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!).
2 comments:
I was rather behind seeing this, otherwise I would have warned you about Hamilton Square to the ferry terminal (I've driven past reasonably often and cycled it a couple of times). They evidently don't get the idea of foot passengers there, which is odd given the the Pier Head terminal in Liverpool is much better set up, despite being a much older terminal.
Thanks Richard - Just a couple more signs would have made a difference! I'll have to give you a shout the next time we're passing through.
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