Puffin

Back blipped on 14th November

We took our time vacating our B and B, having been reassured by our wonderful hosts that there was no rush.  And then we took a circuitous route to Rosslare, via Kilkenny, stopping in Thomastown at a quirky little cafe where we had some delicious parsnip and fennel soup, supervised by this puffin who was perched on the bar above our table.  And subsequently we also stopped to top up our electrons.

Despite this, we were early for the ferry - arriving an hour before the "last check in time".  And then spent several hours sitting around on the dock, as the ferry was late in, and in the end was a good 2 and a half hours late leaving port.

Once on board, the ship was not particularly crowded, but we found that we either sat in the restaurant, or on some rather bleak seats down the passageway, or in the coffee lounge - so that is where we ended up.  There was a large group of very noisy, rather drunk passengers, and we subsequently discovered that we were to be "entertained" to some very loud live music.  The young lady at the coffee and snack bar told me why there was a delay - an Irish Ferries ship had hit the dock when berthing earlier, causing significant damage to itself, such that it was not able to vacate the berth, so there was nowhere for our Stena Line ship to berth until another ferry left.

The result of our late departure from Rosslare was inevitably a very late arrival in Fishguard - I was so glad we had booked a hotel less than 10 miles down the road.  They were hosting a wedding - but they had been able to reserve us a room at the far end of the hotel, well away from the residual entertainment.  We slept well.