Hello Wales and Ireland ……

Wednesday 5th October

We set off from Liverpool and drove under the Mersey (the river upon which Liverpool is situated) in a long tunnel, built in the 1930’s. On the other side of the tunnel we arrived at Birkenhead where Lord Lever had his soap factory. He made among other things, the well known Sunlight soap. He was a philanthropist and built a number of lovely houses with gardens and brought his staff out of the slums to live in them. He built a complete village with pub, hall etc. Then we moved on to Chester, a city that was once a Roman Diva (camp). Anything with Chester in its name is an old Roman camp. The protective wall is still standing and in good repair. We crossed over into Wales and could still see that huge Liverpool Cathedral sitting on top of a hill in the distance. Then on to Conway where we found another castle built by Edward I in 1283. It was very well preserved and a great photo opportunity. We continued travelling along the north of Wales and crossed over onto Anglesey island where Prince William is stationed at the moment and stopped off at a place with a long name -Llanfairpwllguyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!!

After a cup of tea and some souvenir shopping we crossed on to another island namely Holy Island and then caught the ferry to Ireland at Holyhead. This ferry operated by Irish Ferries is supposedly the largest ferry in Europe, which was just as well as we were facing gale force 8 winds and several other ferries had been cancelled due to the poor weather. After a three and a half hour journey on the ferry we arrived in Dublin, offloaded and were in our hotel by 6 pm. We had a rare quiet night tonight.

Some details on Wales – the Welsh language is the oldest spoken language in Europe but it has no written format. They have a notch on the middle of a stick and notches either side and depending on how far either side you go, decides the sound it stands for. The terrain is similar to England. Green rolling hills with the occasional larger hill. Wales is well known for the number of castles it has and the beautiful voices of its choirs.