After lunch we took a walk to the Botanic Garden. It is from the Victorian era. The garden has a different look than most of the area around Belfast.
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| Garden Gate |
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| Rose Garden |
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| Palm House |
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| Ulster Museum |
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| Celtic Cross |
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| Irish Wolfhound |
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| dressing gown |
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Botanic Garden and Ulster Museum
Our day started out watching the horse jumping. It was fun to watch the beautiful horses clearing the fences so easily. We were cheering on Zara Phillips. It would have been fun to see her win a metal.
After lunch we took a walk to the Botanic Garden. It is from the Victorian era. The garden has a different look than most of the area around Belfast.
The Palm House was build between 1839 and 1852. It houses a lot of different varieties of plants. This garden is next door to the University. It made me wonder if the students get to use the greenhouse for their studies or if they help keep it up.
The Ulster Museum is in the park as well. It is a very well set up museum. Each floor has a different theme or covers a different era. It has a very open design and is 6 floors high. If you have troubles with heights this museum may not be the place for you to visit. Samuel was very keen and moved us through it really fast. The nice thing is admission is by donation so we can go again.
We are getting ready to be in an apartment. It would be nice to cook our own dinner. Eating out is fun for a couple days then it gets hard on the system. The kids are excited about the large open area in front of the apartment it would give them room to run and play.
After lunch we took a walk to the Botanic Garden. It is from the Victorian era. The garden has a different look than most of the area around Belfast.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Olympic Monday
Our day was centered around watching Zara Phillips the Queens granddaughter ride for GB in the Equestrian Cross Country event. Sarah is crazy about horses and being able to watch a royal ride in the Olympics was so exciting for her.
We found it amazing how something so small can unseat a great rider. There were several spills on the course yesterday. Most noticeable to us was the Canadians the first 3 crashed or fell off their horses. I guess we need to stick to the rodeo.
Lunch even centered around not missing a moment of horse riding.
We have two room thus two TV's which is good for kids that are not so excited about horses. It is like a theater in room one we have CBBC and in room two we have Olympic horses.
After veggin' on our bottoms for far to long. We headed out for a nice walk. The weather was warmer and than the last few days so it was nice to get out and stretch our legs. We also needed to find something reasonably priced for supper. We are getting so tired of eating out even the kids are ready for a home cooked meal. A visit to Poundland, Tesco and Boots provided us with our supper. The best part was nothing was fried or grilled in oil.
The best part of our day came in the form of an email. Our friends sent us a video of Sasha, our dog. We are missing her alot so it was really nice to see a video of her happy camping.
I took out my big lens and got some detailed pictures of the building across from our hotel.
We found it amazing how something so small can unseat a great rider. There were several spills on the course yesterday. Most noticeable to us was the Canadians the first 3 crashed or fell off their horses. I guess we need to stick to the rodeo.
Lunch even centered around not missing a moment of horse riding.
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| Sarah eating her bap and watching horses |
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| Sabrina |
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| Samuel |
After veggin' on our bottoms for far to long. We headed out for a nice walk. The weather was warmer and than the last few days so it was nice to get out and stretch our legs. We also needed to find something reasonably priced for supper. We are getting so tired of eating out even the kids are ready for a home cooked meal. A visit to Poundland, Tesco and Boots provided us with our supper. The best part was nothing was fried or grilled in oil.
The best part of our day came in the form of an email. Our friends sent us a video of Sasha, our dog. We are missing her alot so it was really nice to see a video of her happy camping.
I took out my big lens and got some detailed pictures of the building across from our hotel.
