Stonehenge – Wiltshire and Wicked in London

Posted by Karen on May 6, 2015
Posted in: England.

After a great breakfast we reluctantly left our salubrious dwellings in Bath and headed off in the intermittent rain for London. We are booked into Aron Guest House in South Ealing for 65 pounds per night – one of the cheapest we could find. We will be staying 3 nights as we have some chores to do before crossing th channel into Europe.

Enroute we stopped off at Stonehenge and astonishingly …our English Heritage card was accepted ( saving use 19 pound each and 2 pound each for the audio guide) …so it cost us about 89 pounds from memory and we have been able to use it in three places altogether – so maybe we covered costs.

It was Vince’s first time at Stonehenge and he was impressed. I found out afterwards that like Bath, it’s another place he’s wanted to go for a very long time but missed out on his earlier UK visits….so it is very special that we can share these places together on our honeymoon.

There is a majesty about the place, and although you can’t go inside the circle or touch the stones, the sense of history is palpable and we were humbled in the atmosphere. It has changed since I was there in 2007 – now  you park a long way away and you get on a curtesy bus to the actual site. Although it rained and we had to carry our helmets around it was still very enjoyable.

As as we left Stonehenge it really started to bucket down …we didn’t have our wet weather gear on so we got completely soaked and again some water in the panniers! I’m so over rain!

When we checked in to our Guest House around 2.30pm …it felt like I was checking into The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel …if you’ve seen the film I’m sure you get the picture!

We had hot showers and got into dry clothes and caught the tube into London. We looked around London for a while and then went to collect our tickets from the Apollo in Victoria to see Wicked. That done we slipped into a little Italian place across the road and had dinner before the show at 7.30pm. Wicked was fantastic and we both really enjoyed it. The train journey home felt long as we were both exhausted….we didn’t get to bed until midnight …well past our bedtime! An amazing day!

… and Vince says … the wet-weather riding from Stonehenge towards London down 90km of the A3 was absolutely manic – I’ve ridden in wet-weather before but the deluge yesterday was torrential, and at times I was struggling to see where the road was. So much water was dumped onto the road that it seemed almost flooded in places, and it was nerve-wracking feeling the front tyre slipping at times – thank goodness for the TKC80’s. The weight over the rear wheel didn’t help as that was making the front-end light, and on the flooded roads it was quite skittish. I was watching cars and trucks plough past me at speed and I’m surprised some of them didn’t start aquaplaning in places. When I eventually caught up with some slow-moving traffic I dropped into their little convoy and took advantage by watching (a) their tail-lights so I could see where the road went and (b) how big the puddles were when they hit them so I had some forewarning of what was coming up, and our little convoy stuck together (nicely spaced out) and just chipped away slowly at the drive towards London. Close to London we picked up the M4 and headed towards our B&B and the sun came out and the rain slowed down, so that was good as the traffic was getting more congested and a little bit antsy in places. If you want to do some miles in the UK then I don’t think you can avoid riding in the rain, but I’d enjoy a dry day every now and then I think 🙂

A few GoPro and Olympus photos from Stonehenge…

 

The Roman Baths

Posted by Vince on May 5, 2015
Posted in: England.

After unloading the bike on the front footpath (it’s too far to carry the top-box from the rear parking bay) and getting a bit sorted, we walked in the wrong direction to go see the Roman Baths for about 15 minutes before I realised my mistake – silly me 🙂 We walked back to our B&B and then grabbed a bus for the quick ride into the centre of Bath, and made our way to the Roman Baths.

I’ve been keen to see the Roman Baths here in Bath for ages. Back in grade 2 primary school I’d been given a picture book on Ancient Rome and that had painted a fascinating picture. Trips to England in 2010 and 2012 didn’t lend themselves to a quick visit to Bath – having the motorbike makes it much easier to get around to places you really want to go to …

After the doormen at the Roman Baths laughed at my English Heritage discount admission card and we’d paid our full 14 quid each to get our entry ticket and hand-held audio guide to the Baths, we then spent a fascinating 2.5 hours exploring all aspects of the Baths. At 5pm, an hour before closing time, we jumped on to the last guided tour of the baths for the day, and followed James around the site as he explained various aspects and customs associated with the Baths. The engineering and construction of the baths is a technological marvel. One intriguing custom James described was how – when the fifty or sixty common folk using the baths were scraping off the olive oil and dead skin off them in the steam room prior to going through the baths for a swim and just letting the rubbish fall to the floor to be swept away by servants, the oil & dead skin combination from community leaders and celebrities would be collected and sold in the markets as a facial cream …. Yuck !!!

