Shannon and Tralee

I knew there were bus services to Shannon Airport but hadn't looked into details until the night before. Turned out it was the hourly Cork-Limerick-Shannon-Galway long distance service. So I bought a ticket over the Internet and got an e-ticket to show on my phone to the driver.

In penance for too much meat the day before I opted for the vegetarian Irish breakfast after having cereal. It was still filling though.

While waiting to check out, I talked over the phone to the airline office in Dublin and had my feeder flight from Dublin to Heathrow preponed by one service to allow a larger margin for transfer, given my experience a few days before. A few weeks later at Heathrow they thought I was a bit too early for the transfer. It seems people had even been arriving the day before a flight to mitigate the effect of the train strikes. Airports and airlines were in a bind.

The hotel had an interesting lift with open walls. You had to hold down the button for the direction you wanted to go.

The same meat store from the day before looking so tempting with the lighting. If you are a meat eater, Ireland has a lot of livestock so it's local and at least has less food miles.

It was raining slightly so I took refuge in the train station which is adjacent to the bus station.

By and by the Cork-Galway bus arrived. It was an uneventful 35 minute ride to Shannon Airport. Apparently this airport, one of the closest to the US, has pioneered innovations such as duty-free shopping. Later on it would become a goods gateway for many of the Irish factories set up to take advantage of lower tax.

I wasted time looking for the car in the parking lot after completing the car rental paperwork. I had not understood the Irish accent of the employee who had actually told me to wait for the shuttle to the car depot a little way from the terminal building. Then I wasted more time trying to figure out how to work the car. It was a one-button start car (but you had to depress the clutch also) and I had to search the Internet for the car manual. If only they had given me a 5 minute crash (bad pun) course.

As a result I didn't get away until noon, an hour after the start of the rental. I originally wanted to lunch in Ennis but decided to head for Tralee which was less of a diversion. I retraced much of the bus route, but instead of heading into Limerick city I turned south to take the Limerick Tunnel that goes under the Shannon. Less fuel burnt would compensate for the 2€ toll.

Like many N (national) roads in Ireland, traffic bottlenecks when going through towns like Tralee. Eventually I found a car park, had lunch, and took a look around. It's an attractive Irish town with colourful buildings with gilt lettering, and a pedestrian zone.

Interesting facade.

Pedestrian street.

The central square.

There aren't any more pictures for this day. It was slow going with the many towns the N roads went through but I didn't mind as I only had to reach Kilarney before evening. I even visited all the three major discount supermarkets in Tralee: Tesco, Aldi, and Lidl to see what they were like (pretty much the same as other countries, with odd bargains in the centre aisles).

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.