Today (Saturday) we left Slane and headed north, crossing the border into Northern Ireland on our way to Belfast.

Fun fact: Northern Ireland records speed in miles-per-hour, compared to Ireland’s kilometers-per-hour! Our car only reports kph!

This time we’re back to multinational hotel chains. We had booked a B&B in Belfast, but recent reviews of the original location cited ongoing construction so we jumped across the bay to Aloft by Marriott which has the fortunate distinction of being right across the street from the Titanic Belfast museum.

We arrived about an hour and a half before our check-in time and had some misunderstandings with the desk clerk as to whether or not our room was available…never hurts to ask, except maybe on this occasion. While we waited we slid on over to the hotel’s bar for some lunch.

Titanic Belfast

The RMS Titanic was constructed in the Harland & Wolff shipyards as part of the White Star Line’s Olympic-class lineup (Titanic, RMS Olympic, and the HMHS Britannic). It’s fate is common knowledge, but aside from the Hollywood treatments and sensationalized finger-pointing, the lifecycle of the ship, decisions made in the design and construction and, most importantly, the very real experiences of the passengers and crew, is hard to comprehend as a complete story without places like the Titanic Belfast museum.

The self-guided tour we took included everything from info on Belfast during the time of the Titanic and how its industries supported shipbuilding, to examples of staterooms, a virtual tour of the entire ship, and — unexpectedly — a “dark ride” where we rode in gondolas through a series of staged scenes highlighting the dockworker’s experiences in building the Titanic.

SS Nomadic

As part of our admission we had access to the SS Nomadic, one of two ships that ferried first-, second-, and third-class passengers from port to the cruise ships when the larger ships couldn’t get close to the coastline to admit passengers.

The Nomadic was almost scrapped as it had been abandoned in France, but a consortium from Belfast got together to purchase the ship, return it to Belfast, and refit and refurnish it as part of the Titanic exhibit.