Grand plans were in place for our first full day in Belfast, and we had a firm time – 10:30 a.m. – by which we needed to leave in order to accomplish the activities on our itinerary. Brian woke me at 10:20 by informing me that it was 10:20 and asking if I would be ready to go in 10 minutes. I was a bit panicked until he informed me that Noah was laying on the bathroom floor trying not to throw up and that it wasn’t likely that we would be going anywhere very soon.
Despite having no fever and no other symptoms, Noah did get sick several times immediately after waking up this morning. Because this also happened the last time Noah flew several times zones east, we have determined that Noah must get, what he calls, “travel sick.” He went back to bed with a bucket and slept for nearly two more hours.
While Noah was sleeping, the rest of us got ready for the day and tried to decide how to rework our plans. Gee Gee and I did some laundry and got Eilidh ready and fed for breakfast while Brian and Emmie took a short bus ride to run errands. In the end, we had to scratch a planned stop at the St. George Market and Gee Gee, Emmie, and I went directly to the Titanic for our highly-anticipated tea, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. By the time we left, Noah was awake and seemed to be feeling better.
Titanic Belfast opened in 2012 on the site of the former Harland and Wolff shipyard where the famous Titanic steamship was built. After some browsing in the gift shop, we boarded an elevator which took us to the top floor, home of the Titanic Suite, complete with a replica of the ship’s grand staircase and fancy afternoon tea service.
Emmie had been looking forward to ‘tea on Titanic’ for months. We all chose peppermint tea, and while GeeGee and I thoroughly enjoyed our tea’s flavor, Emmie much preferred her selection of accompanying sandwiches and desserts. The presentation was lovely and the food was delicious. Emmie’s tray held slightly less adventurous snacks compared to our adult trays, which we thought was a nice touch. Everyone enjoyed their food, and we had a lot of fun posing on the grand staircase for photos as well.
Before trying the peppermint tea.
After trying the peppermint tea.
Wanting to minimize their Uber tab, Brian, Noah, and Eilidh took the bus to the Belfast city center before meeting us at Titanic Belfast to go through the museum. Noah had recovered fully enough to be starving, so they stopped at a downtown mall for an Aunt Annie’s pretzel before finishing the trip to the Titanic Musem.
Eilidh was aggressive in getting a few bites of the Aunt Annie’s pretzel.
Around 4:00 p.m., they eventually joined us onboard one of Titanic’s tenders, the SS Nomadic. Nomadic is the only remaining White Star Line vessel in existence today, and, in addition to her tendering duties, she also worked during both World Wars and served as a restaurant ship before returning to the shipyard of her birth in Belfast. The Nomadic has been expertly restored to the way she would have look while she shuttled passengers to Titanic, and the educational opportunities on the ship were well-presented. The kids had a blast.
Emmie dressed up in period clothes on the SS Nomadic.
After our jaunt on Nomadic, we returned to Titanic Belfast to complete the Titanic exhibition. The exhibition used a variety of media to take us through Belfast’s maritime history and the building, launch, maiden voyage, and sinking of Titanic as well as the deep-sea discovery of her remains. Emmie and Noah seemed to find the exhibits interesting, while a tired and under-napped Eilidh proved to be a bit of a holy-terror to corral.
On the walk to the Titanic Museum, Brian, Noah, Emmie, and Gee Gee sampled the pink-colored ruby chocolate KitKat.
With no Uber cars available to take us home from Titanic, we began a walk towards Belfast’s city center, closer to “home,” with the hopes that we would be able to find a taxi or an Uber later. A stop at The Big Fish (also known as The Salmon of Knowledge) for some photos allowed Brian and I to take a trip down memory lane to 2009 when we last visited Belfast. After posing with the fish we found an Uber that was big enough to take us all home, a rarity in Ireland!
Once we were back to our Belfast home, Brian and Emmie walked a few blocks down the street to grab some takeaway pizza, while GeeGee and I quickly bathed the other kids. We enjoyed the pizza around the dining room table and we all cheered on Eilidh as she finished a whole piece of cheese pizza!
The BBQ pork pizza featured charcoal pork shoulder, Korean BBQ sauce, mozzarella cheese, rocket, pickled chili and radish
After helping GeeGee put the kids to bed, Brian and I slipped down the street to Miel et Moi where we had a couple of slices of cake to celebrate the official day of our 12th wedding anniversary!
Yum!