Day 8: Belfast Food Trail
Today was a really good day - a very fun excursion! We didn't have to leave the ship for our excursion until a little after 1pm today, so we spent the first half of the day enjoying our "down time." Kim spent time at the gym and did a little laundry while I built the first of the highlight videos. And that's the first story for today.....while down in the living room working on the video the general manager of the Neptune - you remember him from earlier in the trip.....recognizing me and gifting us the drink package. He came up to me and handed me two envelopes and said, "Mr. Love, this is a special gift from the team." I told him he didn't need to do that and he replied, "We really appreciate what you've done." Smiled and wished me a good day.....
Two gift certificates to a "Spa Day." When we booked what we wanted (for a few days later in the trip) the value was well over $400! WOW. Such royal treatment! Kim and I decided that with the expected temperatures expected to never reach 70 degrees this afternoon and a cool, stiff breeze in the forecast that the perfect outfit for the day would be our Florida Panthers Stanley Cup Champions hoodies....
We left the ship, met our guide and were soon off on a ten minute ride to the city center where we began our Food Trail walk. We had five stops along the way. Four of them were outstanding - the one was a brief stop in a bookstore for a small bite-sized snack that lasted less than fifteen minutes but the other four were just outstanding. Before we started we stopped in from of a bank - Denske's Bank - six men walked in and eight minutes later walked out with 26.5 million in sterling, and millions in both Euros and American dollars. To this day only $40,000 has been recovered - from when it was left anonymously at the local police retirement headquarters! At the first stop, Garricks, we had an apple cider ale and "champ" which was basically mashed potatoes loaded with butter. It was delicious. The second stop was AMAZING. We went down stairs into a bakery, Daisy's which for us was all about chocolate. After explaining it was all about making the purest of REAL chocolate we had the most tasty hot chocolate. Then we were given a chocolate ball that contained 1/5th of a shot of Bailey's liquor. And let me tell you, when it melted in your mouth and the liquor was released it WAS like taking a shot. YOWZA!
The third stop was at a deli where we were served some wine and bread, cheeses, and jams. All very tasty. Then the "ok" bookstore. As we walked the streets of Belfast we passed through the original arcade from the early 1800's and went through several "entry ways" which were passages connecting city blocks. We certainly enjoyed seeing the city this way and in this wonderful weather. All the while our guide, Barry was telling stories about Belfast....he was just great. One consistent theme to his stories was how so much of the streets we were walking on were once rivers! Filled in in the late 1800's and then reclaimed they now make up a big part of the city center.
The last stop was at the Morning Star pub. Here we were served local beer and Irish Stew. As delicious as everything else we'd had. And on the drive back to the ship we drove slowly past the Titanic exhibition - it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Europe. The design is from one angle the hull of a ship; from another angle an ice berg. And it's built to be the same size as the actual ship. Tomorrow we don't arrive in Scotland until after noon, so it's another "relaxed" morning!
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