Woke at Cairnshill. Went into town, to Crumlin Road Gaol. The next tour available was at 12pm, and if we were to get to the White House Heritage Centre, in Newtownabbey, which according to the "Visit Belfast" book for July & August 2014, was open 2-5pm, Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday, we couldn't do that tour. So we booked for tomorrow at 10am.
Went back into town, back to the Victoria Centre, where we had morning tea at Costa, then went up to the top of the Centre's dome — a must-do when in Belfast — to get a panoramic view of the city. The dome — a large geodesic dome (thank you, Buckminster Fuller) — surrounds a free-standing tower in the middle, which stands about 3 floors higher than the shopping levels. We rather enjoyed watching the gardeners working on the sod roof on another part of the centre. Went outside via a different exit to look at an interesting fountain we noticed from the top. Then we went back to pick up the van from Cairnshill.
Went out to Newtownabbey, only to find that the centre, from 1 April 2014, was only open to previously booked tours — so we were somewhat pinged off! What to do? We found a Macca's at the Abbey Centre nearby, where there was also a Dunnes store — so a little shopping, and a little blogging and email. All was well with the world! After 2½ hours there, we returned to Cairnshill well satisfied with ourselves.
Distance driven — today, 22 miles ( 35 km ); to date, 3,517 miles ( 5,660 km )
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