My day today started at 4am. After a coffee, a little face-booking and the completion of my packing I checked out and met my Toyota-Prius-driving taxi driver. He had me down at Redhill station in plenty of time but didn't have any change for my £20 note, so he swung past the servo to get change where I picked up a sandwich for Brekky and then he helped me work out the ticket machine (the station was unstaffed at that ridiculous hour).

Ticket organised I caught the first train to London Victoria, caught the tube to Euston and then the Virgin Train to Chester. The trip from London traced through Milton-Keynes and Crewe to Chester...and it was just magnificent.

Lots of sheep (& a few horses and cattle) and green fields, hedge rows. There were also lots of places that I'd have loved to explore if only I had the time. Of course the train runs past the backs of lots of old houses and villages - I also saw the canal system with those quaint houseboat barges you see in the movies. Also the occasional isolated farmhouse, factories, the odd sports field, and the further we went, forest.

What was also fun was watching the train speed past the traffic on the motorways when they ran parallel to the train-line. Off in the misty distance were trees that looked familiar and yet at the same time alien. There was the odd ancient church and villages on the horizon that looked like models from a serious train-set. In places there were row upon row of identical semi-attached houses, the occasional stately home, and near Chester some very familiar paddocks complete with barbed-wire fences.

At Chester you change trains and train companies (from Virgin to Arriva) to travel up through Wales to Holyhead. Just out of Chester there's an inlet and you suddenly realise you're close to the coast. The train travelled through Flint, Prestatyn, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno Junction, Llanfairfechan, Bangor, Bodorgan, Valley to Holyhead. The scenery changes to mudflats, a rock sea wall, dockyards, & rows and rows of holiday cabins. The countryside on the other side of the railway line becomes more hilly and rocky the further you go. It was fine the whole way with a battle between mist, clouds and blue sky ensuing through the journey.

Just out of Prestatyn I noticed humungous windmills (the type they have on wind-farms) way out to sea. I also noticed the communal vegie plots that are quite prevalent in the UK. Dry stone walls divided up the fields now, sometimes with crops rather than grazing, and the land became a lot more rocky and scrubby. I even saw the odd castle or four. I arrived at the Holyhead port at around lunch-time but then had quite a wait until the ferry 'Ulysses' was to leave.

Once aboard, luggage checked I enjoyed a leisurely trip across to Dublin - except that everything (food etc) on the ferry was priced in Euros - but Euros aren't available from the ATM at Holyhead, and they don't have an ATM on the ferry. So I tried to purchase something with my credit card but they said that it didn't work at the moment. So it was a thirsty and hungry David that arrived in Dublin with no Euros. Once on Irish soil I asked one of the security guards if there was an ATM at the terminal - no there wasn't. I asked him where the nearest ATM was - he said at the service station (25 mins walk) - I asked him the best way to get to the Monastery where I am staying - he said taxi - I said I don't have any Euros - he said - it's alright the Taxi driver will take you to the servo....and he did - waited for me, and then took me directly and quickly to the Monastery.