We arrived in Belfast very early in the morning one weekend to stay for a few days with Reuben’s friends Mark and Elaine and their children Ben and Katie.  It was lots of fun staying with a family – we got to visit Santa, watch the fabulous movie  “Arthur Christmas” and go to their church with them. (Tiny celebrity encounter – we sat at the next table to Robin Mark. Reubs told me to put the phone away and stop Googling him in case he saw!)

 

 

 

We also took a Belfast bus tour. We wouldn’t normally do a bus tour as we generally take public buses, but this was a really cool way to see the Peace Line and the murals that tell the story of Belfast’s difficult past.

 

 

 

 

Another highlight was visiting the Titanic Belfast museum.  The “Titanic” was built in Belfast and there is an incredible new museum, mostly dedicated to how the ship was built but also with awesome exhibits about how the ship was kitted out and the explorations of the wreck.  This museum was really top class – there was even a ride to go on where you saw the ship being “made”.

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed strolling around Belfast, exploring the Christmas market at the town hall (seen above) as well as the beautiful city.  Another awesome thing we did was our first ever visit to IKEA….  I had always wanted to go there and Mark took us there – we had breakfast and a blissful time exploring this amazing home and furniture shop…I saw so, so much I wanted to buy and just loved exploring it all!