Ireland day 1310. Wednesday 30 April 2025- To London

Today’s summary	Took the 102 bus at about 9:30am to the airport, then a BA flight to London, where we are staying overnight. In town by 4pm. Got fish and chips for lunch then did a circular walk from Covent Garden to St Pauls. Salad and beers for dinner. Just a flying visit as we are moving on to our next destination tomorrow.
Today’s weather	Dry sunny and warm in both Dublin and London. Light easterly wind. Appx 22c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): St Pauls circuit from Covent Garden

Commentary

Today we set off our travels, once more. We’re going to be out and about for the next week or two, and today marked the first stage in our latest adventure. It started, as all the best adventures do, on the 102 bus to the airport.

We were lucky enough to arrive at the bus stop just as the 9:30 bus was pulling in, so we boarded with no further ado and were soon at the airport. As usual, we arrived miles too early for our 12:45 flight, so we just waited at the departure gate and enjoyed a coffee as the world went by.

We flew by BA to London today – which makes a change as we normally travel by Ryanair. It’s more comfortable and generally pleasanter, but a lot more expensive and, in our experience over the last few years, a lot less reliable. Anyway, they did their job today and got us to Heathrow a few minutes early. We were in central London about 4pm, travelling via the new Elizabeth Line. It’s magnificent, modern and efficient, and I did wonder why Dublin can’t have something similar. After all, Ireland is a (very) rich country.

We’re just staying in London overnight, before setting out on stage two of our travels tomorrow lunchtime. So we used the afternoon to get some fish and chips to beat the hunger pangs, then walked out to St Paul’s on a circular route via the riverbanks. It’s one of our favourite walks when we are in these parts and tonight, London was absolutely buzzing. The warm weather had brought people out in their thousands, and it was great to see the busy pubs bars and outdoor cafés thriving with people out enjoying themselves.

The evening was spent with beer and a Tesco meal deal salad (it was quite good actually, and at £5 for a salad, a large pot of yogurt and an energy drink, it wasn’t too expensive). There’s just time for a bit of TV now (“Mad Men”, anyone?) and then an early night to fortify ourselves ready to tackle tomorrow.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Of we go! On the familiar 102 this morning	Saying goodbye to Dublin for a couple of weeks

This is what British Airways calls a “flat white”. Well, it’s certainly flat	*Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) round the back of the Royal Courts of Justice*

St Pauls in the evening sun	On the Millennium (“Wobbly”) bridge

As we flew across the south of England, we got a great view of the route of the new HS2 railway snaking north from above Denham. It’s controversial, but to me it’s a sign of progress and of a country that isn’t just resting on its laurels