Ireland 1

Leaving Europoort (Rotterdam)

Well, I'm sitting here in this beautiful hotel in Dublin (the Clarion Liffey Valley: four stars!) and don't you know it: free internet if you bring your own laptop! And what do I own (birthday present to myself) but a small laptop. And I even brought it along...

I can tell you, leaving on my birthday wasn't the funnest thing, but in the end I treated myself to two (free) ice creams and two new books. Finding out that I would have to stretch time today, because the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin wouldn't be sailing until a quarter past five in the afternoon and us getting from the ferry in Hull at half past eight in the morning, wasn't the best thing however! Anyone familiar with the geography of England/Wales will know that that is only 350 km (around 230 miles). Which I can cover in about 4 hours. So, not too pleased. But, as always a back-up plan was soon made and we did a little detour via Llangollen (pronounced in a way that induces vomiting), had a little stop there and then drove on through Snowdonia. Beautiful! In one word.

Llangollen Trainstation

We made it to Holyhead on time and we didn't have to wait long to board and we were off across the Irish Sea. As long as I was standing on the deck I was fine, the minute I moved indoors (it was very windy), I started feeling very sick. So, I found myself a nice little place to sit and even had a little nap. From Dublin Port it was only 15 km (10 miles) but that still took us the better part of an hour! Dinner was good, the company is good and tomorrow it's a whole day in Dublin itself.

L is for...

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

On our way to Ireland we would usually have some time left to visit this small village on Anglesy in Wales. And even though it's a small village, it has a big name. There are 58 letters in the English language, 51 in the Welsh (ll is considered as one letter, as is ch), making it the longest place-name in the British Isles and one of the longest in the world.

St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave. That's the official meaning of the name.

It wasn't always this long. In the nineteenth century the name was Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, but they felt they needed more tourists and lengthened it to its current form. Most signposts still use the older name or an even shorter version Llanfair PG. So, if you ever find yourself in the area, just follow the signs, get your passport stamped and have a nice cup of tea in the restaurant.

For more L words please check out: ABC Wednesday