Ireland....

I've always wanted to visit Ireland - home of the leprechaun, clover and Guinness.  So the weekend just gone, I took everyone with me and we flew out from Southend to Dublin!

 Ed Sheeran eat your heart out - Graffen Street!

 Hop on Hop off bus ride

 We didn't stop, but no tour would be complete without visiting the Guinness factory..

 Christchurch Cathedral

 Mr Simms sweet shop - even in Ireland!!

 Saturday evening, we went to Dublin Zoo for the Chinese inspired light show, it was just amazing!!

On Sunday, we hired a car and Lee drove us all up to Belfast to spend the day going around the Titanic Quarter.  I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!

I've had an interest in the Titanic for years and to go to where she was built was just fabby...

The exhibition was great, even the ride!

We then visited SS Nomadic - the only WhiteStar tender left that had been refurbished as a tourist attraction.

Cassandra and I even dressed up as 2nd class passengers...

I had to of course ensure that each of the beasties wouldn't have drowned (froze maybe, but not drowned).

 We then all sat down for tea - posh class of course

 One of the small funnels on the tender

 I got to steer the boat!!!

The best bit of the whole weekend had to be when Alex and I went to visit the dry dock that Titanic was actually built in...

It was just MASSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Although not very wide..  I can't believe that we were actually standing where she was built.  The actual supports are still there.. I touched one, where her huge hull once sat...

To me, that was the highlight of our trip.

Oh, and spending time with the family (of course)!