Friday, August 26. We got up early to take a taxi to the Ferry Terminal. We had tickets on the Ulysses, which is cruise-ship size. When launched 10 years ago it was the world’s largest car ferry.
(I had thought I'd visit some of the literary sites in Ireland, but this ship was as close as I came. I have, however, been reading, James Joyce's collection of short stories, Dubliners; have no intention of ever reading Ulysses, though.)
The Ulysses has six decks for cars, buses, and trucks. It can carry 1342 cars, 240 trucks and buses, and 2000 passengers and crew. I couldn't see how the loading/unloading arrangements were configured, but I know it took nearly an hour to unload the vehicles at the other end. The nice security lady in the parking lot at the other end advised us to wait until the ship had unloaded and avoid the traffic jam. Here's a view of the Dublin Harbor as we sailed away.
We splurged and got tickets to the club level – “free” snacks, tea and coffee, newspapers, magazines, and wi-fi. And very uncrowded. (I had visions of crowded bench seats and active, noisy tykes, etc. in steerage, but that turned out not to be the case.)
(I had thought I'd visit some of the literary sites in Ireland, but this ship was as close as I came. I have, however, been reading, James Joyce's collection of short stories, Dubliners; have no intention of ever reading Ulysses, though.)
The Ulysses has six decks for cars, buses, and trucks. It can carry 1342 cars, 240 trucks and buses, and 2000 passengers and crew. I couldn't see how the loading/unloading arrangements were configured, but I know it took nearly an hour to unload the vehicles at the other end. The nice security lady in the parking lot at the other end advised us to wait until the ship had unloaded and avoid the traffic jam. Here's a view of the Dublin Harbor as we sailed away.
We splurged and got tickets to the club level – “free” snacks, tea and coffee, newspapers, magazines, and wi-fi. And very uncrowded. (I had visions of crowded bench seats and active, noisy tykes, etc. in steerage, but that turned out not to be the case.)
There were a lot of cars, buses, and trucks (lorries) on board, not a whole lot of us foot passengers. In just over three hours we had crossed to Holyhead, Wales. Here's the Irish Sea en route and the Holyhead shore.
We picked up our Hertz car and headed for Betws-y-coed, Wales. I had picked a Band B there because it wasn’t very far from Holyhead and because I was intrigued by the town’s name. Here’s how I think it is pronounced: Buh-TOOSE-uh co-WEED. The letter w, in Welsh, is pronounced as double-oh.
Along the way we stopped in the university town of Bangor, primarily looking for an ATM (the machine in the Holyhead terminal not honoring our cards; we'd read that B and Bs prefer cash; will charge extra for plastic). We got thoroughly lost trying to find a legal place to park near the city centre, but finally got parked and found an ATM where we got some British pounds. Here's a large building at the university, which overlooks down town.
And here are shots of a historic church that we took a look at.
Betws is in the area of Snowdonia National Park, but I hadn’t researched anything about that. More fun to be surprised than prepared, no? Well, this area is big for mountaineering and other adventure pursuits. The first big surprise was these mountains along the road to Betws.
We picked up our Hertz car and headed for Betws-y-coed, Wales. I had picked a Band B there because it wasn’t very far from Holyhead and because I was intrigued by the town’s name. Here’s how I think it is pronounced: Buh-TOOSE-uh co-WEED. The letter w, in Welsh, is pronounced as double-oh.
Along the way we stopped in the university town of Bangor, primarily looking for an ATM (the machine in the Holyhead terminal not honoring our cards; we'd read that B and Bs prefer cash; will charge extra for plastic). We got thoroughly lost trying to find a legal place to park near the city centre, but finally got parked and found an ATM where we got some British pounds. Here's a large building at the university, which overlooks down town.
And here are shots of a historic church that we took a look at.
Betws is in the area of Snowdonia National Park, but I hadn’t researched anything about that. More fun to be surprised than prepared, no? Well, this area is big for mountaineering and other adventure pursuits. The first big surprise was these mountains along the road to Betws.
At one scenic turn-out we visited with a couple from Cambridge who had come to Wales for the holiday weekend to escape persistently rainy Cambridge. Here's their picture of us. (Now that I think of it, you'd probably be more interested in seeing them than another picture of us. Will try that next opportunity..)
Then what I thought might be a sleepy farming village turned out to be a jam-packed, hopping mountain-resort town. Full of stores selling outdoors gear and full of lots of healthy young people - people for hostels, not B and Bs.. The day we arrived, Friday, was the start of a long holiday weekend – the last Monday in August is a bank holiday, something like our Labor Day to mark the end of summer. Second time we drove through town we found our B-and-B, unloaded, and a little later strolled through town. Here are some pictures:
A river runs through it.
A river runs through it.
The village green:
The view from our window:
Saturday we planned to stop at the Bondant Garden, called the most beautiful in Wales and just a short way north from Betws. The weather was rainy and chilly, though, so we decided to skip the Garden. Check out the website to see what we missed.
Plan B was the Conwy Castle, a few miles further north.
Weather still rainy, but there was some shelter in the castle and enough gaps in the rain to have a good time exploring. I climbed the circular staircases to the top of a couple of these towers.
Susie did ground-level exploring. There she is now!
Saturday we planned to stop at the Bondant Garden, called the most beautiful in Wales and just a short way north from Betws. The weather was rainy and chilly, though, so we decided to skip the Garden. Check out the website to see what we missed.
Plan B was the Conwy Castle, a few miles further north.
Weather still rainy, but there was some shelter in the castle and enough gaps in the rain to have a good time exploring. I climbed the circular staircases to the top of a couple of these towers.
Susie did ground-level exploring. There she is now!
We then headed east on a four-lane highway, heading almost across the country to York, England. On the way we exited in search of a good picture of a harbor, but ended up with just lunch. But, we saw this law office. The firm's name is Griffiths and Hughes.
Susie has Welsh heritage, father was a Hughes, mother was a Griffith - close enough.
We stayed on motorways and expressways all the way to York. Had to because we had to bypass Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds (where they were having a major rock concert for the holiday weekend). GPS did its job. Seemed like we repeatedly got off and on M1 and one or two other M-roads. After this, it's back to the minor, more bucolic roads
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