Belfast: The Titanic

This morning, my heart rate was soaring with anticipation.  I couldn’t get through breakfast fast enough and be on our way.  I’m sure you know at least the basic history of the Titanic or at least seen the movie so I won’t bore you with a history lesson.  But, you do know that it was built in Belfast, ireland?

We were going to the museum which is built on the exact site where it was built!  I could barely contain my excitement at the mere thought that I would soon be standing on that exact spot!

The building itself is quite a marvel.  I’m including this photo to give you the perspective of it’s height against the people outside.  That’s Paul, our tour guide standing center at the door.

The buildings design is supposed to reflect Belfast’s history of shipmaking.  It’s angular form, designed to the shape of the ships prows, with its main “prow” angled down the middle of the Titanic and Olympic slipways towards the River Lagan.

Many remark that the building looks like an iceberg, and locals have nicknamed it “The Iceberg”.   Most of the building’s façade is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodised aluminium shards.  It stands 126 ft high, the same height as Titanic‘s hull.

The Titanic Belfast visitor attraction extends over nine galleries, with multiple dimensions to the exhibition. Drawing together special effects, dark rides, full-scale reconstructions and innovative interactive features you will explore the Titanic story in a fresh and insightful way from her conception in Belfast in the early 1900s, through her construction and launch, to her infamous maiden voyage and catastrophic demise. The journey goes beyond the aftermath of the sinking, to the discovery of the wreck and continues into the present day in the Ocean Exploration Centre.

With full scale replication, many areas are like stepping back in time and into the Titanic itself.  The attention to detail was stunning…from posters, artifacts and right down to the china.  It truly is the titanic experience!

The Grand Staircase

First Class Stateroom

Third Class

The actual Titanic’s slipway

The awe inspiring scope of the men against the enormity of Titanics propellers. 

At the end, you read it’s final messages and calls for help before exiting outside.

1:45 am

Come ad quickly as possible old man: the engine room is filling up to the boilers.

1:55 am

We have not heard Titanic for about half an hour.  His power may be gone. 

2:10 am

…Silence

LIFEBOAT

Here, on the ground is a metal inlay that marks the exact spot it was built.  Note the triangular point then look back as far as your eye can see….and that was the length of her.

From here, if you look to the right, you’ll see Titanic Studio where the movie Titanic was filmed as well as parts of Game Of Thrones.

My post is but a brief summary of all you will experience at the Titanic Museum.  If I were to write it all, wordpress would not have the room to hold it, the hundreds of pictures I had taken nor the enormity of emotion, eerie and heartbreaking and the sheer awe.  Even this small fragment of our entire journey would alone have been a bucket list item worth the trip!