Walking around Belfast

The boys and I had a great time touring Belfast, and thankfully the boys have a great sense of direction, when I got a bit lost every now and again. They knew exactly where we were!
The Belfast Wheel is situated right next to the City Hall. The locals call it the 'Belfast Aye'. Here we are waiting for our turn.

City Hall with the Belfast Wheel behind.

The view from the top, facing north

Cameron at the very top of the wheel.

Alexander at the very top. We stopped at the top for 13 minutes, Alexander wasn't so keen about being so high!

The Robinson & Cleaver Building was built in 1888, was originally the Irish Linen Warehouse, and then a department store. Currently, it has been sudivided for commercial businesses.

Next to the Belfast Wheel is the Titanic Memorial, dedicated to the victims of the Titanic.

The City Hall was completed in 1906, and has recently just been renovated. Very impressive. Many people use the gardens at the front as a meeting place. While we were in Belfast, it was school holidays. It must have been Emo day in Belfast. Around the statue were heaps of Emo kids meeting up with their emo friends! :)

The Grand Opera House was opened in 1895. It suffered a lot of damage during the time of the "Troubles" as it is situated right next to the Europa Hotel which was the home of journalists at the time. History of the Grand Opera House, link here...
Queen' Arcade. Cameron has been studying the Roman's at school. He is fascinated with mosaics!

Main Bus Station Sculpture.

Detail of the bus station mosaic.

The Linen Hall Library was established in 1788 to 'improve the mind and excite a spirit of general inquiry'. The floor to the library is made of small mosaic tiles.

The library has over 260,000 books. At least half of the collection is devoted to local history and Irish books, with a strong political collection of books and pamphlets from both sides of the fence.

Queen's University main building is a stunning red bricked and yellow sandstone building. It was founded in 1845 by Queen Victoria. It currently has over 25,000 students.

Next door to the University is the Botanic Gardens The Palm House was built from 1839-1852.
It was lovely inside.
Another mosaic that Cameron found!

Next to the Botanic Gardens is the Ulster Museum. The museum has been closed for the past 3 years due to renovation, and had only been open for 4 days when we visited. School holidays, grand opening, free admission and a grey day meant the museum was packed. We arrived just after opening time at 10am, and not too many people around. Here are the kids playing on the sculpture outside the museum.

Inside we saw a Tasmanian Tiger.

A Dodo

A very large Amethsyt (the name of the boys house team at school)

A squirrel. he was unbelievable soft to hold....think we might try and catch one back in Berlin for a pet!!!

Cameron is studying 'Space" as well, so he was really excited to see a piece of the moon!

A quilt for me. The quilt is thought to be made from dead soldiers uniforms from the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
The Ulster Museum also has an Egyptian Mummy, Takabuti, who lived around c660BC. A great video link here! There were interesting displays from the Iron Age, Stone Age and Irish History. We were there for over 4 hours, and could have spent plenty more time there!

The last stop of the day was Aunt Sandra's Candy Store . An old fashioned candy store, where we bought some handmade "puff candy" a mix between Violet Crumble and Crunchie. The staff were busy in the back of the factory making chocolate coated apples "Candy Apples". They make over 90,000 Candy apples for Halloween. We didn't realise Halloween was so big in Ireland, but seeing all the shops and homes decked out in pumpkins and skeletons we were proved wrong! Here are the kids holding a giant lollypop......30,000 licks worth we were told! I'm not sure how impressed Dentist Bill would be!

The Troubles tour

Before leaving W5, we asked one the staff members to call for a “Black Cab Tour” to pick us up outside the Odyessy Complex to do the political tour of Belfast. Our Black Cab arrived 5 minutes later, and we got into the back of the cab to learn about Belfast and the “Troubles” through Shankill and Falls Road. I asked for the “not so gruesome” tour for the kids, and our tour guide was really great with explaining things to the kids, and then explaining in more detail to me when the kids were out of earshot.
Our first stop was through Shankill to look at the Protestant murals and to explain and offer some understanding of some of the different murals that represent the history of the area and their view of the “Troubles”. Then we moved onto the Fall Street Catholic area to look at their memorials and understand these murals.
I am not going to talk about these murals, but provide you with links if you want any more information on each mural.
Murals in Shankill..

The Red Hand of Ulster. Read the Mythical Origins in the link

Depicting the release of prisoners from H Block "The Maze" Prison. Read the Peace Process.
1969 Gold Rush.

