Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Voyage of the Glaciers (2015)
From Clink to Club
I got up at 0650, ten minutes before my alarm was
due to go off. Breakfast was in The Morrison’s Halo
restaurant, a stylish facility that was only used for this purpose.
Seated by a huge metallic sculpture in the bi-level space, I was
able to choose from the well presented buffet and/or request
cooked-to-order dishes from the menu. Using the latter technique, I
made Eggs Benedict the centrepiece of my first meal of the day, and
the whole experience helped to reinforce my view that my memories of
this particular hotel would be filed away in the ‘Class Acts’
folder.
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| ABOVE: Suir Road Luas stop |
I was ready to get going by nine and began by walking a couple of blocks north to the Red Route of the Luas tram system, which I’d never before had an opportunity to sample. A westbound, seven-stop ride brought me swiftly and efficiently to Suir Road. My objective, Kilmainham Gaol, was around half a mile away on foot. Visits to Kilmainham, one of the largest unoccupied prisons in Europe, were by guided tour only. Luckily, given the limited time available to me, I was able to join the 10 o’clock group.
We had a very interesting tour with commentary on the social, penal, and especially political history of Ireland. The guide used a particularly striking and memorable phrase during his introduction: This building was the labour ward for the modern state of Ireland. The tour included vivid descriptions of various heroic and tragic events in the 19th and early 20th centuries, leading up to the country’s emergence as the European nation that we know today.
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| Return to Suir Road |
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| Cult lunchtime viewing |
On conclusion of the tour, I returned to base by the same route, stopping on the way to buy a pack of sandwiches to have in my hotel room as a light lunch. After getting my luggage organised for my continuing journey, I settled down to eat in front of the popular antiques show Bargain Hunt on BBC1 Northern Ireland - it was just like being at home! l then checked out at 1pm (as arranged the previous day), walked to Westmoreland Street and caught the Aircoach back to the airport – this time with the familiar old face of Terminal 1.
Knowing from personal experience how touchy Dublin Airport staff had been about umbrellas in the past, I asked while preparing my plastic trays for the x-ray machine whether these still needed to be presented separately. The agent’s reply was interesting: “Oh no, we don’t do that load of old rubbish any more, thank God!” It sounded as though somebody had eventually realised how out of step this former requirement had been with just about every other airport in the civilised world. After spending some time relaxing in the DAA Executive Lounge, I flew the first sector of my relatively complex American Airlines / British Airways ticket that was taking care of the lion’s share of the air travel requirements of the trip.
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| ABOVE: Dublin Airport lounge and flying Club Europe to London City | |||||
| RIGHT: Cross-London journey on the Docklands Light Railway, Jubilee Line and Piccadilly Line, to my overnight accommodation |
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In due course, I settled into the Hilton Garden Inn at Hatton Cross for a relatively quiet evening, in preparation for a long day of flying on Friday.