It was a lovely bright day as we pulled out of the drive on time at 8.15am for the drive to Stansted. For the first time there had been none of the daily moans and groans as Karen got herself out of bed. Whether it was excitement or adrenaline or just she didn’t want Kevin to hear her pain – I’m not sure. She also got herself ready in a much quicker timeframe than has been the case over the past weeks.
Traffic was light and we pulled into the Novotel Car Park that I had booked through Just Park at 9.45pm. I had to make a dash to the toilet whilst Karen dealt with Reception to get the parking permit. The only problem was that the car park was completely full. I ended following the example of many others who had encountered the same problem by parking on the entrance pathway.
The shuttle bus turned up 5 minutes later on time and we were soon in the terminal building. The large queue through security was well managed and pleasingly Stansted now have the new scanners which means liquids and electricals can be left in your bags which speeds up the whole process enormously.
We wandered through the Escape Lounge all without Karen needing or requesting a stop which was impressive. As usual we had to go on a wait list to gain entrance but 15 minutes later, we were in early enough to catch the end of the breakfast service. Karen & I washed this down with the Fizzy Rose which is still on tap. I think we should install one of these next to the Hot Tub at home. It’s probably not the greatest of quality but it is very refreshing and drinkable.
They switched over to the lunch menu after a short while and Kevin managed to avail himself of a Pie for lunch as well. I told Karen to put one in her pocket for later, but she gave me a look of distain. I bet Bob Mortimer would have done this if he had been there.
The flight was on time and the only time Karen complained was whilst we were held standing on the ‘bridge’ for 10 minutes after going through the gate and to be fair I was also not happy at having to stand still for such a while.
The flight was uneventful even though we had chosen to play the Ryanair game of random seat allocation. We were all relatively close to each other though. 58 minutes later we were in Dublin – to be sure.
It was as ever a long walk to the exit. The Dublin Express bus service was just outside the door, and very efficiently we were soon on our way to the City Centre. Our stop was at Eden Quay which meant a short walk along the Liffey and then a right turn up O’Connell Street to the new looking Holiday Inn Express.
After a short rest in our room, we set out for a walk down to the Ha’Penny Bridge and over to Temple Bar. As we did so an unpredicted shower came out of nowhere and suddenly Dublin didn’t look so nice or seem so inviting for a while.
We headed back along O’Connell Street and along Parnall Street to the Parnell Pub which I had chosen because of its positive feedback. here we grabbed a table and ordered drinks and some food. They provided extremely large portions. Karen had a mound of meat served as her Sunday Roast and then they brought her extra Roast Potatoes. The pub had a really lovely, relaxed atmosphere and the service was very good.
The Masters Golf from Augusta was being shown on the TV although we were being treated to loud fiddly dee music rather than the commentary. We stayed to watch Rory play the first hole and it wasn’t a great start for him.
Back in our perfectly formed room we listened to more of the golf and then I watched it on the laptop. By 11pm though tiredness took over and I switched it off just as there became a 3-way tie for the lead.
And so that concluded our first day in Ireland for a few years. Karen had coped well with the walking, and I was extremely proud of her. It made all her efforts to get here worthwhile. The only disappointment from Dublin so far is that we still haven’t bumped into Bono on the streets nor any member of Bewitched and we have been here for over 6 hours already. Where are they hiding? Roy Keane does seem to be on every advert on the TV though.
