Waterford to Cardiff: Wednesday 27 July

This tour is called 'Romantic Britain and Ireland' but, as everyone on the bus would tell you, there was nothing romantic about this morning's 5am alarm, with bags to be in the hall for the porters by 6am, and breakfast at 6am, with a 7am departure for the port at Rosslare (in County Wexford) to catch our Sena ferry across the Irish Sea to the port of Fishguard in Wales.

On the journey to Rosslare, we heard about JF Kennedy's family links with Ireland, and passed through New Ross on the Barrow River - home to the Dunbrody replica famine ship (one of the better ships that didn't lose close to 50% of its passengers who were headed to America to escape the potato famine in the mid-1800s).

  

It was a fine day, even sunny with only high cloud, and we had a smooth three and a half hour crossing, sitting in the Barista Cafe with Murray and Lorraine. Later we went up to the cafe on Deck 8 for lunch, where David had fish and chips, and I had a GF beef casserole with brown rice. There's a bit of a saga with that - 15 minutes after we ordered, our food had still not arrived, so I went over to ask about it. I got the impression that mine had been forgotten, and the woman rushed away to find out. She still came back without the meal, and said it had been dropped on the floor as it was being taken out the oven, and they had to put another meal on for me. I asked if David could have his fish and chips as other customers had been served theirs up immediately upon ordering, and here we were now, 20 minutes later with both of us still waiting. So, he got that, and she kindly delivered my meal a few minutes later. Nothing seems to be simple when you're GF!

After docking at Fishguard, we drove through the beautiful Pembrokeshire countryside. Michelle gave us a potted version of early Welsh history. After an hour and a half we had a service break, then Michelle played us a selection of songs sung by well-known Welsh singers - I was disappointed that Harry Secombe wasn't amongst them.

An hour and a quarter later we were in Cardiff and had passed the Millennium Stadium, and then 12 of us were dropped off for our optional tour at Cardiff Castle. This was an excellent tour of the medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion, entering rooms that people can't always see. The rooms were spectacular, with huge attention to detail. In the mid-18th century, the castle had passed into the hands of the Marquesses of Bute, who had begun many years of renovations and the results were amazing. After the tour, David climbed up the original old motte and bailey castle that was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top of a 3rd-century Roman fort. 

  

  

  

  

  

Michelle and Kevin picked us up an hour and a half later, at 5:15pm, and we were driven the very short distance to our hotel, Jury's Inn.

  

  

At 7:30pm we headed out again, this time to the Millennium Centre for a night celebrating Welsh food and culture and being entertained by Welsh stories, music and Welsh singers.

  

We had a lovely meal, including (for me) the best GF bread rolls I've ever had, a goat cheese terrine, hake on caponata and veges, and a really nice orange and almond cake. The entertainment took place between courses and involved humour, audience participation, and beautiful singing by two sopranos and two tenors (operatic as well as popular music). There was also flute, harp and piano accompaniment.

  

We were all very raucous on the way back to the hotel on the bus!