I love this story. A block of tenement buildings were knocked down in Christopher Street. Some of the children were playing in the rubble and found a stack of gold coins and the rush began. As word spread, people raced to find some for themselves. It was rumoured that 2 brothers who were money lenders lived in the building, that they were possibly Jewish and didn't trust the bank....but details are sketchy! But a great story!!

A mural depicting the UDU, UFF and UDA

The boys thought this was fascinating....no matter where you stood, that gun was pointing directly at you!!

A mural depicting the Orange Walks.

Depicting the Battle of Talavera in 1809
Depicting the "Every Child has a right to play"



Depicting King William's War

Depicting Oliver Cromwell

Joe, this one is for you. The Divis Tower. Our taxi driver said you wouldn't recognise this building with a roof!


Falls Road Murals

Along the International Wall... (these were difficult to photograph as the Falls Road is really busy with traffic)
Depicts Frederick Douglass

Black and White Mural "Everyone has the right to live free from sectarian/racist harassment!!!", and a taxi advertisement...(taxi driver couldn't explain why this was on the wall)

Depicting Liam McCarthy , and a mural depicting the American blockade of Cuba.

Sinn Fein headquarters
On the side of the Sinn Fein building is the mural of Bobby Sands.
The Clonard Martyrs Memorial Garden, (difficult to find a link to any information to this memorial online, other than other people's blogs), It is a memorial to remember the IRA members and civilians who lost their lives in the "Troubles".



Poster of the Bombay Street Riots

Then it was off to the Peace Lines .
You can write messages on the wall, and to commemorate some of the "famous" people who have written on the wall, some of the quotes have been stamped out in metal for people to read.
(Note the one under the Dalai Lama's quote...."Peace starts with a BBQ + VB. Well done Daveo from Loftus! ;)


While I was in the bookstore, I picked up a book by Susan McKay, Bear in Mind These Dead. I am only 100 pages in, but it is an informative read on the Troubles, and the victims families. A great read for anyone interested in the subject

Northern Ireland - Belfast

Another week of school holidays for the kids, and we decided to go to Northern Ireland. After touring South West Ireland 2 years ago for Easter, Nicole really wanted to see Northern Ireland and the Giant Causeway at some stage.

A bit of an interesting start to the holiday, with Phil being in San Fransisco the week before, and not returning to Berlin until Tuesday. Phil has already been to Belfast (although not sure how much of Belfast he saw as he was on a Rugby tour at the time), Nicole and the boys decided to fly to Belfast on the weekend, and catch up with Phil on Wednesday at the airport, and then pick up a hire car and start our touring holiday.

Tickets for flights to Belfast from Berlin were really pricey, (as we had left it a bit late). Nicole and the kids flew into Dublin with Ryan Air, (one of the cheapest airlines we have ever seen), then caught a bus from the airport to Belfast, (about 2 hours in the bus). Thanks to the Irish knitting group on Ravelry, they told me about the bus direct from the airport, instead of having to go into Dublin central. (The worldwide knitting community in Ravelry is a wealth of information; they were kind enough to tell me about the big knitting shop coming up in Dublin, in case we would be around the area at the time.) The bus trip was non eventful, and easy to use, and we got to see some of the lovely countryside as we headed north. The hotel we had booked was visible from the central bus station...perfect! So we checked in, and got a map and headed into town.

First stop was the Northern Ireland Information Centre, to find some accommodation for Saturday night. I had tried to find something around the area we were going to be in for Saturday, but was unable to find a room for the 4 of us. (Otherwise we have to split up into 2 rooms, and Phil and one of the boys go to one room, and Nicole and the other boy goes into the other, and we meet for breakfast...not ideal!) The man there could not help us, but gave us the address for the Ireland Information Centre to try on Monday. He did give us lots of information on places and things to do in Belfast which was great.

Monday morning after breakfast we put our walking shoes on and walked into town. Belfast is an easy town to walk around, it’s quite compact. We walked to the College North Square, where I though the Information centre was, but couldn’t find it. So we walked back to the Information Centre, where I showed her the map the guy had written circled all the different things to do, to find that I mistaken one circle for another circle. We had gone to the bus stop for the Belfast Castle instead! So a quick walk to the Ireland tourist office and the wonderful lady there had us booked in a B&B in less than 10 minutes! So accommodation all sorted, we were off to tour.

First walk was to the East side of Belfast where we passed the Albert Memorial Clock Tower, built in 1867 to honour Queen Victoria’s husband. It is not straight, and it leans to one side. The locals say, “Not only does Albert have the time, he also has the inclination”.

