Three ports and a railway

So me and Dad arrived in Ireland yesterday evening, though we nearly did not make it due to our ferry being cancelled because of bad weather.

We set off from Exeter St David’s train station at 7.20am on Wednesday 13th March 2024.

I’m going to try and get more photos of the trip this holiday I normally try to relax and enjoy the moment and drink too much Guinness and not look like a tourist. But what the heck I’m on holiday and I am a tourist.

So we then headed to Bristol it turns out the Cheltenham horse racing meeting was on too so as we got closer to Cheltenham the train got busier and busier. Luckily for us though we were able to change train at Bristol Temple Meads and head to Swansea in South Wales.

We got to Swansea dad dashed out of train station to smoke a pipe and I walked to the next platform our train to where we were hoping to get a ferry to Ireland from was departing from.

A message then came up saying ferry to Fishguard cancelled. We started worrying about what are options were then and I phoned the ferry company and they told us to get to Fishguard where they would lay on a taxi to Pembrook dock where we could catch a different ferry to rosslare Harbour. So off we went.

So we were on the ferry and the waters a bit choppy but Ireland was our destination of choice. There were only 17 walk on passengers on the whole ferry the rest were in cars or lorries. Due to the time of year more people were heading from Ireland to Cheltenham for the races than the other way around.

We finally arrived at the hotel about 8pm so nearly a 13 hours traveling. It had been a long day and a little stressful not knowing at times how, when or if we would get to Ireland.

The hotel that we stayed in on 13 March had a bar and restaurant where we were able to get some gorgeous food and I got my glass of lemonade. My stomach needed settling with some food as all I had ate on the day was a croissant for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch so by 9pm I was needing to eat.

We did make it out to a bar on our favourite part of Wexford where I was able to finally have my first pint in Ireland listen to local musicians play some traditional it was awesome!

We’re off to Cork today where my Dad’s grandfather was born. Dad has never visited Cork so he is really looking forward to going.

Also I nearly forgot to mention that a message came up on my Facebook page to say the 13th March 2000 me and some friends also went to Ireland for 8 days in Dublin. Some 24 years ago. How time flies.