Days 23-25 Thu-Sat 7-9 June Bangor/Belfast Gales Gales Gales (and rain)

Vega
Irving & Cate Benjamin
Sat 9 Jun 2012 13:35

It did not take long to work out that the Weather Gods were not going to be on our side for at least 48hrs.  The whole of the British Isles were in the grip of strong to gale force winds, courtesy of a deep low moving slowly NE.  We resigned ourselves to a stay here, and managed the first evening with a walk (a very wet walk) to the Omniplex Cinema, where we saw Snow White and the Huntsman (only in 2D sadly).  Actually not a bad film overall, with spectacular effects and facial makeup changes, though such dialogue as there was is delivered in a very wooden manner, and the Huntsman's Scottish accent made Mel Gibson sound like Rab C Nesbitt!  Takeaway pizza on the way home, and put the electric heater on again in the boat to dry/thaw out. 
Retrieving my emails gave us a nice surprise in the shape of a new baby girl (Anya Chaudrey) to my nephew Anthony and his wife Sonia. Congratulations sent by e- and snail-mail.
We figured we had exhausted Bangor, so planned a trip into Belfast on the Friday, a 40 minute train ride along the shores of Belfast Lough, and found an historic pub - The Crown - with magnificent Victorian tiles, ceilings and wooden partitioned cubicles (see pics).  A good lunch was had, supplemented for Benj with a couple of pints of Coppertop while Cate went off in search of the shops.  Shopping proved a bit of a disappointment, being mostly big-name chains and characterless malls.  We met up again for coffee, and Benj set off in search of the Cathedral.  It was hard to locate, made worse by frequent sheltering from the intermittent torrents of rain, and when found it was firmly CLOSED!!  My language was more suited to the outside of the church than inside, and after another drenching we made it back to Gt Victoria St Station.  Benj was lost in the climax of his book (At Risk, by Stella Rimington, a good read) and Cate in her new phone (Samsung Galaxy S3 purchased the previous day in Bangor, a joint birthday present) and we failed to disembark at Bangor.  To our horror the train set off back towards Belfast at express speed, and we could do nothing but watch and await an opportunity to get off, which was at Belfast Central.  Next train came along in less than 10 minutes fortunately, so tired and wet (did I mention it was raining?) we got home and cooked our shepherd's pie, with better hopes for the next day's weather. 

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