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| built in 1905 |
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| Names of the counties in North Ireland |
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sunday
We were so excited Steve had Sunday off. It was nice to wake up a little later and have breakfast with him. Our day started with breakfast in the hotel. Then we headed to the St George's Market. It is the local farmers market. Entering the building your are assaulted by the smell of fish. they have a fresh fish market as well. It was kind of amazing to see a big halibut lying on the table. They sell fresh produce and there are vendors cooking all kinds of foods. Vendors sell photos, paintings, jewelry, antiques and musical instruments. It is an amazing space. We met Don there and tried a crepe at his recommendation. It was made at a booth owned by a man from France. He makes each crepe as you wait so we had some time to talk with him as we waited. He wanted to try out our French when he heard we were from Canada. Sarah is the only one who knows enough to understand him but she was to shy to try out her rusty french.
We took Steve to the City Hall big screen. It is one of our favorite places to spend time. We watched some of the Olympics and the kids fed the birds
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| St George's Market |
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| Chocolate Strawberry Crepe |
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| mmm |
We took Steve to the City Hall big screen. It is one of our favorite places to spend time. We watched some of the Olympics and the kids fed the birds
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| Sarah in pink, Samuel in red |
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| quieter today |
Lazy Day
We spent yesterday taking it easy watching the Olympics on TV. The
BBC's news is very slanted towards the GB team. We have to really watch
to catch any Canadian scores.
The funniest thing though has been the men's bike race. It has been very widely publicized that team GB was going to try control this race and make sure that Mark Cavendish got a gold medal. I guess in Beijing he was the only one on the team that did not get a medal (and he has been pouting ever since). They did try to control the race but then when that big breakaway happened they just could not get up with them and get him his first place. When two guys broke away from the break away group and won first and second the BBC announcers were dumbfounded, had they not gotten the memo this was to be Cavendish's gold metal what did they thing they were doing. Then in their desire to have things turn out the way they desired the announcers did not notice the 21 guys in the break away group cross the finish line and instead declared Cavendish the 3rd place winner. Until their screen told them other wise. He actually came in 24th. But could he have been happy with a metal that was spoon fed to him. I understand their is some helping in this sport especially but really. We think it should be a team metal if this is the way it is to be run. I will give Hartley Miller back his mike now lol.
The weather was very rainy and cold. Hard to believe that England has been basking in 30 degree weather when just a few miles away we are at 16 and rain. The news weather forecast for England, Scotland and Ireland has so many different temperatures and conditions all on the same day.
The funniest thing though has been the men's bike race. It has been very widely publicized that team GB was going to try control this race and make sure that Mark Cavendish got a gold medal. I guess in Beijing he was the only one on the team that did not get a medal (and he has been pouting ever since). They did try to control the race but then when that big breakaway happened they just could not get up with them and get him his first place. When two guys broke away from the break away group and won first and second the BBC announcers were dumbfounded, had they not gotten the memo this was to be Cavendish's gold metal what did they thing they were doing. Then in their desire to have things turn out the way they desired the announcers did not notice the 21 guys in the break away group cross the finish line and instead declared Cavendish the 3rd place winner. Until their screen told them other wise. He actually came in 24th. But could he have been happy with a metal that was spoon fed to him. I understand their is some helping in this sport especially but really. We think it should be a team metal if this is the way it is to be run. I will give Hartley Miller back his mike now lol.
The weather was very rainy and cold. Hard to believe that England has been basking in 30 degree weather when just a few miles away we are at 16 and rain. The news weather forecast for England, Scotland and Ireland has so many different temperatures and conditions all on the same day.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Our Busy Day and First Castle
We had a fun busy day yesterday. It started at 8:30 with the kids and I catching a bus to Belfast Castle. Our guide tells us what bus to catch and what stop to get off at, but the stop names are on the sign at the stop and they are really small. No problem I asked the driver to please let us know when we were at the right on. He agreed. "Sit close and I will give you a shout out when we get there", he said. I could tell from my map that it was before the Belfast Zoo. So away we went up a road that paralleled out trip to the Titanic slipway across the river. It was quiet a uphill ride. We were going along quiet well when I noticed a sign for the Belfast Zoo. I hurried up to the driver at that stop and asked if we had not missed out stop for the castle. He forgot about us and felt ready bad about it. He advised that it was to far back to walk to so we should hop across the road and catch the bus heading back down. So we did. I asked the new driver to please let us know the right stop and then stood in his mirror view for the ride back towards town. Well he got us off at the right stop and further up the hill we headed. The castle is situated quiet high on a hill overlooking Belfast. Our first view of the Castle.