Across the Lagan Wier Walk Bridge, is the “BigFish” sculpture. The fish is covered in ceramic tiles depicting the history of Belfast.

Belfast was the home of where the Titanic was built. It was built in the wharf here. There is a lot of construction and development happening around the Titanic Quarter. I hope that at some stage they will build a permanent exhibition of the Titantic!

We walked to the Odyssey Complex which houses an entertainment centre, restaurants, bowling and for the kids “W5”. W5 stands for whowhatwherewhenwhy, and is a great Hands On Science Museum . So we spent about 3 hours playing with all the different technology, making smoke rings, cyclones, playing an air harp, doing lie detector tests and so much more.
This is a glass floor. You can see 2 floors down!

Northern Flakturm

One if the amazing things about Berlin is how many layers of history the place has. In terms of second world war history, there is obviously a lot of sites set around central Berlin. However, during the war, there were a series of 3 enormous above ground bunkers known as the 'flak-turm (flak towers) that were used for putting flak into the air over Berlin to stop enemy planes.

They were also used for housing civilians as a place of refuge, and each held up to 30,000 people at the end of the war. They were so solid and inpenetrable that the Russians drove around it, and the people inside surrendered 3 days after the rest of Berlin.

It is possible to see metre deep shell craters in the exterior - an amazingly strong structure!

This flakturm, near Gesundbrunnen train station in the North of Berlin, has since been partly demolished (they blew up half of it, and this has now been made into a hill and a park), but it is still possible to get a view from the top of how imposing a 30+ metre high structure like this would have been!

Peter, Alan and I rode our bikes to (and up) the Flakturm, and had a good look around. The weather was brilliant for late spring, and the memorial statue on top looked great against the blue sky.

Nice high fences are required on top, as the remaining half is still impressively tall. Here are Alan and Peter checking out the surrounding areas, and imagining what it would have been like during the war.

Here is one of the views from the top - this one is looking west/south west. In the foreground (L) is my office, on the hill in the background is the US 'facility' at Teufelsberg (where we go sledding and kite flying). Our home is between Teufelsberg and the three chimneys that you can see.

It was a pleasant ride, good company and very interesting to see some more of the history in Berlin that seems to be under your nose, and around every corner.

This is another view with the Reichstag dome visible in the centre, and Potsdamerplatz behind.

Cape Town

I had a major work congress in Cape Town, and was looking forward to visiting the region again. For the most part, the week I spent there was grey, rainy and not so appealing. However, on Thursday, the day dawned clear and blue and I received an invitation from Peter, a friend of mine from Johannesburg, to join him for the evening. This was a no-brainer, as Peter and his wife Mary are lovely, and I had nothing scheduled that night in my program.

Peter picked me up from the hotel in a mini-bus, and I met a group of Peter's friends as we headed off to the winelands. We started by hitting Ernie Els' winery, and having a tasting there.

Peter's daughter and her boyfriend work there, so we had a special tasting and tour before getting on the minibus (with a few of the Flagship Red bottles as travellers) and set off for Franschhoek, another wine region to the north.



We arrived at Nick and Gai's (who are friends of Graeme, one of Peters mates in the group. Nick has his own Champagne winery, Frahschhoek Pass Winery, which has a stunning view over the valley. We had a tour of the Champagne making operations, then tasted several different wines, in different stages of production, and learned a lot about champagne and the process. Afterwards, we drank a few glasses of delicious bubbly and watched the sun set over the valley.

Later, we all collected at Reuben's, and enjoyed a fantastic meal, with lots of interesting company and good cheer. We eventually boarded the mini-bus back to Capetown, and with most of the occupants sleeping and snoring!), Peter and I had a good chat until I was eventually dropped back at the hotel. I feel very fortunate to have been invited, and to have enjoyed such a fabulous evening.

Alexander's Cross-country run

Alexander represented the school in the cross-country run, after being selected in the school trials. He has been in training, and on Saturday with the weather grey, but clear, he raced a 2.5km circuit through the forest near senior school.

Phil had just climbed off the overnight flight from Cape Town, so Nicole, Alexander and Cameron said 'hello' and 'goodbye' before catching a taxi to the school. Nicole went armed with litres of chicken, corn and noodle soup to help at the fundraising stall.

Alexander ran really well, and came in second from the school group and about 7th overall. He had fun, and looked like he could have run another 2.5 km when he finished!

Phil picked them up later in the afternoon, and we are all proud of Alexander and his performance!