Hal and Nancy's visit

St. Patrick's CoI
St. Patrick's RC











Belfast






















Queen's University
Botanic Gardens












On Wednesday morning we briefly toured Armagh (after visiting the very helpful tourist info who made us reservations in Antrim for that evening). Armagh is the oldest town in Ireland and is the only town in Europe with 2 cathedrals dedicated to the same saint - St. Patrick, who did some of his very early missionary work there. We visited (and you see pictures of) both the Church of Ireland St' Patrick's (which has the high ground) and the Roman Catholic St. Patrick's (which has the soaring spires!).

We then drove to Belfast and parked in a shopping center on the outskirts and took a cab in. We took a tour bus around the city, which we really enjoyed and was the right choice for such a brief visit. We received a great overview of the city. You'll see the wall murals - paintings on buildings which have been painted on for years. Especially note our favorite of George W. sucking oil from Iraq. There are ones dating from "the Troubles" and other political statements. Our tour guide pointed out areas relating to the Troubles - there was a Catholic area and a Protestant area with a "wall of peace" built in between (sort of an oxymoron, and he felt it should be torn down soon.). There was also a police station with a large concrete abutment built out from the front - to provide a buffer against car bombs. We saw a school with bullet holes in it and the Hotel Europa which was targeted during the Troubles at least 37 times, but was never put out of business permanently. More surprising to us, we learned about the devastation of Belfast during WWII bombing - very severe, almost the entire city centre destroyed. We also saw the offices and shipyard where the Titanic was planned and built - and just missed a major Titanic exhibit, which started later in the week. After the tour we went to the historic City Hall, with the giant overhead dome window in the rotunda, then walked to the Queen's University, which we enjoyed (passing on the way a Burger King and KFC! - it's everywhere). At this University is a beautiful botanic garden which we enjoyed.

Next we headed to our B&B in Antrim.