Ireland day 1485. Wednesday 22 October 2025- London Again

Today’s summary	Val drove me to the airport first thing, to catch a flight to Stansted at 1pm. The airport was busy but there were no holdups. Ryanair delivered me to Stansted on time and I caught a train to London with minimum wait (though the ticket was almost as expensive as the flight). Was in central London by about 4pm and spent the evening on a riverside walk and watching some tv with a salad for dinner.
Today’s weather	Mostly dry and bright with sunny intervals in both Dublin and London. Light south westerly wind. Appx 14c

Today’s overview location (The blue and red marks show the location of my route)		Close-up location (The red mark shows where I was) (Click button below to download GPX of my walk this evening as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Evening riverside loop to St Pauls

Commentary

After a day of relative calm yesterday, the travelling started again today. I’m making another trip to the UK. This time it’s for a mountaineering club reunion in Salisbury at the weekend, and I’m taking the opportunity to catch up with a few friends before and afterwards. I’m travelling on my own today, but Val is joining me tomorrow.

We had time for tea and porridge in the flat before Val drove me to the airport to catch my 1pm Ryanair flight to Stansted. Dublin airport was quite busy even though the schools’ mid term break doesn’t start until next weekend. There is a lot of building work going on in the airport at the moment so some areas were closed off. Perhaps that’s making it seem busier than it actually is. But nevertheless I was through security in less than 20 minutes, despite the queues. I think the new scanners and increased liquid limits are really making a difference.

I arrived at the departure gate with over an hour to spare – but increasingly lately I have grown to dislike the last minute approach I used to take to flights, and feel much happier arriving in plenty of time. One of the anxieties you get as you become older, I suppose, but at least it gave me time to enjoy a coffee and catch up on the news (and to enjoy endless announcements about boarding gates and late departures).

The Ryanair flight left a few minutes late but arrived early so I was easily on a 14:45 Stansted express train to London. It was quick, comfortable, efficient and extremely expensive. At £25 I think it cost almost as much as the flight itself. Anyway it got me into Liverpool without fuss and I made a quick connection onto the ever-superb Elizabeth Line. I was in central London by about 4pm.

The evening was pretty relaxing. I went on my favourite riverside walk to St Paul’s, then picked up a salad (yes!! really!!) for dinner on the way back. I ate (I won’t go so far as to say “enjoyed” though actually it was OK) the salad while watching TV and made a video call to Val. Then called it a day and retired for a relatively early night.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Building-works hoardings all over Dublin Airport are moving the passengers into narrower areas, making it appear congested	On the Stansted Express. The carriages near the access from the terminal buildings but by walking a bit further down the platform, I had practically the entire carriage to myself

Escalating down to the cathedralic Elizabeth Line station at Liverpool Street	Tottenham Court Road

The reassuring presence of St Paul’s Cathedral looming over the Millennium Bridge tonight	An unusual perfective of the world afforded by this giant (six meter diameter) globe outside the London School of Economics

These dock-free rental bikes (here outside the Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street) are popping up all over London. They can be a bit of a nuisance but they do get people out of cars – and are a godsend in Tube strikes. As a side-effect of bikes and taxi electrification, the air quality in London has improved markedly in recent years