Upon Returning to Belfast, A Beautiful Wedding

After a brief visit to Edinburgh, Gordon and I headed back to Belfast to attend the wedding between Clare Porter and David Harte, two of Gordon's friends from Crumlin Road Church. The service was at 1 p.m. in the afternoon, a fairly traditional ceremony, with a short interlude while the bride and groom departed into a back room to sign some official documents. When they returned, the wedding party processed out of the sanctuary and into the rainy Belfast streets. There was a dinner to follow around 5 p.m. so we went with some friends, Sandra, Jim, and Richard, to a coffee shop for an early dessert of a caramel square, scone, and two enormous cheesecakes to complement our coffee and tea. At the country club later that day, there was a comfortable sitting area with a cash bar to amuse the guests while the dining room was being prepared. In a short time, we were seated at a table. The women had Ferrero Rocher to mark their place settings and the men had a giant Yorkie bar emblazoned with the words, ITS NOT FOR GIRLS! We had vegetable soup followed by a Thanksgiving-style meal of turkey and ham rolled around stuffing, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, sausage, carrots with parsnips, and brocolli and cauliflower with cheese. For dessert, profiteroles accompanied our coffee and tea. We returned to the lounge area, stuffed like geese, to hear some acoustic guitar and recover for the dancing ahead. The dancing commenced with an ABBA re-mix and the DJ worked his way up through the decades with hits for every generation in attendance. When the cake was served, the lights came on, and we dined, once more, on desserts with coffee and tea. There were two types of cake, a plain white one and a Christmas fruit cake - they are popular over here! Gordon and I danced all night long and had such a good time. He is quite a fun dance partner. We loved watching young and old couples and friends share the dance floor, and when the DJ stopped playing at 1 a.m., all ages were still in attendance and sad to know the party had ended. We headed home to bed, thankful to be included in such a beautiful celebration.

We spent a few more days in Belfast, saw some movies, walked around, did our laundry, watched the World Cup final, enjoyed drinks at Kellys Cellars with friends and traditional Irish music, and relaxed before our next set of travels.

Soon to come, stories of Barcelona....