Ireland day 1338. Wednesday 28 May 2025- Arrive Dublin

Today’s summary	After a five hour wait at Toronto airport, connected to an Air Canada flight for the six hour hop back to Dublin. Our flight arrived early and we were on the 102 bus just 45 minutes after touching down. Everything in the flat in Malahide was just as we left it. Went on a stroll round the Demesne (which was looking lovely) in the late morning, to clear our heads. Then beans on toast, some TV, and an early night
Today’s weather	Everywhere in Dublin looking very green and a bit damp so I guess there had been overnight rain. Bright, breezy and mostly dry with some sun once we landed. Moderate south westerly wind. Appx 17c

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): Demesne Jetlag Walk

Commentary

The last time I wrote, we had just landed in Toronto and were settling down for a five hour wait for our onward connecting flight to Dublin. Well, the time went quickly enough (aided by some Timbits) and we were on the 787 Dreamliner ready to go fully ten minutes ahead of schedule. It was a comfortable flight – mostly at night – and I even managed to sleep a little, even though were were only in the air for about 5¾ hours.

The plane stayed ahead of schedule all the way across the Atlantic, so we duly arrived in Dublin about 20 minutes early. We were through immigration and customs in next to no time (thank goodness – once again – for having everything in hand baggage) and after a short wait which was just long enough to allow us to buy some milk, the 102 bus arrived at the airport to whisk us back to Malahide.

Once back at the flat, we found that absolutely nothing had changed. Apart perhaps from being a bit more dusty, the place was exactly as we had left it a month ago. We unpacked quickly but not until we had more importantly had a cup of tea. What joy to have proper Barry’s loose-leaf tea with real milk!.

Once we had unwound a little, we got changed out of our travelling clothes and walked into town to get some more provisions for lunch and dinner today. Then we took ourselves round the Demesne for a regenerative walk, noticing along the way how green and absolutely lovely everywhere was looking. Ireland at its familiar and comfortable best.

Once back at the ranch, we made ourselves a simple meal of beans on toast, with more tea, then settled down to watch a little TV before contemplating an early night. Not too early, mind you, as we need to power on through until it starts to get dark, at least, in order to give our body clocks the best possible chance of resetting quickly. Oh! To have an onsen right now to soak away those jetlag blues!

But in post script..
Looking back – what a holiday it has been. Amazing right from the start in Vancouver to the finish in Tokyo. Everything worked flawlessly. The flights were on time and comfortable, all the accommodation which we had pre-booked was perfectly in order and in many cases even exceeded our expectations. And Japan always surprises and delights. This visit was no exception, with a lifetime of memories collected in just three weeks. We enjoyed the trip very much, and somehow I don’t think it will be our last.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


View of Dublin airport runway from the 102 bus. We had touched down there less than an hour ago	Amazingly this new Japanese restaurant had opened in Malahide while we were away. I wonder if they sell gastropods? We shall just have to go and see!

Window boxes on the railings by the station were looking very colourful and fresh. As indeed was everywhere in Malahide today	Not looking too bad considering our 29 hour door-to-door journey



The Sugarloaf is (I think) just visible in this photo, taken on the final approach to Dublin airport this morning