One of my favorite places we visited during our European Adventures was Belfast. Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and comprises the six counties in the Northeast area of the island of Ireland (the other 26 counties comprise the Republic of Ireland). We visited Belfast twice and I am fascinated by the history of the city.
The first trip we took was when Honeybun was 23 months old and I was about 2 months shy of welcoming Sugarplum. We rented (or “hired”) a car and drove up to do some baby shopping. Stores in Northern Ireland tend to have better selection and lower prices than in the Republic (where we lived in Dublin) because it is part of the UK and doesn’t have to pay importation fees and taxes for goods which the Republic does. We stopped at the Outlet Village at Banbridge which is on the motorway between Dublin and Belfast. The mall is small but there are a few good stores and we found some really good deals on our few visits.
Our first trip up we were only in Belfast for an overnight so aside from shopping, the only other thing we did was to visit Belfast Castle. While the castle itself is more of an event venue, it is situated on top of a hill overlooking the sea and is surrounded by a large city park area. The castle gardens are also really nice with a peculiar cat theme which not-yet 2 year old Honeybun thought was so much fun (though it took her quite a while to get brave enough to touch the statues!)
Our second visit to Belfast was just a few weeks before we moved back to Florida when Honeybun was almost 4 and Sugarplum was 21 months. We started our visit by going out to Giant’s Causeway which is a natural phenomenon on the Northern coast made up of interlocking basalt columns. It is truly a fascinating place where you can climb on and explore the pillars and it also has long hiking trails. We had a really great time exploring and talking about the science behind it and amazingness of our world.
That visit we also wandered through St. George’s Market which is a covered variety market that had various arts and crafts vendors the day we were there. We found lots of great things but unfortunately didn’t have the money or the space to get things back to Dublin!
The highlight of our visit, though, was the Titanic Museum which we visited weeks after it opened. The museum sits next to the site of the dry dock where the Titanic was built. I found the museum fascinating and very well laid out with tons of interactive exhibits that kept the girls interested. They already had a background on the Titanic after our visit to the smaller Titanic museum in Cobh so this just helped to solidify what they had already learned. I loved how some of the exhibits provided you a chance to feel what it was like on the ship and also included information on the ship builders of the city and how the ship was built. My favorite part was a large square space with projections on all sides that make you feel like you are on the ship. Honeybun and I sat on the floor in that space for quite a while just taking it all in.
