Time to pack up and move on from our lovely London flat today. It's amazing how quickly a place can start to feel familiar and like home.
As is always the way when trying to get six people packed and out the door, some small details didn't go quite to plan. The combination washing machine/dryer in the flat got the clothes clean but invariably left them warm and damp rather than dry. This was fine on days when we could just hang the clothes on the airer and go out. Today however more extreme measures were called for and Miss 7 was happy to help out with the hair dryer.
With our clothes dry and bags all packed we headed off to the tube station to go up to St Pancras to catch the train out to Luton. This was the first time we had been out to Luton airport and although the journey took a wee while it was nice to be on the train going through the countryside rather than the city. Mr 11 took the opportunity to relax and catch up on the news.
We had a minor delay getting onto our flight but once we got going everything was fine. Ryanair proved to be a much better carrier than I had anticipated - but my expectations had been pretty low! We had amazingly clear skies on our flight to Dublin and were able to clearly see Wales and all the ferries coming and going over the Irish Sea.
It was a little cooler in Dublin than London - which had a 25 degree high today, apparently warmer than Ibiza! We picked up our Ford Galaxy from Europcar and headed out onto Ireland's motorways. The Navigator app came in very handy as we navigated our way onto the ring road and then headed towards Athlone - our first stop on this leg of the trip.
The Navigator got us safely to Athlone and we headed for a pub recommended on Trip Advisor for dinner. Had one of those moments where the Navigator announced that we had arrived at our destination and we couldn't see it. We pulled into a supermarket carpark and were just about to go and ask for directions when we noticed a sign pointing to the very pub we were looking for. In our own defence the pub has just changed hands and has been renamed so we weren't being completely unobservant!
Had a reasonable dinner with the highlights being that the girls were invited outside to play on a bouncy castle with a bunch of kids who had just celebrated their first holy communion. The husband also had his first Guinness of the trip - he was a happy man!
Fortunately with the long days it doesn't get dark 'til almost 9pm so we were able to find the way to our B&B (Alverna House) quite easily. The lovely Niamh met us and got us settled into two very nice rooms. Both she and her husband Ronan were very friendly and chatty so the evening passed very quickly. Looking forward to our first full Irish breakfast tomorrow!
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