More International Travel
Wednesday 11 June
Wednesday 11 June
Today is our last day in Ireland. We haven't got many plans for today. We went out and found somewhere for breakfast and then had a look around Dublin using a map and screen photos from the iPad. It was very interesting driving around Ireland, Dublin in particular. One of the things that we have noticed is the lack of road signage. A lot of the time you have to guess the speed limits and doing the same speed as the cars around you are doing is a recipe for disaster.
Deb did a marvellous job guiding us through Dublin to the ferry terminal. As mentioned earlier road signage was very sparse. It was very interesting. The locals know what the go is but
for us foreigners you can end up in some funny spots, like nearly turning into one way streets the wrong way, lining up to go through an intersection up a bus only lane, Turning up a street that has no indication that half way along it becomes one way only. I think on this trip the only thing we didn't find was a cul-de-sac.
We arrived in plenty of time to get in line for the ferry. We went into the terminal and used their free WiFi which really was "you gets what you pay for." Wasn't particularly fast but I did find that one of the earlier blogs I'd done hadn't been posted to the Internet. At least I was able to fix that.
The departure time was was put back a bit because they couldn't shut the bow door. There was a problem with the hydraulics. It took them about 25 minutes to resolve the issue which put us into Hollyhead at 5.00 pm instead of 4.30.
It was a really funny arrival. We were travelling from one country to another and there were less entry formalities that when we sailed into Tasmania and returned to Victoria. I thought we would have to go through customs or quarintine. It was straight off the ferry and on to the road.
We went to Llandudno for the first evening back in the UK where Deb has us booked into the Iris Hotel. If you can imagine a row of turn of the century, 19th to 20th century multi storey buildings on a sea front you have Llandudno. Our late departure from Dublin put us a little later arriving in Llandudno. We had a meal (if you could call it that) on board so we thought a little walk before bed would be nice. It was about 8.30 but the sun was still shining.
We took a few photographs, and on our walk got an ice cream. I had a soft serve with a flake which I don't think I have had since I was last in UK.
Tomorrow we have three things to do:
1. Get some laundry done;
2. Post some souvenirs back to Australia:
3. Ride on the Great Orme Railway and Cable Car
Thursday 12 June
Breakfasted in the hotel this morning. The hotel tariff included a full English or in this case a Welsh breakfast. So far in most of the hotels we have visited the staff seem to come from some of the Eastern European countries and get confused when you ask for toast and
marmalade. Just about everyone makes sure that they get all they can eat. If we ate a cooked breakfast each morning both of us would need to visit Marks and Spencer for a new wardrobe.
The first thing on the list is the laundry. Deb found a laundry on the Internet and the receptionist at the hotel reckoned that it was the best one. Good work and quick. We found the location of the laundry and it is in the back streets. The streets to get to the laundry are so narrow that two cars cannot pass. Cars that park on the street must put their wheels up on the footpath. In one spot we just got past a parked car with the walls of our tyres brushing the gutter on the left side of the road. The only trouble now is going back to pick the laundry up.
Finding the Post Office was another trial, not necessarily finding the Post Office but finding a parking spot. There are no parking areas within the town of Llandudno so the only place to park is on the street and because of the number of visitors, parking spots were like hens teeth. Managed to get one and the souvenirs are on their way to Gunnedah in fancy British Post Offices boxes.
After the Post Office we had another drive around looking for parking near the Great Orme Tramway. Our patience paid off with a park within 25 metres of the entrance.
The Great Orme Tramway Act was passed by Parliament in 1898 and construction began in 1902. It is a cable car which is permanently attached to the cable and the speed of the car is regulated by the speed of the cable. The trip is done in two stages. You change half way through the trip up the hill at would you believe, The Halfway House. Originally the system was powered by steam but since the early 1950's it has been powered by electricity.
There is a cable car that does a similar trip and Ian, the receptionist at the Iris Hotel recommended that we go one way by tram and the other by cable car. We took his advice and it was well worth the experience. The only disappointment was that the sea mist obscured the wind farms that are out to sea off Llandudno.
By the time we had finished our tripping around, and picked up our laundry in was mid afternoon. We are going to Llangollen where we are booked into the Bryn Howel Hotel. A lot of the addresses of the hotels we have been to have been very obscure. The address of the Bryn Howel Hotel was Trevor, Llangaolen. What was Trevor? We finally found Trevor Road and the Bryn Howel Hotel. It is really impressive and it overlooks a canal that is used by narrow boats.
The weather is absolutely beautiful. Fine and clear. Nothing like our Irish days. Our plans for tomorrow are to go on a trip on a horse drawn narrow boat and then a trip on a narrow boat over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. More about that in the next blog.
Deb and Den
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