In April 2024 we visited Belfast, Northern Ireland and were captivated by the city. Thus, returning to Ireland we chose to start our time with a couple of days back in Belfast.

We took in most of the major sites on our previous trip. If you are interested in reading about these, please visit this blog: Belfast – Don’t Miss It .

We again arrived at the George Best City Airport and this time, took the Airport Bus 600 to the city centre. We arrived at the sparkling new Belfast Grand Central Station, which just opened in September 2024.

We decided to stroll to the Botanic area where we returned to the Tara Lodge. We enjoyed the hotel just as much the second time around – and were so pleased to be remembered by Ricky at breakfast.

A walk in the neighbourhood took us by the grand Queen’s University of Belfast.

We spent a day visiting two museums we had missed the first trip.

The Ulster Transport Museum traces the evolution of transportation throughout history. The A Galleries extend over three levels and showcase:

Rail:

Titanica (which has actual artifacts from the ship):

Tram:

Road:

The B Galleries just down the path feature:

Legends of Racing:

Celtic Surfing Wave:

Horsedrawn Transport:

Museum of Innovation:

This museum is well worth a visit and those of you who know Harvey will understand how much he enjoyed it!

The Ulster Folk Park is a living history museum with rolling hills of countryside and a town filled with authentic period buildings, exhibiting traditions from over 100 years ago. As you wander through, there are a number of costumed guides demonstrating traditional crafts. We walked about the village – there were few other tourists on our day and it was a relaxing way to see the Ulster traditions.

The Botanic area features the Botanic Gardens. These gardens sit next to Queen’s University. The gardens had a different look from our spring visit. The leaves were changing colour and many of the flower beds had been put to rest for the winter months. We were able to visit the Palm House and Tropical Ravine. Both buildings date from the 1800s and offered a look at many non-native tropical plants.

Located in the Botanic Gardens is the Ulster Museum. We feel that this is a world-class museum and is well worth a visit (and of course, as is usual in the UK, there is no charge).

The museum stretches over 5 levels which offer detailed explorations of Art, Nature and History.

We also spent a couple of hours wandering about the Titanic Quarter. The area was much quieter than it had been on our April visit. Having previously checked out the major attractions, we just enjoyed the harbour and the architecture.

The Botanic area has a number of great restaurants and we enjoyed some excellent meals, including return visits to a couple of our favourites – Holohan’s Pantry and Darcy’s.

We also returned to our favourite coffee house. On our previous visit, we wandered into the Café at the Crescent Art Centre where we were rewarded with meeting the owners, Matthew and Gary. While Gary is no longer there, we were pleased to find Matthew still at the helm of what is now called Café Husk. It was great to stop in a couple of times and to become reacquainted with Matthew and his wife, Rose.

Once again, we were overwhelmed with the friendliness of the people of Belfast. We wouldn’t be surprised to find ourselves returning again in the future. But now, off to other parts of Ireland!

Sláinte,

Bev & Harvey