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Day 6 - Travel to Dublin Today was a full travel day. We woke early, packed up the car, and drove to Fishguard. It was overcast and rainy most of the way, but its any easy drive. We quite a time finding the Europcar office in Fishguard. Their sign is small, but once you see where it is, its obvious. They were very nice and one of the gentlemen drove us to the ferry terminal. It would have been a 20 minute walk with our bags, which is not a big deal, but we would have gotten fairly wet in the rain! We had a nice conversation with the guy. He was interested in our views on politics and our opinions on England. He dropped us off at the ferry terminal about an hour before departure. The terminal was very quiet, the office and shops were closed and there was hardly anyone else around. We were a little worried that we were not in the right place, but soon the coffee shop opened and other passengers started arriving. The office opened and we checked in. We had purchased our tickets ahead of time, online, and everything went smoothly. They gave us our boarding passes and we boarded the Stenaline Linx 3 for our crossing to Rosslare, Ireland. The 1 hour 45 minute crossing was very smooth today (it is not always, according to some fellow passengers). We found some very comfortable seats and settled in to do some reading, postcard writing, and cat-napping. We arrived in Rosslare, disembarked, and rode the shuttle bus to the train terminal. Today was the first day we used our Eurail Pass. You should purchase your Eurail Pass before traveling to Europe and careful consideration should be taken as to which pass will best suit your travel needs. We ended up buying the Europass Saver with additional countries. This allowed us 10 days of travel in a 2 month period, which we used for our most expensive and longest travel days. So we filled the date in the first travel day space and boarded the train to Dublin.
We really enjoyed traveling by train throughout our entire trip. Unlike traveling by air, you don't need to show up hours before departure. Seating in 1st Class is included with your Eurail Pass. And the seating is very comfortable and spacious, often including a table. It is easy to get out of your seat, stretch your legs, and walk up and down the length of the train. The windows are large and you can just sit back and watch the scenery go by. What's not to like? Convenient travel by train is something we really miss, being back in the American West.
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The
trip from Rosslare to Dublin is about 3 hours. We watched the green Irish
countryside and quaint towns as
we rolled north on the Elanrnrod Eireann
Route 8 train and arrived at the Conolly Station in Dublin around 6:00pm. It
is about a 20 minute walk from Conolly Station to the Temple Bar district of
Dublin where our hotel was located. We found the
