Today was a long day. Since we had to catch an early ferry back to England we had to get up and get ready early as well. We were on our way by 7:20 am. the ferry was scheduled to leave at 8:15, which it did. I think I failed to mention when I posted about our ferry ride over to Ireland that the ferries are large enough to hold several buses and trucks as well as cars. As a quick guess I would say up to a combination of 12 to 15 buses and trucks, plus about 40 cars. I would say the ferries are very large. the ride from Dublin, Ireland to Holyhead, Wales took a little over 3 hours, but total time, including waiting to get on and off was about 4 hours.
I did not realize until we landed in wales that we were going back through Wales. About a half-hour after back on solid ground and on the road again we stopped at a small Welsh town with a very long name - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgugerychwyrndrobwll Llantysilyogogogoch. The English name is 'the church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel mar the fierce whirl poo and the church of Tysilio by the red cave - or something like that. I ran out of note paper.
The bus then took us through Sadonia National Park. I would say it was similar to the Great Smokey Mountains, the valleys were not quite as close, and there were not many trees, just a lot of open fields for sheep grazing.
We crossed over into England around 4:30 pm and were at our hotel in Liverpool by 5:30 pm.
Before our supper, which was on our own, we took a side trip through the company we are traveling with, on a mini-Beattles tour. The guide was an older, but very energetic woman who personally knew Ringo Starr. First, I'll give a short description of the tour, then how the guide, Marie, knew Ringo.
We were driven a few blocks to Matthew Street when the Cavern Club is still located. This is the club where the Beattles actually started. From here we walked around a few blocks seeing several other related items, such as Penny Lane, and the river Mersey (spelling?) flows through Liverpool (think about the song "Ferry across the Mersey" by a different singer).
Marie's mother helped support Ringo's mother with a place to live, etc. Marie met Ringo at his 3 year old birthday party because of this, and has known him since and has worked with him when he was a teen anger and when he was just starting out in the music industry.
Our tour lasted until 8:00 pm in the evening, then we had to find a place for our dinner.
So, as you can see, another long day. also, the hotel did not have free WIFI, and only two terminals for general use in the lobby, so they were always in use.
The Wayward Traveler and his current companions.
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