How about a day trip to
Dublin without having to brave a Ryanair flight? Sounds too good to be true. But it isn’t!
And what’s even better is that the flight leaves from Cambridge Airport. For us in the East of England this is just
perfect. For me, it was a forty minute
drive to get to the airport – for a forty minute check in before the flight,
which left at 09.10. Park right outside
the terminal – and for the summer the airport are offering free parking – and
walk to the check in two minutes.
No queues, no fuss, no stress
– lovely comfortable sofas to sit on and have a coffee with a maximum of fifty
other people at a time. The flights that
leave here are on a Fokker 50 propeller plane, that take a maximum of fifty
passengers. In no time at all, the
flight is called and we walk the fifty yards to the plane and board. This is a full service flight, so drinks and
snacks are also included, as well as baggage if you have any. How is Ryanair sounding now??
The one hour flight was
smooth, and we left a fairly dreary Cambridge in the comfort of our leather
seats. In a little under an hour we were
landing at Dublin Airport – not quite the scene of tranquillity that was
Cambridge Airport, but very smooth and slick.
In actual fact, you can use this service as part of a through fare to
the USA, and complete all the US immigration in Dublin, and land at the
domestic terminal in the states.
We left Dublin Airport for
the City Centre – and luckily the weather was holding. And so it should do in June! We had a Dublin City Pass, which includes a
shuttle service from the airport to the City, and entry into all sorts of
places in the City. Very good value for
money. At a little before 11.00am we
were in the City, with the whole day ahead of us. After a short wander around the streets
around Grafton Street and Temple Bar, we made our way over the Halfpenny Bridge
to have lunch at The Winding Stair.
Lovely food in a lovely typically Irish restaurant.
After lunch, we had tickets
for the hop on hop off bus so we made our way to the Guinness Brewery, which is
included in the City Pass. This was
busy! But when in Dublin.....!! We did the whole tour, and ended up in the
Bar on the top floor to redeem our free pint of Guinness that is included in
the entrance. The poor bar tenders were
pouring pints of Guinness like there was no tomorrow – I think a bus load of
Japanese had arrived on the top floor at the same time as us – each one with a
pattern of a shamrock on the top. Nice
touch! Not a nice taste though. Although I am sure the majority of the
clientele surrounding me would disagree, as they were all quite happy downing
their glass of the black stuff. I can still
say that I had a pint of Guinness – just didn’t drink it!
We then made our way back to
the City and then on to the airport for the flight home. Not quite the forty minute check in here – we
did need to be there an hour and a half before the 19.10 flight back to
Cambridge. A very delightful hour on the
flight back, and to top it all ten minutes after the wheels hit the runway I
was back in my car and on the way home.
You can’t beat that
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