It's already time for the next Ireland trip

It's been only about two months since our last Ireland visit, but the traditional yearly family party was the reason for another trip so soon. This time, however, we decided to fly. The flight to Dublin was smooth, Ronja even got her own seat since the flight was not fully booked. From Dublin we went "directly" to Kilkeel. This being geographically simple. This part of the trip, however, was not so much fun: we would have just made the 1:20pm bus, but when Matt asked about buying tickets he was told that there were only twelve spots on the bus, which were already reserved for other people waiting. Further enquiry revealed that there also wouldn't be any guaranteed way to get seats on the bus an hour later (the bus starts in Dublin itself). Waiting in the cold for the possibilty of seats did not seem too attractive to us so we decided to take the train. Two hours later, having spent €11 to get ourselves into the center of Dublin and with the cheesiest baked potatoes I've ever eaten in our bellies we finally sat on the train to Newry. There we had to take a shuttle but to get to Newry bus station from where we got on another bus for the final stretch to Kilkeel - so in the end, even taking the plane, the trip took about 12 hours.

Today is actually our last day in Ireland already. We had two fun days in Kilkeel including a walk at the beach, an evening of music, poems and sketches and a short dip in the ice-cold river the next morning. Then it was back to Lisburn for a few days - the highlight this time: the visit of the Titanic quarter.

Day 16 - Homestretch

Our last proper day in Dinard

All good things have to come to an end, and so it is also with our holiday/convoluted tour of western Europe. Bright and early at 7am this morning we caught a bus at Dinard, back to St Malo, then two trains (most of which was TGV) and a metro to Paris, Gare de l'Est. All pleasant and easy enough (except the metro), but somehow it's getting a bit boring now. We're on the second of our two German ICE trains now to Munich. A few more days on the coast would have been nice, but since we got going again it's hard to lose that feeling of just wanting to get home!

Of course, we know we're back in Germany: the train is about 20 minutes delayed ;-)

A quick pitstop for Ronja as we arrive in the not so glamorous Paris Montparnasse station

Day 11-13 - We've come a long way...

...or at least it feels like it. It was two days ago since the last, 'mini' post, and somehow since then there have only been moments where we might have liked to write something but it would have been difficult, or it was the last thing on our minds.

We made it to Rosslare without problems. The train to Dublin was badly delayed (stuck behind something on the way into Dublin?), and, determined to never the less have a nice cup of coffee, we earned a minor panic when the guard at the barrier told us we had 1.5mins to make our train (Matt had forgotten that the booking confirmation had told him to board the train 20 minutes before departure). It was probably worth it though, the coffee was badly needed.

Our ship awaits

In Rosslare, things started to look less positive. It was raining, and again we had a bit of a walk to the ferry terminal. It was nothing compared to Liverpool standards though, being shorter and well signed. Having reached check-in, waited in an orderly line, we were told we couldn't check in for another ca. 2 hours. Would have been great if they could have mentioned that online, or even written a little sign. But there was more bad news, followed by some good. The restaurant in the terminal has been closed! But the silver lining was that there were free luggage lockers and we had time on our hands. So we set off outside, in the driving rain, up the hill to the Rosslare Hotel, "Food served all day". My short, ginger, drowned appearance seemed to raise an eyebrow or two at the bar (it was pub food only during the afternoon), but soon two fried salmons were on their way to be enjoyed by the two wet and one dry travellers. Unfortunately Matt would be seeing his again later...

Wet but well fed

Returning to the terminal, the check-in and boarding was great, even fun. There were a good few foot passengers, though most of them single, and as we gradually discovered, French. Our spirits were high: we'd made it, had some decent, reasonably priced lunch and had an adequate room. It was time to go and enjoy the many wonders of the 'cruise' ferry - the warning from the captain that there would be a "swell" until "the early hours of the morning" dampened our spirits only a little. Sure, as long as we looked at the horizon every now and then, we'd be fine. It was time for afternoon tea, and to let Ronja loose on the "soft play area", which as luck would have it, was located on the front half of the ship.

