Titanic Museum to Windermere, UK

 

We left you last while we were floating on a converted barge in Belfast Harbor.

We were only there for two nights; Friday and Saturday.   We were staying in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast, so named due to the fact that the Titanic was built and launched about 1,000 feet from our barge.

On Saturday I had made a 1130 reservation to visit the Titanic Museum which is  located on the site of where the ship was built.

On the way to the museum, we passed by the ship below.   The SS Nomadic.  This ship was the actual tender that ferried 1st and 2nd class passengers who were boarding in Cherbourg, France out to the Titanic, plus other ships of the day.   It is the only surviving White Star Line vessel.

SS Nomadic in Belfast Harbor

The painting below is a depiction of the Nomadic pulled up to Titanic.   You can see the size difference.

The plaque below explains how passengers would make their way to Titanic from all over Europe.

And below - an account of waiting for Titanic by a first class passenger

The upper first class lounge on Nomadic.   There was an additional lounge on the deck below.

The floor pattern is the same as was found in the First Class Saloon on Titanic.

First class bar in the lounge. 

The second class lounge.   The walls did not have the ornate carvings, nor the fancy flooring

A first class ladies sitting room.

One deck above the upper lounges is the promenade deck.

We were bumping against our 1130 time slot so we walked to the museum just a couple of hundred feet from the Nomadic.

Titanic Museum Belfast

The museum not only explains about the building of Titanic and its ill fated voyage, but also tells the story of Belfast.

Unfortunately, even though they sell limited tickets...  they still sell way too many and the place was way over crowded.   This totally ruined the experience.   There was places we just had to bypass because it will filled with people and would have to wait and wait more.

Below they did have an exhibit of what a first, second, and third class cabin would look like.

A smaller 1st class accommodation on Titanic

A second class accommodation on Titanic

3rd class accommodation on Titanic

We had an early appointment the next morning with our ferry to Scotland.   We were in line a 0630 and by 720 we were on board the Stena Superfast III and headed to the lounge.   Like our crossing to Ireland, we left the dogs in the car.

I booked a premium ticket which included the Stena Plus lounge.   Its a bit quieter, and has a free breakfast.    We got 2 nice seats by a window overlooking the bow of the ship.

Stena Plus Lounge on MV Superfast III

Just prior to our departure the Celebrity Apex came into the harbor.

It's only 2.5 hrs from Belfast to Cairnryan, Scotland, so before we knew it we were back in the car and disembarking.     There was a rest area just a mile or so from the ferry, so I pulled in to let the dogs stretch their legs, and give Annie a bit of breakfast since she did not have any when we left in the early am.

The UK has lots of nice little "rest areas" on thier "A" roads.  Nothing fancy, just a place to pull over and rest for a bit, but they are often found every few miles or so it seems.

Since we had time to kill before we could check into our place in the Lake District, and we were in the general vicinity, I did a quick google search and found that the Lockerbie Air Disaster memorial garden was just a few miles off of our route.

Downed by a terrorist bomb on December 2, 1988, the 747 was enroute with a plane filled with people returning home for the holidays.   This included 35 students from Syracuse University who were returning home for Christmas while studying at the schools overseas campus.

Called the Lockerbie Garden of Remembrance, it is located within Dryfesdale Cemetery about 4 miles outside of Lockerbie.   It pays homage to the 270 lives lost (259 on the aircraft and 11 on the ground)

In addition to the main stone tablet, there are numerous other plaques paying tribute to individuals on the plane.   One from Pan American World Airways is in tribute to the crew lost, and one by a wife and mother remembering not only her husband, but her son and daughter as well.

Plaques to the Pan Am Crew and others

Besides the garden, there are a few other smaller monuments in the local area as bodies, and parts of the plane were scattered over a wide area.

Thoroughly somber after leaving there, we had a couple of hours more till we arrived our our next place.   A nice apartment on a marina on Lake Windermere, the UK's largest lake.

Went fishing and caught a nice Shaggy Trout.

(PS - Annie is wearing a harness - no worries it doesn't hurt or bother her.)

Bowness on Windermere Marina, the view from our deck.

There is a nice footpath from here to town so we made the trip a few times walking along the lake.

Lots of Geese and Ducks along the shoreline.

We've been here before so I was not as active with my camera as I should have and I did not get any pictures of the town.   It's a very busy tourist town with lots of people, restaurants, and shops.

While there, Annie brought be back a flock of young college co-eds.

Good girl Annie!

An interesting thing about the area is that the RAF and USAF use the Lake District for low altitude flying practice.    Each day, several times a day, we would hear the roar as several fighter jets, one after another, would make a low pass leaving the lake and passing almost directly overhead a low altitude.

There were several types of British Aircraft, plus F22's or 35's, plus each day a wing of F15's would come hotdogging by.  These F15 pilots knew that the town of Windermere below was loaded with tourists looking up at the screaming jets, and I'm sure they were having a blast showing off.

F15 heading this way

I could not see the markings as they went too fast, but I'm pretty sure the F15's would be from the USAF 48th Fighter Wing, as the Brits do not fly F15's

And passing by pulling G's

And again, like a broken record, I can't believe it but another week has gone by.

Tomorrow - Saturday - we have a 3hr drive up north to Edinburgh where we will pick up our Motorhome that we are renting for the next 10 days.   We will be renting a Swift Edge 464.    Quite a bit smaller than the PartyBus that we are used to, but the roads over here would just not allow something that big.   This is more like what we started out in, and is still bigger that the truck camper (The Dog House) that we had a few years back.

After we pick up the Motorhome, we have another 3 hrs drive up to our first stop near Ballachulish, where we stayed 4 years ago.   Lots of beautiful territory ahead, and more new experiences for the new pup.

Our friends Craig & Vickie are driving up in their motorhome and the 4 of us will travel together and visit the west coast of Scotland in the Scottish Highlands.

See you next in Bonnie Scotland!