Travelling western Europe and bringing up two children can keep parents busy. And so it is that our tales of our last trip to the UK and Ireland ended somewhat abruptly at Hillsborough lake. Readers will be relieved to hear that we did continue from there, enjoying a great many more things Northern Ireland has to offer, and having a taxing but successful journey back.
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| Another science museum of sorts: W5 in Belfast is an adventure for curious young children |
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| Drumawhey Junction Miniature Railway near Millisle. This was a last minute decision after learning that the Palace Stables is no longer open to visitors :o Which, by the way, means there is now nothing for young families to do in Armagh on a rainy day (after the earlier closure of St Patrick's Trian) - bit of a pity. However, the railway is a great idea for children. And perhaps for some adults too, at least the ones driving the trains seemed to be having a great time. And the countryside nearby is fantastic on a summer's day. |
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| Not far down the road: Groomsport. One of those places I've managed to ignore my whole life. Well worth the visit. |
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| Perhaps the highlight as tourist attractions go this trip: the SS Nomadic, a tender for the Titanic, now restored and back in Belfast where she was built. |
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| Wedding Bells! Confetti! Matt's cousin Lynda got married in the beautiful Donegal countryside on a beautiful late summer's day. Fantastic. |
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| Our wedding car was a Fiat Stilo. This guy's got class. And the best bit? He restored the car himself. So romantic. |
The journey back. Well, what can I say. On paper, it can be done in 24 hours. But that's assuming the boat is on time, and isn't overrun with passengers necessitating multiple runs of the bus from the ship to the terminal. The same bus that is supposed to get you to the train station afterwards. And so it was, that we missed our first connection. And hence, every single connection after that. Remarkable in itself was that this wasn't so much of a problem for Eurostar. "You did some terrible planning and booked yourself on a train that you realistically had high chances of missing? No problem." Perhaps they had sympathy on us for the problem that was yet to come. We had a German railways' (DB) ticket. And we were going to miss the last DB train out of Brussels. There was no avoiding it. And there was no help from DB's telephone support either. There was however a glimmer of hope. 'Thalys' trains, who seem to have had a falling out with DB (they don't accept each other's tickets anymore), were still running a train out of Brussels that would get us back into Germany. It took some more negotiating, but we made it back, very very late at night indeed. Time for a sleep in our own beds.
Postscript: Amusingly, the premise to my pleas for help from all these rail operators along our journey was a mistaken belief that we were protected by the 'CIV' arrangements for international rail travel (as our journey included an international component). Why was I mistaken? Apparently Section 9.5.1e (https://loco2.com/pdfs/CIVRules.pdf) exempts rail companies from delays caused by boat operators. The fact that it was all part of a 'rail' ticket is irrelevant. Thanks to Kate at loco2 for explaining that to me.
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| This seems to be the only photo we took on the way back. Here we are working on our scrapbook(1) of our trip inside the Thalys train that had agreed to take us. If you think Matt is looking tired and sweaty, it's because he is. |
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| Not an everyday ticket... |
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| Our well-used, well-endorsed, somewhat crumpled ticket home, including paper ticket from Eurostar at the bottom. Note the price for a family of 4 in 1st class... (we got a good deal by booking early). |
(1) Scrapbooks are what we used to document travels before the age of blogs
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