It's all smiles as we unpack in our fantastic cabin

Well, you can guess where this story is going. Until 11pm or so, we had a pretty terrible time. I (Matt) was physically sick - a first time for me on a boat (although this was also my first (and last!?) 18 hour boat trip...). Birgit came close but managed to survive it. The blessing was that Ronja seemed unmoved, and fell asleep once we made it back to our cabin (which was a struggle). She slept most of the time until we'd passed the swell. Birgit managed to feed her some bread & cheese (which, thank goodness, we had brought with us fearing the restaurant prices) and changed a nappy, lying down. Even the thought of walking around was traumatic for both of us. The second time she woke up, the sea had calmed (and we had both managed some sleep), and Birgit felt well enough to venture upstairs and obtain some hot milk. By morning, we both felt well enough to face breakfast. Soon we were in Cherbourg. Despite being on the move for well over 24 hours, we were still far (in terms of time: a car rental here probably would have been a brilliant idea) from our final destination of Dinard in Brittany. A zig-zig route involving 3 trains and a bus were to follow. The hope of a nice lunch in Cherbourg station was dashed (the earlier hope that the train station and ferry terminal were beside each other had been dashed after booking but before travelling - that was a 30+ minute walk with patchy signage; the sign for the "city centre shuttle bus" appeared to be a cruel joke) - the best we could manage in the station was some prepacked takeaway salads, and after a trip outide, pain au lait for Birgit & Ronja. The first train was great, almost empty, intercity with lots of room. On the second, lengthiest train ride, a tiny regional diesel bus on tracks, we had a lot less fun. The final, short hop to St Malo was roomier. In St Malo, we realized we'd lost two jackets on the first train. An attempt to reach the lost property office ended in Matt being told by an unfriendly but important looking SNCF employee that he was in a forbidden area. Spirits were down. But, the bus arrived, and some guesswork in Dinard got us quickly to our holiday appartment. We'd arrived. Time for crepes and a glass of cider!

Waiting for the magic sign to tell us that the train behind (yes, that gray/brown stripe) is in fact actually our train

Arrived! Time to unpack (Ronja's favourite game)

Having had a day to recover, we'd probably still say that is only a route for the determined backpacker, and not the family of three. The trip to Belfast was genuinely fun, but perhaps only because we took a break halfway, met a friend and had a beautifully smooth sailing, met by a loving family at the end. Maybe the novelty value of noticing our travel choices were somewhat unconventional wore off. In any case, here are some good and bad points for the prospective sail & railer:

+ Getting to Rosslare from Belfast/Lisburn/Portadown is really easy thanks to both routes using Dublin Connely. If you book the tickets in advance, its quite cheap. Its nice that you end up at the port terminal.
- 5 hours is a bit long, and there's no integrated ticketing to France (unlike Britain).

+ The terminal is pretty good with a covered walkway all the way up to the ferry.
- Why did they close the restaurant? Why!? Nothing would be more pleasant with a two hour wait and pouring rain outside.

+ The boat is really nice - welcoming, helpful staff, loads of places to eat, drink and relax. A bunch of TV channels in your room and (alledgedly) free internet. The food prices are not cheap, but also not extortionate as we had feared.
- The dangers of an 18 hour boat trip through choppy waters with plenty of food and alcohol on hand probably shouldn't be underestimated. If we did it again, we'd look into travel tablets, and probably try to lie down ASAP if it was bumpy, instead of trying to stick it out upstairs.

+ France, er, has trains. They more or less turn up, and get you to where you want to be. Fellow travellers are helpful (one helped carry a buggy) and train staff seem to know thanks to some 6th sense what platform you need to get to.
- OK, mostly only negative points here. Regional French train travel is slow, cumbersome and involves lots of waiting around. But thats probably true of most countries. One (recently modernized) station had only massive staircases for changing platforms. The French (unlike the Germans) do not set platforms for train arrivals and departures in advance, so you never quite know where you have to go until the last minute. Actually, this contributed to Matt once being robbed in a French train station, but that's another story...

Day 11 - On the move again

Next stop, France. Via Portadown, Dublin, Rosslare...

Day 6 - Walk to the Blue Lough

It's our third day in Annalong, and today we are making the walk through the mountains to the Blue Lough. Birgit is stopping to take lots of photos, Ronja is sleeping in her carrier rucksack om my back. The weather is sunny, breezy and sortof warm.

Day 2&3 - Paris to Belfast

There was just enough time in Paris to grab a mediocre breakfast, and see Brady passage - the narrowest street in Paris(?).

Then, it was off on part 2 of our voyage, Paris to Liverpool. Apart from a minor misturn whilst walking from St Pancras to Euston station in London, it was fairly uneventful and enjoyable enough. At Liverpool, our good friend James was waiting for us - he'd come over from Manchester and had sussed out the local tea and food opportunities.

Tea! Crockery!

