3 Special mentions:
– The train manager on the Holyhead – Chester train, for his understanding and kindness.
– Dan, the priest we met at the Liverpool train station, who gave us a welcoming feeling in England!
– Our hiking barista at Bean coffee roasters, who made us 2 great, and needed, coffees!
After a bit of a restless sleep, the alarm goes at 1:30. surprisingly well rested (it must have been the mattress!) we get up and pack our stuff. An hour later, we walk out of the Samuel hotel, leaving a surprised night guard behind.
We walk the quiet nightly streets of Dublin port, feeling like we really shouldn’t be walking here. yet there is pavement, and even pedestrian signs to the ferry. We get there with plenty of time left, and smoothly get onboard.
The ferry leaves in time and I use some of the time on the boat to get more acquainted with my new camera, but 5 AM is apparently not my time to learn new things 😅. After the basics, I call it quits for now, and doze off.
When I wake up again the sun is up (behind the clouds) and Wales is almost in sight! We get of the boat in Holyhead and walk straight through to the train station nextdoor. The kind man at the ticket office suggests trying to use our prebooked train tickets (specifically for the 15:30 train) and if needed to buy new tickets in the train.
We get into the train and the kind train manager let’s us come along! So thankful for his considerate attitude!
We travel through Wales, past the most unpronounceable town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (unfortunately not a stop for our train, I would’ve loved the station being announced …), into England. A very nice train ride , bringing us into Liverpool, where we find our hotel basically on top of the underground train station.
On the escalator out of the train station a man asks us where we are going. the unexpected: ‘Istanbul. On foot’, brings a surprised smile to his face. He walked the Camino last year and we chat a bit more. Dan is a Parish priest on his way home in Liverpool. He wishes us Bon Camino, while we continue on our way out of the station, and we lose him in traffic. He finds us again when we enter our hotel and gives us a card with a wide biblical wish for our journey: ‘Do everything in love, 1. Corinthians 16:14’. We give him our stickers in return, as a thank you for this kind gesture. A second act of ‘love’ today, with a very appropriate wish!
We do what we do out of love. Out of love for hiking, for each other, for nature… but especially out of love for life, that deserves to be truly lived.
After this little moment of contemplation, we go for a good 2nd breakfast, and start a ‘snackstroll’ through Liverpool. The noises and peopl5in the city are a bit overwhelming after weeks of hiking, but the atmosphere is good here, eventhough we see a lot of less voluntary ‘campers’ with their tents out on the streets, wich makes us feel awkwardly privileged…
We have a laugh about the statue with a pilon on his head, and the cheering guys on a beerbike. We find a teashop, a wine- and coffeebar combo, and another coffee speciality bar. At the Bean coffee roasters we have a knowledgeable barista, who also knows about hiking! This makes for a nice talk ánd good coffee! I even get an Easter bunny latte art on the cappuccino. Happy Easter everyone! So far we enjoy Liverpool a lot!
Back at the hotel we do some relaxing and set to our laundry duty, and I edit our Fermoy blog with the pictures I can now get from my camera! You can see the results on: https://everydayisapicnic.nl/day-11-killavullen-fermoy/
By now laundry is nearly done, and we’re hungry again, so we’re back into the city for diner!
Add on after dinner: We had dinner at a Persian restaurant where they bake the most fluffy naan we’ve ever had. The only disadvantage of it was that Mark liked it too…
Well done on completing the Irish leg of the journey. I hiked from Dursey to Marley park myself 11 years ago, so brought back good memories.
Hopefully that’s the end of the mud ? What do you think 🙂