Over the Irish Sea...

I hope you have all enjoyed the Easter holidays, hubby and I flew over to Northern Ireland for the Easter weekend. The flight was a short one just over half an hour wow!
Hubby is over a lot with work but I've never been and have always wanted to see the Giants Causeway so when the grandparents offered to look after the kids ...well it was a done deal!

We arrived at Belfast International airport early on Saturday morning but the weather was dismal it was cold and pretty much rained for most of the day but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm. We had an itinerary as we were only over for a couple of nights and had so much we wanted to see. We collected our little hire car and headed straight for our first port of call, Florence Court in Fermanagh a national trust property. We enjoyed our tour round this former home to the Earls of Eniskillen but I forgot to take photos due to being so wet!
However I did remember to snap a couple of pics of the magnificent Castle Coole in between rain showers which was next on our list.

It is a shame we were not allowed to take pics inside or I could have shared with you the enormous roaring fire they had going in the reception room. The room ran the length of those bottom 3 windows on the right of the picture. It was most welcome on such a cold wet day we were all huddled round trying to warm up and dry out while waiting for the others to join the tour.

This is the entrance into the house and where the tour started. 

This amazing tunnel is where our tour ended through this rather bizarre entrance and exit for all the house staff. You can just make out the house in the back of the picture. 

Both hubby and I really enjoyed our tour round this property (another national trust property) which was led by our tour guide Una who we can't praise highly enough. Unas knowledge and enthusiasm really brought this house to life, without a doubt our favourite NT property we saw that weekend.

On the Sunday we headed into Belfast early for a look round and on the way in we were greeted by this giant steel ball.

 

Apparently it's a giant sculpture called Rise it was certainly very imposing driving up to and under it. Our first stop of the day was the Titanic quarter the building for the museum alone is an amazing structure.

The building is huge.

 

I just love how the light plays on the building surface, we were really lucky with the weather that morning.

I quickly snapped this when we were driving off as I tried to get a picture when walking round but it was so crowded with tourists all having their pics taken inbetween the letters. 

This is the Titanica statue outside the front of the museum.

I like this side on view rather a stunning piece I think. 

We looked at booking a ticket for the Titanic experience and were advised to allow 3-4 hours eeek! We only had the morning in Belfast so we opted to look round the dock area instead.

 The dock area and slipways used  for the construction of both the Titanic on the left and the Olympia  on the right.

This dock area was vast.

Plaque to commemorate the centenary of the keel laying of the Titanic. 

These are the original bogey rails that were used to transport materials and tools up and down the slip ways during construction.

Just found these boards interesting to read. Perhaps one day we can come back.

Whew! Need a cuppa now have enjoyed recalling our adventures will continue tommorrow with part two.