Category Archives: R. Doug Wicker

May 24, 2023 · 5:35 am

Jewel of the Seas — Belfast; St George’s Market

St George’s Market, Belfast, Northern Ireland

On this visit to Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ursula was hot to visit St George’s Market. This is the last Victorian market in Belfast, and the original market on this site dates back to the 1890s. Inside you’ll find restaurants, food vendors, souvenirs, arts & crafts, clothing & accessories, jewelry, flower arrangements and other plants, and antiques & collectibles. Yes, you can spend hours perusing all the vendors and their offerings. We certainly did.

The market reeks of hospitality. And one vendor in particular was quite the conversationalist and a really fun guy. Below is Ursula posing with Terry Beattie and his collection of marmalades from The Offbeat Bottling Company. We brought back a few jars of his Famous Extremely Orange Marmalade, which has won several awards.

Terry Beattie of The Offbeat Bottling Company

Orange is not the only flavor on hand, and marmalade not Terry’s only offering:

If you head out to St George’s, Terry operates his both of Saturdays and Sundays. Tell him I sent you. Now for a photo gallery/slide show of other St George’s Market sights:

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Jewel of the Seas — Belfast, Northern Ireland

Jewel of the Seas left Reykjavik, Iceland on 1 June 2022. We arrived at our next destination on this, the first of three back-to-back Jewel cruises, on 4 June. This week I will present some of the photographs I took on that visit, and on Wednesday’s article I’ll take you through St. George’s Market in particular. You may recall that Ursula and I have been here before. I posted a series back in May 2021 of that visit. But this week I’ll show you things we did not see that last time. After this week, instead of moving on to our next destination, I’ll be commemorating Memorial Day (first week) and the anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy (second week) before returning to the continuation of this Jewel of the Seas cruise.

On this particular day the local Belfastians (or is it Belfasters? or how about Belfasties?) were taking advantage of the sun with a little fun outside City Hall during what appeared to be a food-centric mini-festival.

And when I say “food-centric,” I’m talking about:

Grilled Cheese Toasties and other choices

While we weaved our way through the throngs of hungry people of Belfast (Belfastians? Belfasters? Belfasties?) I managed a few more traditional touristy shots:

Queen Vicky — Is that a burger she’s eyeing, and drool trickling from her mouth?

Scottish Provident Building, ***Donegall Square***

But we were on a mission. Ursula had a hankering this trip to visit St. George’s Market on the square block outlined by East Bridge St., Verner St., May St., and Oxford St. It is here where we spent most of our time this day, and I’ll show you more of that gem on Wednesday.

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Fun Photo/Food Friday — Reykjavik Area Favorites and Eating at Hótel Skógafoss

Today I’m going to combine a Fun Photo Friday with a Fun Food Friday featuring a lunch review of the restaurant at Hótel Skógafoss in Skógar, just minutes away from on foot from the magnificent Skógafoss waterfall. We’ll start with a glance at the lunch menu at the Hótel Skógafoss Bistro and Bar: