Ireland day 1425. Saturday 23 August 2025- To Chester

Today’s summary	Got up early to catch an 8:15 am Stena Line ferry to Holyhead, Wales. Drove from there to Chester to meet Val at our friends’ house. Arrived about 3pm for a late lunch. Afterwards drove over to some other friends who live just outside Chester where we are staying for a couple of nights. “Jade Buddha” takeaway for dinner.
Today’s weather	Rain in the morning but dry and overcast most of the rest of the day. Light southerly wind. Appx 20c
Today’s overview location (The blue line shows the location of my route)			Close-up location (The blue marks shows where I was) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Today’s blog is going to be a bit shorter than normal as I’m travelling at the moment.

I was up at what felt to me like the crack of dawn (5:30 am) and looked out into the gloomy morning at a rain-soaked day and contemplated my journey.

Val and I are going up to Cumbria (in the north of England) for a celebration event in memory of my friend who died in Croatia earlier this year. Val is already in the UK, having been staying in Bristol earlier in the week. She travelled north on the train yesterday to spend last night with some more friends who live in Chester.

Once I was up and about, incredibly I managed to find time for a shower and a cup of tea before leaving the flat at 6:15 to head to the ferry port. It’s only 20 minutes or so to drive there from Malahide, through the tunnel. So I had plenty of time to get there for my 8:15 sailing across to Holyhead. I used some of the spare time to fill up with petrol at Applegreen in Feltrim.

I had a drizzly wait in the car park at the port before I could board the Stena Adventurer. But the Trusty Yaris and I eventually got on and we sailed away early at 8:05. It was a calm and on-time cruise – though the ferry was quite busy as it’s a bank holiday weekend in the UK at the moment.   Weirdly, there were quite a few flies buzzing around in the lounge. Not too much of a problem and the rest of the ship was spotless.   I don’t know where they were coming from.

Once across the Irish Sea and safely in Wales, it was a straightforward drive along the A55 to Chester where I met up with Val at our friends’ house. It was nice to see her and everyone again! The drive there was a good opportunity to catch up on podcasts. I got there about 3pm.

We all had lunch together then, later in the afternoon, Val and I took our collective leave of our first set of Chester friends and drove the short distance to meet a second set of friends who live in a village just outside Chester.   We are staying with them tonight and tomorrow night.

We enjoyed a “Jade Buddha” Chinese takeaway for dinner, before retiring to bed in anticipation of another early start and a busy day tomorrow.

It’s been nice to see some of our friends again – they are what make the world go round.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)

Yaris’-eye view of the lower deck of the Stena Adventurer	Important to remember where I parked it!
Text here	Text here
Text here	Text here
Boarding almost complete.   I hope the remember to close the door before we set off.

Interactive map

(No map today)

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