We decided to make our own way around the city today. It was not very busy at all, and we actually ran into two lots of people we’d spent the day with yesterday doing the same thing as us.

The city has loads to offer.

A few steps from our door is the Presbyterian Assembly Building. It is the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

It started out drizzling with rain but that didn’t affect us too much.

Next stop had to be a Tourist Office to get a proper map – of course!

Just across the road from the Tourist Office was Belfast City Hall which was opened in 1906 on the site of the White Linen Hall. (Irish linen is very famous and it was very important to the commerce of Belfast. Sadly, while the mills employed thousands of woman and children to make the linen, their working conditions were horrendous).

Only as recently as 2012 did the city’s representatives vote to only fly the Union Flag on this building on 18 designated days each year. Prior to that it was every day. The decision came about when the balance of power in the council make-up changed and, despite there being protests held around Northern Ireland against the decision.

There was a very moving display in the grounds of Belfast City Hall remembering and honouring the 3,775 unidentified soldiers from Ulster and Irish regiments who died in The Battle of the Somme and who have no known grave. The artist made each figure individually and wrapped each in a shroud and marked off a name as he finished each one.

Mick found a possible relative and I found two.

In November, to mark the centenary of Armistice Day, these figures will be on display in London with others representing the fallen from Commonwealth regiments – a total of 72,396.

I wanted to get a look at the River Lagan which sits at the head of Belfast Lough (lock) – a large intertidal inlet. The port of Belfast has played a critical role in the city’s history as there was a very important ship building industry here. It’s most famous for building the Titanic. But also for building warships.

Near the waterfront we noticed an interesting contrast between old and new buildings.

To the left of this photo are the new modern buildings, and across the road are the Royal Courts of Justice.

Just behind the courts were the St George’s Markets. These were only small when compared with other city markets we’ve been to, but they were still interesting. The bulk of the stalls were delicious foods to tempt us, or artist stalls.

I succumbed to the Irish soda breads. We bought three pretty amazing things at this stall for £2.40. Mick chose something with potato and black pudding – which didn’t tempt me at all though.

Our next task was to find a pub we’d been told about called the Duke of York. Supposedly very interesting and located in a small street adorned with great murals.

It wasn’t this one, but this was pretty cute.

We knew we were getting closer when we spotted this impressive mural.

Plus another.

A few more steps and we found the narrow street and the pub.

We are planning on visiting here later this afternoon to see if it lives up to its reputation.

As we left we noticed this homage to Salvadore Dali’s work.

Just last week we had read about a devastating fire in central Belfast city. It destroyed an iconic building, the Primark Building, which was undergoing a £30M refurbishment. They are still trying to work out how it started. It’s a mess.

After lunch, we walked back to the City Hall to go through its (free) exhibition. It wasn’t opened when we were there earlier.

Oh what a difference a few hours makes!

There were loads more people around and there was also a very obvious police presence.

The big guy on the right was wearing a sash around his neck.

He was part of this small, yet colourful group.

Mick got chatting to this police officer to find out what was going on. He explained that every Saturday they are here protesting the decision not to fly the Union Flag from the city hall’s flag pole every day.

We spent two hours reading about Belfast and Northern Ireland’s history. A really great display in a wonderful building.

As we left I took this photo of a large crowd of mostly young families enjoying an outside film on the lawns.

By this stage we needed to rest up and prepare for our ‘research’ this evening.

I’ll report back about our experiences in Belfast pubs in a separate post.