Down Donegall Square --

From St Anne’s Cathedral we wandered, exploring – headed vaguely back in the direction of our hotel.

The signs for tourists were extremely helpful, and a detour was made to go see the Belfast City hall – a recommendation that had come earlier in the day in a conversation with some locals at lunch.

If you want to know the best places to visit in a limited amount of time – talk to the locals!

As always, I am enamored with the architecture of old city center areas.

The brick and the windows…it feels like stepping back in time 100 years or more.

And I do love street scenes as well – capturing things with my camera as they are, completely unstaged.

People walking around, milling about, intent on completing whatever errand they are about on a busy Friday afternoon in Belfast.

Friends chatter on, as we spot the city hall in the background.

Strange the mix of Greek revival city hall  next to the ultra modern of the shops that line the street!

What a beautiful building!

From Wikipedia:

The site now occupied by Belfast City Hall was once the home of the White Linen Hall, an important international Linen Exchange. The Street that runs from the back door of Belfast City Hall through the middle of Linen Quarter is Linen Hall Street.
 
Plans for the City Hall began in 1888 when Belfast was awarded city status by Queen Victoria. This was in recognition of Belfast's rapid expansion and thriving linen, rope-making, shipbuilding and engineering industries. During this period Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the most populous city on the island of Ireland.

 

While we were in Belfast, the whole of the city was getting ready for the G8 summit –President Obama was due to arrive just as we were leaving Ireland, and to tell you the truth, we couldn’t get out of Belfast fast enough ---Buildings were being posted to be closed, the protesters were already starting to gather.  Later in the day we had wandered the botanical gardens and they were setting up for that there too ---if there was ever a good time to leave Belfast, it was at 5am on Saturday morning when we all headed back to Dublin for our flights home!

 

There were quite a few policemen on hand at the City Hall building, posting placards about the facility being closed during the summit ---we were just in time to still be able to tour inside!

 

 

Would this stop you in your tracks?

 

 

This one did me!

 

 

Carrara, Pavonazzo and Brescia marbles are used extensively throughout the building as are stained glass windows featuring among others the Belfast Coat of Arms, portraits of Queen Victoria and King William III and shields of the Provinces of Ireland.

Up Into the dome…WOW!

Art in the rotunda.

From here it wasn’t a long walk back to the hotel at all.

Home Sweet Home for our last two nights!

Back to reality chez Quiltville ---

Today my house turns into a disaster zone as the new siding project on our house should commence!

Our house was built in the 1970s and has cedar wood siding – it’s time to say bye bye to it.  It’s being replaced with new insulation and vinyl siding meaning no more painting – no more staining – no more sealing – and better energy efficiency!

But it’s going to be a mess….but still so exciting to see the transformation!

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