Tag Archives: york

York to Dublin

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Today’s a big travel day … we have to go from York all the way to Dublin.

By train we have to go from York to Manchester, then to Chester, and ending up in Holyhead.   At Holyhead we take the ferry to Dun Laoghaire in Ireland.

Once we got to Dun Laoghaire, we had a bit of a problem figuring out how to get into Dubliin … as the people at the DART station (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) were not all that helpful when we asked for information.

We finally got to down town Dublin and took a cab to our hotel.   The trip was longer because we were being driven … had we walked, it would have only been about 6/10ths of a mile.   But, considering we had luggage, it was worth the €5.

Once we got checked into the hotel, we gave my friend Paul Tuohy a call over Skype.   He agreed to pick us up at 9 in front of our hotel.

G’Night Dublin.

Dinner with the Rowe Family

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Today we just wandered around York a bit … it was a Bank Holiday … so it was kind of busy.

We did have to arrange our trip to Dublin … which was a bit complex.   Once that was sorted, we walked around a bit … had lunch at Little Bettys, which was quite good.   I was even able to find an open wifi network while at Little Bettys so I could check email.

We got back to the hotel around 3:30 … as my friend Martin was going to pick us up at 4.

Martin came to collect us and took us to his house … we had a wonderful time with Martin, his wife Jane, and kids Ben & Heather.   Jane made a wonderful beef stew with potatoes and vegetables from their garden.

Of course Martin and I geeked out a bit … talking iSeries, Linux, digital cameras, and Martin’s Asus Eee PC (which I’m probably going to have to get).

One thing that was very interesting was to see Martin’s house … Martin and I are both in similar age & economic brackets … so seeing his house, community, and town, was quite enlightening.

Stow to York

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We traveled from Stow to York today … took the train, as it was the easiest thing to do.   Or so we thought.

Yesterday we were a bit worried that we would even be able to get a cab … but the front desk person at the Unicorn was able to get that sorted for us.

First leg of the journey was from Stow to Moreton on Marsh via cab … then we took the train from Moreton to Oxford.   There we had a one hour layover.

The train from Oxford to York was QUITE full … there were about 10 people, along with their luggage, standnig in the isle of the train (along with us).   We had to stand up for about an hour before the conductor told us there were unreserved seats in the carriage in ahead of us.

After we arrived in York, and a quick cab ride to our hotel, we both checked email (keep in mind we had been out of touch with the ‘net for 5 days).   Took care of a few bits of important stuff and then called my friend Martin to arrange a time to get together.   Skype is a wonderful thing 🙂   We also gave my folks a call just to check in.

After all that business was taken care of, we started to figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the evening.   Last time we were in York, Ginny had wanted to take one of the Ghost tours … but we weren’t able to work it in.   This time we were going to.

There are a number of outfits that do ghost tours of york … we had fliers for three of them … we had chosen one on based on my parents recommendation … as we were going down to where they organized the tour, we ran into a guy who was (I assume) an independent tour guide that runs his own ghost tour.   Trevor Rooney (we learned his name later) told us that the tour we were heading for had a lot of little kids and ‘prams’ (strollers & buggies).   We liked the guys character and decided, if he was right, we would check out his tour.

Turns out he was right … so we headed back and signed up with his tour.   He charged £1 more than the other operators, but it was quite worth the £5 each.   He told wonderful stories, weaving local history, his own family, and ghost stories into his patter.   As an added bonus, most of the the people on the tour were adults … only a handful of kids … and no babies.

After the tour we headed back to the hotel (longish walk back) and are now relaxing, updating blogs, etc.

G’night all.