Birdsong's Trip to the UK and Ireland

Sept. 19 - Leave San Francisco, CA

Our method of travel has been to select the areas that we want to visit, but not to decide which towns and cities until we get there. We knew we wanted to see western and northwestern England, and some of Wales. We flew into and out of Dublin because of a new Aer Lingus flight from San Francisco to Dublin that was a direct flight, good deal, and it is a great airline. We planned to spend a couple of days in Dublin overcoming our jet lag before heading east.

We arrived in Dublin and took a taxi to our B&B, “The Hydra House,” in a neighborhood north of Dublin. Back at home, Larry had had difficulty finding a room for this date, and upon our arrival, we found out why. The “Big Game” Irish football, Kerry vs. Donegal. The town was full of team supporters wearing their colors, and the bars flew their flags.

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That evening, we walked a short block to the neighborhood restaurant, The Maples. The place was packed with families celebrating kids’ birthdays and enjoying their Saturday night. Our dinner entrée, which was good, was accompanied by a huge bowl of boiled, tasteless carrots, turnips, and potatoes. We did not experience that again.

Sunday we went into downtown and walked around Trinity College. Using my tourist map, I was looking for the Tourist Information center. Never found it. I realized with my newly poor vision, I was looking for the PURPLE number on the map, when it was the RED number. Also, I was unable to see directional signs from across the street – had to be right up under the sign. Lunch at the River Bar right on the Liffey. The game was on, and the only table was one with no view of the TV.

UK toilets flush as much water as we use in an entire day in one flush! Niagara Falls!

Irish breakfast: First, some selections of cereals, a little fruit (some canned this time of year), juice, coffee or tea. The Irish: Eggs fried or scrambled, “bacon” which we would call ham, sausage, Heinz baked beans, and a small 50 cent sized muffin of both black and white “pudding,” and toast.

Dublin’s National Botanical Gardens was a short walk from the B&B. Hardly anyone there this Monday morning. Established 1790, the Gardens had huge, ornate glass hot houses with every imaginable plant. Their goal is to preserve plants in danger of extinction. Astonishing collection outdoors, too. Huge, ancient trees, bed upon bed of flowers from all over the world. A new exhibition was a recreation of a Viking house, round, with walls of sturdy sticks woven together and a thatched roof. The Viking garden featured plants they grew. Several years past, when excavating for new office buildings, they uncovered a Viking settlement which was not preserved. While we were in York several years ago, we visited an amazing site where they DID preserve the excavated Viking town.

Took a taxi to a little fishing town outside Dublin, Haute. Lovely drive along the coast and in view of the port where we would be taking the ferry to Wales the following day. We booked the friendly taxi driver Noel Brennan to take us to the ferry tomorrow. Haute was charming: a curving row of seafront shops and restaurants. Fishing and leisure boats in the harbor. Lovely afternoon, not cold. Ate our fish dinner outdoors at the King Citric.

During the days in Dublin, we were figuring out where to go. Larry had purchased Brit Rail tickets and a ferry ticket taking us from Dublin to Holyhead, Wales. Although we wanted to spend some time in Wales, we decided to get on the train in Holyhead, go all the way across Wales on the train, and head north in England toward the Lake District. This required two train changes. After the second at the train station, Larry discovered he had left his backpack in the overhead rack on the other train we just left. We went to the station master’s office at this tiny station. He left the room and came back within minutes, saying he had spoken to the conductor on the other train who found the backpack and would put in the next train back to this station. A little over an hour later, here was the backpack… with contents intact, including $300 in cash. Larry gave the guy one of his Nevada City medallions, which looks gold but of course is not. He said it was unnecessary, but seemed grateful. We told him it wasn’t gold…

So we had missed the last connecting train to take us to Lake Country. We asked the station master, “Where is the next train going to?” “Manchester.” “Okay,” we said. “We are going to Manchester!” Not a city that had been on our list, but…

Sept. 24 - Manchester

Arrived there to pouring rain—in fact the heaviest rain we experienced the entire seven weeks. I looked in my guidebook and found a hotel called Abode not far from the station. Took a taxi there. Turned out to be a nice hotel in a renovated 18th century building. The receptionist said she had ONE room left. Why? The Labor Party convention was this week and all hotels were full. The one room was the Johnny Cash Suite: $520! We were tired and soaked. We took the most expensive room we have ever had. They gave us a free breakfast, hooray. The suite was not lavish: A comfortable sitting room with sofa and arm chairs and a HUGE painting of Johnny, as well as one of his guitars chained to the wall. You could see how they built the modern hotel on the skeleton of the 18th century brick factory. Drinks and dinner in the swanky bar and restaurant.

Larry looked online and found a room at the Doubletree/Hilton just around the corner. We only recently became members of that chain’s rewards program.

Beautiful sunny weather next day and for many days thereafter. Walked down Piccadilly Street to the main shopping area and a Carphone Warehouse. Larry had researched phone use and found the easiest and most economical plan to let them convert our phones. (Change SIM cards.) Painless, and much cheaper than the option offered back home. The cost was £20 (at the time about $32) per phone per month with unlimited data and text. More voice minutes than we would ever use. However, there was no international calling or texting.

In the town square is a huge Ferris wheel. Learned at the Tourist Info that most tours are no longer running, especially during the week. At the People’s Museum, we learned about the English citizens’ struggle for political power. Like USA, in the early days only landowners could vote. The Industrial Revolution started here, in Manchester. (We later heard other cities make the same claim…) Cotton from the South was milled HERE. The population grew very fast, as people came from all over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland to work and live in deplorable conditions. Unions started with the highly skilled, but later railway workers, miners organized.

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