Day 19 – August 5 – Wales to Belfast

In order to catch our ferry from Holyhead, Wales to Dun Laoghaire, Ireland (just south of Dublin) we had to get up early to flag down the 8:15 train. Colin was kind enough to open up breakfast earlier than usual to provide us with a hot breakfast. The intermittent rain of the previous day had been replaced by a solid downpour so we were glad that our B&B was so close to the station. As it turned out there were quite a few people catching the Monday morning train to westward to the likes of Bangor and Welsh towns on the Isle of Angelsey. At one stop, Deana spotted the town with the longest name in the UK, possibly anywhere. Margaret had mentioned it when we were at dinner with them and when it rolled off her tongue it sounded lyrical. This wasn’t too surprising as she had talked about her choir and their frequent trips to competitions. I’m sure the Welsh version (top) could be used as an example of the various pronunciations in the Welsh language: “LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH”

Train station sign for the Welsh town with the longest name in Great Britain

Here is the rough translation into English.

As we continued on to Holyhead we met a couple from Williams Lake which is relatively close to home and we compared our travel experiences so far. It was interesting that they echoed comments we had heard earlier, both at home and the first half of our trip, such as “Belfast isn’t safe” or “I’d never go to Belfast”. Although this was definitely a concern that Jeff had during his brief trip to Ireland in 1982, the peace that has been in place for many years now laid these concerns to rest.

Our reason for heading directly to Belfast was to meet our friends, Ron and Marsha. Ron is competing in the 2013 World Police and Fire Games. The only other games, outside of the Para-Olympic and Special Olympics to be sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee. The games take place every 2 years and Ron has competed in Squash at several previous games.

The train station is connected to the docks where the ships leave Wales for various ports around the Irish Sea. We boarded the Stena Line ship for the 2 hour crossing to Dun Laoghaire.

Deana enjoying the standard seating in the Stena line ferry from Holy Head to Dun Laoghaire

We were informed that there would be a 1 metre swell that appeared to be just enough off the starboard bow to cause the ship to develop a predictable roll as we made the crossing. It was mildly entertaining to watch as people walked along the wide corridors, suddenly veering in unison, first 3 steps to the right, catch themselves and then 2 steps back to the left. I guess it was a slow voyage as this entertained us for a good part of the voyage to Dun Laoghaire. Well I guess it was a slow voyage as this entertained us for a good part of the voyage to Dun Laoghaire.

We arrived south of Dublin early in the afternoon to learn that Dublin was in the second day of a bus driver strike. So we found a cab to take us to the Dublin Airport, which is just North of the city.

The interesting part of this half of our trip is that we aren’t taking a bus tour and we won’t be travelling by train anymore. The idea of Jeff driving us on one of our european vacations is not unusual. However, Jeff has never driven on the other side of the road before, or shifted a manual transmission with his left hand. But as Victor told us in Conwy, he frequently drives on the continent and North American and it doesn’t take long to get used to switching to the other side of the road. We picked up our rental and fortunately Jeff’s Hertz Gold status got us an upgrade from a 4-door sedan to an SUV/Crossover. It turned out to be a Nissan Qashqai (soon to be known as Quasimodo) with lots of room.

Our Nissan Qashqai, with a 6-speed manual, diesel engine

We hooked up our Tom Tom GPS, loaded with John Cleese’s voice, and headed off for the drive to Belfast. A few gentle reminders from Deana to keep Quasimodo aligned with the driver’s side close to the right hand lines and it was all good. It was probably good that the first driving was on a freeway with wide lanes and not too many corners to negotiate. By the time we got to Belfast we were used to the new side of the road.

We met Marsha and Ron at the Stormont Hotel. We didn’t realize at the time that the name Stormont also refers to the Northern Ireland Parliament building that is situated across the road.

We headed out for dinner at a local restaurant (where our waitress Leslie, happened to have relatives in our hometown) and got caught up with Marsha and Ron . . . . of course those who know Deana and Marsha will realize that will take at least a couple of weeks.