FRIDAY, JULY 26
MY OOPS
I remember hearing Chloe ask why we didn’t have to arrive at the ferry to Belfast an hour before departure. “We had to in Greece,” she said. Stena Lines sent me a few reminders but they sat in my inbox unread. When our Uber pulled up at the ferry dock in Birkenhead, just outside of Liverpool something wasn’t right. No one was there. No cars, no people.
And thus occurred my first major travel planning error, after 15 countries and countless buses and trains, flights and ferries. Arriving twenty minutes before the ferry set sail just wasn’t enough time. In fact, checkin closed an hour before sailing time. Big oops.
Now what?
Plopped on the bright orange plastic benches in the Stena Line lobby, we scoured the internet for Airbnbs or hotels near the ferry or back in Liverpool. We even considered taking a flight…but that was discarded quickly when we learned it would cost 300 pounds each.
CASTLE ON THE BEACH
And then…we found a castle, a castle hotel, just 15 minutes away from the ferry and on the ocean. Leasowe Castle Hotel. It cost the same as the Travelodge, less than the Premier Inn. Brilliant. I’ve never slept in a castle before. We were super excited.
And so, a mistake turned into a miracle, a mini vacation, just what we needed. (That may sound a bit weird because to most people what we were doing every day was a vacation, but it was often so intense, our exploring days long and chocked full, our travel days, gruelling. The pace was relentless. We would have it no other way…the more to learn from.
Really we are travellers more than tourists or vacationers.)
Leasowe was isolated from the rest of civilization by castle walls, surrounded by tall grasses, wooded areas, lawns (a hole golf course to one side of it), wide, long, fine sandy beaches, and the broad, open expanse of the ocean. It was completely charming.
Not able to check in until 2, we rented bikes and cycled a flat, easy, 30 minutes ride along the beach to New Brighton. The temperature was cool, the sky overcast. Perfect. Did I say that before? We were smiley.
NEW BRIGHTON NOT BELFAST
In New Brighton, we ate lunch on the water, wandered through the tiny town, with its seaside amusement park, barricades on the beach, views back to Liverpool and families picnicking and hanging out on the sand. Children played in the water and dug holes. Chloe collected a couple of shells.
By the time we returned to “our” castle, a wedding party was in full swing around picnic tables in the side garden. We had dinner in our room, like we were on proper holiday, and felt refreshed and pleased that chance had brought us here.
