A Miscellaneous Blog


Days 13 & 14, we have had rest days. Yesterday, 13th June I spent doing laundry and general cleaning on the boat. Josh sorted out the charts for the next leg of our trip. We did go and see Rocketman at the local Odyssey Entertainment centre five minutes walk away, which houses a bowling alley, 12 cinema screens, ice hockey rink and cafes. There were only two other people in the cinema ! Contrast this to Crawley (my local entertainment complex) or Westwood Cross. This is a major city in the UK but pleasantly uncrowded....or perhaps the film wasn't very popular? We enjoyed it immensely.

Today it has been cold and showery so we took the Tourist hop- on hop- off bus, but just stayed on it for the whole route as it was very pleasant weather! The guide was very good and explained the Troubles in a clear and balanced way. To still see "peace" walls dividing streets in 2019 UK is hard to believe unless you have seen it. Very haunting. We had to visit another "oldest pub in Belfast" -Whites, which is down a narrow alley off the High Street. Small and cosy and very busy.

Here are some odd bits and pieces to entertain you if you have the time, if not switch off now and await a more exciting blog to come in the next few days as we resume our sailing trip.

A history of how Belfast got it's name.

The final "Glass of Thrones" window sited at the end of the Titanic slipway.

Titanic snippets... more than 3 million rivets were used in it's making. It cost $7.5 million to build and this was financed by J P Morgan, the American banker. She was the first ship to have a heated swimming pool and there were also squash courts on board. The sinking caused changes in the maritime rules and regulations regarding number of lifeboats on board and SOS became the standard distress call for all ships around the world.


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