A few photos …

 

Chepstow (Wales) to Bath (England)

Posted by Karen on May 5, 2015
Posted in: England, Wales.

We didn’t have breakfast (as we took room only for 65 pounds (breakfast 75)…thinking we’d get away early). Our room was so delightful and the bed so comfortable at the Three Tuns Inn, we stayed later than we initially thought. As we could control the heating we also finally got my sleeping bag dry …it was still a bit wet on the edges from Dolgellau. We also stopped off in town and bought a charm for my bracelet for Wales. It was raining so wet weather gear again today! It only took us a short while to get to the Severn Bridge …the strong cross wind was a challenge for Vince…but he got us across safely. I noticed as we reached the other side that we didn’t have to pay a toll but coming the other way they did….not sure what that’s all about? We were sorry to leave Wales behind …such a beautiful and relaxing place …we both felt comfortable there…we wish we had spent less time in Ireland and more in Wales….but you don’t know these things…the benefit of hindsight!

Back in England, we headed for Unity Road Motorcycles in Keynsham (near Bristol) where John and Beverley (the owners) had ordered in a new Continental TKC80 rear tyre for us. It took around an hour so we sat in the shop and chatted with John and Bev. We got around 6000km out of our previous tyre so Vince was pleased…and I was pleased we no longer have a bald rear tyre! John did us a good deal and we are now his furtherest customers, previously it was another GS rider from Canada….Australia now leads!

Wet weather gear still need! Next we stopped off at Waitrose Cafe for some tomatoe soup whilst we checked out the address and maps for the B&B we had booked for Bath.  “2 Cresent Rd” is an old house from the early 19th Century that belonged to a Doctor. We got a room on the top floor with a big bay window and it is very stylist – at 110 pounds for the night it should be I guess ( but a big contrast to the similarly priced Zion Hall room we had in Dublin)! We also got to meet the owner’s dog,  Diggery, a black Cockerpoo, who is only 6 months old and a complete tummy rub tartbag! 

After parking the bike out the back and unpacking, we set off on foot to explore Bath and ended up at the Roman Baths. It cost us 28 pounds (14 each) to get in….as they don’t take the English Heritage Pass that Vince purchased previously when we went to Hadrian’s wall ….we have tried to use it at a few places but the answer always seems to be “No”.  The Roman Bath was fascinating …but I won’t say too much as I know Vince will be blogging about it specifically. Surfice to say I could not resist dipping my finger into the 10,000 year old thermal spring water (which you are not really allowed to do) and was a bit alarmed when it came out brown! There is a high iron content in the water. That will teach me!!!

Tonight we will just have a quiet evening as we head back to London tomorrow. I can’t wait, we moved the date of our Wicked tickets ( a whole other telephone mission story there !) when we were in Inverness ….due to me having to attend the hospital which meant we couldn’t make our original date of 20th April. It should be a magical evening…I’m really looking forward to it, and so is Vince.

 

 

Wales – Road-Riding Heaven

Posted by Vince on May 4, 2015
Posted in: Wales.

Had the most awesome ride today and uncovered a well-hidden secret – Wales is road-riding heaven !!!

Yesterday was very overcast with a low fog hanging over the hills as we rode down from Holyhead to Dolgellau via Druid and so we didn’t get to see a great deal of the countryside, though the riding itself was very enjoyable even on the wet roads. The weather forecast for the following day – the Bank Holiday in Wales on Monday 4th May was for sunshine, no rain till 21:00, and a max of 14 degrees C, so whilst our final destination for the day had us aiming for somewhere around Newport Karen was only too agreeable to have us head back north again to the start of Snowdonia National Park so we could see Mt Snowdon, and then follow the A470 down south – a road recommended by Alec, our host in Dolgellau.

We took a quick trip north up the A470 and then A4085 till we approached Mt Snowdon via Beddgelert, and then had an absolute blast up through the valley. The left hand side of the road fell away to nothing and Karen was stunned silent as she contemplated spearing off the cliff at one of the many bends on the road, but the bald TKC80 on the rear of the bike still had enough grip to keep us on the road. Having crested the mountain pass and dropped down to Snowdon on the other side we then turned around and had another run at the pass, though this time the cliff drop-offs weren’t as visible to Karen and hence weren’t as unnerving.

