En route for the Emerald Isle

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Ferry across the water from wet England to wet Ireland.

Now 8 months since we returned from our last motorhome trip to France in September 2011. As soon as we were back I was busy in my ‘studio’ making my stained glass suncatchers http://joysofglass.co.uk/ ready for the Christmas rush which kept me (very) fully occupied to the end of the year.

The poor garden didn’t have a chance – gross neglect really but when I had time the weather wasn’t right. One of these days I will get those borders dug over and weeded again but there always seems to be so much else to do and not enough time to do it.

After Christmas I was very busy restocking my shop before flying out to Melbourne again to visit Jenny and the children, timing my visit for Isobel’s 4th birthday and for George’s 1½. We fitted in a long weekend in Cairns which was a special treat as I can now say I have swum off the Great Barrier Reef. Excellent news - they will be returning to England in June.

While I was away Bob, as well as supporting his beloved Stoke City, had been developing his new hobby up in the loft. A model railway which is coming on in leaps and bounds and when I am in the garage making glass Bob is usually in the loft working on his track.

Bob was also delighted to announce he had become a great grandfather to Archie, son of, 3^rd eldest granddaughter, Amy and partner Greg.

Since my return from Oz we’ve had a few weekends away in the Tandy with Liz and Graham but this is the first time we’ve done a proper tour since September.

We had decided this trip to visit Poland but then Bob realised that it would coincide horribly with the European cup being held there and people were being advised to stay away so we are doing.

We decided to visit Ireland instead. Starting with Dublin and going the long way round to Belfast. We have been to almost all the countries in Europe but never Ireland, none of it, so really time to give it a try. The only thing I know about Ireland to date is that it rains a lot and that most Irishmen appear to be called Paddy and the rest are away with the leprecauns. It is now up to us to check if this is true.

We normally time our June trip for the start of the month but decided to delay for a, week this year in order to be at home for the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations. Shame about the dreadful cold and rain on the Thames Flotilla day. Oddly it seems to have rained every day since they announced the hosepipe bans following the unseasonably hot and dry early spring.

Packing for the trip was tricky as we know the forecast for the first few days is dreadful, very wet and cold and it’s never pleasant packing the Tandy in the dripping, pouring rain. Between heavy, ‘April’ showers, we did manage to get the garden tidied, tall plants tied up, summer pots and tomatoes planted and the lawn and hedges trimmed. At least no need to water before we left as the rain is doing quite enough of that.

As usual felt rather mean leaving my quite tame garden birds to fend for themselves and their many offspring, especially the newly fledged blackbirds from the nest on the top shelf in the dog-run but I apologised as I filled the bird table to overflowing this morning and I have left a tub of food so Chris next door can put a bit out for them every day or so.

All packed up though in good time and off to Holyhead on Anglesey by 9am ready for lunchtime ferry to Dublin.

We were expecting a rough crossing but our 3 hour ferry ride was surprisingly calm and we only saw a bit of rain during the day. Once off the ferry we quickly found our very nice campsite just outside the city chosen as it is on a service bus route into the city. Fortunately most pitches are hard standing as 5 minutes after we parked it started to rain and rain…. and rain.

We are hoping to go into the City tomorrow but at the moment, as I type this, it seems more likely that we will have to have an ‘at home in the Tandy’ day.



PS: If you've received multiple copies of the notification for this blog entry I apologise but my several attempts to correct a couple of things in the text have been ignored so i've tried again. Hope it works this time ! If it does this message will appear. If it doesn't....it won't !

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Photos

Across the Menai Stratis to Anglesey
Destination Holyhead and the ferry

Comments

[BobsJoy]

Corrections.
I have made several attempts to correct text / photo labels but they just don't seem to appear in this published version. So if you spot a spelling or grammatical mistake, sorry but I have probably corrected it but you can't see my correction !