Friday

Up early today for the trip. Alarm goes off at 7:01. Ugh ! Still, it's a nice day outside. Packing having been done last night, all we had to do was load the bikes and go. Which we did. Set off just before 8am and, after a quick stop for petrol, we arrived at Poplar at around 8:45. Most of the crowd was in MacDonalds for a late breakfast. So, we faffed around for a while until everyone was ready -and then set off for Holyhead.

 A fairly uneventful journey down there. The roads were clear and we got a move on. Then, a pleasant surprise - got the ferry and were ushered straight on and into our loading bays. Very efficient.

 This meant we were first in the queue for the food. Some of us had another (or maybe their first) breakfast - some went for a full lunch. But by sailing time we were all tucking into something.

 The journey was pleasant. A quick interlude into the shop produced a pair of socks for Raphael and silly hats for John and Alan. Then, more waiting around for the boats to dock.

 Of course, being first on, meant we were last off. But no matter, we were soon on our way to the fabled Dublin tunnel. We were told this meant that it took 10 minutes to get out of Dublin. Hah !!! No one mentioned the queues for the tolls and the 7 miles of roadworks once we got out of the tunnel. Not a good introduction to Ireland.

 Once we got off the motorways, we picked up speed down the normal roads. Just like England, held up occasionally by cars and lorries, but we made progress. That is, until Malcolm (leading) decided to take an alternative route. The ones with sat nav and radios managed to go the right way and wait for him (and his followers) to turn round and rejoin us.

 So we carried on. Every big town was full of traffic jams. It was weird. Malcolm had one more wrong turning and then we arrived at the B&B at around 5:30 after yet another massive jam through Kilkenny. The hotel looked fabulous (and indeed it was).

 Norma and Alan then carried on down to their hotel and we all arranged to meet up at 8pm for dinner.

 At 8pm we all met up and walked down to the restaurant. This was a real Tardis place. The front was a pub with a live band. Then, walking through a small corridor, it opened out into another bar and a restaurant. Behind that was yet another bar, a garden and an enormous ballroom. Fantastic!

 The food was fine - excellent quality and plenty of it. Guinness flowed freely  and the banter kept the rest of the room amused. Then, time to pay the bill and wander off. Which is when we discovered it was pouring down. No fun. So we split up - N & A went off home and the others found a bar.

Saturday

Woke up at about 9:30 to find a downpour outside. Not good. An exchange of text messages confirmed that the plans for today (Wexford & Waterford) were changed. So, down to a leisurely breakfast. Without any other takers, Malcolm and Val decided to venture afar into the improving weather on Saturday afternoon to Russborough grand county house and palace, just short on Dublin. A 3star attraction, but had to encounter huge problems negotiating the flooded roads to get there. Their return could not have been better - along the dry N81 secondary road back to base – a dream biker’s road.

The rest of the crowd went for a guided tour around Kilkenny Castle. See the pictures for more details on this.

Once all that was done, the weather seemed to improve a bit - so more messages exchanged and we were all off to Waterford.

 Then crowd arrived about 10:30 and we set off. It's not a long way and we managed not to get lost. But we did encounter some large puddles on the road and saw a cul-de-sac of houses which had flooded. We soon arrived at Waterford Crystal, via the quay (which was actually the long way round) and found one very large motorcycle park which just fitted out 8 bikes - OK, it was really for a coach, but we seemed to manage.....

 Once inside, first stop was for food and drink to cure John's headache (beer, what beer?). Then onto the tour bus where Raphael played up to the tour guide and managed to make her miss all her lines (he he).

 The tour itself was fabulous - I recommend it to anyone. The skill of the craftsmen made it look so easy. But we know it wasn't. Then, into the shop for a look around, back to the café for another drink and then home.

 Norma and Alan had a leisurely swim and sauna whilst the others went back to the B&B. Then, we all met up in the evening for a Chinese and some liquid refreshment. The ride back to N&A's hotel was "mildly moist" [Ok, it was pissing down] but they made it OK. The rest of the crowd went on to a pub to finish the evening in style.

 Sunday

 Woken up by upstairs clumping around. Not nice. But we got up and headed down for breakfast. Checked with the rest and the trip to Wexford was still on, so we headed off to the meeting point. At the time, the weather was OK. Neil and Peter shot off to Jamesons brewery for a visit. They said the roads were fabulous - especially on the way back - I wonder why!!!

Again following a promise a drying day weather forecast, Malc and Val set off for a long tour to the 6 century Clonmacnoise monastic site beside the Sharron. Via the high Slieve Mountains, right to the middle of Ireland - it was beautiful and on the tops - they said they could see for miles. Without the sight of traffic on secondary twisty roads, this was the order of the day, complimented with the sun surprising on occasions. Some excellent 180mls were ridden, and promises in the future of another visit to Ireland to see more.

 For the rest of us, the ride over was interesting - Garmin tried to take us the wrong way down a one way street and then over a small goat track - still, the views were fantastic. We stopped to look at the flooding; not something you see in real life normally.

 We soon arrived at Wexford to be disappointed by the town. So, we carried on to Rosslaire. A small misunderstanding with the map ("Coast Road" doesn't actually mean that) led us to the seaside where we had a quick paddle in the sea followed by tea and cakes at a local shop. Norma and Alan went off to find their own kind of shop and met the rest afterwards.

 Then, it was time to find the famous lighthouse - which we didn't. We ended up in the port just as it started raining (again!). A quick perusal of the attractions led us to Johnsons Castle which turned out to be closed/. But it did have a teashop with very nice hot sandwiches so we availed ourselves of those before the return trip home. The peacocks outside were funny and got fed by a few of us. Some of the party had a text from the ferry company warning that it might not sail. Aghh - panic - now what? Umm - an extra days holiday maybe? Not to worry - we all rode home and had some tea to keep us sane!

Monday

Woke up early and went on-line to check the ferry sailings. No issues, it's sailing as per normal. A quick text message and Alan & Norma set off to meet up with the others. After a wait for everyone to get ready, we set off - and immediately found a much better route out of Kilkenny. So, we zoomed off into the sunshine (yes, it had stopped raining by this time).

Just outside Dublin, John remembered a nice pub that he had visited so we stopped there for lunch. Very pleasant - it even had an indoor area for the smokers (so Pete and Mary were happy). Then, onto the ferry port to load up. We got there nice an early and then had to wait for ages. The ferry was late arriving and some of us ended up being last on. But we all eventually met up in the lounge, had some food and settled down for the crossing. Which was ROUGH! Alan immediately went out onto deck to calm down and the others used various cures to stop the rocking boat affecting them. Others (not our party) weren't so lucky! Still, 2 hours later and we were off the boat, through the customs and heading down the A55 home. A quick stop at the services to fill up and we were back in the warm and dry by 7pm.

It was a fabulous 4 days away. Even the bad weather didn't spoil our enjoyment. And we are all looking forward to the next trip (Judy - get organising!!).