Belfast Castle was built in 1870 at this location after the original one burned down. I have never quiet understood how stone buildings burn down. I guess they do have some wood beams, doors and floors in them. The original was build in 1708 in the down town area. It is a popular place for weddings. Which was to our disadvantage all the rooms that looked out the front of the castle were being prepared for a wedding reception. We were not able to enjoy all the views. We did get to go up the spiral staircase which made Sarah's day and dreams come true.
We took some time to look around then headed down the hill to our bus stop. Imagine our surprise when the drive of the bus was our first drive who forgot to let us off. He was glad to see we had found our stop and asked how we enjoyed the castle. The return ride was the bus ride the kids have been waiting for. Lots of buses are double decker but we always seem to not get one. On the way back to city center we got to sit and the top of the bus and right at the front. It is amazing to see how close the bus comes to street signs and other buses. A little scary too.
Once back in the city center we exited the bus one block before the exchange stop. We had no sooner gotten off and the bus driven away when Samuel remembered his hoodie was still on the bus. No, well I knew what we needed to try do in the busy lunch time traffic. We high tailed it to the next stop and actually beat the bus there. Now our driver must have been wondering about us. I explained about the hoodie and Samuel quickly ran up and got it back. We were thankful it was still there, Belfast was really cold yesterday.
With hoodie in hand we headed to the big screen area of City Hall to feed the pigeons. The kids had saved bread from breakfast to feed them. Samuel it determined to catch one so he can bring it home and let Steve pet it. Not sure how the hotel will feel about a bird in our room. I know how I feel. And I don't think his dad will want to pet a bird. Hopefully he never catches one.
After the kids got tired of feeding the bird we hopped another bus to Ikea. We had been invited to join the boys at their Friday lunch spot. Steve, Don, Mark and Brian met us there. Don has been a coworker of Steve's since before our wedding. The two months we spent in South Carolina in 2005 was with him there as well. The kids were looking forward to seeing him again after so many years. Mark and Brian are brothers from right here in Ireland. They are also contracting to Bombardier. I still struggle a bit with some peoples accent especially if they are talking fast. So I did not get everything they said but they had lots of suggestions of things we might like to see. And they were enjoying teasing each other, Steve and Don like school boys. It was a fun lunch.
The kids and I came back to the room for a bit of down time and some supper before we headed off to City Hall for the Opening Ceremonies festivities. The BBC was broadcasting from several locations in the time leading up to the start of the Ceremonies and Belfast was one of them. We were entertained by Aeriel performers, fire jugglers and a cool drum band that had several people dancing.
It was decided that we would watch the Opening Ceremonies in our room. The 9:00 start made it seem like a good idea Steve and Samuel were very tired and I didn't want to have to carry either of them home to the Hotel. lol Sarah and I were the only two who made it thru to the torch lighting part and that was just barely. 12:00 was way past my bedtime.
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| Belfast Castle |
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| gardens |
We took some time to look around then headed down the hill to our bus stop. Imagine our surprise when the drive of the bus was our first drive who forgot to let us off. He was glad to see we had found our stop and asked how we enjoyed the castle. The return ride was the bus ride the kids have been waiting for. Lots of buses are double decker but we always seem to not get one. On the way back to city center we got to sit and the top of the bus and right at the front. It is amazing to see how close the bus comes to street signs and other buses. A little scary too.
