England and Ireland Rail Tour Itinerary 2009

England and Ireland Rail Tour Itinerary 2009

Day 1 Thursday 14th May
We disembark the “QM2”passengers at Southampton around 7am, then tour by double decker bus to Lord Montague’s residence “Beaulieu” in the New Forest where we spend 3 hours exploring its Abbey, Palace, and car museum.
At we catch the 2:45pm train for our journey to our London Hotel.
At the hotel Fay and I and nn other passengers from the QM2 are joined by nn passengers who arrived by Flight NZ39 to commence our EIRT 2009 tour.
We stay at: London Tower Bridge Travel Lodge Lloyds Court Business Centre
1 Goodman Yard London E1 SAT Tel: (44)2077 020138.

Day 2 Friday 15th May.
Fay and I will buy an Oyster card which will let us hop on and off buses, trains and river boats all day to see the sights of London Town.

Day 3 Saturday 16th May.
More of the same.

Day 4 Sunday 17th May.
More of the same.

Day 5 Monday 18th May.
We now have our BritRail England pass and our tour leader has suggested we use the pass and travel to Looe, a small Cornish fishing village on the mouth of the River Looe.

Day 6 Tuesday 19th May.
At 10am we catch the train to Norwich arriving there at 11:52am. Various activities are suggested. We stay at the: Lansdowne Hotel 116 Thorpe Rd., Norwich. NR1 !RU Tel: (44) 1603 620 302

Day 7 Wednesday 20th May.
Suggested train trip to Cambridge for a hop on hop off bus tour around the University of Cambridge.

Day 8 Thursday 21st May.
We leave Norwich at 8:57am by train for Peterborough change trains and head for Newcastle-on-Tyne arriving at 12:57. The main group will go to the hotel and then do “their own thing”while Fay and I stay on the rain until Edinburgh to visit Fay’s niece. We will head back to Newcastle in the evening. Thistle Hotel Newcastle, Neville St., New-Castle-on-Tyne NE1 5DF Tel: (44) 871 376 9029

Day 9 Friday 22nd May (the start of our fifth week)
We have the opportunity to travel by either steam train (part of the way) or diesel (I assume) to Whitby on the east coast. We are scheduled to arrive back at our hotel at about 7pm.

Day 10 Saturday 23rd May.
We depart Newcastle at 9:24am and head for Liverpool via Carlilse arriving at Liverpool around 4:57pm. The Adelphi Hotel Ranelagh Place Liverpool L3 5UL Tel: (44) 871 222 0029

Day 11 Sunday 24th May.
We are sightseeing in and around Liverpool.

Day 12 Monday 25th May.
We depart Liverpool Central by train at 10:15am bound for Chester and then Holyhead where we board a conventional ferry at 1:50pm to take us to Dublin ferry port arriving at 5:05pm.
Our Hotel is: Ashling Hotel Parkgate St., Dublin 8 Tel: (353) 1 677 2323.

Day 13 Tuesday 26th May.
Unplanned local sightseeing.

Day 14 Wednesday 27th May.
Free morning in Dublin.
At 12noon we transfer by tram to Connolly Station to catch the 1:05pm train to Wexford arriving at 3:37pm.We stay at: Whites of Wexford Hotel, Abbey St., Wexford Tel: (353) 91 22311.

Day 15 Thursday 28th May.
We catch the 6:48 train and head in the direction of Killarney. We change trains at Waterford, Limerick, cork, Cobh and Mallow before arriving at Killarney at 6:29pm; taking 11 hours and 41 minutes. We have two hours of local sightseeing in Cobh. We stay at: The Fairview, College St., Killarney, Co Kerry. Tel: (353) 643 4164.

Day 16 Friday 29th May. (Fay and I commence our 6th week.)
We have an all day road coach trip around the “Ring of Kerry” reputedly the top scenic tour in south west Ireland.

Day 17 Saturday 30th May.
Depart Killarney on road Coach for a full day of scenic touring up Ireland’s west coast to Galway arriving at 4:30pm. We then cross the river Shannon on the Tarbert Ferry to County Clare. We see ythe Cliffs of Moher as we take the scenic Black head coastal route and cross the lunar landscape like Burren. We have time to explore Galway on foot before we get to the railway station where we catch the 6:05 for Dublin Heuston arriving at 8:45pm. We stay at: Ashling Hotel, Parkgate St., Dublin 8. Tel: (353) 1 677 2323.

Day 18 Sunday 31stMay.
Today we leave Ireland. We depart Dublin Ferryport at 8:20am on a conventional ferry and arrive at Hollyhead at 11:35am. Then at 12:47 an express train takes us to London.
We stay at: Britannia International Hotel, 163 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SJ Tel:(44) 20 7712 0100

Day 18 Monday 1st June
The England and Ireland Rail Tour ends this morning. Our Grand European Rail Tour Begins this afternoon.
You can follow our travels at: http://grandeuropeanrailtour2009.blogspot.com/