Titanic Belfast visit

Titanic Quarter, Queen's IslandKitHarland & Wolff gateP1110064On the Shipyard rideWhiskey & beer
Titanic factWhite Star Line chinaP1110089Titanic Belfast backSlipwaysP1110094
P1110097DocksIndustrial heritageBig building, little personFormer Harland & Wolff drawing officesTitanica
Queens Square attractions

Titanic Belfast visit, a set on Flickr.
I was able to fit in a visit to the Titanic Belfast building recently and was very impressed with the experience. On the plus sides, it focuses quite heavily on the industrial history of Belfast and Northern Ireland to good effect (such as the Shipyard Ride), the cabin recreations are fascinating, the building itself is of course striking and the public spaces around have been landscaped in an interesting manner.

The gift shop, perhaps not surprisingly, falls a little on the side of bad taste - after all, this was a shipping disaster, not really a reason for keyrings and chocolates! However, such a modern tourist facility does need to turn a profit so it's hardly surprising to see a range of tie-in tat on offer.

All in all we probably spent almost 4 hours touring the exhibition - it's very in-depth and was also very busy, good to see for business but it made some of the areas quite claustrophobic.

Sadly I didn't have time to tour the wider Titanic Quarter, although I understand there are some organised walks linked to the Titanic history and Harland & Wolff - next time maybe. It also houses the new Public Records Office building - definitely a reason for a return visit to Belfast!

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