A Simply Wonderful Weekend

I know this is a little behind the times but I had the best weekend a few weeks back. My husband and I bought tickets, in the summer, for a live concert at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast for Simple Minds and Deacon Blue. We were not disappointed, the concert was one of the best I had been to and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

To start off the weekend we had booked a lovely restaurant for dinner before the concert and because neither of us were driving we enjoyed a lovely glass of wine too. After a short walk to the Odyssey the concert began and people were on their feet from the very first song, it also looked like it was a sell out concert. After the concert we walked a short distance to a gorgeous hotel, which we had booked for the night, and had a lovely night cap of Champagne. As anyone with a family will appreciate your children always come first and we have put on hold spending time together as a couple, but as the children are now getting older we are getting some time back just for us and we are really enjoying it.

We also felt like tourists when we went to Belfast as we did some of the more touristy things that we wouldn't normally do. In front of the City Hall, for the past number of years, there is a Continental market, which has lovely continental food items such as kangaroo, ostrich burgers, paella and many others, as well as many others,and several stalls with handcrafted wooden and craft items. Each of the little stalls are in what looks like little wooden chalets. I love coming here even if I just have a glass of mulled wine or hot chocolate and to have a look at the lovely items for sale and more importantly soak up the lovely Christmas atmosphere.

Just beside the City hall is the Belfast Wheel I imagine this is similar to the 'London Eye' but obviously on a much smaller scale, this is only Belfast! We were lucky to have a really clear bright day with great visibility over Belfast and the surrounding area. There was a documentary which points out the local places of interest and seeing things from the air makes things look so different and I must say the city was looking really great. You can see one of Belfast's famous landmarks Samson and Goliath, the two large yellow cranes, in the newly named Titanic Quarter, where the Titanic was built. The lights on the trees and shops made everything look magical and although I am not a really big shopper I did enjoy seeing all the shops and the hustle and bustle.

I would love to do it all again, fingers crossed. I think sometimes that whenever you live somewhere, and especially somewhere as small as N Ireland, you tend to overlook your own country and anyone who knows me will realise that I love to travel, but sometimes its nice to stay local and appreciate what we have on our own doorstep.