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Hi and thanks for dropping by!
If you enjoy taking interesting (and affordable) trips by bus, coach, ferry, train, plane and, well whatever really(!), then please, read on!
I've been filming my travels since the middle of 2019 and I can tell you it's been anything but boring! From disastrous overnight coach journeys, to enchanting sleeper trains, beautiful ferry trips and scenic domestic and international flights. Plus all sorts of other random stuff I do in-between. If it moves from A to B, I’ll be on it! Most of the time it’s great, sometimes it’s terrible! Either way, I’ll give you my unbiased opinion in an honest and entertaining way.
Any subscriptions or support via the links below really helps me out. You can also interact with me that way too. Thanks very much for watching and cheers for now!
Mark
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Hi Mark great video a few trains & ex National Express Levante’s Holyhead is abit of a dump when I drive up to catch the boat i always stop at Lymm truck stop on M6 & eat then i don’t have to eat in Holyhead while i wait for the boat
Cheers Paul. That is a great tip mate. Of course there’s bound to be a next time with me so I’ll bear it in mind. Thing is, I could take a late ferry but then that’s a night in Dublin and have you seen the hotel prices in Dublin!!!
Thank you for an excellent video! !Yes id love a review of Pont Aven and a cruise p&o is good one!
This was a great idea for a video. Thoroughly enjoyed as always.
Cheers Tim, glad you enjoyed it mate 😊
Nice explainer mate 👍 That's one part of the country I've never been, Holyhead, Anglesey and the ferry to Ireland. And even Shrewsbury, I've only been once - to the wedding of a uni friend in about 2004! Looks like a nice town, really must make the effort to go back!
You know you can just give me a shout about Shrewsbury whenever you’re free. Will be happy to reciprocate your hospitality mate 😊
OK, so there was McDs. Chinese takeaways, Kebab shops, "fast food takeaways" and a Premier Inn with it's own restaurant that was only ten minutes away. I, therefore, do not understand why you say there was no where to eat. Worst case scenario, pizza in your room. Nothing wrong with that. Surely with all the "planning" that goes into your trips you would have known what would be available. 😁
OK mate, seeing as you asked I might as well try and have a go at explaining it in more detail for you. When I mean nowhere to eat, I’m talking about eating out somewhere, i.e. at the place, not ‘take away’ or fast food particularly. And you’re basically giving me your opinion that there’s ‘nothing wrong with eating pizza in your room’ - it’s not a fact either way. You don’t even know whether I like pizza or not - I don’t much FWIW 😂😂 Not sure why you wrote “planning” like that? If you don’t believe any work goes into these trips then that’s entirely up to you, no problem. PS, the premier inn was the plan b (you should always have a plan b). PPS McDonald’s was the plan c (you should always have one of them too if possible).
@@LetsMakeaTrip Wow. It seems you didn't understand that my comment was a tad tongue-in-cheek, hence big grin smiley at the end. Ho hum.
@@MC-emmcee I didn’t MC tbh and I’d just been dealing with one or two trolls on here that had just gone too far and were subsequently blocked. It happens occasionally but I wasn’t in the best of moods. No excuse though and I’m quite happy to apologise. Hope you accept that and continue to enjoy the channel. All the best, Mark.
The ferries of this era are diesel electric and a lot more thrust than the previous ferries. They have a lot of propulsive vectoring ability and the hull shape combined makes positioning and orientation rapid, allowing the ship to do a 180 in under 15 seconds as seen in a video were it performed doughnuts in tribute to the NHS once. The two ships almost always will do a synchronous dance as they perform a sequence of front and port withdraw, then around mid journey a 180, then another crab type manoeuvre towards opposing side. It doesn't always go as smooth as the captain might like as the combination of propulsion response latency and occasional and unpredictable flow Eddie's from passing clipper boats which can cause a sudden change in the current direction. The mag stabilization is a new one and keeps the ship relatively firmed up while docking.
Thanks for this video. Since I plan to visit UK in August, stay in Brighton and go for a 1 day trip to London I was looking for the best (and the cheapest!) way to do it. And now I know which train operator not to choose ;)
Stayed at that Travelodge, no not much in Holyhead but a nice little maritime museum. Also had a great walk to South Stack, quite a trek but well worth it!
