Hi all northern province members!
Ruth and I will be arriving in the UK around 19th October and will spend the next couple of weeks with family (including a week in the Canary Islands) and are looking at coming over to Ireland for 5-7 days about 1st week of November.
I'd love the opportunity of meeting some of the members so my initial question is "Would it be best to plan being there over a weekend?"

Cheers

Gaz

We would love to see you.

Check out what you both want from the trip first, a weekend included would make travel easier for some of us but that depends on where you land...

Monday October 26th is a public holiday here and its also the mid term week so be careful of some travel arrangements to get into Ireland if you are planning on the following weekend. Week after is fine. Lots to do around Dublin if you only go that far, all depends on your interests.

We have lots of flights between here and UK to and from main and regional airports in UK [Manchester, Birmingham, London city, London Stansted, London Heathrow, London Luton, Liverpool, Bristol, Plymouth, East Midlands, Newcastle, more too like Glasgow, Edinburgh.....

www.aerlingus.com
www.ba.com
www.flybe.com
www.easyjet.com
www.ryanair.com

To Dublin [Jedi Girl, Ringfad, Curley, Sgmayhew, Niall]
Shannon [Avenger GT]
Galway [Reg, 88KE]
Waterford [Trapper, Electric Monk]
Belfast [Comberjohn, Dai, Markzz, CMcQ]
Cork [Corkboy, Pat O'D, Bjorn, RedRebelK, Cluain Si, Tom O'Leary, 92KK]
Derry/Londonderry
Knock/Mayo

We are scattered and ride time Cork Belfast is about 4 1/2 hours, Dublin for some of us is up to 2 1/2 hours.

Saturday meet ups have worked well for us so far, but no shortage of K riders to lead you astray at other times too.

Lots of options for travel, car hire can be cheap at that time www.holidayautos.com is one I often use and its good to compare with the likes of Hertz and Avis who do also have some good deals. You may well have options of fly into one airport and drop off at another.

If you buy rail rambler tickets from outside Ireland www.irishrail.ie you will find rail services between main cities.

We also have direct flights to Canaries so you might even save a travel leg. Be aware though that airlines within Europe charge for hold baggage unless its a long haul ticket booked through to your destination. Long haul BA, KLM, Emirates and Etihad will give long haul to Dublin/Cork/Shannon using Aer Lingus as travel partner which is fine.

Weather etc permitting we should be able to put you on a K and find you some bike gear if we know sizes in advance......I don't think we scared Bill off, even with a nice run up Sally Gap.

Now Born Again Eccentric needs another trip back to Ireland........wonder would this one work for him because the Norn Iron weekend doesn't.

I'm pretty sure I'll be around. If someone puts me on standby again then I'll swap it with one of the other engineers.

If you come to Dublin I can show you a few places. Thursday and Friday nights and the weekend is best for me.

Ringfad wrote:If you come to Dublin I can show you a few places. Thursday and Friday nights and the weekend is best for me.

Simon is recommended as a tour guide, from experience.



Bill

indian036 wrote:

Ringfad wrote:If you come to Dublin I can show you a few places. Thursday and Friday nights and the weekend is best for me.

Simon is recommended as a tour guide, from experience.



Bill

You mean you can remember?

Thanks all. So first question answered - yes it would be good to be there over a weekend.

I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Cheers

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:

indian036 wrote:

Ringfad wrote:If you come to Dublin I can show you a few places. Thursday and Friday nights and the weekend is best for me.

Simon is recommended as a tour guide, from experience.



Bill

You mean you can remember?

I dimly remember several drinking houses of various kinds. 

Bill

Several? Olaf must have been slacking.

Dai wrote:Several? Olaf must have been slacking.

The drinking places in my dim memory were on Friday with Ringfad. Travelling on foot. 
Only one drinking place with Olaf at the end of the day - good thing as I was his grateful pillion passenger for the day. 



Bill

Early thoughts for our visit are that we might hire a car in UK and drive across to Wales to visit Bath etc. through places like Somerset ? as Ruth hasn't been to Wales and I have only been across to Aberystwyth and north from there around to Conwy & back to England through Shrewsbury.

If we come across on the ferry to Rosslare around 3rd November we could head across to the McCarthy stamping grounds at Cork  then continue clockwise to end up in Dublin for Friday/Saturday then take the ferry back from Dublin maybe Sunday/Monday 8/9. Probably depends on weather a bit and not sure we'll get to Belfast this trip. I have in the back of my mind to be there in Summer next time and get on a bike myself for some touring/TT races ??

Having flown over from Oz and then to the Canary Islands and back by then I'm not that keen on even a short flight to Ireland from the UK. We're planning on going over to the Netherlands by train after Ireland.

Happy to receive suggestions. Looking forward to meet ups now.

Cheers

I've no idea how long it's been since you were last in the West Country but be prepared for an awful shock, traffic-wise. It's horrific these days. I know BAE (??) lives down that way somewhere and he's probably used to it, but from an ex-Dorset resident who left nineteen years ago, on my annual visits I find it worse each year. If you've never been there then let me know where you're picking the car up and where you want to go and I'll try to pick some decent i.e. scenic routes.

