Day 14
Out of the hostel by 8am, and had breakfast on the road. We had about a 6 hour drive to Fishguard. The map above, indicates the route we traveled, the star is the airport that we flew into, Heathrow. It is not exactly were we stayed for the night but the hostel was not far from the airport. The red pin over on the left side of the map is the port where we got on a ferry and sailed to Rosslare Harbor, Ireland. The picture below is a map showing the trip across the water (gray line is the trip across), the hexagon is where we departed (Fishguard) and the red pin is where we landed.
Getting to Fishguard on time was going to be easy, or so we thought. But when we stopped for a quick lunch and got back in the car and started the GPS again it said that we had lost 1 hour, when we had only had a 20-30 mins lunch break. Ferries wait for no one. Fear of missing it compelled excess speed. There were cameras everywhere on the highways and we were very worried that we might have a speeding ticket when we arrived back home, but so far nothing has come! We arrived in Fishguard 30 mins before the ferry left, so we thought that we should fill up on gas and use the restrooms and get a dinner to eat on the ferry. I guess it is difficult to wrangle 6 people to do all that because soon the ferry was to leave in 10 mins and we were not yet on board. We had learned our lesson from Ping and took the spank of the last car to board. We had just found seats when the horn blew and we were on our way to Ireland.
We were in such a hurry to get on we forgot to take pictures of the ferry, frankly all that mattered right then, was that we were on board! The ferry was like a house inside. There was a place for restaurants, souvenir shops, and easy chairs for relaxing; oh, and restrooms were lots of places through out the ferry. The place we chose to sit was at a window with bench seats all around. It was very comfortable to sit and sleep or look out the window and watch the waves from the ferry. I felt awful the entire ride across to Ireland. Eating helped a little in the beginning and then it did not mater was I did I felt totally sick. Jack, Bria, and Landon did not mind the ride at all, Mom, Dad, and I minded it more. Mom slept most of the ride, Dad rested a little too but no one else did. The ride was 2 hours long and when it was over we were glad to get off. It took some time to exit the ferry —first in first off (last on last off!) We started driving to Ballyhoura Mountain Lodges. We stayed there for a week, before moving onto Northern Ireland. The lodge we stayed in had no internet, the only place you could get the smallest signal was if we put the phone on the window sash in the kitchen just right, and then Mom and/or Dad could send a text or check emails. So, for Dad to work he had to walk up the hill to the camp reception house and there he could work acceptably.
The house was exceptionally neat and clean when we arrived. There was a fire place in the living room that we used quite a bit to heat.The furniture was very comfortable and great for mom to read stories to us. She read us Black Beauty, one of the few books in the house. The kitchen had a washer and dryer built in under the counter, a dishwasher and a great fridge. The bedrooms were very nice and roomy. What I thought was pretty cool about this place was that the big doorway between the living room and hall, off of which were the bedrooms, had two big glass sliding doors to close. The kitchen also had a door to close off to the hall that way you could just heat the kitchen and living room area. We arrived there so late that no one was on duty to welcome us and give us the key so they left it under a bucket outside! We all liked the house except for the fact that it hadn’t any internet access.