May 31- Belfast

We got up early this morning and had room service breakfast in preparation for our day of exploring in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We met in the Voyager Lounge with the other travelers for this special Virtuoso Voyager Club. As they said at a Virtuoso cocktail party the other evening, we were here because we had a terrific travel agent…and we know that is true. Thanks to Leigh Berghane for all the excellent arrangements and the extra good stuff she provides.

The ship was about 30 minutes late docking and we backed into our place for a very long time. We departed Belfast with Charles as our guide and Sam as our driver. We drove north along the Antrim Road. There were spectacular view as of bays, headlands, and cliffs. We visited the picturesque villages of Ballygally, Glenarm, and Cushengall- known as the “Capital of the Glens” and Ballycastle, host of the annual Oul’ Lammas Fair, one of Ireland’s oldest traditional market fairs. We stopped at Ballygally Castle for tea, coffee and fresh baked scones. We learned that the word “Bally” means “town of” and we saw that word Bally…. something on almost every road sign. The coffee and scones stop was lovely! The elevator in the hotel was labeled “Rising Room.”

We also learned from Charles that the town of Belfast only began to flourish when the

technology to put wooden pilings into the ground as a foundation for buildings was developed. The name means “bell fearst” which means “sound of the river bank.” It it’s heyday, the shipyard had 40 different shipyards building ships. The Titanic was built and sailed from here. Sail making was important as was hemp rope making- until nylon began to be used for both of these. During WWII 38,000 people were employed in the shipyards. Now they make windmills.

The people came here from Scotland when the Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago During the Ice Age the weight of the ice pushed the land into the earth’s crust. As the ice melted the sea receded and the island rose creating raised beaches. We saw lots of raised beaches and some even had sand and people swimming in the Irish Sea or the Atlantic Ocean.

Charles gave us as he called it, useless information- 58 million slices of processed cheese was exported to Europe last year. We did see lots of cows, sheep and horses- some even sharing the same pasture. The yellow flower covering the hills here and also on the Isle of Skye is called whim.

We continued on to The Giants Causeway with its 40,000 stone columns, mostly hexagonal,

formed millions of years ago as the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The columns were almost exactly alike and uniform as if they had been carved by human hands or perhaps by a Giant. We did hear the legend of Finn McCool, the Irish giant who built this causeway as a challenge to a giant in Scotland. Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpartBenandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed so he quickly returned to Scotland. The Giant’s Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Lunch was enjoyed at the Royal Court Hotel in the harbor town of Portrush.. From the hotel there were sweeping views of the ocean, the beach and of County Donegal. It was just beautiful!

After lunch we climbed back on the bus and were off to see the ruins of Dunlace Castle which dates back to the 13^th century. It was a great tour but we were disappointed not to see

more of the city of Belfast itself. We’d have liked to have had 2 days in Belfast and skipped one of the islands in Scotland.

We got back to the Voyager and decided to cancel our reservation at Prime 7. Didn’t need all that food after the wonderful lunch we had.

Charles did say the dust has not totally settled after the their religious wars but the country is commitment to moving ahead in peace. Belfast is now on our list of places we never thought we'd ever see....and we saw only a small portion of it.