We retraced our route back to Dolgellau – well for most of the way until we peeled off the A4085 and took a hidden B road out of Maentwreg that was twisty and fun, and then hooked up with the A470 and had the most awesome five hours of road riding I can remember 🙂 The road was wide, well-surfaced, and twisted and weaved its way through some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve seen. The road was quick – easily supporting the 97kph speed limit – and at that speed the ride was almost meditative, though it could easily be ridden quicker, though the number of warning signs to riders suggested that it could also catch fast riders out. 

The scenery alternated between wide angle views and long shots of valleys as the road followed white water rivers, to tree-lined avenues where the tall trees joined overhead and stone walls lined the road, to sections where head-high hedges created a corridor-effect that play tricks on the eyes as if you were riding through a maze. 

Whatever the scenery, the road just lent itself to the perfect ride. Even when baulked by cars – often banked up in a procession behind a slow-moving vehicle, it was easy enough to find a straight section or wide curve to allow for a quick overtaking move, often crunching a few cars at once. Once back in the open air the road would just unfold in front of you, a continuous series of beautiful bends, crafted for the enjoyment of riders. The road gave me the impression that it was just one long magical race-track, sculptured to perfection as it followed the contours of the Welsh valleys and hills.

With the rain holding off and a holiday in Wales today we saw more motorbikes on the road today than we’ve seen over the past six weeks. In fact – we’ve probably seen about 10 times more motorbikes at least, than over the past six weeks. Big BMW tourers seemed popular as well as their RR’s, along with KTM supermotards. 

Out of Raglan we picked up the B4293, a well-formed country back-road that eased us into Chepstow and gave us a chance to regain our senses a bit after the rush provided by the A470, which isn’t to say that the B4293 is dull at all as it’s quite a pleasure to ride, it just misses out on some of the scenic valley views as it transforms into farmland, and we throttled back a bit to finish the day on a relaxing note.

I haven’t looked at the mileage today – we did start off from Dolgellau at about 09:30am and we arrived in Chepstow around 5:00pm so it was a solid day’s riding, but it was so invigorating I reckon I could get out on the bike again right now and do it all over again, even though it is dark outside now and I’m tucked up nicely in bed in our quaint room adjacent to the Three Tuns Inn here in Chepstow – right next to the Chepstow Castle. Karen has a knack of locating great places to stay, and as we tinkered through this old town she spotted the inn with a few Harley’s parked alongside, and so enquired about a room to stay. With the BMW parked in the yard behind the pub, our own front-door leading to the road outside, the quaintest room to stay in, a castle behind us – a massive castle, built overlooking the Wye River – we’re enjoying our evening here. We’ve had a walk around the castle – a beautiful if derelict castle, a fantastic dinner at an Indian restaurant recommended by Simon – barman at the Three Tuns, consisting of a mixed starter, Sitar Balti Special (chicken, mince and prawn balti), aloo, paratha, oh and complementary shots of sambucca and Tia Maria courtesy of the kind staff at the Sitar Restaurant, and now it’s time to catch up on our blogging, emails, photo and video downloads, etc etc. Of all things the GoPro cracked a wobbly today so whilst I’ve got stills of the Snowdonia mountain pass captured at 5 second intervals I’ve got no video, and I chose not to record any of the A470 or B4293 – if you want to see how fantastic these roads are you need to come over here yourself and ride them for real 🙂

Snowdonia….

 

Ferry from Dublin to Holyhead and on to Dolgellau via Snowdonia

Posted by Karen on May 3, 2015
Posted in: Ireland, Wales.

Yesterday’s non stop rain continued all night and again this morning. Paul, our host at Zion Hall, made us an early breakfast and we had to leave as soon as possible due to having to be at the Dublin Ferry Port by 8.00am to check in with Irish Ferries, as we would board at 8.15am for the 8.45am departure on the Jonathan Swift ( a fast craft but still a 2 hour trip). Vince wanted some medication for sea sickness and when I went into the pannier I discovered it had leaked and everything was swimming in water. Our original plan was to camp in Snowdonia but this would now be impossible with our sleeping bags etc all being completely soaked through.

