Day 42 Saturday 2 July 2016

Early away at 7am as we had the ferry to catch & it was departing Dublin port at 8.05am. This is the largest vehicle/passenger ferry in Europe, the Stena Line ship, the Ulysses. Even though the wind was very strong & there was a lot of waves on the Irish Sea the sheer size & weight of the ship smoothed most of it out. Tereza & I found a comfy lounge to rest/ sleep on & we read the local papers & I did the Sudoku puzzles to while the time. We docked at Holyhead on the island of Anglesey in Wales around 11.30pm & drove off the ferry the short distance to our first stop, a small Welsh town with a great tourism idea. In the 1860s the town invented a 58 character name for itself in order to attract people to the town & it worked, we stopped along with the other 8 coaches & around 50 cars. The town is called Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch in the Welsh language. This means “St Marys church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave”. The gift shop is huge & was very busy, packed with people looking for a souvenir. Photos taken & we were off again.

Only a short distance through sheep & cattle paddocks hugging the coastline & through a number of tunnels through the cliffs overlooking the Irish Sea to the old Roman city of Conway enclosed in intact Roman walls. The walls & castle were built between 1283-1287. We walked outside the walls to start with & found a nice place on the grass in the sun to eat our lunch, with a magnificent view of Conway castle & a decent stretch of the walls. After lunch we climbed the lengthy staircase up one of the wall towers & walked a fair length of the wall towards the castle, more great views. Next we walked around to the bridge crossing the river in front of the castle & are amazed at how far out the tide is & still running out. The boats close to shore are sitting on the sand against the jetty. We walk along the jetty a bit before returning back through the walls into town & on the coach again.

Further along the coast we spot hundreds of giant wind generators out in the ocean miles offshore harvesting the plentiful wind that seems to be our constant companion. Our quick travel along the motorway meant that we were in Chester in what seemed no time at all, or maybe I slept a little. Chester is another old Roman city that was established around AD70. We stopped near the old Roman Amphitheatre built to hold between 8,000 & 10,000 people & believed to be the largest in Britain. Today it was being used for an organised play area for children 2,000 years later. Our next stop was in a garden created from old pieces of Roman stones recovered from various parts around the city. An example of a Roman bathhouse was on display in the garden as well.

We then walked up Bridge Street & this street is full of old Tudor buildings, extremely well preserved, one I noticed was built in 1274. As we walked up this street & started to take photos the rain started again, on went the rain coats, up went the umbrellas & on we went. We turned the corner down Eastgate Street, admiring a magnificent wrought iron clock dated 1897 from the time of Queen Victoria. Onwards to Chester Cathedral, the 3^rd most important in Britain, where we were greeted with another very large & impressive building, this time built of red sandstone. Inside a church service was being conducted so we were very quiet & discrete walking around. Right at the back of the church was the Consistory Court, dealing with all manner of things, including witchcraft. In 1555 a man was sentenced to death & burnt at the stake for heresy. The church had the usual collection of buried people inside & memorials everywhere. There was a courtyard garden with a nice statue. The stained glass windows looked good as well as the organ pipes. The service being conducted had a choir singing that performed beautifully, it would have been nice to sit & listen. Back to our coach & hotel.

Our hotel is Victorian era & decorated with Victorian era statues & paintings all through. Out in the garden is Roman style statues, it all looks good, not tacky at all. The Hotel looks like an art gallery/museum. Our room has ornate 12 foot ceilings & a chandelier.

We had our dinner at the hotel, it was more relaxed no coach was waiting for us, we could sit longer & chat with our fellow travellers. We stayed up longer to phone Ron’s dad for his 92^nd birthday, it was a good fix for us to hear how they are & how the rest of the family is. It is great that James, Venetia & little River will be there for dad’s birthday too.