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Published: July 19th 2012
Next morning in London, we grabbed a cup of coffee and hit the Sainsbury's Express for fruit and milk for La Feef and caught the train to Holyhead, Wales. It was a several hour train ride, but Fea slept for a couple of hours, Hank worked for a couple of hours, and I stared out of the window...the whole time. England countryside...passing through small villages where I am sure Agatha Christie or Josephine Tey or Margaret Drabble wandered about creating characters and gathering human stories. I almost leapt out of the train when I saw the holiday barges on the canals...someday!!
Heading into Wales, the countryside became even more hilly and green and covered with sheep. We cruised along the shore, through little seaside villages with ancient castle ruins and fishing boats, through Rhyl, Llandudno, Bangor and then to the Port of Holyhead. All of the signs were in English and Welsh, and the countryside was lovely. At Holyhead, we thought that we had time to explore, but they herded us off of the train and into the ferry terminal, handed out ferry passes, and then on to a bus that took us to...the ferry waiting room. After letting Fea
run wild through the waiting room, we eventually walked through another 2 mile tunnel up onto the ferry.
The ferry was HUGE. We were expecting a sort of leaky dinghy with oars and a crusty sea-faring captain, but this was actually like a luxury liner, with two restaurants, an entertainment room, a cinema, and an amazing lounge atop the ferry with a 360 view of the Irish Sea as we crossed. Fea, as per usual, ran around charming all and sundry, dancing on the tiny circular dance floor (even though no music was playing). She especially liked the huge group of 12 year olds from Indiana on a 3 week tour of the UK, who settled like locusts on the lounge chairs, iPods in hand. They were all incredibly nice and excited to be on their trip.
Suddenly, the Irish coastline came into view. At that moment, the reality of being almost to Ireland set in and we prepared to meet up with our Irish hosts...although we realized we weren't sure if we would recognize them! Oh the thrill of travel.
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krista
non-member comment
Love that Fifi is charming the natives!! Glad to hear that the ferry bore no resemblance to the Croatian ferry :)