Ireland day 1568. Tuesday 13 January 2026- Flit Back

Today’s summary	After successfully delivering luggage to London yesterday, today I returned to Dublin. Spent the morning doing some shopping then had lunch and took a train and 17:45 Ryanair flight from Gatwick to Dublin. Got to the airport three hours early and despite some problems with the bag drop (eventually solved) I had plenty of time to enjoy the delights of Gatwick departures area. Straightforward flight then 102 bus back from Dublin airport to Malahide. Back in the flat by about 9pm
Today’s weather	Dull and wet in London .Light south westerly wind. Appx 10c. Drier in Dublin

Today’s overview location (The blue line shows my flight route)		Close-up location (The blue mark shows where I was) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Having spent much of yesterday getting to London, today I’m spending most of the day going back to Dublin.

I was up reasonably bright and early for cups of tea, then spent the rest of morning doing some work on my laptop and also a bit of shopping. I picked up a decent lunch at Marks & Spencer which I had before setting off for the airport. It had been raining cats and dogs for most of the morning but luckily I managed to find a drier interlude to get myself and my now-empty cases to the tube station.

I’d allowed plenty of time to get to the airport but as luck would have it, a tube came with almost no wait then an express Thameslink train turned after only 3 minutes on the platform. So I arrived at the airport with three hours to spare, which is a tad on the extreme side even by my standards.

The checked in bag drop didn’t work as smoothly as in Dublin, though. For a start there are no signs, so you have to more or less guess where the Ryanair bag drop area is. In the end I only found it more or less by trial and error (note to self – it’s squashed between the easyJet and the Skybus / Aurigny bag drops but there are no overhead signs to indicate what it is).

To add complications the Ryanair app didn’t work and I couldn’t scan the QR code on the weigh scale because I couldn’t get online. In the end I had to use the free airport wifi but even that isn’t easy – you have to enter a whole load of personal details about yourself just to be able to use the internet, which is ridiculously intrusive.

Anyway eventually I managed the whole thing and the case was weighed and tag printed. There was actually a person on the desk to put my case on the conveyor belt which was vaguely reassuring but did make me wonder why they couldn’t just have done the whole thing anyway and saved me the hassle. But hey that’s progress I guess

Even with this aggravation, I had well over two hours to kill in Gatwick. So I got a coffee and tried to relax in the limbo-land that is the Gatwick Airport departures area.

Once eventually on the plane, it was a straightforward journey and I even remembered to put the lid on my tea. Then it was a 102 bus back from the airport to Malahide and I was in the flat again by 9pm.

It was great to see Val so we spent a while discussing the day’s developments before retiring for an early night.

Tomorrow we do it all again!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Queensland House in the Strand. Formerly the representative offices of the government of Queensland, Australia. Maybe it was also a tourism office or perhaps even to attract new emigrants. now its a hardware store and a post office. How times have changed!	If you look carefully you might spot the cherry trees in flower on either side of the gateway to the playground on Drury Lane. Nice to see more signs of imminent brighter days

I love the views from Blackfriars station. It’s built on a bridge over the Thames, so it would be hard not to be spectacular – especially with Tower Bridge and the Shard framing the horizon	Southbound Brighton express. It only stops a couple of times and takes about half an hour. Being able to pay contactlessly using the iPhone is a big advantage too

In case anyone ever needs to know, this is the Ryanair check bag drop area at Gatwick airport. It’s a bit basic, I have to say	Text here

An impromptu (and enthusiastic) string quintet playing their hearts out in the crypt of the former Covent Garden market. A joy to behold (even for a Philistine like me)