Belfast; Monday, 18 May, 2015

Given I’d been staying in the Titanic quarter it did make sense to actually visit some of the attractions around me, and after checking out I headed the half mile or so up the road to the Titanic dock and pump house.

The large dry dock was specifically built for the Olympic class ships (Olympic, Titanic and Britannic) and this was the last time that Titanic was on dry ground as it was fitted out and finished off. It left the dock here and less than a fortnight later was lying at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Having visited the museum and descended down into the base of the dock itself I headed back down the road to the Titanic Experience and SS Nomadic.

First off was the SS Nomadic, the White Star line’s first and second class passenger tender based in Cherbourg where the harbours were too small to accommodate the massive bulk of the Titanic and her sister ships.

A long look around the Nomadic and then it was into the Titanic Experience. Built next to the slipway where Titanic and Olympic were constructed. This is an excellent museum and I spent much longer looking round than I thought I would.

Consequently after a quick lunch in the café I realised I’d pretty much run out of time and needed to head back to the hotel and onto the airport.

I’d picked up my luggage and was halfway back to the bus stop for the shuttle to the airport when the skies opened with a torrential downpour, mostly made up of hail, which dropped the temperature from cool to virtually freezing. Thankfully I managed to make to be underneath the flyover crossing the Lagan before the worst of the downpour hit and sheltered there for about 20 minutes before it eased enough to carry onto the bus stop and off to the airport.