Its a beautiful but cold morning, but we are braving the temps and going for a nice long walk to the Botanical gardens. It is about a half an hour walk, out past St. Anne’s Cathedral and through the University area before we arrive at the gardens, too early to go into the greenhouse, but still early enough not to be crowded. The grounds are gorgeous with early blooming flowers. Sadly the rose garden is being replanted, and it is just barren. We can imagine how beautiful it will be when in full bloom. Ah well, it was still a lovely place to walk.

From here we decide to go back along the river which does does two things: 1) it gives us a nicer more scenic route back into the city, and 2) walks us right past the train station so we can reconnoiter for our departure tomorrow. Perfect. And it is a lovely walk along the paved path that follows the river.

Reconnoitering accomplished, we make the 15 minute walk back to the City center, stopping for a cappuccino along the way, and heading straight to City Hall where we tour the different exhibits and displays detailing the history of Belfast. There are some really interesting things here – like the Famine window, a stain glass window commissioned to commemorate all those who died from Cholera or Typhoid fever from 1846 – 1848, and the other beautiful stained glass window depicting different events that are representative of Belfast (like the Titanic) or the pewter chess set with playing pieces that are likenesses for some of the people lost on the Titanic; the King and Queen are the Strauss’ who owned Macy’s. Multiple rooms lead you through the ground floor of the hall, past the grand staircase and through displays that talk about the northern Irish culture (complete with idioms used here), beautiful fireplaces and just a ton of historical information.

A nice free little diversion.

Heading back to the apartment we find my family’s cafe! Wow! Us Alexanders. We are everywhere!

Deciding we have enough food back at the apartment, we shun my namesake cafe and head back home for a bite to eat, then head off for our afternoon Conflicting Stories tour. The 3 hour walking tour will take us to both sides of a divided Belfast, the Catholic side and the Protestant side and is led by former political prisoners. We really aren’t sure what to expect – but boy do we get an education. The long and short of it is, this city is still totally divided, even though the “Troubles,” as the conflict that tore this city apart is called, happened 30 years ago. There is still a 26 km wall separating the Catholic side from the Protestant side and we learn it is still locked between 7pm and morning. Crazy!

Meeting in front of Divis Towers, our Catholic tour guide greets us and begins our education into Sinn Fein (from his perspective, working high up in the organization, being involved in the uprising and imprisoner for 15+ years, but now trying to help the younger generation understand the Troubles and move forward peacefully), the separation and everything Catholic on this side of the barrier.

We walk up Falls Road, past murals devoted to the heroes of the Troubles – those fighting for Sinn Fein – and the Irish Republic, the Sinn Fein headquarters with the mural of Bobby Sands, who went on a hunger strike and then was elected as an MP for West Berlin days before he died, residential areas where the barrier is literally within feet of the back of the houses,

This is just nuts. There are fences and gates everywhere. And memorials to the Republican freedom fighters. I mean, who knew? After walking past the main church, and more residential areas with fences, a mural about Bombay Street, the area torched to the ground in 1969 which totally set off the Catholics, we pass through the electronically-controlled gates (the ones that are locked at 7pm!) and into the Protestant area of The Shankill Road where we are handed off to our next guide, a Loyalist ex-political prisoner.

Now we get the other side of the story. Where our Republican guide was calm and almost professorial, the Loyalist guide is full of anger and drama. It radiates. As we walk through the streets of the Shankill looking at the wall from the other side, decorated with all sorts of murals and graffiti, and the murals commemorating the Ulster volunteers, he makes it clear it is all the Republicans fault and that the Loyalists want to remain a part of the United Kingdom. The Republicans started it, they murder, they kill….on and on. Eye opening!

The tour continues past Frizzel’s Fish shop where a bomb went off killing 9 people in 1989 (this got him riled up) and more murals and memorials. Ay yi yi. We’re still in shock. We had no idea – not even a little clue that this city was still so absolutely divided. Wow. Talk about hard core!

When the tour finally ends, we are all left to walk back into the “other” side of Belfast, the “neutral” side, sharing our perspectives and our complete shock at all these revelations. We feel good, at least, that we are not alone in our ignorance. Phew.

It is late enough that we decide to go ahead and get dinner now, then head back to the apartment to finalize our laundry and packing. Settling on Pizza Punks (gotta love the name), we warm ourselves up inside across from the wood fired grill and dig into some excellent pizza, beer and wine. We needed that after our last tour. Wow. I’m still on wow.

Retiring to the condo, we do laundry, emails and pack. Tomorrow we ride the train to Dublin to begin our next Gate 1 adventure.