I've already mentioned we flew from Liverpool the Isle of Man by plane aboard Flybe. Getting to the Isle of Man was really the easier bit, it was departing it which was the problem. Not necessarily for lack of choice, although that was part of it, but because of price. In order to make our whole UK plans work, if they were to include the Isle of Man, we needed to go from the Isle of Man to St Andrews in Scotland in one day. St Andrews is where my cousing Ellen and her husband Matt live, and we were going to stay with them for the night before heading onwards to the Isle of Skye. St Andrews is an important university town, but not a transport hub - so we would need to get to Edinburgh and pick up a rental car which we would need for Skye anyway. So that seems easy - get from Douglas to Edinburgh.
Not so easy though, unless you were willing for fork out a lot of money. Put simply - all the Manx ferries to England (Liverpool or Heysham) were still very pricey to travel on following the TT event on the Isle. The trains we would need to get from Liverpool to Heysham onwards to Edinburgh were also pricey - ferry + train costs more than some flying options. Direct flights from Isle of Man to Edinburgh were very pricey, indirect less so but still a lot. Ferry + bus was not an option - the buses would be far too slow. We found a way out of the hole though, but it was, as I previously said, unconventional.
There was a cheap ferry the day we needed to leave, but it didn't go to England. It went to Dublin, in Ireland - it was on special, it was a fast ferry so would take only 3 hours, and there were cheap flights from Dublin to Edinburgh. The ferry left quite early in the morning, but the cheapest flight from Dublin to Edinburgh by a long shot was a middle-of-the-day Ryanair flight. There was enough time with a margin of error to catch the ferry and also catch the plane if the ferry was on time, and if we caught a taxi to Dublin Airport from the ferry terminal. It was a little bit risky - but the total cost including estimated taxi fare was significantly cheaper than any other option.
So this is how we came to be boarding a ferry at 6.30am in Douglas on a gloomy overcast day.
As foot passengers, it transpires we were some of the first people on board the ferry and we chose a seat near the back in order to hopefully make a quick exit from the ferry once we arrived in Dublin. It also happened to be near the cafe, so we got a hot chocolate to go with our breakfast supplies. It also happened to be near the only outdoor part of the ferry, and I'd wanted to get departure photos of the Isle from there but they closed it off on depature for the safety briefing! Our proximity to the cafe had us people-watching a bit, and the staff had to deal with a few interesting customers. One was a tall lady, in a pale pink matronly dress who wanted her tea "weak, very weak" and insisted on seeing how weak it was and how much milk had been poured into the cup before the lid went on. She also wanted to know the price of virtually everything else they had for sale, and what was its cost in Pounds and in Euros - but didn't buy anything else. She also insisted paying in cash rather than card, and did so with a lot of coins.
Once away from Douglas we skirted around the edge of the Isle of Man, and then across the grey ocean on a grey day until a grey looking Dublin appeared. It became apparent that where we were sitting was very close to the disembarcation door for Dublin, which was a stroke of luck - and the ferry was docking 15mins early at 9.45am, even better for our timings. But once we'd docked, they started letting the cars off and there was no movement for foot passengers - and we waited a whole half-an-hour until all the cars had been let off before they let the foot passengers off. We were getting a little bit anxious, but we weren't the only ones - most people were wondering what was going on, except for the lady in the pale pink dress who just kept repeating "Home sweet home, Home sweet home". There was a guy with a big rucksack next to us looking a little agitated, who spoke with an American accent and sort of exclaimed aloud "When will we get off? I need to go to the airport". Sasha picked up on this, and started talking to him, asking how he was planning on getting to the airport - by taxi was the answer, just like us. We decided we'd all try and share a taxi to the airport together to try and save costs. Eventually, about 10.15 we were let off, Sasha, myself and the American ran off the ship into the terminal where we were greeted by an immigration official - so much for "Common Travel Area" (CTA), the borderless borders between the UK and Ireland! She asked us how long we were in Ireland for - "Just in Transit" was our answer. She gave us the big green stamp in our passports (which was welcome, as both Sasha's and my previous Irish stamps had been over-stamped!). Very shortly, the three of us bundled into the Taxi and we set off for the half-an-hour ride to the airport.
About 5 minutes later, as we're finishing up our drinks getting ready to head to our gate for boarding to start at 11.45am, we spot a figure lining up at the bar - our taxi companion. We had no time to go and talk to him to see what had happened, but it was clear that we did have an answer to our question after all - he'd missed the flight!
We slept on the sofa bed in the lounge which was very comfortable, and in the morning we headed off on our trek further northward to Skye. Matt and Aunty Cheryl were also departing, heading instead to the airport to fly to Paris - Ellen would meet them there, with her having travelled by Eurostar from London. While again it was a pity to miss out on seeing Ellen, it was wonderful to see Matt and Aunty Cheryl and we had a great time staying with them. We'd had a very long day getting to St Andrews - Douglas, Isle of Man to Dublin, Ireland and then to Edinburgh, Scotland before going to St Andrews, Scotland. 3 different countries, multiple means of transportation and a bit of a risk whether it would all play out according to plan - but for us, it did!