Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [508]
Also known as whowhatwherewhenwhy, W5 (Map; 9046 7700; www.w5online.co.uk; adult/child £6.80/4.90, 2 adults & 2 children £20; 10am-5pm Mon-Thu, to 6pm Fri & Sat, noon-6pm Sun, last admission 1hr before closing) is an interactive science centre aimed at children of all ages. Kids can compose their own tunes by biffing the ‘air harp’ with a foam rubber bat, try to beat a lie detector, create cloud rings and tornadoes, and design and build their own robots and racing cars.
The Odyssey Complex is a five-minute walk across the weir from the Bigfish sculpture. Metro bus 26 from Donegall Sq W to Holywood stops at the complex (£1.30, 5 minutes, hourly Monday to Friday only); the rather inconspicuous bus stop is on Sydenham Rd.
TITANIC TRAIL
Queens Rd strikes northeast from the Odyssey Complex into the heart of the Titanic Quarter, a massive redevelopment area that is part industrial wasteland, part building site and part hi-tech business park. Not much remains of the time when the Titanic was built, but a series of information boards along Queen’s Rd point out items of interest.
You can hire a hand-held multimedia device from the Belfast Welcome Centre, which leads you on a self-guided walking tour of the Titanic Trail ( 9024 6609; per device for up to 3hr £8), complete with GPS technology, audio commentary and video presentations.
First up is the Hamilton Graving Dock (off Map), which is slated to be the permanent mooring for the SS Nomadic ( 9027 7652; www.nomadicbelfast.com) – the only surviving vessel of the White Star Line (the shipping company that owned the Titanic). In 2006 she was rescued from the breaker’s yard and brought to Belfast. The little steamship, which once served as a tender ferrying 1st- and 2nd-class passengers between Cherbourg Harbour and the giant Olympic Class ocean liners (which were too big to dock at the French port), was undergoing restoration work in Barnett Dock at the time of research, but should have moved to Hamilton Dock and be open to the public by summer 2010.
Just along the road are the original Harland and Wolff Drawing Offices (off Map), where the designs for the Titanic were first drawn up (not open to the public); behind them, and best seen from a boat tour on the river, are the two massive slipways where the Titanic and her sister ship Olympic were built and launched.
A few hundred metres further on you’ll reach the most impressive monument to the days of the great liners – the huge Thompson Graving Dock (off Map), where the Titanic was fitted out. Its vast size gives you some idea of the scale of the ship, which could only just fit into it. Beside the dock is the Thompson Pump House (off Map; 9073 7813; www.titanicsdock.com; admission free, guided tour £5; visitor centre 10.30am-4pm, tours 11am & 2pm), which houses an exhibition on Belfast shipbuilding, and a cafe. The guided tour includes a video of original film footage from the shipyards, and a visit to the inner workings of the pump house and dock.
In the dock on the far side of the pump house, naval history buffs can ogle HMS Caroline, a WWI Royal Navy cruiser built in 1914, now serving as a Royal Naval Reserve training ship (not open to the public).
South Belfast (Queen’s Quarter)
The Golden Mile – the 1.5km stretch of Great Victoria St and Shaftesbury Sq that links the city centre to the university district – was once the focus for much of Belfast’s nightlife. These days, with the regeneration of the city centre, it’s more tarnished brass than gold, but it still has several decent pubs and eateries.
Metro buses 8A, 8B and 8C run from Donegall Sq E along Bradbury Pl and University Rd to Queen’s University.
QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY
If you think that Charles Lanyon’s Queen’s College (1849), a Tudor Revival building in red brick and honey-coloured sandstone, has something of an Oxbridge air about it, that may be because he based the design of the central tower on the 15th-century Founder’s Tower at Oxford’s Magdalen College. Northern Ireland’s most prestigious university was founded