First day in Ireland

As we approached Ireland from the Irish Sea I noticed that the cloud cover was practically complete. It was overcast most of my stay and rarely did skies turn sunny. Perhaps it was too early in summer.

I was fortunate to be sitting on the left side and my first sight of the island was the prominent Howth on the eponymous peninsula. Ireland's Eye, a small island off Howth, is outside the frame to the right.

I had two things to get at the airport terminal: a return shuttle ticket to Dublin, and a Leap card, for public transport. I looked in vain for the public transport desk mentioned in articles, and in the end found it in the SPAR convenience store. I guess the other outlets were closed due to lack of custom in recent times.

The other annoyance was that the bus stand could be reached only via the overhead walkway you see in the photo. I should have paid attention to the signs.

While I was waiting for the coach a sudden shower blew up. This was to be a feature of Irish weather.

In the city I got cash from an ATM. I didn't have mobile connectivity at this point and wasted time looking for the right bus stand. Should have written instructions down.

City streets in Dublin are narrow and cycle lanes abound which is why double decker buses are necessary.

The hotel was from another era but the interior had been modernised. In general Irish buildings were well insulated. After checking in and depositing my luggage, I crossed the street to buy provisions at the Tesco as well as a SIM card, the fourth item on my list. At the hotel I activated it and got connectivity but for some reason no 4G data. Turned out later that it was just not available at the hotel location but didn't slow me down much.

By this time it was already the small hours of the morning by my body clock so I ate the sandwiches I bought at Tesco and had an early evening. 

In transit

The flight was in the evening and in view of publicised problems with staffing at airports, I decided to arrive early. Skies were gloomy due to a storm system. In fact it had also delayed the incoming leg from NZ and this was to have consequences down the track.

The cabin airflow had been increased as a Covid measure so I had to use the blanket to keep warm.

The next leg from Singapore was delayed arriving at Heathrow and there was a slow queue for security rechecks which made me miss the onward flight to Dublin. I rebooked on the next available Aer Lingus service but I was annoyed. Since I had a couple of hours to spare I asked at the departure gate of SIA if I could have my return feeder flight in a 4 weeks time brought forward as a precaution. They said to call the SIA Dublin office as they had no access to the reservation system.

I grabbed a sandwich at Pret a Manger for lunch. Expensive but airport food always is.

Operations at Heathrow seemed a bit shambolic. I think I'll blacklist this airport in future.