IRELAND - Homeward Bound

Well the trip is over, so this morning I took a trip on the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) from Dun Laoghaire (where I have been staying) down to Greystones and back. The DART is Dublin's electric commuter train but its no ordinary ride as the line runs through the city centre and then follows the curve of Dublin Bay north to Howth and Malahide and south to Greystones. The line south of Dun Laoghaire is particularly scenic with great coastal views - well worth the ride. Top tip - if you are going to Dublin and the city centre hotel prices are a bit steep, just look for somewhere on the DART line a little further out. It runs every 15 minutes or so and is very easy to use, just get a Leap Card and touch in and out just like London's Oyster Card. 

In case you didn't know about the names of the transport smart cards - Oyster in London comes from the saying "The World Is Your Oyster" - Leap in Dublin comes from the fact the zones are called hops and they are promoted by a frog character - Go Explore in the Isle of Man is fairly obvious BUT I haven't quite managed to work out where Liverpool has got Walrus cards from - maybe the marketing men were just having a bad day.

One last thing from Dublin - I had an Elgin Marbles moment

Looking at this post box it is clear that when the Irish got independence they did not give all the post boxes back. This one clearly has E vii R on it and when I looked around the mouth where the green paint was chipped you could see some Royal Mail red coming through. Looks like one more thing for the government to add to the BREXIT negotiations.

From Dublin it is a very speedy 2 hour crossing on a large catamaran to Holyhead. A lovely crossing on a day like today, but I will admit I hate those things when its a bit choppy and usually try to avoid them.

Holyhead is of course in Wales ......

......... and from there a train runs either direct to London or like today to Chester with a connection south. Another lovely ride with Snowdonia one side of the track and the sea on the other.

And so I have come to the end of this trip and as before, I hope you have found the content interesting. What's coming up next? Well I'm back in Ireland to continue with this trip for a week in October and at some point between now and March there will be a "Grown Up Gapper BREXIT Special" from Brussels.

Bye for now!