Farewell Blighty,Hello Ireland

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We needed to be on the ball this morning as we have a long day ahead of us as we complete our stay in England and head for Ireland.

Last night we planned our trip to get us to Heathrow in plenty of time to catch our British Airways flight to Dublin and we decided to be at the station to catch the 9.59am train to St Pancreas where we would walk through to Kings Cross underground and make a connection on the Piccadilly line to Heathrow Terminal 1, 2, 3. This was going to be the cheapest way of getting to Heathrow and in fact would only mean the one train change which was better than taking the more expensive Heathrow Express which would have required us to make another change to get to Piccadilly station.

We had breakfast early so we knew what food we had left to throw out or take with us like the muesli which should last us through the 9 days in Ireland.

We left the cups in the cupboard and the toaster (sadly) also in the cupboard as we couldn’t warrant the extra space it would have taken up in the suitcase which was really the only way we could have transported it. Not having it of course will mean we won’t be tempted to accidently set any fire alarms off by burning the toast at breakfast.

So by the time we were ready to make our way down to the station we were down to two suitcases and two back packs as we needed to be.

We had hoped that the train at this time of the morning might be less full with the workers rush hour having passed. Wrong thinking!

Even though the train was of 8 carriages instead of the 4 we had been catching it was still full of people and those standing in the carriage we chose were all grouped around the door making it difficult to get the suitcases on through the bodies and then make enough room to stand with a back pack on without knocking anyone out.

A couple of stations down the line and we were able to get seats as people got off making the rest of the train journey easier to manage our luggage. The transfer at St Pancreas via the underground passageways to Kings Cross underground was easy as the crowds here had diminished now that it was after 10.30am.

Heathrow is extremely well served with a subway train every 10 minutes and one turned up a minute after we made the platform and there were plenty of seats and space to stand the suitcases without having to hold onto them in front of the seat.

The journey of an hour and a quarter passed very quickly and we were soon pulling into Heathrow subway station where it was easy to get ourselves to the check in desks for BA.

We knew that my suitcase would be at or close to the 25kg allowed for BA flights but it was over by 1.5kg when I slung it onto the scales. However, the very pleasant young woman doing the check in smiled and said she would let us away without any additional cost.

We had arrived in plenty of time and so we were able to amble our way down to the departure lounge once the gate the plane was leaving from was announced.

The Airbus looked like it was a full flight and everyone was settling in waiting for the doors to close and the taxi begin when the captain came on air to say that two passengers hadn’t turned up at the gate to board the plane and that their luggage would have to be removed from the hold before the plane could leave.

Quarter of an hour later we were trundling our way across what seemed like kilometres of taxi way to get to the takeoff runway.

The hour long flight itself took over half of the journey to smooth out with the pilots trying several different altitudes to get the plane flying steady. Thankfully by the time our turn to get something from the drinks and snacks trolley we had reached smoother air!

Passing through immigration into Ireland would have been quicker for us had we not chosen a line where others in front of us were being asked questions as to what they would be doing while they were in Ireland. By the time we got to the baggage hall our suitcases were just appearing to be picked off the line.

The rental car paperwork was done at the airport but we needed to be transported off site to pick up the car nearby.

This time we have a black VW and were surprised at the size of the boot where we were able to place our two suitcases with ease.

Our destination for the night was Athlone about an hour and half directly west across the country from Dublin. As we have travelled further west in the time zone the sun is going to go down later by about an hour which meant we were able to make the hotel just as it was getting dark just prior to 7pm.

We had some difficulty with the low sun in the western sky as we were driving directly towards it and it wasn’t made any easier by the wet road as well.

Serena, the GPS, works well although she does sound very funny trying to pronounce the Gaelic words for the roads or highways we were to take!

As we drove through the town to the hotel we thought we had seen a number of pubs for us to walk back to for dinner after we had checked in and so before we had unpacked our needs for the night we set off back to the town about half a kilometre away.

One thing though we were soon to learn about Irish pubs is that bars don’t serve meals and although there were plenty of pubs none served meals and when we finally found one that did they had stopped cooking at 6pm ! What hotel says it serves food all day but then stops at 6pm just when people would be looking for a feed!

So it was back to the hotel where we should have stayed in the first place, although we did need a walk after a lot of sitting down during the day, and ordered up mixed grills for both of us and a pint of Guinness each, our first for this trip to Ireland. It was a tasty meal and we enjoyed relaxing with our Guinness’s after what had been a rather long day that had begun at 6am when we were up to shower and get ready to leave London to now nearly 9pm and finishing the day in Athlone, Ireland.

Our room is very spacious and the bed feels soft so let’s hope the pillows measure up and we should get a good night’s sleep ready for more exploring as we head south west.

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