Sunday, October 1, 2000 we made our way from Amsterdam to the Hook of Holland and caught the high speed catamaran to Harwich in England. About a three and one half hour trip. The other ferry option is to go to Rotterdam or Zebrugge and catch the 6 PM overnight ferry which goes to Hull, England. The ferries to Hull are much slower and get in at 8 AM the following morning. You can rent cabins with or without toilet/shower facilities. The Rotterdam to Hull ferry with a cabin with toilet/shower will cost about $150+ US per bike with rider. The ferry to Harwich costs about $50+ US per bike with rider. It doesn’t really matter which one you take. It’s more a question of what you want to spend for accommodation. It was raining when we got on the ferry and the forecast was for more of the same and high winds. Somehow we were lucky and it was calm and dry when we got off the boat at Harwich at 8 PM. We went into a nearby village and got a room at a Bed & Breakfast (B&B); the same one we stayed at last April when we were on our way back to the U.S.

The picture was taken on the ferry after we had secured our bikes. In addition to the four inch wide strap which hold the bikes securely and prevents them from rocking side to side we like to place wheel chock in front of the front tire to prevent the bike from moving forward and rocking off the center stand. Note the scooter in the lower left had corner of the picture. Scooters are very popular forms of transport due to their fuel efficiency. Oh yes, this is for all of you in the U.S. who are complaining about the price of gasoline. The last gas we bought in the U.S. was $1.89 a gallon (15.4 gallons for a total of $28.34). We bought gas in the Netherlands for 2.6 NLG (Guilders - about $0.434 U.S.) per liter. We took 57.8 liters for 150.38 NLG. If you do the math that means we paid $65.26 for 14.46 gallons of gasoline. So, no more wingeing about the price of fuel in the U.S. please.

 The following morning dawned with blue skies and sunshine. It did rain most of the day as we made our way toward Holyhead and the ferry to Dublin, Ireland.

We stopped for morning tea at the Duxford Imperial War Museum. For pictures and more information, see the Duxford Imperal War Museum page in the United Kingdom section of the Our Travels, Europe section.

Our stop for tea lasted 2 and one half hours. We left Duxford and motored on down the road. Got as far as Shrewsbury on the West side of Birmingham and stopped for the day. Tomorrow holds forth with many promises - like 60 to 70 MPH winds in the Irish sea. I suspect the ferry will be canceled and we’ll do some shopping and hope we can get across on Wednesday.

Tuesday morning did not disappoint. 60+ MPH winds in the Irish Sea and all of the high speed ferries were canceled. The Irish Ferry “slow boat” was scheduled to sail at 3:45 PM. We arrive and continue our journey. In addition to the bikes pictured in the queue there was a Honda Pan European that joined us as well.

I’m not sure how to describe the crossing. It took four hours instead of the usual 3+ and the toilets were very busy with those who wished they had waited for weather that was a bit more calm. I’m happy to report that we both managed to make the trip without suffering motion sickness. We arrived in Dublin to find that every hotel in town was booked! What to do? Having lived here saved the day. We knew where there were several small hotels/B&B’s and the second one that we called in at had a room for us. So, within an hour of the boat docking we were ensconced in our nice cozy abode. While it rained most of the way, the weather cooperated when we docked. It wasn’t raining when we arrived and the rain didn’t start until we were finishing unloading our stuff from the bikes - life is good!

We spent our time in Dublin getting our visa’s updated and visiting friends Jim worked with Noel Rutherford (pictured at left) for the two years we were in Dublin.

Verna worked with Ursula O’Connor, Larry Clonan, Ann Marie Gallagher, pictured below

We also were able to spend time with Mary and Michael Gallagher with whom we spent many hours hill walking in the Wicklow mountains while in Dublin. A special thanks to Mick Brosnan for everything he has done to help us.

As this is typed we sit in the ferry terminal in Rosslare waiting for the overnight boat to Cherbourg, France. The weather this morning is promising and we hope to have a much smoother crossing than the one that brought us back to Ireland. Oh yes, we’ll be back.

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