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The town of Enniskillen is built on a small island, circled by the waters of Lough Erne.
It is a place with a gaelic heritage, as well as centuries-old links to the British military.
In this community - where the traditions of Orange and Green overlap by the banks of an ancient waterway - the people are skilled in the art of bridge-building.
The Queen's cavalcade arrived across one of the bridges that encircle the picturesque island town.
But her visit was in honour of the bridges of friendship and neighbourliness that have been built here between unionists and nationalists - despite traumas that could have permanently pushed them apart.
It is nearly 25 years since an IRA bomb was detonated as families gathered to honour the war dead at the town's cenotaph.
That Remembrance Day massacre was captured in grainy amateur film footage - a nightmare image of fleeing children and smoke swirling over an ominous pile of rubble.
Shortly before the Queen's car arrived at St Macartin's Church of Ireland Cathedral for a special morning service of thanksgiving, its bells rang out.
It was the eleventh hour, and the chimes could have been for each of the 11 precious lives stolen that day in 1987.
But today was a happy occasion, a morning to celebrate.
"Long live the Queen," giggled flag-waving children at the corner of the aptly-named Darling Street.
Crowds had also turned the town's main thoroughfare into a blur of red, white and blue.
But the rain pelted down and news came in that the monarch's flight was diverted by the weather.
The royal watchers, however, did not seem to care, for by now they were hanging from windows and even a rooftop to catch a glimpse.
A sing-song started: "If you're happy and you know it, wave your flag..."
Then the Queen arrived, just as the rain clouds left.
She walked into St Macartin's where the congregation and clergy from across the religious divide were waiting.
The party mood was well under way now - helped by the sight of the Duke of Edinburgh taking the wrong seat, and promptly having to swap places with Queen.
Outside the crowd was singing, and the crash-barriers were brought closer to allow little girls clutching flowers a chance to meet the Queen.
When the service was over in St Macartin's the Queen walked across the street to St Michael's - the first Catholic church she has visited in Ireland, north or south.
And when she stepped over the threshold, there was another echo of the aftermath of the Enniskillen bomb.
Gordon Wilson had stunned the world with his account of how he had held the hand of his dying daughter Marie, as she lay trapped beneath the rubble.
They shared parting words of love before she slipped away.
"I bear no ill will," he said of the killers.
He even prayed for them and demanded there be no retaliation for his daughter, his "great wee lassie".
The Poppy Day bombing was an attack on the town's Protestant community.
But in the days immediately after the blast, thousands of Catholics gathered in St Michael's church to honour and remember the dead.
It was standing-room only, but the congregation parted to make way for a surprise guest.
Spontaneous applause rang out, and there were tears, as the crowd recognised their neighbour Gordon Wilson, who had come to join them.
There was applause again today as the Queen arrived to meet a cross-community range of people from schools, sports bodies and businesses in the same church.
A choir sang from the balcony above them as the Queen chatted and smiled with members of each group.
Outside the church there was time to collect some of those eagerly outstretched flowers, before she left.
The Dean of St Macartin's Rev Kenny Hall and parish priest of St Michael's Canon Peter O'Reilly, who had planned the historic day, were congratulated by well-wishers on the street.
"We really are one community," said the Dean.
Canon O'Reilly highlighted an extract from a hymn sang at the service: "There was a line in it at the end, 'past put behind us'.
"That, for me, was a profound moment."
Enniskillen - its name taken from the Irish 'Inis Ceithleann', the place that became famous for the Royal Inniskillings regiments.
The garrison town, with a gaelic name, had enjoyed its day.
