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The epic Titanic in Belfast

9th September 20249th September 2024 funtime65

It must be an Irish thing, a word that means the opposite of itself, like grand and tragic, the unique, epic Titanic in Belfast.

The workmen in the yellow-vis jackets are clanking on the gantries on the Queens Dock the day I visit.

Close your eyes and for all intents and purposes you could be back in the Belfast of 1911, only it was a bit noisier then.

And these workers are putting up offices.

Belfast’s Titanic story was, in truth, not inside but here on the docks.

Yard that built the Titanic

No passenger ever got on the Titanic in Belfast (they maybe knew better).

With Southampton the departure point for New York.

But 100,000, half the population of the city today, attended to see the ship slip into the water on its completion in 1911.

And that number and more have been coming to the Titanic Quarter, which includes a hotel, a film studios and distillery.

Since 2012 when it opened on the centenary of the pride of the White Star sinking off Canada with the loss of 1,517 lives.

Get into Titanic character

Time, cash, and a far more important appointment with an old pal precludes me.

From taking the hour and a half tour.

Which, to be fair, is award-winning, with visitors (£25pp online) invited.

To adopt the character of real-life passengers on board.

Fun for all the family then, as long as that family is not the Sunaks.

And who can forget his ill-timed visit during the election.

When his keystone policy was ‘to stop the boats’?

Hello and Welcome

The sheer scale of the Titanic is perhaps best mapped out.

By the metal posts that map out its size all the distance of the quay.

While the display boards and indexes explain who went where and who survived… First Class mainly.

And the history of Belfast as a shipbuilding and maritime hub and latter-day Game of Thrones centre.

The H and W of the yellow Harland and Woolf cranes, locally named Samson and Goliath, are an iconic reminder.

Of that yard’s place in the Belfast story.

Celebrated too by air pilots as passengers fly into Belfast.

And they announce that the H and W means Hello and Welcome.

The sight too of a Stena ship tells us that as absorbing as the epic Titanic in Belfast is this is an operational dock.

And that Michael, who helps promote my go-to ferry from Ireland to Scotland, is waiting for me in the Titanic Hotel bar.

Although at £259 per night my largesse only stretched to coffees!!!

MEET YOU ON THE SEAS

Countries, Cruising, Europe

France, somme-nous déjà-la?

23rd July 202223rd July 2022 funtime65

And it is the question every English Francophile child in Dover is asking: France, somme-nous déjà-la?

Only we doubt whether improving their French is top of the prep just now.

And for those who do have any French they’re more likely to shout: bâtards Francais.

Because nothing turns you against a country more than waiting hours and hours to get into it.

Do the English hate the French?

Of course the Francophobia is there already… in spades.

With Dickens character Jacob Rees-Mogg weighing in.

Even suggesting that the French want to make life difficult for British tourists?

Pourquoi?

Now where once the favourite car game was I Spy now it’s phoning in your radio station to Bash the French.

This is a quintessentially English obsession, a neighbourly dispute which sustains both but which disrupts the hood.

Good neighbours

My own wee country of birth, Scotland, has a historical alliance with the French, the Auld Alliance.

Born out of mutual interest, to be fair, and a suspicion of the neighbour.

As is the case with those across the road, the Irish, who have often let the French in, to try to oust the English from their plot.

The mad thing though is that if the English dislike the French so much why are so many flocking to get over there.

There are, of course, a multitude of reasons why there’s such gridlock in the English ports.

And no one party is to blame.

Maybe though if it’s possible not everyone head for the coast at the same time.

And if it’s because of school holidays, well, you don’t have to go in the first week.

Camp brand new

Plain sailing: And at least the boat is moving

The good news is that when you get there.

And your Stena or Brittany Ferries crossing will be smooth, comfy and good value, you’ll get a fab break.

France, particularly Nord, Normandy and Brittany are all about La Famille.

And their campsites are a long way from the basic scrub land we tried to pitch a tent in back on that post-school break to Saint-Raphael.

So the kids may ask France, somme-nous déjà-la?

But it will be worth it when you can say Enfin.

Countries, Cruising, Ireland, UK

P&O no no, Stena’s who to know

18th March 202218th March 2022 funtime65

We’re loath to diss operators here but there’s no defending torpedoing of staff… it’s P&O no no Stena’s who to know.

Like many of the Fiftysomething Irish-Scots variety I knew my way around a ship long before I stepped on a plane.

And Townsend Thoresen from Cairnryan to Larne were as familiar a transport provider to me as the 44 bus across Glasgow to school.

P&O took over TT in 1987 by which time I had disembarked to England and started flying to Ireland.

A different ship

And with Ryanair emerging to fly us at budget prices ferries were reserved for family holidays and house moves.

When Stena had emerged as the protectors of la famille Murty from Scotland to Ireland and back.

Now ships have certainly upgraded from the Seventies when I would run the toy cars on deck which I had bought from the ship shop.

I have been fortunate enough to be hosted by Stena in dock in Dublin, viewed their cabins and cinema hubs, bars and restaurants.

Treat your staff well

Child’s play: Better than running toy cars

I pride myself on the courtesy I was taught by my parents never to look down on staff.

If only the same could be said for P&O.

Stena offers a sample three-day return from Cairnryan to Belfast from £119.

Alas, The Scary One insisted our last Stena trip to Scotland was a single!

If you tolerate this

So, if you want to protest against P&O, and in the words of Manic Street Preachers…

‘If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.’

Then sail with our go-to ferry company, you won’t be disappointed.

So from us it’s P&O no no Stena’s who to know.