The journey was a rough one across the Irish Sea – if you walked around it was like you we drunk staggering everywhere. I joined Vince in taking some medication and we both slumped over our jackets on the seats next to us to rest. We managed to not be sick even though we didn’t feel too well. The ANIMAL was fine downstairs …this being her fourth sea voyage in total, and third ferry ride (Mallaig to Isle of Skye (Scotland), Cairnryan to Larne (Nth Ireland) and now Dublin to Holyhead (Wales)). She attracted the usual attention from other riders at the ferry port and on board.  She also proved of interst to an older Welshman, his daughter and her two children at the local McDonalds when we stopped inHolyhead to get our bearings and look at our Map. I gave  them some of our 2upadventure stickers and they seemed pretty pleased. Holyhead is on the Isle of Anglese and we had to cross over the Manai bridge to get to the mainland in Bangor.

We decided to go through Snowdonia (which I keep calling Snowlandia by mistake) and ride as far as we felt comfortable and then find a B&B …as it rained continually. From Bangor we headed out to the start of the Snowdonia National Park passing through Betws-y-coed and down the A5 to Druid before turning South down the A494 passing through Bala before arriving at Dolgellau.

We found the Dolronwy B&B on Baker St and Maureen and Alec made us very welcome for 35 pounds each for a double. The house they stay in was originally the fire chief’s and the part we stayed in was the original bakery until the 1970s. They were very helpful letting Vince put the ANIMAL in their garage and, when we explained about our panniers, giving us a drying rack to use in the hallway in addition to our room. It looked like a bomb had hit with stuff layedout everywhere, our medical kit was completely ruined …all the medication boxes falling apart in my hand.

Dolgellau is a historic small market town from the 12th Century at the foot of the Cader Idris mountain range in southern Snowdonia. Alec told us about Owain Glyndŵr who held the last Welsh Parliament there in 1404. St. Mary’s Church dates back to 1716, but was built on the remains of an earlier building from the twelfth century. There are even earlier remains by Ffynnon Mair (Mary’s Spring) which was thought to have had healing properties centuries ago. Roman coins were found there around two-hundred years ago.

After we unpacked and tried to dry things out, we went for a walk in town and saw some of the original buildings now homes …the bank, the shopping mall, the police station and we even had coffee at T.H. Roberts, in a building that used to be Parliament House. The owner, Tom, and his nephew spoke to us …..as we were still in our riding gear…they both ride and are interested in overland travel. We also chatted with a couple who ride a tandem bicycle.

Back at our B&B, we started watching a DVD in our room (The 100 ft Journey) before going to the The Royal Ship Pub for a roast dinner. We will need to get up early tomorrow to get everything packed away…hope it dries in time!

 

Waterford to Dublin

Posted by Karen on May 2, 2015
Posted in: Ireland.

No breakfast in the no frills Travelodge and off into torrential rain …soaked us both through ….boots and socks soaked, wet weather gear and into my adventure jacket. My riding pants completely soaked as well as my gloves….basically a sodden mess. Vince wanted to just ride all the way through on the M9 …so we didn’t stop until we reached our B&B in Dublin ….no one home! So we took time to get some lunch..the waiter took pity on us and turned the heater up for us as we dripped all over his tiled floor. Lunch was tasty and hot …I went to the ladies to thaw out my hands under the hand dryer… as my fingers were hurting and didn’t work. We went back to the B&B and Paul, our host, was home and made us a hot drink each to warm us up. We booked a double for 90 pounds (cheapest we could find in Dublin) but later when we got back from our dinner with Alex) found it was just two single beds put side by side with a throw rug ove the top …single bed linen underneath…we were to tired by that time to care! We unloaded the bike and put our wet things around the room to try to dry them out….a hot shower to warm up and get into dry clothes…then catching up on emails etc as we have wifi here. Tonight we plan to catch up with Alex ( a rider we met on the ferry to Skye) who lives here and have a pint! NB: we did this …had a lovely evening and meal with our new friend Alex….very enjoyable!

