Ireland day 1580. Sunday 25 January 2026- RDS Travel Show

Today’s summary	Had a bit of a lie-in then spent a few moments tidying up the car prior to a sale later in the week. After fruit for breakfast, took a train into Dublin (Sandymount) and walked to the RDS exhibition buildings to visit the Holiday World Show. Spent a couple of hours there and enjoyed daydreaming about future travel. Train back at about 3pm then in the evening Val went out to her leaving do at Gibneys. I went on a short walk, had cottage pie dinner, and went on a short walk
Today’s weather	Overcast with showers. Moderate south easterly wind. Appx 7c

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): Sandymount to RDS Travel Show

Commentary

We are now into our last week in Ireland. But as well as spending time tidying up our affairs prior to departure, we are also trying to fit in some final local explorations and activities before we go.

But before anything else, we started the day with a bit of a lie-in this morning. We both felt as if we needed to let our feet touch the ground – albeit briefly – after all the to-ing an fro-ing of the last few weeks. So cups of tea were drunk and satsumas consumed before we finally got up and started the day.

First off, I spent a few moments down in the garage giving the car a bit of a spruce-up. We have to sell it this week and a prospective buyer is coming to look at it tomorrow. So needed to get rid of four years of accumulated rubbish and sweep out the worst of the evidence of muddy hiking boots. In the end the car looked quite chipper and I wondered why we had never bothered to clean it properly like this in all the years we had owned it.

By the time that was done, it was heading up to 11am and we had an appointment in town. A local travel company had given us some free tickets to the “Holiday World” show at the RDS venue in Ballsbridge – and we thought it would be fun to go and have a browse. As well as looking at the travel opportunities, I have to admit I was quite keen just to go and have a nosey around the RDS itself. I’d never been in this part of the exhibition venue before and was curious to see what it was like.

So we took a DART direct from Malahide to Sandymount, then it was just a short stroll from there through Ballsbridge to the venue.

In terms of the venue itself – it’s pretty unremarkable. Just a large warehouse-like enclosed space, pretty much exactly the same as any similar venue you would find anywhere in the world.

But the exhibition itself was extensive – everywhere from Lapland to Colombia was represented – and very well attended. We spent a good couple of hours having lunch an looking around. I also enjoyed hablando un poco de español when I met my former Spanish teacher, Maria, who happened to be visiting the Fuerteventura stand at the same time as me.

We came away full of ideas of future trips – Fiji seemed like quite a nice idea, and it is only eleven hours from Vancouver…

When we had seen everything we wanted to see, and successful resisted the temptation to buy a 180,000 euro camper van, we left the RDS and walked back to Sandymount to catch a train back to Malahide.

It was a straightforward journey – though we did have to change trains, with a 20 minute wait at Connolly (just long enough to get a cup of tea from Pret). We were back in the flat by 4:30pm. It was encouraging to see that it was still quite light at this time in the evening – a distinct improvement over the dark depths of December.

Later in the evening, Val went out to a leaving celebration that her former colleagues at the Model Railway museum had organised for her at Gibneys pub. A really nice touch I thought. Meanwhile I, being a stay-at-home, finished off the shepherds pie from yesterday for dinner, then went on a short walk round Hanlons Lane.

Finally, I’m going to seek out some travel videos on the iPad. Hiking in Fiji, anyone?!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


A slightly alarming worms-eye view of a DART train at Sandymount. Fortunately it was stationary and was going in the other direction. This was taken as we walked over the level crossing	First things first – possibly the unhealthiest lunch possible. The cappuccino was considerably better than Ryanair’s effort, though

I felt a bit sorry for the people on the US tourism stand. They appeared to be getting no visitors at all	€180k for a camper van. What has the world come to? And anyway it was so huge I doubt you would ever get it down most of the more scenic roads in Ireland

An enduring favourite!	Enjoying the balmy Arctic blast on Connolly Platform six

The “RDS” – the Royal Dublin Society – building in Ballsbridge. The RDS was founded in 1731 as “a philanthropic organisation with the aim of seeing Ireland thrive economically and culturally”. Quite why it retained its “Royal” title after 1921, I don’t know. Nowadays it is probably most widely known as one of Ireland’s largest indoor exhibition venues