07:30 Those trains are old London underground trains that used to run on the District and Circle Lines. A company bought a load of them when LU upgraded the trains and converted them to run on the mainline. I think they went bankrupt recently.
Very interesting video, Mark, nice rail and road trip! Great scenic views from the coast. Happy Pentecost.
Cheers Dirk, glad you enjoyed the scenery. All the best, Mark
My friend works at the McDonald’s down the road!
I am Welsh and live 25 miles from Holyhead. It is not the most attractive of ports.
Why flyback you started very well environmental friendly but why use airplanes when I travel all over Europe I never fly
Two main reasons, it was £17 and I had to go to work the next day.
The coach was new to edwards in 2011 and used on national express routes and looks like been refurb and had new seats put in etc
I’ve done this journey many times in a car. I didn’t appreciate how interesting and beautiful it was. There were some great views of the North Sea coast. Thank you.
We came to Wales over Easter , stayed at hafan y Mor haven, we went exploring and ended up at holyhead, didnt think much of it tbh , but we did go to landfairpg the longest train station name !
Really enjoy your videos Mark, and I love these type of ‘behind the scenes’ videos. Please make more of them in the future. I really like the minimal edited style as it feels more ‘realistic’ and as if I’m there with you on the trip. I always look forward to your vids as they’re informative and always have a unique twist to them compared to other travel reporters. Keep up the great work! Sending my support from Liverpool 😊
Cheers Liam, I very much appreciate the kind words and the super thanks, cheers. It’s people like you that really keep me going. Yesterday, I had to block an absolute moron on this channel who, after persistently getting things wrong, thought they were being funny but just crossed the line. I don’t block many people, most people on here (like yourself) just appreciate the channel for what it is. And like I said, it keeps me going. Cheers mate 😊👍
Shrewsbury definitely deserves a video!
I’m a Home Bargains HGV driver and have delivered to the Abbey Foregate store around the corner from that footbridge you walked over at the start of the video so think I’ve been quite close to your home! 😊
Holyhead looks and sounds like the sort of place you go "to" just to go "through". Typical border crossing town.
From Cambridge we have the train to Harwich I wonder if I can bring my dog on the ferry to Holland
Thank you for the background insight. Enjoyed.
Thank You. .
Mulțumim!
Cheers for the super thanks mate. Much appreciated 😊🫶🇷🇴
Yes, I feel that it's best to support the independent businesses, such as coffee & food, .. shops, over the corpirate ones Mark & Cash appears to be the lesser of other evils, such as track & trace digital cards, phones, apps & microchips, .. & if we stop using cash, then we may lose it forever, along with our sovereign freedoms, privacy & independence, ..
Great video Mark. I do love these nuts and bolts videos. Certainly nothing glamorous about this trip but a means to an end to start your next trip. I love travelling through Shrewsbury on the train though especially down towards Hereford.
i have been in Hoyhead hundreds of times or should I say Through! boat train train boat
Hi from Australia, Born and bred in Middlesbrough but love my life in Brisbane having lived here for 50 odd years. For our 40th wedding anniversary we went to the UK visiting friends and rellys in Scotland and England. For something different we caught a train to Hollyhead and caught a ferry to Dublin for a driving holiday before flying to Singapore for a few days and then back to Brisbane. We too stayed at the Travelodge overnight and loved seeing it again on your channel. Not brilliant but I can't remember what night we stayed but we had HUGE problrms getting dinner. The couple of pubs we went to didn't do meals so we ended at the COOP
Love these informal vids, Mark. More of them. Holyhead? Well I did spend the first night of my honeymoon (1st wife) there in 1976 and all I recall was a pleasant resort hotel somewhere outside the centre. Nowhere to eat? That's worrying for a main feeder port to Ireland. Wonder why. Anglesey? My last UK registered car was from there i.e. SEY 171L :-) Sold it and came to Oz (via Greece). Always had a soft spot for Anglesey. You remind me of me and my days as a Lonely Planet researcher and writer (1994-2007) when I seemed to do a lot of what you do in between your main shoots - or in my case - in between research bursts on location: finding a place to eat and sleep. I relax and smile a lot when I watch your adventures. Don't stop. Paul in Oz.