Then, it was off to the boat for Belfast. Even compared with our public transport adventures in the Balkans, this was probably uncharted territory. First we got ourselves under the Mersey via Merseyrail. This was followed by a long walk (which felt longer than it was) through no man's land to Tower Quay. Reassured by a Stena Line sign, the walk continued along the makeshift "pedestrian walkway". But finally, we checked in, Matt was padded down (obviously, he looked a bit more suspicious, perhaps because of the man:bag ratio) and we were wisked over to the boat by bus. What I ask myself, is if they had any serious interest in foot passengers, couldn't they just use their bus to provide a simple connection to the Merseyrail stop, or even to Liverpool?

We're on the right side of the river, but that was the simple part

Port-land wilderness

Made it...

All of that said, the boat was great. We had a shower, really comfy beds, a window, tea, coffee. As Birgit observed, the room was bigger than what we had in Paris! And there's something truly amazing about waking up whilst slowly drifting in to Belfast. There, we were happy to be met by Matt's dad, who was also slightly underwhelmed by the foot passenger [pickup] facilities. But it didn't matter - our destination was reached - on time, without disaster and having had a great time along the way.

Arrival!

The next few days are going to be spent doing some serious relaxing, so there's a good chance the blog will go quiet until part 1 of the return trip (Lisburn to Cherbourg!).

Ronja, under the sea

Day 1: Paris

We are very thankful for what was pretty much a stress free start to our holiday. Even with Ronja, we got packed up, sat (and ate) in a train for 6 hours, and made it to Paris with good spirits.

Once checked in (Birgit found a  great place near Gare de l'Est and Gare  du Nord - cheap, clean, albeit seemingly directly above a rumbling subway), we set off on a trek to climb Montmartre. With a buggy, this wasn't so pleasant, but it was interesting to see a different side of Paris, and the view was nice.

Birgit had a plan, and this plan included dinner. Unfortunately, two planned options were on holiday, but we spotted a "creperie and cider bar" and were happy we did. French savoury pancakes are (apparently) made from buckwheat, so we both could tuck in. And the cider was good too!

 

A quick dander past the Moulin Rouge (just to have seen it) and the Montmartre graveyard (quicker than planned - it was also closed, but only because we got there long after 6pm) completed our evening. After the long walk back, we were ready for a rest.

Planning is exhausting

We're well on our way, and Ronja's having her first snooze whilst Birgit finalizes Paris plans...

And we're off!

Munich to Belfast Express

We've been doing some serious summer holiday planning recently (see photo above as evidence), and I was surprised to notice that there is an option fairly directly from Munich to Belfast that takes about 24 hours. Previously I thought this only worked using an overnight ferry from Holyhead to Dublin that was late enough to cause some serious lack of sleep and not long enough to allow any serious sleep on the ferry. The other alternative of going from France directly to Rosslare certainly leaves lots of time for sleep but takes in total a lot longer than 24 hours. Maybe the ferry times changed, or the trains got faster, but probably I just missed it. So, the secret? Take a TGV/ICE from Munich to Paris, the Eurostar through the tunnel to London (St Pancras), walk round the corner to Euston station, take a train to Liverpool, the metro to Birkenhead Hamilton Sq. and walk on to the overnight ferry to Belfast. Individually, each chunk takes about 6, 2.5, 2.5 and 8 hours respectively, leaving enough time in between for connections. A sample timetable (based on August 2012 times on a Saturday) would look like:

lv. Munich 06:26
arr. Paris Est 12:35
(10min walk, check-in at least 30 mins early)
lv. Paris Nord Eurostar 16:13
arr. London St. Pancras International 17:36
(10min walk)
lv. London Euston 18:07
arr. Liverpool Lime Str. 20:15
lv. Liverpool Lime Str. 20:28 (Metro)
arr. Birkenhead Ham. Sq. 20:35 (Metro)
(15min walk, check-in one hour early)
lv. Stena Line Liverpool Port 22:30
arr. Belfast Port 6:30

On weekdays there's a bus from the port to Belfast city centre.

I expect the closer you get to Paris, the more room for maneuver you have. Unfortunately living in Munich, you really have to take the early train. But in return you could adjust the other times to have time in either Paris, London or Liverpool (all great cities!).

Now all we need is for someone to sell an integrated ticket! You're looking at at least 2: Munich-Liverpool plus the Ferry ticket, or to get better value, Munich-Paris, Paris-Liverpool (from Eurostar) and the ferry, and perhaps to get the best value a separate London-Liverpool ticket. Needless to say 24 hours of straight travel (even if you do get a bed on the boat) isn't for everyone. We're going to do it, but have a night in Paris along the way to make it more relaxing.

For reliable information on all of these connections, you can look at the following seat61.com pages:
http://seat61.com/NorthernIreland.htm#via Liverpool
http://seat61.com/Germany.htm#London to Stuttgart & Munich by day train