and Vince says …. got deliberately blocked by an ignorant BMW driver who prevented me from making a lane change approaching our Dublin off-ramp, so had an extra 10 minutes/10km pissing around to get back to where we needed to be to find our B&B. At the end of a long, wet and windy ride it would have been nice to take the more direct route to Zion Guest House, but instead we had a scenic detour around Dublin – thank goodness for the automatic route recalculation on the GPS! The roads here are pot holed and have deep manhole cover pits, and there was a lot of standing water covering the roads, so the detour was not really a welcome diversion, but it was a better option than trying to force the issue with the car driver and losing the point. And up to that stage the ride had been very enjoyable despite the hard rain. The first part of the ride I sat on about 100-110kph on the 120kph M9, but the bike seemed to handle the occasional cross-winds better at 120, so I just cruised up the motorway sitting at that speed, sometimes managing to peer through my foggy visor to check where the road was leading. We had the motorway almost to ourselves, overtaking the infrequent truck, and sometimes being overtaken by a little buzz-box.

Killarney to Waterford

Posted by Karen on May 1, 2015
Posted in: Ireland.

Back to rain, rain and more rain! After breakfast we headed off into the wet weather and travelled to Waterford, with just a brief petrol, toilet and snack stop along the way. We had an hour to wait until the next tour of the Crystal Factory so we had lunch in th cafe. We also put the pacsafe nets over our dry bags for the first time … As we both had funny feelings about leaving the bike unprotected. In the end we went and moved the bike closer to the actual Crystal Factory so we could keep a better eye on it … No real reason just a funny feeling! Better safe than sorry! We both found the tour very interesting and there are some very talented people around …then you seen all the hand work that goes into each piece you can see why it’s so expensive. Vince offered to buy me a piece and I was tempted by the Lizmore Whiskey Tumblers …but at 150 Euro each ….I decided that money is needed elsewhere for our travels…so no purchases made. We have found the UK extremely expensive and it has blown our daily  budget out of the water…but it is what it is …we are being careful in our choices of accommodation, meals etc….but it costs what it costs and that’s that I guess….the savage weather has not helped as it has forced us into B&B’s rather than camping ( which is much cheaper but still the same cost for a tent as a camper or caravan…and they charge per person not per tent and some places charge for showers – so still more expensive than we initially thought). We managed to get into the Travelodge for 54 euros ( $80) which is cheap by UK standards – very basic but clean and serviceable!

… and Vince says that without generalising, there are some ignorant and/or arrogant car drivers here in Ireland – ones that will look you in the eye and then still pull out in front of us and dare us to collide with them, or when they overtake us on the motorway they slide past us inside our lane, as close as they can get. Absolute knobs. At first I thought they were bike-hating drivers, but they do it to other car drivers as well. And they’re not driving shitboxes – they’re in BMW’s and Audis. Obviously money doesn’t equate to driving courtesy in all instances.

Ring of Kerry

Posted by Vince on April 30, 2015
Posted in: Ireland.

After breakfast, prepared by Maria of Orchard House in Killarney, we set off to explore the 179km Ring of Kerry welcomed by our first sunny and rain free day in Ireland. We stopped off in Kenmare for lunch and then off to Blackwater, Sneem, Castlecove, Caherdaniel, Waterville to St Finans Bay along the Ring of Kerry. It was very pretty along the coast, but quite sedate in terms of actual riding. The roads in Ireland are very bumpy in general but otherwise uneventful. Looking for something a little more adventurous we took some of the Mountain passes ( Mullaghanattin , Ballagah Beam, Molls Gap and the Gap of Dunloe back into Killarney National Park) whilst tame by some of the other roads we have been on (Raiders Road in Scotland and Torr Rd in Northern Ireland) still a nice ride. During the pass we met Jean Pierre from Paris, who was touring on his own (we had passed him earlier on the Ring of Kerry) and it was interesting to here about his travels and he was envious of us being able to take a 12 month trip. Whilst riding the pass we had to stop along the way for Vince to do the boy thing and have a pee break … Surfice to say my SheWee has now been christened successfully! An interesting way to see the Killarney National Park is via the Jaunting Carts….it was lovely to see the horses and carriages in the Forrest.

