Day 0 - Travel to Dublin

We started by driving to Chester to avoid getting up at 3am and travelling through the night. Unfortunately we hit traffic on almost every motorway! Left at 10am, arrived at the hotel before 6pm. They had no parking available in the tiny carpark - literally space for 8 cars arranged in almost random fashion. Tracy performed a perfect 57 point turn to get us back out.

We then got lost in Chester due to road closures and one way streets, finally parking by the station. We walked the 5 mins back to the hotel with our bikes arriving at 6:30.

For dinner, we ended up almost next door to the hotel, a lovely little South Indian restaurant called the Coconut Tree. As always at curry houses, we ordered far too much - telling ourselves that we needed to carbo-load for our trip or replace the energy lost from our massive 1500 steps today. Best starfish impressions back at the hotel afterwards!

That unbelievably is all mine. A vegetarian Thali - an opportunity to try half the menu at once. 

We took the opportunity in the morning to rethink some kit choices - Tracy leaving behind a bunch of energy gels and some clothes, but steadfastly refusing to ditch any of the 3 fleeces that she has brought. I think that she is expecting Arctic conditions in Ireland. I expect to see her bright red and sweating on the West coast, wearing all 3 at once to prove a point. We also grabbed the first cake of the trip from a Polish bakery - the biggest chocolate croissant that I've ever seen. We split it - sorry no pictures as we aren't on the ball yet!

An easier drive on Saturday morning took us along the North Wales Expressway to Holyhead and the port. We parked up in the Premier Inn carpark and rode to the ferry under the careful direction of Google maps playing through my headphones. It was clearly struggling with some of the Welsh street names "mouse cut here" was "maes cyttir". I steeled myself for some interesting times, but then London road took us pretty much to the passenger terminal.

Waiting for the shuttle bus we met another couple of cyclists off on their own adventure. Rosalie and Eleanor are riding down to Rosslaire, hopping on a ferry to Bilbao, before riding on to Santander to catch the eclipse on the 12th. Sounds like a proper adventure - especially with the "and then we'll see what happens" plan afterwards. Not sure Tracy would cope with that level of spontaneity!

Rosalie and Eleanor - good luck. We hope the skies are clear for you on the 12th!

A 3 and a half  hour sailing across to Dublin and we arrived at the port. A minibus met us at the bottom of the ramp to escort the 4 cyclists to the ferry terminal, with instructions of "Follow me". We literally travelled 80 metres, before being told "Go through that door' - it all seemed overly dramatic.

We followed the Dublin Port Greenway which was an unexpectedly pleasant route out of the busy port and into Irishtown and our accommodation. A strange name for a suburb - would you ever have Chinatown in China? I suspect that it has a historical and most likely oppressive reason for the name.

View from the Ferry deck, where people go to experience fresh air, through a filter

Dublin Port bay

Dublin Port Greenway 

A quick rest from the massive journey 🤣 from the ferry and then we headed out to find dinner.

Our accommodation for the night including live music.

A stroll down the river past the Aviva  Rugby stadium and on to Ballsbridge and the Baan Thai.

 Inevitably we both ordered Pad Thai.

Oh no - I've turned into one of those people who takes pictures of his food.

Back at the merry cobbler now - a guitarist/singer in full flow. The stage is basically him sat above the entrance doorway. It means that he's right next to our room. Good job it's been a short day, because we're not going to be sleeping anytime soon.

Distance covered: 5 miles

Cake of the day: Polish chocolate croissant 🥐 

Tracy whinge factor 0/10 - if she's moaning after 5 miles, we are stuffed!