Back to Ireland

On July 3rd I got up at 0500 hours after sleeping fitfully for 4 hours. I retrieved my dry clothes from the washer/dryer, packed up the few things I had left out for the morning and brought my luggage downstairs. The sun was already up and so was Alex the Lion. He was quieter than he usually is but still sweet and cordial. He drove me to the Welshpool train station, bid me adieu and went back to bed. Poor kid.



The view from the prayer house in Welshpool Wales. An amazing place to do some praying. I could have just stayed there for days praying but work had to be done.

The train was on time and I boarded without a hitch. It was a 7 hour journey by train to the coast from Welshpool. It only takes about three hours by car but I had two changes and at one of them I had to wait over an hour as there weren't any trains coming by any earlier.

They serve Starbucks instant coffee on Arriva Trains Wales.
Which is rather nice after you haven't had enough sleep.

I'm not sure why but I really liked this angle at the station while waiting for my train.

I know some of you are dying to know more about the language Welsh. Suffice to say I think this plaque says it all. It is pleasant to listen to but a beast to try to read.

The clock tower interested me. So I took two photos.

 

Here is a picture I took of my jeans because I was bored and over tired. I was amazed that the focus worked so close.

When I got to Fishguard I got off the train and walked right into the ferry station (or what ever a place where you pick up your ferry ticket and check your luggage is called).

 

 

This is the ferry leaving Fishguard, Wales.

 

 

 

This is the upper deck on the ferry. You could land a helicopter on it if you had to.

 I take this to mean "you can't run around here because it isn't safe, however, you are allowed to run around on other decks should you choose."

This is the café that I sat in for most of the trip. Directly behind where I'm standing to take this picture is a widescreen TV. This is a picture of my chair. It swivels. This is where I sat for almost three hours watching "Parental Guidance" and then an hour of Wimbledon. Its pretty sad when you find tennis on TV interesting. I came so close to seeing Andrew Murry win live. We docked just before the last match.

This is a panorama of Rosslare where I landed. Due to not being able to put the gangway up for us they took us off in a shuttle and drove us around to where I met Eva, picked up my luggage and headed home. I was pretty well wrecked from over 12 hours of travel and not having a decent meal beyond a pretty crummy cucumber sandwich on the ferry that cost a small fortune. When we got home a received the biggest hug from Johanna and I felt at home. I was so happy to crawl into bed when I finally settled down from being over tired and having three cups of tea knowing that the order of the day for tomorrow would be sleeping in and doing nothing.


FYI: You know you've been riding Arriva Trains Wales a lot when you recognize the conductors even when they are out of uniform.