To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor. — Robert Louis Stevenson

I’ve been radio silent for a while. That’s because Russ and I have been meandering around Ireland and Scotland for three weeks. Like Stevenson’s quote above (which I came to learn on this trip), our travels involved a lot of labor and lost baggage, but we remained hopeful and didn’t let it get us down. The good experiences we had far outweighed the difficult.

Belfast was the goal of our first travel day. Alas, we only made it from Duluth to Minneapolis. We boarded our Belfast-bound connecting Delta flight in Minneapolis, giddy that our long-awaited trip was finally happening.

After we backed away from the gate, the pilot announced that one of the engines was doing something weird. He ran some tests and then needed a new part or a sensor, so we got off the plane until that arrived. The clerks kept saying we’d reboard in the next half hour, then it was the next half hour, then the next. By this time, it was past midnight. Suddenly, the announcement came that the flight crew had timed out, so we weren’t going anywhere.

After spending an hour in line to get rebooked for the same flight the next evening, making a reservation at one of the hotels Delta recommended, and then being denied our luggage because the baggage handlers had all gone home, we caught a hotel shuttle. We flopped into bed, bedraggled and bemused at 2:30 a.m.

The next day, we arrived back at the Minneapolis Airport in plenty of time. We explored the shops and probably walked down every gate there was just for some exercise. We even discovered we could have slept overnight in the airport had we wanted. On the second floor, there’s a “Quiet Room” with sleeping pads and cushions. Good to remember should we ever find ourselves in a similar situation! But I’m glad we had a hotel room.

Once we arrived in Belfast, our luggage was missing. After filing a report, we made our way to our hotel, even more bedraggled and more sad than bemused. Little did we know, it would be two more days before our luggage showed up.

We felt like we needed to make up for lost time, so our first day in Belfast was very active, despite jetlag. Our first stop was the Botanic Gardens, a free activity that we could walk to from our hotel. A statue of Lord Kelvin greeted us once we passed through the gate. He was born in Belfast and is best known for his discovery of absolute zero. The gardens have a Victorian feel to them and offer several greenhouses to walk through, and even a Ferris wheel to ride.

On the edge of the gardens is the Ulster Museum, another free venue. If you’re not aware, the term “ulster” translates as ‘Land of the Ulaidh,’ the ancient kings and their people that ruled over most of the north of Ireland in pre-Norman times. The region of Northern Ireland is known as Ulster. Its proximity to Scotland made it relatively easy for many Scots to migrate there.

The museum explores the past, present, and future through art, natural science and history. It sported huge wicker dragons, a replica of an extinct Irish elk, and two famous paintings by Caravaggio. Apparently, pick pockets patrol the room where patrons are distracted by these paintings. The docents asked us to put our backpacks on the front of our body to discourage theft.

Back at our hotel, we booked a cab to Belfast Castle, which is situated high on a hill overlooking the city. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside it because the castle was booked for a private event, but we were satisfied to walk around the grounds and eat scones for lunch in the cellar café.

One of the blogs I follow offers great information about the castle, if you’d like to learn more. It also features a photo of the interior. We loved the cat-themed garden.

Back at our hotel again, we asked the concierge about booking a Sectarian taxi tour. These tours take you into the heart of the parts of Belfast where “the troubles” erupted in the late 1960s and lasted until the late 1990s. Both Russ and I had read, “Say Nothing,” a book about the troubles and were interested in seeing the areas described in it.

The concierge said she knew someone who could take us and that he had “a very nice van.” And that he would answer all our questions. He did, indeed, have a very nice van (a Mercedes) but his presentation was a bit jumbled. It didn’t help that he had a food smudge on his cheek the whole time and that spit balls gathered on his lower lip. That made it hard to listen to him, but he did tell us many personal stories about growing up in those times and he took us to all the different areas: Protestant, Catholic, and Loyalist. He also told us that everything he said was “deniable,” so, it was hard to know how seriously to take him.

Back at the hotel again, we walked down the street in search of some supper. The place we chose was right across from the Belfast Police Department. The police are housed in a very impressive structure. All it lacks is a moat. I’ve never seen such a well-fortified modern building! But, of course, they’ve needed the security with all the conflicts of the past. There’s peace now, but as our tour guide and several other people told us, it’s an uneasy peace.

Whew! That was quite a first day in Ireland. Next up: The Titanic Museum and the Maritime Trail.