Belfast, Co. Antrim (2019-09-29)

Today was our first lazy morning since we left home, and we spent it drinking tea and reading.  But by 11 am we were out for a walk.

On a previous walk we had noticed an interesting looking path that went north from our accommodation and so we decided to go exploring.  We passed through The Hollow, which is immortalized in Van Morrison’s 1967 hit “Brown-eyed Girl”.  Van grew up in East Belfast, and apparently many of his songs reference streets or other features of East Belfast.  We would never have known these things if we had not ventured out this morning.

A little further down the path we passed through C.S. Lewis Square, which is a tribute to another local lad.  Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898, and is best known for his books “The Chronicles of Narnia”, the first of which was “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”.  There are several pieces of art around the square, representing characters from his books.

The Lion

The Witch

The Wardrobe

At Sydenham the path ran out and we were walking on a street, so we turned around and headed back home, walking 7 km in all.

After a fluid adjustment break, we caught the bus into town, just as the city was coming alive, as most stores do not open until 1 pm on Sunday.  We had a coffee and a scone at Avoca, hit the major bookstores, picked up dinner at M&S, and then it was back on the bus.  At our local bus stop I saw the Tesco grocery delivery van, with a cute play on words on the side of the van.

Tesco Grocery Delivery Van

Speaking of funnies, I read about one from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - “Jokes about white sugar are not very common, but jokes about brown sugar, demerara”.

It was good to have a casual and somewhat relaxing day as our trip quickly draws to a close.  We have one more day in Belfast, then a travel day back to Dublin, and we fly home on Wednesday.