Belfast 2012 Day Two

Our second day in Belfast took us to Cultra to the west of the greater Belfast area. Cultra is a beautiful residential area with sea views and sought after homes selling upward of 5 million pounds. Sadly, we were not there to house hunt.

We were visiting The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. Every April bus from all over travel to Cultra for a Bus Rally consisting of both vintage and newer buses.

We arrived early to look around the buses before they departed for the rally part of the day.

Some of the buses displayed.

From last year:

 

When most of the buses had left, we grabbed a burger from the bar-b-que and crossed the Railway bridge to the Transport Museum(After we waved to the train passing underneath and earned a toot).

The majority of the museum’s exhibits are barely a blip on the stunning landscaped parkland. Housed in a massive hanger and a smaller separate building down by the water along a short walk, which also takes visitors to the modal railway line – miniature ride on steam trains maintained by enthusiasts. The displays include Maedb(maeve), a massive 1930’s locomotive engine and a De Lorean DMC-12, better known as the car from Back to the future(De Loreans were built in Belfast), and artefacts rescued from Titanic. 

 

 

In the afternoon, we once again crossed the bridge and  made our way back to the rally meeting point and caught a ride to the local town of Bangor in an old yellow school bus. Our teeth were well and truly rattled. We were fortunate that our driver was a dab hand with a spanner because the gearbox jammed on the way back. A few bangs are we were on our way again.

 

Our next stop was the folk park and the village of Ballycultra. Ballycultra is actually a village and rural area set in 170 acres of land and a piece of history preserved for future generations. The buildings from all over Ireland were taken apart piece by piece and reconstructed in the village and surrounding land. Among the things to see are a cinema with wooden benches and silent movies, a bank, pub, weavers, printer(who was kind enough to give me one of the ticket for Titanic that he was printing), court, and farm house.