Rosslare - Gorey

Another nice gentle trip today, keeping things in the county of Wexford. Went from Rosslare to Wexford town to Gorey.

Today's journey

Went to 6 pm Mass at St Brigid's in Rosslare last night. Took me about 15 mins to get there, but the time suited better, so I could have my dinner as well. Wasn't as packed as Westport last week, but still a sizeable crowd. Lucky I got there early to get a decent parking spot.

St Brigid's in Rosslare

St Brigid's in Rosslare

Had a bit of an interrupted night's sleep last night. As I mentioned the hotel was not in its prime and it had big heavy fire doors in the corridor that banged every time someone went through them, so about 12.30pm I think the music show was over downstairs and it went bang... bang... bang...
Just got sorted from that then a couple decided to have a very loud conversation in the corridor at 1.30am. There are some things about travel that I  won't miss!!!!

Moving on to today...

Very misty when I had breakfast and I could barely see the port where all shipping action was happening last night. Very light rain falling too and that persisted for the first part of my journey.

First port of call was Wexford city. I don't think I've ever been there before, and Sunday morning is not always the most scintillating time in any Irish city.

Here's the usual wikipedia info...

Wexford (Irish: Loch Garman; Yola: Weiseforth)^[2] is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 National Primary Route; and to Rosslare Europort, Cork and Waterford by the N25. The national rail network connects it to Dublin and Rosslare Europort. It had a population of 20,188 according to the 2016 census.^[1]

 Interesting times in Wexford...

^{County Wexford was the centre of the 1798 rebellion against British rule. Wexford town was held by the rebels throughout the Wexford Rebellion and was the scene of a notorious massacre of local loyalists by the United Irishmen, who executed them with pikes on Wexford bridge.}

 

Wexford Town from the pier

 

Ships in the harbour

Ships in the harbour

 The railway runs alongside the pier and the main street

Railway alongside main street

Memorial to lost mariners

Wexford town looking back from the pier

Wexford Port

It was a bit quiet in Wexford at 11am on a Sunday morning, but the town was just starting to warm up when it was time for me to move on.

My final target for the day was Gorey, as it is the home of Paddy Cooke - brother of my friend Bernadette. I took the coast road again, but  my little GMaps didn't like that at all and kept trying the "re-routing" trick. I had to stop and reset it, so it could take me safely to my hotel.

Paddy came and picked me up from the Ashdown Park hotel and took me to coffee shop called Insomnia for lunch.

Paddy and Moira

Then he took me for a drive down to Courtown which is the closest beach to Gorey.

For once, it wasn't me taking all the pics. Paddy  was the happy little snapper and forwarded them to me afterwards.
Sad, but true, I'm in most of them!!!!

Courtown obviously has a nautical theme and they have boats for the kids to climb on - all on the land..

Courtown Beach

Courtown Beach

Courtown Beach

Courtown Beach

The Irish have an interesting sense of humour...

Then Paddy took me to the seal rescue centre, which is apparently the only one in Ireland. Seals are brought here from all over Ireland to recuperate, and when they are better, they are transported back to where they came from to be re-inserted into the ocean.

Spot the seal!

Another sad but true moment - it's father's Day in Ireland today.... no wonder this hotel was so expensive tonight! There's a performer on tonight called Jimmy Buckley (don't think it's the same guy that played for Carlton in the 70s or 80s????). The tariff for staying here tomorrow night was half of what it is tonight.... Aaaaahhh well... there's only a few days left and it is a nice hotel!

So that's been the day so far.... tonight we are going out to Katie' Daley's pub, or another similar one, provided everything is not booked out!

It's been a lovely day so far... the sun is out again and it's actually a bit steamy today.

Making the most of every moment!