Belfast

We tried to find a B&B in Holywood (pronounced Hollywood), a suburb of Belfast but had no luck.  We visited with Sylvia and her mother Sadie Connor (Darla's friends). Sylvia helped us make reservations at the Jury Inn in city center.  We were lucky to get a room because of Easter weekend. Every place we called was booked and Monday was a bank holiday.  She fixed dinner for all of us. It was nothing fancy but very tasty. 

Everyone that we met in Ireland was delightful.  Of course, I had a lot of trouble understanding most people there but I had my interpreter with me.  Since Darla had been in Ireland almost two years, she could understand any accent and even knew what part of Ireland they were from. 

After we left to drive to city center to our hotel, Darla insisted that I parallel park beside the hotel backing in from the left side.  Well, it took at least 10 minutes to get the car into the parking spot - ugh!

Breakfast came with our room - that was nice.  Not as good as a B&B with more home cooked food but better than what most middle-priced American hotels offer for breakfast. Across the street was a huge old church building that had been converted into a mall. Bank holiday - it was closed - bummer.

The best tour was at the Ulster Folk Museum; we arrived just as it opened at 11 AM. There was an old Irish village there and all types of craftsmen and women were working in different buildings. There was yarn spinning, knitting, bread making, Easter egg  coloring and rug making. The fireplaces burned dried sod - not the best fire smell in the world. We bought an ice cream cone with a chocolate stick stuck in it. Yum! For lunch we ate Irish stew.  In the old school house, there was a map of the United States when Utah was a territory (about 1880 or so). I tried to take a photo of it but got mostly Texas. We tried calligraphy.  Some parts of the park were closed because of foot and mouth disease.  Upstairs in one of the homes, a very talented storyteller was creating his version of Cinderella. He was exceptionally good.

Monkey tree at Ulster Museum

Caught a shuttle bus to the transportation museum, and was amused at some of the old cars, trains, busses, bikes, etc. The whole place was very fascinating and well worth our time.  We walked and walked until I couldn't walk anymore.