Last Saturday we traveled from Kansas City, Missouri to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom.
We departed out of Kansas City on United Airlines flight 6049 to Newark.
From Newark, we took United Airlines flight 77 non-stop to Belfast. This United flight is the only non-stop flight from any US airport to Belfast. Currently, it departs Newark at 9:30 pm each evening, and takes about 6 hours of flying time to reach Belfast.
The evening departure out of Newark offered a terrific night time view of New York City.
Since we were flying in Business Class (thanks to frequent flyer miles), we got to check out the new United amenity kit.
The kit is a nice design that zips open. This fabric hook allows you to hang it.
The contents are standard with new Cowshed brand lip balm, moisturizer and facial towel.
The socks are fun and funky.
After approximately 6 hours of flying time, we arrived in Belfast just before 9 am local time. However, because there was a medical emergency during our flight we waited on the plane about 10 minutes for the emergency personnel to remove the impacted passenger. Later, we learned that our flight had made the local news, and were happy to hear that the impacted passenger was okay.
Once we arrived, cleared immigration and customs, and collected our luggage, we took a taxi from the airport to our hotel for our stay in Belfast.
The first thing we noticed about Northern Ireland was how friendly and welcoming everyone was, from the immigration officer to our taxi driver.
Since our room was not ready at the Hilton, we stored our bags with the bellman, and headed to the executive lounge for an espresso to wake up. While it was drizzling rain during our drive from the airport, we were encouraged to see a rainbow and a little sunlight.
We headed out to explore Belfast, first popping into the St. George’s Market, a craft fair on Sundays. Next, we located the iconic flatiron-shaped Bittles Bar that dates to 1868, and the ornate yellow Jaffé Fountain constructed in 1874 to honor linen merchant Daniel Joseph Jaffé.
Once we’d found the yellow Jaffé Fountain, we found a Starbucks (to the left) near the main entrance to the Victoria Square Mall.
Sunday mornings are very quiet in Belfast with shops not opening until 1 pm. Luckily, the Starbucks opened at 11 am. Soon, we were enjoying more coffee, free Wi-Fi, and adding two new mugs to add to our collection.
Later as we explored more of Belfast, we noticed that something strange was going on at the City Hall. It turns out that Brad Pitt was inside, filming scenes in the new movie he’s producing called The Lost City of Z. The 2016 movie stars Charlie Hunnam and Sienna Miller.
All in all, we had alot of excitement as we began our Belfast adventure, inspired by our research for 34 Fun Facts About Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Have you visited Belfast?
In preparation for our trip, we created a Belfast and Northern Ireland board on Pinterest.
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