with.

We decided to pay for the Museum and the SS Nomadic as we thought that a guided tour wasn't really worth paying the extra for when it was quite easy to move around yourself and there was the option to do this too.  Starting off with the 'Titanic Experience', we began with industry in Belfast, such as Linen making, Steelworking etc, before moving on to Shipbuilding and the construction of the Titanic and its sister ships, the Britannic and the Olympic.  There were individuals who were focussed on with regards to who travelled on the Titanic and what class they travelled in, and there was also a fun little car ride taking you 'around the ship yard', and a visual show where you travelled up the boat from the engine room up to the deck.

We saw an example of the cabins on the Titanic according to the class travelled in, and then on to the launch.  The sinking of the Titanic was done really well I thought, silent images showing how the boat sank alongside visuals of morse code messages sent from the ship as it was sinking and audio recordings of survivors recollections of what happened.  After this, we returned to some of the people we had met beforehand learning of their fate.

There were plenty of resources to look at news reports etc and even places where you could look into your own anscestors who may have travelled on the ship, and then an area about how the Titanic had been used and inspired people in music, movies and stories.  Finally we went into the 'Discovery Zone' as we followed the discovery of the wreck and retrieval of information, including a film of video taken by the ROVs used to explore.  We could even explore the ocean floor ourselves using interactive screens, which was quite good!

After lunch we went to the SS Nomadic across the road and saw some of the people who had travelled on it - this was a tender ship for the Titanic, to ferry people across because the Titanic was too large to dock in the harbour.  Finally, we ended our visit with a trip to the Titanic Pumphouse and Dock where it was built, which was enormous!!

We all went back to our place in Dromore before heading on out for dinner - we went to nearby Hillsborough to The Parson's Nose which we found a menu for online yesterday and booked a table.  Very delicious and enjoyable food I have to say - if you're ever in the area I highly recommend it!