I would suggest if you have spent the morning on the Bus Tour then it is well worth the time to spend the afternoon doing a little shopping. The main shopping areas in Belfast you can conquer by foot as they are off both sides of Royal Avenue which is the main street running up to the City Hall and was your point of departure in the morning on the bus tour.
A good start - particularly if the weather is not good - is the Castle Shopping Centre just at the bottom of Royal Avenue. This is a multi-storey shopping mall with shops for every taste and every pocket. There is also a food floor where you have a great choice of inexpensive meals and snacks.You will not find anything particularly Irish though here. If that is what you are looking for then cross Royal Avenue and at the corner of Ann Street you will see an Irish shop - you cannot miss it on account of the green colour. Here you can find Irish linen, Aran pullovers, it also had Waterford Crystal last year but since they went into administration, I cannot vouch that you will still find that now. Of course there is every conceivable Guinness object - glasses, t-shirts, golf balls, you name it we have it.
One shop I really love is Sawer's Delicatessen which has just about everything exotic in food that you can imagine. Since I grew up in Northern Ireland at a time when there was scarcely a restaurant to be found in the city - seriously - I could spend hours in this shop. it is located just at the top of Lombard Streeet (number 9) Walk up Royal avenue towards the City Hall and at the top of Royal Avenue turn right and turn right again at the first street you find. From there it is some 25 meters until you find Lombard Street and you will see Sawers about 10 yards in front of you. You can't miss it because of the magnificent outdoor display of fruit and vegetables. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment