One of the few things we booked before arriving in Belfast was the GoT studio tour.

We caught PT into the city for breakfast first, then jumped onboard the shuttle bus with one other couple… which seemed weird. Was the place going to be almost empty?

The bus ride was about half an hour.

The weather started out fine. Things took a turn for the worse while we were inside.

At the entry there was no sign of life until we spotted a tiny group of people at the door.

We were inside very quickly and it was set up a lot like the Harry Potter studio tour. If you haven’t done it then that description won’t help you!

Basically the entry was a cafe and the gift shop. You go into an antechamber in groups for a quick talk and some footage from the show before going into the displays. It was quite good to be reminded of the main characters and scenes.

The costumes were displayed within the sets. You could get quite close and see the incredible detail.

These are wildling costumes, the people who live in the snow beyond the wall. They have real shells sewn into their clothes.

The costumes were my main area of interest and I think they were probably the best and biggest part of the tour.

The tour also includes a variety of models of sets.

I’d say the place was less than a quarter full which was great for us, we could look at everything immediately. The signs were quite small and the spotlights meant you had to stand right in front of them to read them. Possibly an incentive to pay for the audio guides?

The cafe serves themed cocktails. Red Wedding? I don’t want to remember it, let alone drink it.

They had pictures of the scenes in which the costumes featured next to each piece, which was great, but as Luke observed, they just aren’t as special when they aren’t part of the whole thing. That being said, having done some costume making, I could appreciate the detail and wished I’d been able to see the under layers and fastenings.

These moths are hand made, I remember noticing them on the show as costume decoration.

The scale of some of the props was massive!

I liked the detail in the armoury and the plaques had the story of each significant weapon within the story.

There were several interactive exhibits, including ones where they take your photo and put you in front of a background from the show then try to sell you a print of it. No thanks!

Of course the final room is the eponymous throne, made of a thousand actual swords that were created then moulded into the seat.

Exit through the gift shop! I bought a tea towel, of course.

We waited inside for the bus and it started absolutely bucketing down. We got quite damp just going the few metres to the bus.

We were going to see the GoT tapestry (done in the style of the bayeux tapestry) but the museum was shut, so we caught the glider back to Ballyhackamore at school rush time. We listened to a small boy mock his friends for vaping and telling them how they would get addicted and they denied it. Obviously they hadn’t looked around them, almost all of Belfast vapes constantly.

Off the bus we decided to go to a local Thai restaurant and try an Irish delicacy – the spice bag. Not a very glamorous name for a not very glamorous dish.

We ate in so it wasn’t served in a bag or pizza box, but it’s basically a salad of deep fried food. In this case potato, chicken, capsicum, onion and spring onion all coated in a salt, pepper and chilli spice mix and with a massaman dipping sauce.

Apparently this was invented by Irish Chinese restaurants as a snack food. You can get Indian, Thai… I imagine the concept could be applied to any cuisine.

The food was delicious but incredibly salty.

To the pub!

Danny and Peter joined us and so did their friend, Julie-Anne and her one month old baby, who was super cute.