So, off we went to Dublin. We thought we would stop off at Clonmacnoise which we spotted in the guidebook, which we did although it was a bit of a flying visit. We bought a little guide leaflet each and the man who sold it to us asked us where we were from, an told us he was from Birmingham, although he had no accent, West Midlands or Irish. After discovering we were both archaeologists, he told us of an impressive Iron Age track way which was “not far from here, in Longford, it‘s very low key and not on the roadmaps so not many people know it‘s there, or visit it”, but when we got back to the car we looked on the map and the only Longford we could see was too far away for us to visit and get to Dublin ferry port on time.
We continued on towards Dublin and we started getting hungry so I found a place on the map in an appropriate Forest Park. It was only 10 minutes drive away from the motorway and we went in a proper entrance and we found a picnic table straight away on which to have our lunch. We then pressed on towards Dublin ferry port which we finally got to at around 2pm with 2 hours to spare. I went and got a hot chocolate from the “passenger lounge” as I knew we were planning to possibly eat on the ferry and I didn’t want to spoil my appetite by nibbling on things!
We boarded the ferry at around 3:10pm and we were one of the first ones on. It was a smaller ferry than the one we used to get to Ireland, the “Stena Nordica”, and there were 2 sun decks with seating and tables, and only 1 deck with 1 eatery and a shop, the lounge which was a normal sort of size (as opposed to the tiny one on the upper deck on the way to Ireland), and of course the “Stena Plus” lounge for those who wanted to fork out more money for larger windows and comfortable seats with tables built into the arms to rest your drinks on, as well as tables to put ...erm....anything else on I guess...!
We found a spot in the normal lounge and sat there until we started to move. There were widescreen TVs in there and the sound was on which irritated me, especially as it was all rugby and football. Well, I think it was better than the “bar” area which had just football and very large and loud speakers…I think that lounge must have been just for the football fans…!!We started moving and we went outside onto the sun deck to take photos and bid farewell to Ireland. We sailed past Howth before we went back inside, and of course our original seats in the lounge had been taken so we just found a couple more until we got hungry. I read some of my book and noticed that the movie “Mamma Mia” was on, but thankfully the sound wasn’t on too high in this part of the lounge…..! At 5:30pm we went into the café and just had some fish and chips for our early dinner, with REAL Heinz Ketchup this time, not the strange tomato sauce with some sort of herb or spice we couldn’t figure out, which is what we kept getting in Ireland. It was good to taste normal Ketchup again! I then spotted the cabinet of Ben and Jerry’s and got a vanilla ice cream which I ate after we found yet a different seat in the lounge. I read some of my book and watched a little bit of “Total Wipeout” before trying not to watch Doctor Who afterwards because we hadn’t seen the previous two or three episodes….!
We could see land at last, and it was finally time to get back into the car. We were 4th off the ferry and found our Travelodge straight away which we booked into as soon as we got there, avoiding the mad rush of people booking in after having just got off the ferry themselves. We got our key cards an dour “Breakfast Bags” to go and got into our room, taking all the necessary stuff for one night with us. We peeked into our Breakfast Bags to see what we would have in the morning - cereal with milk, a mini muffin, a mini croissant with some jam and a small bottle of orange juice! It looked good enough to eat there an then, but we restrained ourselves and had a nice relaxing evening in our room, and hopefully a good night’s sleep.
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