Today we had a really good day. Leaving Chester we headed for Ireland going through Wales on the way. The hotel that we stayed at in Chester was really nice, decorated in a Roman theme with a courtyard to match.
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| Court yard of our hotel in Chester |
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| Why that is a BIG chair |
First of our stops this morning was at the impressive Conwy Castle in Wales. This massive castle was built from 1283-1287 by Edward the 1’s main builder James of St George and in its peak building took up to 1500 craftsmen and labourers to build it. It has eight towers and curtains and still sits at the centre of one of the best preserved fortresses and city walls of medieval times in Europe.
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| The very impressive Conwy Castle in Wales |
After leaving Conwy we drove to the town with the longest name in Wales.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
which means; "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave."
Yes that is really it's name
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| 'Clanfair PG' we shall call it |
Fancy having to write this on every address you wrote. Even our tour guide had difficulty pronouncing it and had to have a local do it. The Welsh it appears, were very literal with their town names, they in fact were directions for others in medieval and early times. Hence the name. It is now written on maps and called LlanFair PG (the double L is pronouced CL apparently) and you can see why. Onwards from Llanfair PG we crossed over The Isle of Anglesey and headed towards the Port of Holyhead to board our ferry and cross over the Irish Sea into Dublin.
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| Leaving Wales from the Port of Holyhead for our ferry ride to Dublin |
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| The shores of Ireland |
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2 young wee Leprauchans
no, thats our boys
Ireland here we come |
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| On the ferry |
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Our Irish Ferries ship
Day eight was in Dublin, but after Matthew crashed early on the evening we arrived we decided that the best thing to do was to have a quiet day, and not go out and about with our tour group in the morning.
Our hotel in Dublin
So day eight we had a rest, tried to update blogs and emails and the like and Rog did a quick walk into town. We headed out and about to have some dinner ourselves in a nice little Italian restaurant around the corner.
All rested ready for day 9. |
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