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Tuesday 6/26

Up at 4:45 to get to the Ferry to Wales.  As usual, the bus had bad directions, this time because the ferry (mis)information people gave Robin bad information about the embarkation point.  Dublin’s harbor has 18’ tides because of the flow into the northern and southern ends of the Irish Sea.  We learned that Southampton, England has four tides a day, making it an excellent seaport.  Robin mentioned that the North Sea oil fields produce light oil which is easier to convert to gasoline than heavy oils containing sulphur, which are used for chemicals.

We very much enjoyed the four hour ferry ride to Wales, sitting at windows in the front and watching for birds.  We identified almost all of the seagoing birds possible to see in that location because there was only one species of each class (petrels, shearwaters, etc).  Jack thanked me for watching our for incoming torpedos and began calling me Commodore Guldi.  I called him Admiral Orr, and this continued throughout the trip. We saw gannet, lesser black backed gull, greater black backed gull, Manx shearwater, storm petrel, shag, roseate tern, and razorbill.

Arriving on land at Holyhead, we proceeded to the Caernarfon Castle, where England’s King Edward pulled a fast one on the Welsh princes who had asked him to pick a Welsh leader.  After listening to their proposals and getting their agreement that the chosen king must not speak English, he came back the next day declaring his infant son to be king.  The castle walls were modeled on those of Constantinople, seen by Edward when he traveled there.  Inside, we saw pipes delivering water from the well to the kitchen, as well as other display rooms.  Prince Charles was crowned Prince of Wales here.

We drove on to Chester, founded in 70AD as a Roman fort next to the River Dee, where we walked about town ~1.5 hrs, thinking that we would return to walk the Roman wall after dinner, but the evening meal at the Ramada Inn took so long that everyone was too tired to return at 10:30.  An entire block area once was used to garrison Roman troops.  We went into the lower level of a pizza place to see ruins of an underground Roman heating system.  A building marked with three arches is suggested to be Britain’s oldest surviving shop front.

When we arrived at the Ramada Inn, Chris and I went to the swimming pool, which was in a separate building from our room. It is a beautiful pool overlooking a green lawn. Chris swam briefly and then returned to our room, taking our key with her. When I left the swimming pool, I found myself locked out of the hotel in my bathing suit, in cooling night air. Other bathers eventually let me in.