Scotland to Ireland, Another Ferry Ride

Oct 28, 2004

We all woke up insanely stiff and sore, having only achieved brief naps, in a drafty car, on a rainy night, in the middle of nowhere. But the world didn't stop turning to give us a chance at recovery, the ferry was leaving 11 am and it was currently 8:45.

Having gone back and looked at some of the amazing things we missed, I can honestly tell you that if I had the whole trip to do over again, I'd have taken at least a week for each of the countries we visited. We really didn't get much opportunity to see all the things we wanted to, especially in Scotland and Ireland. We very much enjoyed our stay in France, but I think that was due to the amount of time we dedicated to that portion of our trip.
Jason claims that he'll never go back to the U.K. again, he's had his fill, but if I got the opportunity, I'd probably take it. Especially if I had time to tour the less frequented parts of Ireland, or some of the cemetaries of Scotland. My ancestors all came from those areas, and I'd love to do a little digging into it. To actually see some of the places where they lived and died.

As it was, Jason dropped us off at the Ferry port and drove the rental car to the airport to drop it off. NEVER EVER drop off a rental car without having someone in the rental agency inspect the car for you before you leave! They told Jason to just drop the keys in the box and later tried to blame him for damages done to the car that were not there when we left it. We spent hundreds of dollars in long distance phone calls fighting their claims, and we finally had to resort to just reversing all the charges on our credit card. It was a huge mess that could have been easily avoided by having them sign off the car in our presence.

The ferry ride from Scotland to Ireland was so stormy we had to stay down in the belly of the boat, and even then we watched the waves licking right at our windows. We arrived safely however, called a taxi, and were soon snuggling warm in our hotel beds in Belfast, Ireland. Later we made a brief outting to Wetherspoon pub, for great drinks and some time to laugh about our adventures, before we were back in our beds asleep.


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