Sunday 13^th July                           HOLYHEAD  -  DUBLIN  -  SKERRIES

Robyn writes:  Well, today’s major travel day has gone quite well, thankfully!  We are now happily settled into our house at Skerries, a little town about half an hour north of Dublin.

We woke up at about 6.15 in our hotel room, as the sun was already beaming in through the curtains. Even with a mask on, it was very bright. So we got up, dressed and organised, lugged our luggage downstairs, and had a quick breakfast before our taxi arrived right at 7.40. He whisked us to the ferry terminal, and we were there well before eight. We then discovered that our ferry left at 9.30, not 9 as we’d thought, so we certainly were the first ones there!

At 8.30, the ticket office opened, so we were able to get our boarding passes, show our passports, and go through security. We were put onto shuttle buses to be taken out to the ferry, the Stena Estrid, which is a HUGE ship. From there, we climbed stairs after stairs after stairs until we came to Deck 7, where we settled into a corner right at the front, where we could see what was happening.

                                                              Seats with a view

We set sail right on 9.30. I went up on the top deck and enjoyed watching Holyhead and Wales slip away. The voyage was very smooth, as it was yet another beautiful summer’s day. It took three and a half hours, though the last hour seemed very long – we were so close to Dublin, yet it took ages to dock and finally be allowed out. Again, we were piled onto shuttle buses and driven to the terminal, where we passed security again, had our passports stamped, collected our luggage and were out in the Dublin sunshine. A taxi appeared after a few minutes and took us to the airport, Terminal One, where our friend Jo was waiting for us. She’d flown in from Australia this morning, had a look at Dublin via bus, and got herself back to the terminal. Not bad for someone who’s never flown international before!

                                                               Goodbye Holyhead

                                                  We waved to the Irish Ferries boat

                                                         Goodbye for now, Wales

                                                                       Hello Ireland!

Then we were back on a shuttle bus; this time to the car hire depots, where the nice man at Thrifty set us up with a Ford Kuga. It’s big enough for the three of us and our bags (just!) and a comfy car to drive in. Lex drove us to Skerries, our home for the first 5 nights. Our first stop was the Eurospar supermarket for some groceries. We weren’t really impressed with the choice and certainly not the prices. Irish groceries appear to be so much more expensive than the UK or Australia, just on our first experience. There is a Tesco a suburb or so over, so we’ll try that next time.

Finally we were able to book into our house – a very comfortable three-bedroom home just a block away from the beach. But, it’s very strange – it is obviously a family home – family photos everywhere, things just left where they were put down (including a big laptop on a side cupboard!) The food in the fridge had all been put to the bottom, leaving us the top shelves. In the bedrooms, almost all the cupboards are still full of clothes! We’ve never come across this before; it’s a bit disconcerting. Still, it is a very comfortable house with plenty of room for us all for our first few days in Ireland.

                                                               The bay at Skerries

                                       Ah, Irish beaches.....lots of rocks and kelp and seagulls!

                                                                    Jo and the Irish Sea

Considering she’d only had about 6 hours sleep in a day and a half, Jo held up really well! We had a cuppa then a walk on the beach when we arrived, then popped tea in the oven, ate by seven, and now it’s nearly nine, and she’s gone to bed. Hopefully she might avoid the worst of jet lag if she can get a really good night’s sleep…..

Tomorrow we will go exploring. It’s lovely to be back in Ireland!