North Wales & Ireland

Heading to the port of Holyhead today, I got off the train in a little town on the west coast of Anglesey to explore the coastal route. Rhosneigr is a sleepy little beach town which is popular with surfers. I wandered along the coast for more than an hour and then took a bus to Holyhead. If you want to learn about local life in a UK town, get on board one of the local buses. As we meandered through the narrow roads my focus shifted from the lush green landscape and dotted with sheep to what was happening right on board. There were only five of us when the bus left Rhosneigr, but at each stop there was a new addition until we had a nearly full bus on arrival in Holyhead. The remarkable thing was how everyone seemed to know one another. Each new person was met with a big welcome and then joined in on the conversation that the whole bus was having as a group. They were all speaking Welsh, so I have no idea what they were actually saying, but I could tell it was directed at the moms who brought kids along or toddlers in strollers. There was a lot of oohing and ahhing from older ladies and proud smiles from the young moms. There were a couple of guys who would chime in once in a while causing everyone to crack up. This was obviously either a clever remark about the kids or else it was a wisecrack about me, but either way it created quite a party atmosphere. The bus driver did a really kind thing for me. When I boarded, I had told him the name of my hotel to ask about the nearest stop. I was preparing to walk a bit from the town center, but, when we were near the end of our route, he pulled up right in front of my hotel and just gave a yell for me to get off. “Here you are, mate! That’s your hotel. Now you don’t have to walk.” This is so unusual in the UK, not because the bus driver was friendly (they’ve been cheerful and pleasant just about everywhere), but the official bus stops are sacred. To stop somewhere in between seems to be a rare occurrence. After checking in, I went walking in town and I was stopped by one of the jokester guys from the bus who wanted to know if everything went ok with my hotel. I wasn’t expecting much. I knew I had booked a cheap place with a shared bathroom, but I was shocked by Holyhead. It may be the ugliest place in Wales. It’s a shame, really. The setting is amazing — similar to Bangor or Greenock — but something went wrong here. It’s about as charming as the Port of Bayonne (not the French one). The port itself is huge and there’s a large railroad yard. Obviously it’s a vital shipping port, but the town is poorly planned. From what I can see, they made the mistake of creating strip malls just south of the peninsula that creates the port and where the town center is located. Big box stores, fast food, national brand retail, and grocery stores can all be found in these strip malls with huge parking lots. This seems to have shifted all of the commerce from the city center, so when you arrive in the center of town, things are run down, stores boarded up, and beautiful buildings are deteriorating. There’s no there there. I walked the whole peninsula. There’s a promenade on the north end with a marina and a yacht club, but, other than that, the town is a waste of a beautiful coastal setting. Because of this, I had to call an audible and change up my reservation a bit. I had booked two nights here because I figured I’d explore the northern coast of Anglesey, but I just wanted out. It felt like Algeciras way back in December in Spain, but at least there I had a balcony. Anyway, it was an easy fix. I went over to the ferry office and just switched my ticket and then I added another night to my hotel im Dublin. So I’ll be on the 9 am ferry to Dublin tomorrow morning. It looks like this will be goodbye to the UK for this trip. I’m glad I had such a good stay in Bangor.Read more