Voyage of the Vikings Redux – Belfast, Northern Ireland

Cruise Day 21

Friday, August 11, 2023

Our port today is Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Ireland, where we were yesterday, is an independent country and part of the European Union, while Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom although they do have their own parliament.  We were in Belfast back in 2016 and enjoyed our stay so we were looking forward to visiting again.

We sailed from Cobh (blue marker at the bottom) up the Irish coast to Belfast (red marker).

We docked in Belfast around 9:00 AM under sunny skies for a change.  We have a 9:30 ship tour today, so we got up a little before eight and had time for breakfast and still be able to get to the World Stage for our tour meeting time.  Our tour is called “Ards Pennisula Scenic Drive” and although it wasn’t our first choice for a tour today, we’re still hoping for the best.

A more detailed look a the Belfast area.  The Ards peninsula, where our tour goes today, is the large peninsula hanging down on the right side.

Sailing into Belfast.

This is where we are docking, the terminal is the white building to the left.

We got to the World Stage early and had to wait a while for our tour to be called, but when it was finally called, we were one of the first ones off and on the bus.  The advantage of being one of the first on the bus is that it allows you to sit near the front.  When you have a tour bus full of 30 or 40 people, it takes time to unload at the various stops so being near the front means you get off quickly.

We drove through Belfast and made a short stop in the Stormont area of Belfat.  It is the home of the Northern Ireland Parliament and the parliament building was built to resemble the US Capitol Building.  It is situated on a hill at the end of a very long drive lined with trees.

It is a long drive along a tree lined boulevard to get up to the capitol building, very dramatic.

The parliament building.

Next, we drove on to Donaghadee, a small village on the Irish Sea.  We were taken to a pub where we could sample some Irish Coffee which is coffee with whiskey added.  Val and I almost never drink alcohol and neither of us like coffee so we skipped it and walked around the picturesque town.

The pub where we stopped for our Irish Coffee.

Val and I don't like coffee or whiskey, so we took a look around and then went outside to explore the area.

Looks like they were expecting a big day with many kegs of Guinness being unloaded.

The harbor.

We drove on along the scenic coast and agricultural area to Grey Abbey, which is a very old monastery that was built back in 1193.  The monastery is now in ruins, but still very interesting.  We were guided around by a docent who gave us the history and other information and then we had some free time to wander around on our own.

Some pictures from the bus as we drove to Grey Abbey.

This was our last stop of the tour and from there we drove back to Belfast and the ship.  The first part of the drive back was very scenic that varied from a drive through the country to along the coast.  This turned out to be a pretty good tour, nothing too exciting but interesting, nonetheless.  Our guide was okay and provided us with a lot of information, but also spent a lot of time talking about the Titanic that was built in Belfast.  It was interesting, but he went on and on.

On the way back, he spent even longer talking about Irish whiskey comparing it to other whiskeys and extolling its virtues.  Again, at first it was interesting, but he went on and on about that as well.  He was obviously a whiskey aficionado, but most of us weren’t all that interested in hearing all the minute details.  Anyway, he was fine and was very nice, but compared to our other recent guides he fell a little short.

A couple more pictures from the bus on the way back.

We got back to the ship around 2:00 and spent some time looking around the shops that were around the pier.  I found a t-shirt for myself and Val found some more gifts for Christmas.  By the time we got back on the ship, we were very hungry, and the Lido Buffet had closed, so we got our lunch in the Neptune Lounge.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, but I did update the blog as we have another port and tour tomorrow, so I have to keep up.  We did see a sobering scene right below our balcony this afternoon and they were loading a lady into an ambulance.  She was still somewhat mobile, so we hope it wasn’t anything too serious, but it is always sad to see someone have to leave the ship in the middle of a cruise.

The weather, which had been mostly sunny and relatively warm all morning started to change, cloud up and cool off and by the time we sailed away from Belfast the rain had started.

We saw a lot these huge blades being stored next to where our ship was docked and figured they were for some power generating windmills, but we had never seen any so large before.  We learned on our tour that Northern Ireland is starting to generate power with offshore windmills and these were for them.

As we sailed away from Belfast we saw several of these odd looking barge like ships and couldn't figure out what they were.

Val zoomed in with her camera and it was obvious what they did.  They carried those huge blades to the offshore wind generating installations.  Very interesting, I would like to see how they unload and install them.

We spent our usual evening with dinner and the casino and then returned to our room and relaxed and read until we called it a night and went to bed.  Tomorrow we’ll be on the Isle of Lewis, another Scottish island.