Homeward bound...

Well, with some resistance, we eventually pulled up in our queue for the Dun Laoghaire bound ferry, and after a short wait, we drove on board.  Birdy found herself placed among some real grannies, and she was the baby for once!! Her engine was like a kitten purring beside these growlers!
The short sailing home was uneventful, and quiet... Our funds had expired over a cooked breakfast this morning, and so with barely enough for a shared cup of tea, we had little to do but talk about our trip and how, although it felt like forever since we had left, it had flown by! 

Its hard to believe we won't be unpacking the van tonight, folding down our comfy bed and waking up to another new day.... in another new place.... with the open road ahead and the world at our feet...

Llan-WHA?

Bill is full of surprises, and a great example of this was last year, when we took trains across Europe, he shocked us all by saying the name of the longest place in the world, as our train passed through and the long never ending sign passed us by.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch...

So we demanded immediate lessons, and since then we have all been able to break out the tongue twister on demand...

At the end of our holiday last year, we diverted the trip and booked into a hotel in Llanfair p.g. which was great fun, the town comprises of a train station with the biggest gift shop you'd ever see, and a chipper - which we all concurred did the best fish and chips we'd ever had!

So this year of course, we had to stop by and try those fish suppers again! We weren't let down! The freshest fish, in a dark beer batter, with juicy salty chips and mushy peas... when you're hungry its manna from heaven!

Hi-de-HI

Hello campers! Birdie made it!! Isn't she fab!!

So arriving in Britain to rain and wind, not much different than Belgium...! But thankfully by the time we arrived in Wales, the rain had stopped and the wind had died down, and so it was camping reminiscent of childhoods spent in Brittas Bay...

We had rang ahead and were greeted with a chorus of "Come on DOWN!" so we were looking forward to a bit of camp in camp!! We weren't disappointed as the reception was manned (I use the term lightly) by a very colourful pair, one who fell about in a mock swoon every time I spoke to him claiming to be a "goner for an irish accent!" 

The campsite was spotless, with great facilities and a shortcut through the most scenic countryside brought us to a delightful little town on the sea! 

We found ourselves, for dinner, in a hotel that didn't seem to have moved with the times, I kept expecting Benny from Crossroads to come around the corner!

After a pie and chips dinner, followed by treacle tart (never had it before - YUM!) we headed back through the fields, in the dark, to our campsite. It was eery and beautiful, but scary-scary and I swear I could hear Derek Acorah whisper "Whats that Sam?" when the wind picked up as we rounded the hill!

We keep remarking how it doesn't feel that the trip is over.... but it is.... tomorrow we'll board the boat to Dun Laoire, drop Birdie off to my moms, get back into our regular car and head back to our house... until next year!!!

Ferry good...

Waiting for the ferry was like being a kid waiting for a party – I wanted to open the door and wail “can we go now?” – it seemed like forever before the men started ushering us on board, a little left, a little right... STOP!

Brittany Ferries Plymouth to Santander is an award winning route and the minute we stepped on board we knew why, the ship was pristine and the staff helpful and friendly. After a quick check of our cabin, which is roomy with a huge porthole, we headed to the cafeteria for some dinner. Gordon Ramsay once said that the food in rest stops on highways in France is better than the majority of posh restaurant food in the UK, he can lump Ireland in there too for good measure, because the steak we got on board was probably equal if not better than many we’ve eaten in restaurants! It was when the chef said to us, as we queued, “medium or rare?” that we knew we were on to a winner.

After that we went through the ships shop with a fine tooth comb looking at everything at least once to pass the time, they had lovely stuff for sale, but the only thing we took away was a foreign adaptor... oh and two volkswagen dinky cars which Joe wouldn’t let go of once we pointed them out to him. His love for anything mechanical still fascinates me, diggers are his favorite but anything with wheels and metal and Joe will open his little mouth into a large O. He has brought a few on holidays and we have had to restrict him to two at a time otherwise he gets frustrated and cries when he can’t “voommmmm” all of them at once.

So here we are in our little cabin, just about to go and watch the sunset from the deck – the sea is calm and the winds low – hopefully it will be a good night at sea so we can start tomorrow fresh as daisys... or would that be margeritas?

Panic in Plymouth!

What an amazing trip so far! Coming down through England, with hot pot, cream tea (thank you devon!) and pie and mash! Yesterday we had the most amazing pie in a tiny little village, the pastry was that soft suet type that you can never get right at home and the steak inside was fab! So we finally hit Plymouth at about midday today after an eventful journey!I suppose murphys law makes any Irish man nervous on a trip like this and so when a red light came on in the dash at about half ten, and then the petrol gage suddenly dropped from full to past empty, well we thought the worst...

We pulled white faced into a garage – Okay we’ll just catch the next boat, get the van seen to, go later in the week... We didn’t panic or get upset, we just figured it out. Looking into the simple engine, not too hot, belt fine, all is well there... Then as I leaned over to get the list of local mechanics I have printed for every region we hope to be in, I spied it. A little fuse sat on the floor beside Bills humungous man feet! Popped it back in and WOO everything fine again! So I cried a bit, Bill smoked a cigarette, we had a breather and back on the road. Birdie taking a breather after her little scare!

Funnily it only made us love Birdie all that more... Its true that the experience with your vw becomes a personality of sorts... you bond! I could just about here her chatter “would i let yez down?” as she steamed on ahead for Plymouth and ever closer to the north coast of Spain...

So soon?

Well I didn't expect to be blogging so soon into our trip - but it appears the darling U.K. is chocoblock with free wi-fi zones! So here I is!

Yesterday was eventful - with the wonderful world of the M6... Notorious as it is, of course we didn't fail to follow tradition and get lost... twice! Its inevitable really isn't it! The rain thundered down and the little red ladybird steamed along, unfazed by the pandamoniom in the back as our Tom tom ran out of battery, and I struggled to retrieve a road atlas from under the back seat!

So it was with great pleasure that shortly after 8 we booked into a lovely Travellers inn, and rested our heads on the cold white pillows!

So here we are having breakfast - ready to set out to Plymouth and the boat to Santander - a 3 hour drive and overnight ship! Our Tomtom charged, our spirits high - HERE WE GO!

Quick question... Did the english invent the cooked breakfast or did we?