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

gardens

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.