Day 40: Portglenone to Belfast

June 23, 2024

Just another day getting from Point A to Point B . . . or so we thought

Our B&B host had an unexpected departure and was unable to provide breakfast, so we found Dan's Bistro and indulged on pancakes and French toast - foods we don't normally have in France. Delicious!

We set off on our last venture of this trip to find Belfast. Chuck rewrote our route last night which paid off beautifully, safely, and easily. We had a mixture of small farm roads and not busy two lanes country roads. At one point a road sign indicted that Portglanone (where we left from) was 6 and Randalstown (next town we will ride through) was 5. I thought to myself "Geez, we must be riding really slow today as we've only travelled 6 kilometers and it sure feels longer than that." After a while, I remembered that Northern Ireland is in miles, not kilometers. Sigh! I must be weary.

We didn't expect to see much today and were very surprised when we rode through Randalstown. If I had it to do again, I'd route us to here for an overnight stay - just so we had time to wander around and explore.

As we rode into Randalstown, we stumbled across two arched bridges next to each other. We had to stop and investigate.

The entry to the lower bridge - which is driven on.

The two bridges. We assume the upper bridge, which is now a walking bridge, was originally a train bridge.

There was a "fishing" walking trail along the river.

Grandpa is reading to his Down syndrome grandson with the 10 year old dog. Dad made this sculpture.

And then we found the original Shane Castle entry.

Gardens were delightfully decorated. Wish they would come and make mine look like these!

The scratching and crimping machinery from Milltown set on display in the lovely garden.

The next town we rode through was Antrim. We're getting nearer to Belfast, so the roads seem to be getting busier. Our route took us off the roads and through several parks and by a castle and along High Street. Who could complain?!!

One of the remaining parts of Antrim Castle.

Display of some of the family shields from the Antrim Castle.

This park in Antrim is really beautiful.

Eventually we found the original entry to the Antrim Castle.

After leaving Antrim, we were surprised to find ourselves along country farm lanes once again.

Surprisingly all roads were really quiet today. Maybe because it was Sunday?

The hills here look so different from the farm lands in the Republic.

Then we entered the Belfast suburbs and wound our way through industrial and commercial districts to find the bike routes along Belfast Lough. The bike route took us along the lake into Belfast, past the train station, to our hotel. It was really quite easy entering this large city.

Route signage along the bike path into Belfast.

Our first sighting of Belfast Lough with a ferry.

American Quarter with this sculpture and church in the background.

Clock tower - we saw several more as we continued on.

We're staying at the Tara Lodge with easy access to the bike path along the lough and just a few minutes from the train station. The hospitality here is fantastic and they went overboard trying to accommodate parking for the tandem. Since we were in early, we had time to walk around a bit and headed for City Hall. City Hall closes at 5 pm on Sunday, but the security guards said we could walk into the courtyard and look around. As we started to leave, the security guard asked if we'd like to see inside and took us in. WOW!

The inner courtyard. The property has a tower on each corner. The building is still used by the government today.

The fountain in the center of the courtyard.

The stained glass windows were all along the second story.

Main entry. The marble and architecture was absolutely beautiful.

The stairs with stain glass figure of Queen Alexandra.

The green columns are marble imported from Italy. This building was constructed in the late 1800s and apparently when the green marble columns were shipped, they went through London first. The English government wanted to keep them, so the Belfast councilmen had to send an envoy to escort the columns to their new home.

How is it that this beautiful building wasn't destroyed during the civil war? How lucky were we tonight? Very!!

Then we had dinner at Darcy's Restaurant. Great dinner and great service. We think we'll have to take advantage of those cheap European airfares and visit Belfast again when we can go to the museums (such as the Titanic Museum).

Irish pound notes. Northern Ireland uses the Irish pound based on the sterling. The Republic of Ireland uses the euro.

It's with mixed feelings that our journey is coming to its conclusion. We're so happy to have accomplished this dream trip, but we aren't sure we're ready to go back to everyday life. We have learned that we really like riding for 7 or 8 days and then taking a day off the bike. This last stretch was 11 days in the saddle, and we're ready to give our rears a break . . . but we aren't ready for the trip to end. It is so much fun riding our tandem together day after day experiencing something new and unexpected every day. I guess this means we'd better get to planning the next adventure. But where?

Note to ourselves: It was the warmest day yet. It was 20 degrees C when we arrived in Belfast having discarded the vest and arms.

Accommodation: We highly recommend staying at Tara Lodge in the Queen's Quarter if you visit Belfast.

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 2,652 km (1,647 miles)

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rod dayWhat a fantastic journey & a wonderful blog. I shall miss reading it each morning with my breakfast cup of tea. But it will be great to see you guys soon & no doubt hear lots of "untold" stories.
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