Ireland day 1124. Saturday 26 October 2024- To Manchester

Today’s summary	Took the 102 bus to the airport then a Ryanair flight to Manchester. Staying at the Radisson airport hotel and meeting friends then traveling together overseas for a walking holiday. May go for a swim in the hotel pool this evening.
Today’s weather	Overcast but dry and quite bright. Moderate south westerly wind. Appx 14c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Today was a slight departure from the norm because we set off on holiday! The day started, as usual, with cups of tea in bed then a last minute scramble to find the various items that we had forgotten to pack so far. Teabags and instant coffee being two.

Once we were all set, we left the flat at about 11 and caught a 102 from St Sylvesters church a few minutes later. We sped on our way to the airport and, as usual, we arrived miles too early. The queues for security weren’t too long so we were airside with fully two hours to go before departure.

That gave us plenty of time to pick up something to eat, catch up on the news, and get ready to go. Assuming the flight leaves on time (I’m writing this from the waiting area at gate 109), we should be at Manchester by 3pm. [Brief addendum – flight went well apart from a minor hiccup which meant the captain and cabin crew all got off for some inexplicable reason and we had to wait 30 mins on the tarmac until an emergency replacement could be found. Most bizarre.

We’re staying overnight tonight at the airport Radisson hotel then meeting friends for dinner this evening. We have booked a table overlooking the runway which sounds fabulous. We might even have time this afternoon for a quick swim in the hotel pool. All very important for getting into the holiday mood. Though I don’t know what we will do with our wet swimming stuff, especially as we are travelling hand-baggage only.

Tomorrow we have a crack of dawn flight, although we are slightly helped by the fact that the clocks go back an hour tonight. Then the four of us set off together on the next stage of our journey. So hopefully my next blog will be from our destination. Stand by for an update (late) tomorrow evening!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


No matter how often I go to airports, there is always a small frisson of excitement about entering the departure area	The news about urea is surely worrisome

Weirdly, we were all told to go onto the tarmac to board the aircraft at Dublin, but the pilot and cabin crew all promptly got off and we had to wait about half an hour until and emergency backup crew could be found to replace them. Fortunately it wasn’t raining!	A rare glimpse behind closed doors

Coming into sunny Manchester	View from our hotel room window – Jodrell Bank radiotelescope on the horizon!

The wheels on the bus…