Sunday morning Alison and Maurice go to 8 o’clock service at their Anglican church but Santo and I decide to sleep in. When they get back, we have breakfast, then head into Belfast to visit Queens College, where both Adam and Lucy graduated and Lucy is still pursuing her Ph.D. in English. It is also where Seamus Heaney, perhaps Ireland’s most famous contemporary poet, studied and then later taught. I had not realized he was from Northern Ireland. I always just thought of him as Irish, and I guess I assumed he was from the Republic. I’ll never forget seeing him in person at Trinity Hall, my dorm when I was at Trinity. He read to a group of about 50 students in the dorm’s in-house pub (!), then did a Q&A with us. What an opportunity! I plan to re-read Heaney, as well as Yeats, when I get home. Maybe I need to read more poetry if I’m going to try to write some.

         The original building at Queens is from about 1840 and is a grand U-shaped building of  red brick and beige stone. It has Victorian spires and embellishments, and beautiful diamond-paned leaded glass windows. Behind it, the building is flanked by some rather plain modern buildings that create a grassy quad.

         Just next to Queens are the Botanical Gardens. There are some outdoor flower gardens with groupings of brightly colored flowers in curving lines. There is also a tropic garden inside an exquisite white glass house of Victorian design. It has a tall, circular center section with long wings on either side. Inside, the steam heat hits you just inside the door, almost like entering a sauna. The building is crammed with all sorts of tropical foliage, including palm fronds stretching up into the two-story space. Not a lot of color, but still an impressive display.

         We head back home so the girls can get changed for their 1:30 pm reservation for high tea at the Culloden. We don our frocks and make the short drive to the Culloden. What a marvelous place! Apparently, it is a former bishop’s residence. It stands majestically on a hill overlooking Belfast Lough. Alison drops Lucy and I off at the circular drive in front of the red carpeted main entrance. The building is beige stone with some brick embellishments and cathedral shaped windows. Inside is pure opulence. Jewel tone sofas and chairs in rich velvets, luxurious Persian rugs throughout, marble topped tables, ferns and fresh flowers. Just scrumptious.

         The room set out for our tea is called the Vespers Dining Room. The tables are set out in white linens with white china and bright yellow flowers in clear vases. The attendants are dressed in formal wear and one is more gracious than the next. They make you feel you are visiting their home for tea. Our first course is a creamed vegetable soup in a demitasse cup, a lovely freh green color, accompanied by a tomato palmier. After the soup, we order our teas. I choose an Earl Grey and flowers loose tea which comes in a white tea pot with a silver strainer and bowl.

Our second course is three finger sandwiches (not because you eat them with your fingers but because they are shaped like a finger): one egg salad and watercress, one chicken with pesto and red pepper, and one ham and Dubliner cheese with relish. After this comes my favorite part: the scones. We each get two small scones which are warm and soft, delicate and tasty, particularly with the coddled cream and jam. At first I plan to save one to take home, knowing that there are still desserts to come. But Lucy reminds me that I can’t take the coddled cream home. And what are scones without coddled cream?! So I have to eat the second one as well.

The desserts are served on a three-tiered tray, each level having three different desserts: a lemon coconut custard, a peach and almond tartlet, and a strawberry charlotte. The colors look so lovely amidst all the white! I enjoy the lemon coconut custard, but save the other two to take home. I also order a “flat white” coffee, which is similar to a cappuccino but with more coffee and less foam. Wonderful.

The whole tea is served at a relaxing pace so we don’t finish until after 3 pm. We decide to stroll through the hotel lounges, check out the wonderful views, and bask in the luxury. We take seats at a sofa and chairs near the window and don’t feel like moving! So Lucy calls Maurice to see if he and Santo want to come join us. Santo is napping, but Maurice would like to come. Since he has had a few glasses of wine, Alison leaves to go pick him up while Lucy and I visit. A waiter comes by to take our order, but we tell him we’re waiting for some people and he says, “No problem. Stay as long as you like.”

Alison returns pretty quickly and we order drinks. I ask for a Mock Mojito and they are able to make me one. I feel I am back in the Carpathia on the Queen Mary. Except I am also with my dear friends! Just wish Santo were here (though I know he needs his nap).

Back home, I get on my computer to check in for our flight to Boston. Hard to believe we are really going home. We have been away two weeks and I am not ready for real life yet. Luckily, we are able to get seats on the side of the aircraft next to one another – without paying extra!

Then it’s time to pack. Doesn’t take me long to get my things together and split them between my large suitcase and the overnight bag I will need for our night in Boston with Steve and Chris before we drive home on Tuesday. Santo says he will pack later.

While the girls are still full from our tea, the boys are getting hungry for dinner. Alison heats up the two pies she had picked up at McKees: a steak and mushroom and a chicken and leek. She also heats up some waffle fries and there is a container of cole slaw. Our last dinner with our friends. We will miss this. The different tastes, the lingering conversations, the warmth of friendship that transcends time and space.

Even though it is late and we are tired, we move to the living room, not ready to part for the evening yet. Santo goes up to pack, which he claims will take 3 minutes but is a bit longer than that. After he returns, Maurice remembers my leftover desserts and brings me the box. We get some plates and forks and share the two small delicacies with our friends. So much to savor in this moment.