My first intercity train ride was actually on Britrail in Britain. My friends and I got rail passes when visiting in my college years. I loved it! Not sure which trip came first, but we went London to Cambridge, London to Bath, London to Edinburgh, and probably a few more on that first UK trip. At the end of the trip, we also visited Ireland, taking the train to Holyhead, Wales, then a ferry, then a train from Dun Laighore (sp?) into Dublin, where after a few days we rented a car
Dun Laoghaire (pronounced "Dun Leary"), called Kingstown by the English.
How long ago was this? There used to be two stations there, Mallin Station (current, and the original terminal of the Dublin & Kingstown, built to 4' 8½" gauge instead of today's 5' 3" gauge), and two platforms at a separate station right on Carlisle Pier, which were closed in 1980 (the excuse was the DART electrifictaion and that the DART cars couldn't round the curve, but I don't regard that as valid, and besides, Dublin suburban trains never served Carlisle Pier!); I got to ride on the express trains to Carlisle Pier before they closed (permanently "bustituted" afterwards). The Holyhead ferry doesn't leave from Carlisle Pier anymore; the Irish government let it go to hell, and built a new ferry terminal at St. Michael's Pier instead.
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