Frida, August 11 - Belfast - a Titanic Final Day

 On the coach for the last time with our fabulous driver and person, Dennis, we went to the Belfast shipyards. Before WW2 tge shipyards employed more than 30 thousand people. The last ocean liner built there was in 1961, and the last ship of any kind left the port in 2003. It currently repairs ships. The exhibitions in the building, built as high as the ship and opened in 2012, the 100th year after the sinking, are very moving,

Time is spent describing the background, motivation, personalities, and the culture. Times also spent on the design and its approval process. We were then taken on a short ride around the work, it's noise and complicated processes and steps in the building of the ship. It was taken for trials in 1911. The day it departed Belfast in 1912 it still need most of the work staff as well as interior appointments in Southampton. One hundred thousand people had tickets for that event. After Southampton, the ship called at Cherbourg and one other port.

Described are safety features still lacking, such as binoculars for the men I. The lookout. It had accidentally been left behind in Southampton. Passengers did not have a safety drill, and life boats were related to tonnage rather the the number of persons on board. We exited down the stars with the names of all the victims accompanying us as we walked. It's a long list.

The exhibition continues showing what has been learned, and that's  good. I lay most of the blame on the captain and his White Star Line executives. 

We said a final goodbye to Dennis, our driver, at the city hall. Lynn  walked us around the grounds and war and Titanic memorials.

During the free afternoon we lunched at Mark's and Spencer's  department store, watching people on the street from the restaurant windows. We spent time booking our train to Dublin on line. And soon it was 5;30, time to meet and walk to our restaurant for our final dinner together.  

The day had been sunny and cool. On our walk to the restaurant we experienced a downpour which got us very wet during our 10 minute walk. We had good food, sparkling wine, a message and gift from Lynn. We gave her a sympathy card,  as we had just learned her 92 year old aunt and godmother had died two days earlier. We shared hugs and contact information and returned to the hotel without rain.

A couple invited Premilka and me to share a drink.  The well-kmown Crown pub was crowded and noisey. We had Irish coffee,  decaf, at the hotel bar. We enjoyed conversation about our tour and about our future travel plans.

It was with mixed feelings that went to sleep.