Day 33 – London – Dublin

I was up early this morning as I needed to be ready to go to the airport. Stewart and Jeanette took me to Gatwick airport and showed me the right way to get in as there is a lot of work being done to the terminal buildings in preparation to next year’s London Olympics.

I had a couple of hours before the flight so I cleared customs and sat down with a drink and a cake to fill in some time. I also did some puzzles from the book I bought in New York.

When it was time to board the plane it was less than half full and I had all three seats to myself for the flight. It was only an hour and the plane was getting ready to land in Dublin. On arrival it was straight through the customs area and I went down to get a taxi. I had decided against getting the Airbus shuttle to the city as it was quite overcast and I thought it would rain and there is a walk from the shuttle stop to the hotel.

On the way to get the taxi I saw that the local bus service had a bus that went to the city with no stops until you were in the city and it was only 10 euro return. It was run number 747. So I bought a ticket off the ticket seller and had to wait about 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. It was a quick trip into the city and I jumped off the bus and straight in to Madigan’s Pub which was one of the hotels that we went to in May when we were in Dublin. Whilst I was there I was able to get a new coaster from the pub.

I then walked the short distance to my hotel for the night The Castle Hotel. This was where we stayed in Dublin in May. I wanted to stay the 4 nights in Dublin at the Harding Hotel where I stayed in 2008 as it is on the same side of the city as the Guinness Brewery and easy to get to everywhere else in the city. Unfortunately the Harding had no vacancies on the Sunday night so I got a bed at The Castle Hotel. I booked in and found that I had a room on the first floor, it had a double bed in it and the bathroom was 6 times the size of the bathroom the four of us shared in May.

I had a quick nap for an hour and then got ready and went to the Woolshed Baa. It was the hotel we spent a bit of time in last trip in May and I was able to get some food and spent some time watching the Carlton semi final of the AFL.

From there I walked towards the River Liffey which is about 6 blocks and wandered into a variety of pubs along the way picking up handfuls of coasters if I saw that they were new ones or different from the last trip. I walked through five pubs before I came to the river and then walked back towards O’Connell Street and into the Arlington Hotel. This was where we had a dinner and saw an Irish show in May. I sat at the bar and got a class of coke.

It was about 8pm and the show does not start till 9pm so I was just sitting there when the manager walked behind the bar. I said hello to him and he recognised me as being from the group of Aussies that were collectors that were in the pub in May. We talked for a while before he had to go off and do some of his duties.

I was still sitting at the bar when the show started. It was a different group of musicians to the ones we saw last trip, it seems that there are different people on some different nights. They were a four piece group, two men and two women called The Voyagers’. They were quite entertaining but I preferred the band we saw in May.

When they had a break from playing there were a group Irish dancers on stage to entertain the crowd. They were also very good. Once they finished I listened to a few more songs from the band and then I left the hotel to head back to my lodgings. As I left the pub it was raining and I hailed a taxi and made my way back to the Castle Hotel. I checked emails and watched some television and then it was light out again.