20130530 Thursday Dublin, Ireland to Porthmadog, Wales

Photos-Owen Photos-Dolores

We were up early to dress and go to our continental breakfast. The bellman put our luggage into the taxi and away we went to the ferry terminal for Irish Ferries. We arrived with a few minutes to spare, checked in, checked baggage, and queued for boarding.

We boarded a bus, which took us to the ship. We went up to Club Class and sprawled. We loafed across except I did some photo-captioning. The ship was underway at 0845 and berthed at 1035, a nice passage. A bus took us to the terminal. We checked in with Hertz but changed a few items on our contract, so it took a few minutes to get a car (Audi A1) to us.

Then we set out for Porthmadog, about an hour away. And that's about what it took us. The unique thing was that we encountered a roundabout every three miles or so. I rather like the things as opposed to traffic lights, but there were so many.

We found our way to the Royal Sportsman Hotel in the center of town and put the A1 into the car park. We talked with the reception folks but found they do rooms later here and that our room would not be ready until 1500.

We had lunch (very good) in the hotel bar. D had fish-n-chips, I had the Welsh Ploughman's platter.

Then we walked the streets (2) of this town. Sometimes the weather is gorgeous, but when a cloud gets in the way and the wind howls, it's a little cool. Overall an 8 or maybe 9. We found three bookstores and no gift shops in our travels. Weird. One of the bookstores had a great children's section we may have to return to.

We arrived back at the hotel at nearly 1500 so we pushed into getting checked in and assigned a room (16). Nice enough room; the rate includes breakfast and dinner. The restaurant is reputed to be one of the two best in town, so we should eat well.

D is still a little off her feed and we've been very active. She lay down and was asleep instantly, so we're going to take the rest of the day off and rest.

I wasn't ready to quit so I wandered the town, finding the Purple Moose brewery and the Train Station for the Ffestiniog Railway and the Welsh Highlands Railway. We're doing the Ffestiniog tomorrow. When I arrived, enginemen were loading coal into a steam engine which later took off to the shed a mile away.

I went into the pub part of the place and found a whole bunch of folks including one retired person who volunteers as a trackman on the Ffestiniog. We chatted a while on railroads and I got some good information from him on what we should do tomorrow. I finished my pint of Purple Moose and stepped onto the platform.

An engine had coupled up to the train cars and was ready to depart for Ffestiniog. It huffed and puffed and finally got the cars moving and departed. I started walking back to the hotel but another train came in from the northwest on the Welsh Highlands Railway. So I took more pictures of it arriving. The street crossing signal for trains is really weird.

At the hotel we chatted a bit, then went to the lounge. There we ordered drinks; a while later the waitress appeared and we ordered our dinners. When she returned we had selected our wine and ordered that. We sipped and talked until we were invited in to our table. The food came out very quickly and we started eating.

We had an Italian Pinot Grigio to match D's egg-and-asparagus appetizer and sea bass with oxtail and cockles. It served also for my white onion soup and port+leek sausages on mash. We didn't have room for dessert. We must plan better tomorrow.

We then came back to the room to rest and sleep.

20130531 Friday Porthmadog, Wales A few clouds and warm when out of the wind.

Owen-Photos Dolores-Photos

We did our breakfast in the hotel dining room, but ate lightly (fruit, toast, eggs with bacon, orange juice, coffee) compared to the Welsh Full Breakfast. We returned to the room for a few minutes.

Then we walked down the main streets of the town to the Railway Station for the Ffestiniog Railway and the Welsh Highlands Railway. Each of them is a volunteer-operated reconstruction of the original two-foot gauge railroads built to transport slate to the harbor or north to other railroads for shipment.

The little engines are cute to look at, but they're powerful enough to get the job done. Ours took off with six small cars of passengers and had no problem getting up the hill to Blaenau Ffestiniog and return.

As well as enjoying the ride, we were given a lot of nice scenery so we took many pictures (Owen over 150, Dolores over 400). We'll get rid of a lot of these due to window reflections and so forth.

Going up, we had the best seats on the train, according to the ticket person. They were at the end of the train in an observation car, left & right in easy chairs. We could take pictures unobstructed out the back window, and to the left and right. An English couple with their daughter were in the next seats.

Coming back, we took other seats in the same car, facing each other over a small table on the left side; it was somewhat crowded so we moved to the rear (now the front) of the car which was now directly coupled to the engine. A railway person had a video camera stuck out one window looking forward to get material for a promotional DVD, so he was somewhat in the way.

After we returned and disembarked we took a one-mile walk around a pond off the harbor. There were lots of swans, geese, and ducks in the water so we took pictures there, which contributed to the total.

We returned to the visitors center where Dolores received notes on Owen Glendower (English) or Owain Glyndwr (Welsh) when she asked about the flag of Wales. Then Dolores said I deserved a pint, so we went into the pub in the station. She had her shiraz and I did a pint of “Dark Side of the Moose” by Purple Moose brewery. Not bad, but somewhat thin. I'll go with their IPA.

We hiked back toward the hotel but stopped at the gift shop for Purple Moose Brewing. D took a pin, and I got a tee-shirt that will be a conversation starter in Jacksonville. We found a thing for Jamie also.

We were starting to feel the effects of the walking so we returned to the hotel and settled in until dinner.

I went down to the bar and had a pint. Talk about a “Stranger in a Strange Land”! Everyone was speaking in Welsh. I finished the pint and went back up. A little later, we came down to the lounge for dinner.

We were served our cocktail and our meal order was taken. We ordered a carafe of Shiraz and shoulder of lamb on mash for D and venison for me. When it was ready we were escorted to our table. Later, D had an ice cream dessert while I went for the cheese tray. Everything quite good.

We came back up to the room then to plan tomorrow and slowly drift off.