Travelodge is really a matter of hit or miss. The one in Watford is brilliant and serves food. But n Newport and Gloucester...
Yes I have found that. Stayed in some excellent ones recently.
I haven’t been on it since the new boats were introduced. At one time on the old ones it used to be possible to look down to see the engines through openings which had metal shutters which could be fitted over, presumably for fire purposes, but these openings were later permanently plated over. Until the early years of the 20th century there was another ferry, operated by the railway. The last time I looked, a few years ago the burned out remains of the pier for this ferry could still be seen on the North side, slightly downstream of the free ferry.
Excellent 🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Thanks Derisley 😊⛴️⛴️⛴️
Going to look round Holyhead ... well that's 5minutes of your life wasted
lol, you said that, I couldn’t possibly comment!
This service has unfortunately now been withdrawn. It's a beautiful journey though, I personally did it this year!
Thank you for yet another enjoyable video it is nice to see the realities of traveling and what you have to go through for us subscribers, many thanks and stay safe,cheers from Oz.
Cheers Simon. I quite enjoy it really and I always appreciate the support and comments from you guys. Keeps me going mate, thanks 😊👍
Great video as always!! Plenty of scenery too. Hope all is well, take care
Cheer# Peter. Yep that stretch of the north Wales coast is particularly nice at sunset too. Ireland next 👍
Your microphone is not in sync with your video. Cannot hear you properly on train number 1 sorry.
Odd. Plays ok for me and no one else has commented on it? Thanks for the feedback though, appreciate the mics a bit quiet on the train.
@@LetsMakeaTrip Maybe my tv is at fault!
Hi I still love watching your videos they are brilliant your videos always make me feel so much better keep up the good work from Marie 😁
Hi Marie, that’s lovely to hear thank you 😊👍
Behind the scenes are always interesting. A lot of time and energy goes into creating those videos. Not as easy a job as some might think.
Thanks guys, always appreciate your comments. A few people do think it’s easy and I don’t do any planning but I’m never going to please everyone tbh, that’s YT life 😂😊
The coach is an ex national express caetano levante that has been reseated down to school bus spec. The remove the toilet and the comfortable seats and put slightly smaller seats in a 3 + 2 configuration.
Cheers mate, that’s interesting. Hadn’t seen a 3:2 seating config before.
@LetsMakeaTrip you will also find that in the majority of cases that they leave the under entrance wheelchair lift in and leave the front seats by the door as " magic " seats for a wheelchair. ( easily removed). I hated those under floor lifts as they rattled and banged whilst driving.. also the vehicles will have been maintained to the nth degree but will have covered well over a million miles on nasty express work.
I’ve watched a few of your videos but didn’t realise you lived in Shrewsbury. I used to live in Radbrook Green, but moved to Spain in 2007. Returning to the UK a couple of years later I moved to Telford, where I still live. I go back to Shrewsbury occasionally to see my daughter, who lives in the town centre.
Yes I know Radbrook Green well - nearly moved there myself once. It’s not a bad place to live all-in-all. 😊👍
Thanks to your videos I got National Express today from Gatwick to Cardiff. Was an equally beautiful travel day as yours in this video. Keep up the great work, and know that you inspire many people
Cheers Simon. Well I annoy one or two people too judging by a few of the comments I get 😂 but that’s the KZread life I guess lol. Always appreciate your comments though mate and I’m glad to see you out on he coach 😊👍
Mark, you might get more viewers if you mentioned which trains, buses or ferries that you travel on. ps hope you had a good time in Switzerland with Johnny Hoover
I really enjoyed Switzerland yes. Johnny is a nice guy too, we will do more stuff together hopefully 😊👍
Great video Mark & a good insight into what you get up to on a travelling day to set yourself up. Looking forward to your ferry trip to Ireland :)
Cheers Andy, coming up soon mate 😊👍
As you have discovered, Holyhead really is the end of the line and Sunday is not a good day there. I live 30 mins away on the north of Anglesey and the only reason for visiting Holyhead is to turn up at the dentist there twice a year. I noticed one of the battery driven trains last time I was in Shotten. They sound very strange.
Yes the noise of the train is a bit weird! I like Anglesey, been loads of times but I guess Holyhead is a port town isn’t it and most are just passing through.