In terms of flight times vs ferry, by the time you've added book-in times at the airport then it's pretty much the same, faster if you take the fast ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. If you're heading to Aberystwyth then I'd advise Holyhead as your jump-off point for Ireland for two reasons:

1. You get the choice of the fast ferry rather then the 'super ferry' only.
2. You get to drive through Snowdonia.

OTOH if you're headed for the south of down south then maybe Rosslare is a better bet.

[Edit] Actually, looking at the map, I'd forgotten that we have a new motorway from Dublin to Cork (Baile Ath Clath to Corcaigh). It might even be quicker than Rosslare to Cork.

Olaf? Will?

Gaz80 wrote:Early thoughts for our visit are that we might hire a car in UK and drive across to Wales to visit Bath etc. through places like Somerset ? 

  Good to see your plans are coming together. November won't be best weather-wise (in UK or Ireland, but you could strike it lucky) and I think you miss the school half term holiday (previous week to your visit) which is a plus point!

If you are passing my neighbourhood (Shepton Mallet, Somerset) and need somewhere to stay, you would be very welcome. I live within easy reach of Bath, Bristol, Cheddar Gorge and the Jurassic coast (Lyme Regis etc.) and you'll pass Stone Henge (worth a 15 minutes look) on the way from the airport. If we can sort out crash helmets and insurance, we could even get you out on one of my K's...

From me it is a pleasant 6 hour drive up through the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia to the Dublin ferry at Holyhead (or less pleasant, but sometimes faster motorway trudge) or just under 4 hours (mostly motorway) across the bottom of Wales to Fishguard to get the ferry to Rosslare. Personally, I prefer the scenic route to Holyhead.

As Dia says, the roads can be busy round these parts, but not impossible providing you don't hit a city in "rush" hour. They are considerably quieter in Ireland (except Dublin at rush hour...which is timed to coincide with the afternoon ferry arrivals), and up through the middle of Wales.  The trick is not to plan to do too much in a day - else you will cover hundreds of miles but see very little for your efforts.

BAE has done it a few times, the route up through Wales to Holyhead is good and worth it.

For all ferries and fast ferries you have two websites, same ports at Holyhead/Dublin and Rosslare. Irish Ferries use Pembroke and Stenaline use Fishguard for their Rosslare routes. Times differ though so maybe one will suit more than the other. Both are fine to travel with.

www.stenaline.com
www.irishferries.com

Getting from Dublin to Cork....well if you can time it to arrive in Dublin port to avoid the peak toll [16:00 to 19:00hrs €10, other times €3] on the port tunnel its the best way to Cork. Take M1 north from the port, through tunnel at other end M50 south [€3 electronic toll, pay on line day after], then on to M7 [€1.90 barrier toll] and turn off for M8 [€1.90 barrier toll]. Motorway all the way to Cork and bypass Cork city, unless waylaid by some Eccentrics and a load of old Blarney. About 3 hours drive time. Blarney is close to Cork.

Option B is to go to Rosslare and take N25 across to Cork. Only one toll at Waterford by pass [€1.90] and also about 3 hours. Ferry slightly cheaper but less variety. A good afternoon 14.30/14.45 ferry arrives Rosslare about 18.30/18.45 and route N25 all the way to Cork.

Wales, Conwy [if Ruth likes gardens visit Bodnant Garden there] Betys y Coed, Bethesda, Bleneau Festiniog are lovely, unmissable in my book.

Now for riding a K and insurance. When Tackler was over in the summer his insurance was sorted out via a website that you can use. But the condition was it covered you anywhere in EU except in the country the vehicle is registered in. Now we happen to be aware BAE just robbed bought a K100LT with Irish plates last weekend from Sgmayhew........and took it to UK so this could potentially be insured provided it is still on the Irish plates.....other than that we saw no possibilities for a non-EU licence holder. Options of adding a named driver, taking out a separate policy etc all drew a blank but maybe it is a bit different if done from UK. 88KE has the info!. Indian036 warmed up my pillion seat for you if that's any good.

Looks like a possible Eccentrics meet up around Saturday 7th November if you are on for that. Let us know your thoughts on where you plan to be/stay/whatever and we will see about working that out.

Sunday 8th at Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin, a lovely venue if you like classical/choral and Arvo Part... https://www.nch.ie/Online/Arvo-Part-at-80-08Nov15

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:
Now we happen to be aware BAE just robbed bought a K100LT with Irish plates last weekend from Sgmayhew........and took it to UK so this could potentially be insured provided it is still on the Irish plates.....

If I could keep her on Irish plates I would, but then I couldn't ride her over here on the mainland. That would make life too easy and we would all be driving/riding European imports and avoiding VAT, MoT/state inspections and road tax....

As soon as I can, she'll be on UK plates and on the road again.