And Vince says … that the N70 that runs west from Kenmare and marks the southern section of the Ring of Kerry is sealed, but is rutted in some sections – the left-hand track has subsided in places and is a good 3-4 inches lower than the rest of the road surface – where the rut ends and rises up to meet the road there’s a steep, sharp lip, and I can imagine that hitting that at speed would be quite disconcerting, especially as the rise was often at angles to the road – a good opportunity to lose your front wheel sliding across the lip. I choose to stay in the right wheel track and avoid the dramas 🙂 The ‘steep climb’ out of Catherdaniel described in Colette Coleman’s “Great Motorcycle Tours of Europe” was a complete non-event – we’d finished the climb and pushed on for a while when Karen asked over the intercom when was the climb coming up, as she was looking for something exciting to occur 🙂 And our usual preference is not to ride the same road twice, but I did backtrack 14km from Ballinskelligs back to Waterville so we could get away from the coastal route and go explore the mountain passes… 

Riding Observations So Far

Posted by Vince on April 29, 2015
Posted in: Uncategorized.

English car drivers can shoe-horn their cars into the narrowest of gaps. The ride through the Yorkshire Dales was sublime, but would have been more enjoyable if the roads had been dry. Car and truck drivers are quite courteous, flashing their indicators in thanks once they’ve overtaken a slower vehicle (usually me, but also slow trucks and OAP’s in cars). [OAP – Old Age Pensioner, as per English newspapers].

Scotland is a rider’s paradise. Beautiful scenery, great roads, minimal traffic – everything has been laid out perfectly for the appreciative rider. @#$%ing lot of point-to-point speed cameras though – talk about the fun police.  Just watch out for mud on country lanes, often trampled in by herds of cows crossing the road. 

Riding in Northern Ireland in spring-time is not for the feint-hearted. The combination of challenging roads and weather conditions make every ride a battle to be fought. The roads here are often very narrow. The ride across the steep and twisty Torr Road is the hardest sealed road I’ve ever ridden. I’ll try and post some photos and video later. Off-camber corners, roundabouts slippery as ice-skating rinks, Northern Ireland is like a textbook of riding hazards. 

In Ireland the roads are wider, and many roads include an emergency/stopping/passing/turning lane, so slow traffic can pull to the side and let fast traffic go through. The lane divider markings on country roads are very visible, so it makes for  easy riding, but watch out for directional signs painted in Limerick;s town centre – today we were on a two-lane, one-way road, and both lanes were marked to show that traffic could either go straight ahead or turn right. There are that many warning and information signs on the side of the road that they can become a distraction as you try and figure out what’s coming up and they read like the race notes for a rally car – “Road narrows to sharp right over humped bridge with elderly crossing on far side and prancing deer seen near major junction ahead”.

The 100 kmh speed limit on country lanes in Ireland can be a bit disconcerting – in W.A. roads with driveways opening up onto them probably wouldn’t be posted at anything more than 80 kmh and probably lower. In the wet I just stick to around 50-60 on these twisty roads. 

250km in a day is often a full day’s ride. We’ve done a couple of 350+ km days and they are big day’s out. 

Limerick to Killarney

Posted by Karen on April 29, 2015
Posted in: Ireland.

We managed to get our camping gear dry and packed up early. After a healthy (fruit, yoghurt, cereal and small pancakes) breakfast at Ashgrove House we set off around 9.30am for the short ride (100km) to Killarney ….I was frozen to the bone and my thermals needed washing…so we pulled over and Vince gave me his from his soft bag as he wasn’t using them …he’s so kind to me…best husband ever! Even with the thermals and my electric vest I was frozen and it rained continually. I see why Ireland is so green! But after six days of rain and cold I’m so over this weather ….cold and miserable!

We decided to find accommodation for two nights and do some day rides out …to the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninisula and Beara Peninsula. We stopped at Orchard House and got a lovely loft room for 35 Euro per person per night including full Irish Breakfast from David – son of the owners Maria and Mike.

We took a walk into town and got some washing done  for 12 Euro. It’s great to have my icebreaker thermals back. We had lunch at the Laurels pub and although full of atmosphere the food was not the best. We went back to our B&B and I tried to warm up by hopping into bed whilst Vince caught up in emails etc as we finally have wifi again.

In the evening we went and had a look for an Irish charm for my bracelet and settled on a cladagh design by Tara’s Diary….the heart represents love, the crown represents loyalty, and the hands represent friendship….very special! We had a drink in The Shire…a Lord of the Rings themed pub….but it was very quiet with not a lot going on.

We got a few supplies at the local Spar…we thought we might try to catch some Irish music tonight but the pubs only start going late around 11.00pm and that’s past our bedtime!