2008 - United Kingdom - Day 12 - Ferry to Ireland

This morning, the sky was blue and sunny and clear. Wow we could actually see the city as we were leaving it, it was kind of sad ? I actually saw the castle up on the rock hill, but it was hard to get good pictures of it as we drove by. Today was a traveling day. We drove 2.5 hours to a beautiful town called Ayr. We stopped there for an hour for lunch at a Robert Burns memorial place. Wow it set in such beautiful gardens. There was a picturesque bridge there called Brig a Doon, that Robert Burns used in on of his famous poems. As I was foraging down a trail under the bridge to get a good shot of ti, I had a little run in with some stinging nettle. That stuff is all over the British Isles, so I guess it was just a matter of time before I touched some. That or thistle. Thistle is Scotland’s national flower actually. I thought our guide was joking when he told us that, but then he told us why. When the Vikings were climbing the hills to attack them, they would cry out with all the thistle all over the hills, so that would alert them of the Vikings coming so they could prepare themselves. Hmmmm, true story?? Maybe ? As we were driving this morning, Mike talked to us about St. Patrick’s life. Crazy, my whole life I never associated St. Patrick’s Day with a real person. And he was an incredible man. That holiday will never be the same for me now. It has new meaning. When we got to the ferry, it was 1.5 hours late. So we waited inside the building there. I read my book. We then drove the bus right on the ferry. The ferry across the Irish Sea was about 2 hours. Mom and I spent the first hour watching a movie, but after a couple inappropriate scenes, we left. We found different places to sit and read a book till we arrived. I tried to go out on deck because I love the water, but the cold drove me back in in just a few minutes. Our hotel was only about 30 mins away from where our ferry dropped us off. We walked down the street to a KFC for dinner.