We land on the Emerald Isle ... or Row Row Row Your Boat ....

OK ... I apologize for the seemingly disjointed last post ... the problem was no WiFi in Wales and the Wifi on the ferry was so slow uploading really wasn't possible ...

So ... as I type it is 9:30PM and we are in for the night at our hotel in Dublin, Ireland.

Today was fairly mundane ... after breakfast in Holyhead we waited at our B&B there until it was time to drive over to the ferry port.  The ferry departed Holyhead, Wales about 1:50PM and we arrived in Dublin at about 5::15PM.  As you will see from the photos the seas were calm and the skies were partly cloudy ... almost perfect for an easy crossing.

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

We had purchased "Premium Passage" tickets which allowed us to roll onto the ferry as the first group and we were given access to the Stena Plus Lounge   ... basically a front row seat with refreshments, special reserved toilets and comfortable seating ... we were also allowed preferred disembarkation.

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

So we arrived in Dublin ... just in time to catch the 5PM traffic and we had to drive through the city center ...
This trip is making us all appreciate the WIDE roads and streets in the US.  You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ...

Somehow we managed to get through the city without getting killed, killing a bicyclist or even being crushed by a bus .. and made it to our hotel.

We stopped for a drink in the bar and discovered the only "real" restaurant with out going back in the city was the hotel ... it was NOT a price we wanted topay so we walked three blocks and enjoyed McDonalds!!

Tomorrow we intend to eat breakfast at Mickey D's and then get on what is referred to as a "tram" to go into the city and there get on a "hop on hop off" bus to see several sights ...

On a personal note I want to say I LOVE "Wicked Wanda" and don't ever want to travel without her ... knowing what turns and twists are ahead in time (for the most part) to get in the right lane and mentally prepared is really nice ... not to say we might sometimes be taken on a more 'scenic' route than we might like but SO FAR ... Wanda has gotten us where we want to go ... so ... whoever invented consumer GPS devices ...you have my deepest heartfelt appreciation!

Blogging without a net! ... or In search of WiFi

We are at the moment sitting in the common room of the Monrovan B&B in Holyhead, Wales.  It is Monday morning September 20 about 10:15AM ... we are awaiting our short car ride over to the ferry landing for our 3+ hour crossing to Dublin, Ireland.

I will try only a couple of pictures in this posting since I'm not sure how they will flow (if at all) having created the post offline.

By the way, we learned that "wold" means "on the upland" ... the Cotswold area is famous for the quality of wool produced but  over the past several years the locals have started "harvesting tourists" as a better cash crop.  Since we had a 3+ night stay at the farm we were allowed a tour of "the farm" by Lucy's husband Paul.  So Saturday morning after breakfast we piled in the Land Rover with Paul and took a 30 minute tour of the 600 acre working farm.  They have 600 registered Charlois (pronounced Char Lay) cattle and 1200 sheep and they raise horses for hunting fox.  It is definitely a family business with Lucy's parents handling much of the farming with her husband Paul.  Her parents also lease out several houses to tourists as does her sister.  Lucy's family has been on the farm for 5 generations ... the B&B building was constructed in 1624 ... I guess it isn't a temporary fixture in the village at this point.

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

We bid a fond farewell to Lucy King and "The Farm" in Weston-Sub-Edge in the English Cotswolds yesterday morning about 9:45am headed for Wales.  The drive to Holyhead where we had the next B&B was about 210 miles.


We had opted to drive on some of the lesser roads for this leg of the trip so we could pass through the Snowdonia National Forest and see a few sights along the way.  We knew that this route would take us down some fairly narrow roads but none of us were prepared for one of them ... I'll put a picture here and if it doesn't flow to the weblog when online I'll edit it in.

This road was barely the width of our fairly compact vehicle and we drove down it 9 miles ... aaaaaiiiiiiieeeee

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

As one of the sights along the way we stopped at a small 'artisans park' where there  various crafts being displayed and a 'ride' called "King Arthur's Labyrinth".  This was a ride where we entered a revamped 8 level slate mine   The operator of the attraction had posted various sets of figures throughout the mine depicting stories about King Arthur from a Welsh perspective.  I'll post a few pictures here to give you an idea ...

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

We did NOT go to this 'attraction' ...

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

Another part of our drive through the park took us to Swallow Falls ... about 4 miles of cascading water ... it was raining fairly steady as we got out to look at this natural wonder.

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

We arrived in Holyhead, Wales around 6PM and had a little trouble finding our inn for the night but thanks to "Wicked Wanda" our GPS friend we managed to locate the Monrovan B&B ... it's really a nice place and the proprietor is a friendly fellow. 

 

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

I had a Steak & Ale pie for dinner ... think a VERY GOOD beef pot pie ... it was fine!!

We've had breakfast

From Great Britain Odyssey 2010

That brings us up to date ... sitting waiting to drive over to the ferry.

I'll post this to the web log once I get WiFi ... hopefully on board the ferry.