Saturday 14th – Sunday 15th 2020



We caught the train for a long awaited trip to Holyhead for a visit to Meurig and Heulwen in Four Mile Bridge. I had sailed with Meurig for a number of years and we normally meet a few times a year but hadn’t seen them since we had moved onto the boat. The times spent sailing with Meurig were amongst my happiest at sea. We ‘kept the lights burning’ as they say and boy, did we have fun doing it. Along with a lot of illegal drink on dry ships!







The train journey to Holyhead was one we had always wanted to do. Once out of Chester, the line runs right alongside the coast, initially with views across to the Wirral and presently Anglesey comes into view. The crossing over the Menai Straits on George Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge, guarded by four massive stone lions and built in 1850, is particularly impressive. The bridge is built from two long, iron tubes that supported the track but in 1970 a group of teenagers looking for bats inside the dark tubes, caused a fire that almost destroyed it. As assessments were being made as to how to repair the bridge it was proposed that it be rebuilt as a two level bridge, carrying both trains and road traffic which is the bridge we see today.

Once over the bridge, the first village encountered is the famous Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, said to have longest place name in the UK. Translated as ‘St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.’

It was really good seeing Meurig and Heulwen again and we spent the night in the pubs in Trearddur Bay and in their local, next door but one to their house, with their lovely set of friends with whom we always feel part of.

After breakfast and a quick tour around Holyhead, we boarded the train for the return journey. A short and sweet visit.


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