Not somewhere you would come twice

With thanks to Silversea for this cruise

The Breakwater here at Holyhead is, at 2.4km, the longest in Europe and was built between 1846 and 1873. There, I've saved you having to come here now. There really isn't much else to say about this quiet and ordinary little town, with its empty streets lined by terraces of rendered houses, its High Street full of charity shops, a Spa and the Post Office, and the usual variety of pubs. 

There's a new bridge, an ancient stone church and a Roman fort; and being a port (you catch the ferry here to Dublin) it has some maritime history that was apparently really well presented in the museum that I didn't get to - as well as the South Stack lighthouse out on the point that I would like to have visited but didn't have the time, or the energy (still sick).

I think the main reason we're here is because it's a gateway to things like the Snowdon railway (a train up to the top of a mountain) and Caernarfon with its castle, and people set off early today on those excursions - but we've been there, done that already. So it was a muted kind of day, grey and showery despite its still being officially summer, and a short one - we departed at 3pm, heading back south and east towards London again, a whole day and a half's sail away.

Phamie the harpist performed again, pre-dinner, which was a treat; and tonight we were lucky with the open-seating gamble in the restaurant. Ponderous George was the weak link, with his OWM misogynistic comments, but there were also two doctors from Melbourne and John and Jean from South Carolina, and the conversation was lively and wide-ranging. It was also at one point satisfyingly gossipy, about the one couple on board who are simply not the right sort: our ill-fated Trivial Pursuit team-members, no less, who the doctors reckon are alcohol brain-damaged, and who aren't doing themselves any favours on a cruise where everything is inclusive and the wine glass never gets empty.