Ireland day 1285. Saturday 05 April 2025- Zagreb 2

Today’s summary	Another early start to get a taxi to the airport for a 7:35 am flight to Dublin. The flight was operated by Lauda airlines on behalf of Ryanair – which was a bit of a surprise – and left more or less on time but arrived in Dublin 20 minutes early. Val met me at the airport then we had a cup of tea in the flat and went on a walk in the sun in the afternoon. Curry, and more “Mad Men”, in the evening.
Today’s weather	Sunny dry and warm in Zagreb. Light westerly wind. Appx 19c (but cold early on). Cool windy and dry with an easterly wind in Malahide. Appx 12c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of the start of my flight)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where the taxi went) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Finally my breakneck tour of European funerals finished today. I was glad when it was over, and I feel a bit drained now.

Anyway, the day started early, again, when my alarm went off at 4:30 am (Zagreb time – that’s 3:30 in Ireland), reminding me I needed to drag myself out of my slumber and get ready to catch my taxi to the airport at 5am. As usual, I was miles too early in arriving there, so I sailed through security and immigration and was at the gate fully two hours before the flight departed at 7:35 am.

I got a bit of a surprise when we passengers went down to the tarmac to climb aboard the plane. I had booked to fly on Ryanair back to Dublin but the plane I was directed to board was a large Airbus operated by Lauda Air. I was so surprised that for a moment I thought I was about to get on the flight to Istanbul, which left at the same time from the next door gate, by mistake. Anyway the air steward assured me I was on the right plane so, reassured, I took my seat.

The flight was completely uneventful and Lauda got us to Dublin fully 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Val was there to pick me up, so we whizzed home in the Trusty Yaris and were in the flat enjoying a cup of tea by 10 am. An excellent journey – and the timing worked perfectly for me as Ryanair only fly once a week direct from Zagreb to Dublin and fortunately for me, that day was a Saturday – the exact day if the week I wanted to travel.

After we’d had our cup of tea and caught up on all the news, we went out to enjoy the sun, which by this time had come out. We did our usual Demesne-Paddy’s Hill-Portmarnock-Coast loop. Of course, we had to pause for refreshments from the Portmarnock Spar, which we enjoyed down on the beach by the bathing shelter. Remarkably there were lots of people in the sea, swimming – despite the stiff easterly wind and crashing surf.

We made our way back to Malahide via Tesco and the Val pulled together a delicious chicken curry while I did my unpacking. Then we unwound later on with an episode of “Mad Men” but by this stage I starting to fall asleep in my chair so I think now I need to call it a day and go to bed.

It’s been quite a week – five days, three countries, two funerals and 5,200km. Looking forward to a few slightly less eventful months now!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Zagreb airport – modern, efficient and uncrowded	The hotel kindly made me a packed lunch in lieu of breakfast today. Very enjoyable, though the yogurt sadly fell foul of the 100ml rule in hand baggage

Negotiating Dublin airport’s labyrinthine walkways and corridors	Empire biscuits! A delicious treat picked up for me by Val in Stranraer. Having one after my curry for dinner tonight!

On the way down from Paddy’s Hill into Portmarnock	Ireland’s Eye from the Velvet Strand – with hardy swimmers in the foreground

On the top of Paddy’s Hill. I need to do something about that double chin!