Today, after a sleep-in and a late breakfast, we walked up
to the Titanic Quarter to go to the Titanic museum. After the lovely weather
we’ve had in the last couple of days, today was a bit of a shock – the high was
about 11 degrees L As
the day wore on it got more overcast, cloud came down over the tops of the
surrounding hills, and there was a bit of chilly rain. Apparently such a day is
quite normal for this time of year – spring going into summer! Brrr!
The Titanic Museum is in a magnificent purpose-built
building reminiscent of a ship-shape. The exhibits are set over 4 or 5 floors,
through a one-way system so that you see everything in the correct
chronological order (it just wouldn’t work to see, for example, the debris
exploration bits before the ship-building or –sinking bits). It starts from the
context of Belfast society and industry, moves on to the construction of the Titanic
and its sister ships, through the fit-out with examples of the 1st,
2nd and 3rd class quarters, the passengers, the sinking,
and finally the exploration of the debris field. The way the information is
exhibited is varied, and many of the exhibits are interactive or immersive. The
highlights for me were a cable car ride through the innards of the
under-construction ship, narrated by some of the different worker roles, and
complete with breezes, heat and smells; and a cinematic simulation traversing the
fitted out ship from bottom to top (I’m not quite sure how to describe this,
but the audience stood in the middle of a continuous 3D-ish image spanning
screens on three sides, and you’d swear the floor was moving rather than the
image moving around you).
Once we’d finished with the Titanic we went out to its
tender, the Nomadic (the smaller boat which took passengers out to Titanic in
Cherbourg, as the harbour was too shallow for the big ship), which has been
restored and is displayed in a dry dock just along from the museum. The Nomadic
is interesting for having some original features that were the same as the
Titanic, as the boats were built side by side; and for having a long history of
service as a troop ship in the wars as well as having been a commercial boat.
James, you’ll be pleased to know I exceeded 10,000 steps
again today on my Fitbit – but this time they’re legit, not the result of a
36-hour day or a bumpy boat ride J
We were going to cycle back from the Titanic museum, but unfortunately the
kiosk for Belfast’s public-hire bikes wouldn’t register us properly, so we
ended up walking (probably a better idea, as the chill factor would have been
way worse at higher speed!).
Tomorrow we’re off to Aunt Sandra’s Candy Store show – I
expect something like Candyland at Taupiri – and then we’ll be packing up ready
to start the Irish leg of our road trip on Saturday.
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