Another Ferry Trip
Trip Start
Unknown
1
11
31
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Neptune's Rest Guest House
Stranraer, Scotland, United Kingdom
Saturday, July 12, 2008
We were on time, but the bus was not.
Apparently, the bus keys had been stolen, so a replacement set had to be summoned from Galway. All this meant a delay of about 2 hours to the scheduled starting time.
As a bus traveller from Birmingham noted: "Welcome to Ireland!"
So we left Emma to her revelry and headed off to Dublin's Trinity University to view the exhibition: "The Book of Kells"; one of the oldest surviving manuscripts still in existence today. Written on calf skin by the monks of Iona, probably early in the 9th century, it is a very early version of the four gospels.
Also included in the exhibition were markings on stone which were just a system of lines, and were a primitive predecessor to the modern alphabet system.
The Long Room at Trinity University Library is massive: about 65 metres long and 6 metres high, and is crammed full of old leather volumes from the early history.
The effect of being in such an impressive room, surrounded by the sight and smell of history, was to better understand the significance of books, and the part they play in making us who we are.
We then travelled from Dublin to Belfast to catch a ferry to Stranraer in Scotland.
After our previous ferry ride with the same company, we weren't altogether looking forward to the experience, but this ferry was much larger (advertised as one of the world's largest and fastest car ferries.), and the crossing of the North Channel was completed in comfort. Along with its human cargo and the cars they drove onto the ferry, there were also half a dozen refrigerated semi-trailers which made the journey, as well as a truck carrying a new John Deere tractor, and 3 very second-hand Massey Fergusons.
We had managed to contact Michael Lane, an ex-local now living and working in Auchenmalg, in Scotland, and he suggested we find accommodation in Portpatrick that night.
Portpatrick is a pretty seaside port, which this weekend was hosting a couple of weddings, and what looked like a display of vintage trucks, and the "No Vacancy" sign was up all over town, so we headed back to Stranraer, where the situation was not much better.
It was beginning to look like we would have to find a manger somewhere, when we finally found accommodation at the Neptune's Rest Guest House, and when we commented on dragging our luggage all the way up to the top floor, we were suddenly offered what looked to be the honeymoon suite.
Some guests arrived later than us, and they told the manager they had a booking already, so I hope we didn't steal their room.
He was wearing a tux and she a white veil, and he carried her into the building, but I doubt that was significant.
