We drove from Dublin up to Belfast, which is part of Northern Ireland. That means it's part of the U.K. I did not find Belfast overly alluring. It got bombed by Germany during WW II and then had the "troubles" that caused more grief and destruction. My take was that Belfast is hoping to regain its spirit and I hope it's successful.

Our first stop in Belfast was the Titanic Museum. The Titanic was built right near here in the Belfast Shipyard. The museum was interesting and very busy. Our main reason for stopping here, however, was that our grandson, Henry, had done a 4-H Club illustration presentation last year on how the Titanic had sunk. We couldn't pass it up or pass up buying Henry a book and some souvenirs.

We found an inn in the central district of Belfast and after settling in, we spent the afternoon walking around the Belfast central district. Belfast does have some older buildings which we loved but it also has lots of steel and glass structures, courtesy of having to rebuild from the war and the troubles.

Below is the Merchant Hotel, formerly the Ulster Bank headquarters building, but now a five-star hotel. It was a block from our hotel and a beautiful building with lots of intricacy in its architecture.

The Big Fish, officially the Salmon of Knowledge, is a curious piece of public art on the banks of the River Lagan. It's a printed ceramic mosaic sculpture, 33 feet long, and was commissioned in 1999. It's on Donegall Quay and from what I could glean from information panels, it's for multiple purposes. It seems that the quay and river had become a mess of trash, sunken boats, and whatever, and needed cleaning up to bring back the fish. But it also signifies the city's rich marine heritage and celebrates Belfast's cultural identify and is a symbol of hope, resilience, and renewal for the people of Belfast. I accept that but to me, it looked like a really big fish. I wish Belfast well with their resilience and renewal.

We wandered widely around the central district. I mostly liked the smaller and more interesting side streets, of which we found quite a few. This street was very appropriately decorated for the Irish weather. We saw lots of sun, rain, and rainbows in Ireland.

We found many references to Irish authors as we wandered around Ireland. In this case, we wandered to the top floor of the Victoria Square shopping mall. I could only get a photo through the glass up on the fifth floor, so not a good photograph. You are looking at the Belvoir Forest Park in the back. On the top of the mountain, can you see the giant? (hint: he's lying down). Jonathan Swift saw the giant and this was his inspiration to write Gulliver's Travels. (from what we read)

We saw lots of public art in Belfast. Some I got and some I didn't get. In the first photo below, you can see me sitting there trying to determine exactly what I'm looking at.

In the next one, I know what I'm looking at but I'm not sure why it's there or what's the significance.