Ferry and rail

Saying goodbye to Howth

I don’t regret the decision to be eco-conscious in my travel plans this summer, but there are lots of things for and against – and the time it takes is a big issue!  I think there are flights from Dublin to East Midlands Airport, and I could have been in Nottinghamshire within an hour – but instead, it was a full 12-hour travelling day!   

The tip of Howth - and the plane I wasn't catching!

The cab picked me up at TCD at 6:45am, and by 7.10 I was on the ferry and enjoying my first coffee. I’d actually planned the bus route to get there, but then Irish Ferries rescheduled the starting time back half an hour, and the first bus to the terminal would have been a very tight connection, so I gave in and cabbed it. The crossing was calm and easy, and the ferry not too full; I went upstairs on deck a couple of times and it was blowy enough that it was hard to open the door.  

Arriving at Holy Island

Waiting at the station

When we reached Holyhead they offloaded most of the cars, and then brought a couple of buses on board for the walk-on passengers – it’s a long way from the Irish Ferries mooring to the terminus, but picking up my bag and getting through Customs was easy, and the railway station was about five minutes away.  I was booked on a 12:40 train, and could almost have made the one an hour earlier, but was glad to be able to take my time – and in the event, by the time my train arrived, I pretty much had a carriage to myself, instead of the crowded one the earlier train would have necessitated.

Bangor Bay with Llandudno on the right

Road and rail run together along the coast

In the haze you can just make out the wind-farms in the bay

Summer cabins everywhere!

I loved the first leg of the journey, from Holyhead on the island of Anglesey, to Crewe station. The weather looked a little ominous, but every now and then the sun broke through, and it never actually rained where I was – though Steve & Gill told me there was plenty of it in Nottinghamshire! We passed the longest station sign in Wales (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerich....   etc!)  crossed the Menai Straits and headed up towards the coast. All that region is prime summer holiday space, and there are summer trailer-parks everywhere. Then we turned south east to run down the Dee estuary, and I was able to look over at the Wirral Peninsula, with Liverpool beyond that, and remember day trips to Parkgate and to my father’s favourite botanic gardens at Neston.  We stopped briefly in Chester, but didn’t see much of the historic side of it, and then the next stop was Crewe.  

Castle in the crags

Crewe is one of the transition junctions with everyone changing trains. I had 15 minutes to work out where I needed to be and get from one side of the station to the other. Thank goodness, all these stations are now equipped with elevators, because there are a lot of stairs. The next train was one to Derby, and was pretty full; I managed to find a seat near the door where I could lay my little suitcase flat so it didn’t roll around. Lots of stops and starts here, and then again on the next train to Nottingham, where I had time to work out the next steps.  I could have left the station and taken a bus to Bingham, but since my Eurail pass covered this last leg, I waited for the train headed to Skegness, and got off at the third station – and bless the man, there was Steve, waiting to carry my case over the railway bridge (no elevators here!). 6am to 6pm – a long day of travelling!

Home with S&G

So – lovely to be with Steve and Gill again – we spent the evening talking about Ben and Irene’s wedding back in May (lovely photos of the trip to Barcelona), and about blogging and keeping holiday records.