Ireland 2014 - ICanGarden.com

June 28th was our day of leisure here in Belfast and while many took a side tour out to see the Giants Causeway, some went off to dig deeper into their ancestry and others went sightseeing like I did. Our hotel, the Hilton Belfast is very well placed again for walking around and very close to many sights of interest. I headed off to the market, just a couple blocks away from the hotel then from here walked along the waterfront and back into the center to do a bit of shopping and tasting of what else but chocolate! Now the market was fantastic and I wish they could have been here to enjoy it. Such friendly people, delicious aromas of food and bread, and a neat atmosphere of music and munching. Along the waterfront I wanted to get closer to ‘the fish’. Now seeing this from afar it looks great but it is when you are up close that you really appreciate it. Each of these ceramic tiles has been imprinted with either historical buildings or poems or sayings… it was truly beautiful and it is also a reminder that the waters have now been cleaned up allowing the fish to swim here again. Where the Clock is, there is a water feature that spits out water at different levels which is kind of neat, but the old clock is pretty cool too. It was off over a meter and just had to be fixed. Seems the ground was mostly sand and it was built on wooden planks. The Albert Memorial Clock is now pointing in the right direction. I headed downtown and as I did so passed this beautiful building to discover it was St. Georges Church and the site marked the very beginning of Belfast. There were two other churches built here before this one in the 19th Century. The first historical reference occurs in 1306! I went inside and loved it…so simple. Continue on to Victoria Square and just outside the doors a pop up store by Coke…pop in there to get my can of coke with my name on it and off to the top floor of the Square where you can get a pretty good view of the city. Now to the Hotel Chocolat shop where of course I bought chocolate….all this before my 4 p.m. Afternoon Tea at Ten Square. This was another different tea – ‘Tea with a Twist’ and boy was it yummy. It had a drink as well to start so I tried that with my so good sandwiches made with freshly baked bread and crusts removed. Then a scone with jam and cream and yes there were also delicious sweets (the macaroons to die for) but I just loved the skinny chips dusted with parmesan cheese and truffle oil. Another place that I would highly recommend, and for 14.95 GBP it was a steal.