Day 1- Rosslare to Waterford - projected distance 44 miles.

I'll start with yesterday afternoon, when we left Bristol and I thought of all our near neighbours, savouring the moment when I paid the toll on the England-Wales border with a Scottish five-pound note on the way to Ireland.

Fresh from our sumptuously spacious room at the Fishguard Bay Hotel, we set off for Ireland on a lovely bright morning. The was the first trip on a car ferry for the children - all part of the grand adventure we hope this will become. It took some explaining to Flora and George that southern Ireland was a separate country with a different currency but the same language. We had a quick history lesson and learned that Eire became independent in 1922.

After a quick change on the ferry I set off from Rosslare on my bike, along the main N25 road - a wide, cycle-friendly highway. I soon started to pass lots of stalls selling local fruit - strawberries, raspberries and blackberries - as well as potatoes (of course). I stopped briefly at a statue commemorating the battle between the United Irish Insurgent forces and the Wexford garrison in 1798.

Along the undulating N25, I enjoyed an easy ride through the sparsely populated landscape. A few farmers were working in the fields, but there weren't too many people around. At New Ross I saw the Dunbrody famine ship and - just along the quay - a small memorial to President John F Kennedy, whose ancestral home is nearby. He visited New Ross on 27th June 1963, not long before he was assassinated.

It didn't take too long to loop over the bridge and into Waterford, still famous for its glassware even though Waterford Wedgewood went out of business in 2009. There is still a glassworks in the town for tourists to visit. Most of the Waterford populace seemed to be in the pub, watching the hurling semi-final between Waterford and Tipperary. Unfortunately, Waterford lost.

Shortly after checking in at the hotel, Sarah and the children arrived, fresh from a trip to Tintern Abbey and the Hook peninsula lighthouse and another ferry trip across the harbour and into town. Time for dinner at an unexpectedly good Italian restaurant, refuelling for a longer ride tomorrow.