"You go, and then we'll go, and then we'll all go together!"

Friday May 29th
Dublin, Wales, and Manchester

Today was a bit nutty…
I took it easier at breakfast. Just porridge and Irish bacon. And some toast. And cocoa. But we were so early that it was cold cocoa, so it was like really good Nesquik. It was all still so good! We found the brand of the cocoa, we will be hunting for it.
Traffic in Dublin was nuts. We had to get across town to the port and the GPS on the phone and on the Garmin had no idea where we were. We were almost late. It took forever to find the Dublin Port. But some nice people in a gas station helped us. Go Irish. If we hadn't have had priority passage and boarding, we wouldn't have made it.

Headed onto our lovely little ferry!

Our boat called the Jonathan Swift. He's the author of Gulliver's travels. We paid extra for Club Class and it was so worth it. It was like being on an airplane, only roomier. We thought it felt like the Titanic, but without all of the iceberg stuff.

Club Class. Very classy, no? We did think about all of those little people in steerage...

We were up on Deck 5. I went out onto the deck and it was amazing. Chilly air, very fresh, and I could feel the boat turning. Perfect day for being on the water. The only way I can describe it was that it was very bracing. So invigorating.

I LOVED being on the deck of that ferry.

The last views of Dublin.

The views were stunning, I couldn't believe it.

We had to use a code to get back into our seating area. That’s how special we were. And the food and drinks in Club Class were free. We may have had some diet coke before 9:00.
Once the boat picked up speed once we were out of the harbor a ways, it was SO HARD to get balance. I actually felt a little sick from it. Mom would not like it at all. We went shopping in the gift shop and the bottles of booze kept shaking and we were falling into things and it was hysterical. We laughed our heads off. Because this boat is a faster ferry, you pay the price and it's a rougher crossing. So weird. But we got to park the car underneath the boat, so that was cool.
Once in Wales, we started driving around and headed for Manchester in England. Driving on the A55 was SO GORGEOUS. And MUCH nicer than the scary streets of Dublin. We stopped for a walk and bathroom break in Old Colwyn in Wales, and it was gorgeous. Wales is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. They also have the strangest language. I have no idea how to say anything, and all of their traffic signs had things in English and Welsh, so we could see what it was, but WHAT DID IT SAY? It was nuts. 

Driving off of the ferry into Wales!

Wales was STUNNING. Next time, I'm staying longer there.

Such a gorgeous coastline!

Colony Bay beach! So awesome.

We got to Lyme Park (aka PEMBERLEY) around 2:30. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Perfectly restored, so much history, so many fun things! We literally saw the whole house. Then we walked the grounds for ages, just loving it, even though it was cold.  We even saw some deer grazing by the rhododendron gardens. I tried to find Mr. Darcy, but he seemed to not be at home. More’s the pity. But we took tons of pictures and had lots of fun. We may have forgotten to eat lunch, so we got some fudge to make up for it.

IT'S PEMBERLEY!!!!

Where is Darcy?!?!?

When the house and gardens closed at 5:00, we walked up to the hunting lodge up on a ridge and the wind was CRAZY and the views were amazing. I couldn't breathe, and yet I'd never been able to breathe so freely. I may have cried a little. I took some panoramic shots, but there is no way to capture what I saw. So beautiful.

Such gorgeous countryside, the walk up to the hunting lodge was so pretty!

It was a bit of a hike, though. And the wind was NUTS.

The view from the top. I can't even describe it.

We drove into Manchester after that and went to our hotel, which promises, from the front desk, a wonderful night’s sleep. We could all use that, so we will see about that. We walked across the street to the mall, and it was fantastic. Trafford Centre is the coolest mall EVER. So huge, so many fun stores, and again it was like Titanic. Literally, the fine dining area of Titanic was the food court. And there were SO MANY RESTAURANTS.

The Titanic dining court... I mean, seriously...

But we knew what we were doing. Five Guys. Or as we called it, Five British Guys. It was the best thing we have done all trip food-wise. Five Guys was so fast, way faster then the States. The food tasted just as good, maybe even moreso because we wanted it so badly. They had beer available, of course, and MILKSHAKES. Yes, you read that right. Milkshakes. How many times have we said Five Guys needed milkshakes and HERE THEY WERE! We almost died. They said we could add bacon to the shakes if we wanted, but we opted not to. All mix-ins were free, though. And they are GOOD shakes. So amazing.

We came, we saw, we conquered...and it was SO GOOD.

Not quite British food, but THAT MILKSHAKE. No regrets.

We did some shopping at the mall briefly, and Steph and I ended the day watching the Pemberley scenes from Pride and Prejudice to bring it full circle. We took a picture of our picture in "the spot" and held it up to the movie, and we were so right. We're such dorks.
LOTS of roundabouts today. We came up with a theme for it, since they are nuts here. We said “You go and then we’ll go and then we’ll all go together!” It worked for roundabouts, exits, traffic in general….life…. It’s a good motto!
We barely made 8 miles today, which is light compared to the rest of our trip so far! Nice to keep it easy… Blegh. My feet hurt! But my heart is happy, so I’ll take it.
Tomorrow we head up to Scotland. Gretna Green is first, lots of fun history there that I’ll talk about tomorrow, then up to Edinburgh! WOOHOO!