Once back in the city center we exited the bus one block before the exchange stop. We had no sooner gotten off and the bus driven away when Samuel remembered his hoodie was still on the bus. No, well I knew what we needed to try do in the busy lunch time traffic. We high tailed it to the next stop and actually beat the bus there. Now our driver must have been wondering about us. I explained about the hoodie and Samuel quickly ran up and got it back. We were thankful it was still there, Belfast was really cold yesterday.
With hoodie in hand we headed to the big screen area of City Hall to feed the pigeons. The kids had saved bread from breakfast to feed them. Samuel it determined to catch one so he can bring it home and let Steve pet it. Not sure how the hotel will feel about a bird in our room. I know how I feel. And I don't think his dad will want to pet a bird. Hopefully he never catches one.
The kids and I came back to the room for a bit of down time and some supper before we headed off to City Hall for the Opening Ceremonies festivities. The BBC was broadcasting from several locations in the time leading up to the start of the Ceremonies and Belfast was one of them. We were entertained by Aeriel performers, fire jugglers and a cool drum band that had several people dancing.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Losing yourself to find yourself
On our walk home from the Titanic Quarter on Wednesday I saw the cool souvenir shop Steve had told us about. We were getting worn out so I filled it away in my memory for another day. Well with nothing much to do on Thursday I thought it would be fun to go and look in it. Right, my filing was not so good. I could not find it again. I knew we were in sort of the right area so we wandered around in a lost little circle checking out new buildings we had not seen before. Then as we turned a corner there it was right in front of us. The kids were not to excited about my suggestion that sometimes in life we have to lose ourselves to find what we really want or who we really are. They suggested paying more attention to street signs, easier said than done. Street sings in downtown Belfast are on the side of buildings, facing only one way. Streets don't always have the same name for more that one block. Makes for lots of street names.
Some pictures from our travels. =)
Some pictures from our travels. =)
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| They like these hats. |
Laundry Day
Our big accomplishment yesterday was getting our laundry done. First problem their are no laundromats listed in the yellow pages, but maybe I am looking under the wrong listing. Second we have two big bags to carry and we only have a restaurant as a place to start looking. We were told it is near there.
We walked about 7 blocks with our beautiful Ikea blue bags loaded with laundry. When we got to the restaurant I looked around for someone who might know the area. I found a lady washing her store window and she knew where to point us.thank goodness I was not looking forward to wandering streets with 2 heavy bags.
The young girl taking care of the laundry was friendly and sweet. And the best part is there is a used book store right next door. They carry very few authors I recognized in the adult fiction but in the kids there were more. So we all had a new book to read while we waited. We managed to get three loads done in about 1 hr and 45 minutes. Now we could head out for some fun.
Samuel was our photographer for this excursion.
We found a Burger King for lunch. It was not to bad. We are always amazed at how different the menu can be at these familiar restaurants. We think Canada or the USA need to gift Ireland cases of pop. Preferably something besides Sprite, Coke and Fanta. They would be blown away by our options. Of course their liquor section in their grocery stores may have to shrink to make room for more pop flavors.
Notice the crazy long line.
City Hall lawn has had some deorative additions. Just like PG's Spirit Bears they have Cows painted up. We like the cows.
We walked about 7 blocks with our beautiful Ikea blue bags loaded with laundry. When we got to the restaurant I looked around for someone who might know the area. I found a lady washing her store window and she knew where to point us.thank goodness I was not looking forward to wandering streets with 2 heavy bags.
The young girl taking care of the laundry was friendly and sweet. And the best part is there is a used book store right next door. They carry very few authors I recognized in the adult fiction but in the kids there were more. So we all had a new book to read while we waited. We managed to get three loads done in about 1 hr and 45 minutes. Now we could head out for some fun.
Samuel was our photographer for this excursion.
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| Girls reading while waiting |
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| Me |
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| my boys self photography |
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| Burger King |
City Hall lawn has had some deorative additions. Just like PG's Spirit Bears they have Cows painted up. We like the cows.
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| Music cow |
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| Watching Football at City Hall it was a nice day to sit out |
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