Day 18 - Dublin to Manchester

This is about the time where I wish I had had a better understanding of rail geography when I was planning this trip.  Today I had to get everyone out of the hostel and off to the bus station at 7 AM to take the bus to the ferry to the train.  The hostel generously opened the kitchen early for us and we had our continental breakfast, packed and off we went.  The whole trip went pretty smoothly and we had over an hour in Holyhead to get some lunch and do a little geocaching.  After being successful with two caches and dropping off another knight, Jeri and I found a bakery where she got a kids lunch and I got a Cornish beef pasty.
We then wandered up to see the church/castle at the top of the hill and then back over the tracks to the train station.  Again, there was little trouble with the train, except that they wanted us to transfer earlier than our reservations suggested.  Since I knew that it was the same train and the reservations for our seats would already be up, I wasn't a bit concerned and all went as planned.  After the first trip from Oxford, I always worry when we can't get reservations, but so far we really only have had one other bad trip.

We got into Manchester about 4 PM and walked to the hostel.  We walked right by the Museum of Science and Industry which I really had wanted to go to, but it closed at 5.  As it was, I sent off any students who wanted a quick look while I checked us into the hostel.  They were very sweet and didn't charge us the extra fee for not having our YHA card that I left at home.  I suspect it was partly because I was apologetic and admitted to being at fault and was willing to pay if necessary.
After missing a few telephone calls, I caught up with Eleanor, my college roommate.  Since we would be eating together, I passed the students some cash for food and told them to save the receipt and my change.  They also were put in charge of getting breakfast food since there was no breakfast included with this hostel.  El, Jeri and I went out for Indian food and lots of catching up.  Her mother has purchased a canal boat and spends her time exploring Europe in it.  We walked El to her train station and then hiked back through Manchester.  I would have liked to see more of the city, but we have an 8:39 train to catch to Cambridge tomorrow and I am very excited about Cambridge.