Ireland day 0739. Saturday 07 October 2023- Ferry to Ireland *

Ireland day 0739. Saturday 07 October 2023- Ferry to Ireland

Today’s summary	Returned to Ireland on a fast ferry from Holyhead. Stopped off at Plas Newydd National Trust for lunch en route. Quite a rough crossing, but survived in one piece and looking forward to a day off tomorrow
Today’s weather	Sunny and pleasantly warm for most of the day. Overcast with a little rain later. Strong south westerly wind. Appx 21c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).
Bon voyage!

Today was the final day of our house-clearance trip to the uk.

We’d spent last night at a Premier Inn near Rhyl last night, so we only had a short journey to Holyhead and the ferry today. Since the ferry didn’t leave until 4:45pm, we had a very leisurely start and then decided to drive along the coast, over the Britannia Bridge, and onto Anglesey.

It has become a bit of a tradition for Val and I, when travelling to or from Ireland, to stop off at the National Trust property at Plas Newydd for a cup of tea before embarking on the rest of the journey. Plas Newydd is a convenient spot, as it’s only 5 minutes from the bridge, and 20 minutes from the ferry terminal.

We arrived just after noon, so headed straight to the café for a late breakfast. The weather was pretty decent, so once we had eaten, we had a good look round the gardens, and did a short house tour. An exhibition about the 6th Marquis of Anglesey- an interesting man who managed to fritter away the modern day equivalent of £60m in five years before dying bankrupt at the age of 29 – was a nice addition to our visit.

Eventually, it was time to go, so we made the short journey over to Holyhead and jumped on to Irish Ferries “Dublin Swift” for the express crossing back to Ireland. A relatively uneventful crossing although when the Trusty Yaris was adorned with chocks down on the car deck, I did suspect that we might be in for a slightly more stormy crossing than usual. Actually it wasn’t too bad, though at one point the captain did instruct everyone to return to their seats for the next 40 minutes while we went through a rough patch. And the sound of the bottles crashing to the floor in the Duty Free shop was a bit alarming.

Well, we are back now, and looking forward to a day off tomorrow. We couldn’t face unloading the car, so will leave that until the morning.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Val checking out the giant Rex Whistler diorama in one of the main reception rooms at Plas Newydd. A bit like watching a giant widescreen TV	Interesting table with a view overlooking the Menai Straits

Impressive avenue of Monterey Cypress – very similar I think to the one at Farmleigh, in Phoenix Park	Sitting back to enjoy the ride. Felt like we should have been strapped in at some points, as we were rocking and rolling through the swell

The giant Regal Princess cruise ship was docked outside Holyhead harbour – on a grand tour of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, I believe. It weighs a massive 141,000 tonnes	Looking down on the car deck. I’d guess it was less than half full this afternoon

There were some pretty impressive fungi popping up in one of the cypress groves. This one was a good 20cm across