Not a particularly in-depth blog post this, I just liked the name, as did someone called Dylan that I know ? They don’t seem to sell much branded stuff, it’s just an emporium of sweets, which is something I think the Dylan that I know would think was quite marvellous. This is their grand outlet at the Hudson Yards shopping centre, a rather upmarket boutique type of place.
Oh good, they’ve expanded to the United States now….. I’ve had mixed journeys with Flixbus, mostly poor, and it feels a shame that they haven’t fixed a lot of the problems with their European operations before starting on the United States. I saw their bus terminal in the city, which is effectively a small car park. There’s a sign saying “if you’re early, don’t stay here, go and stand by the blue wall” as if passengers are some sort of sheep that needed to be herded into standing in the corner. There are no facilities such as seats (let alone toilets or something similar) by the wall, it’s all part of their low-cost operation.
I think this article at https://farawayplaces.co/flixbus-usa-review/ on Flixbus US seems reasonable, the booking of a ticket can be cheap, but the operation is hugely variable depending on who they’ve got the management arrangement with. It’s a risky operation getting a Flixbus, although they’re a bit cheaper than Amtrak. I’m writing this in Richmond, Virginia, and the bus would have been $40 or so, which is around what I paid for the Amtrak service. Strangely, because American rail takes so long, it would have been quicker to get the bus, but I enjoyed my comfortable rail journey. Oh, and their silly $4 ticket fee annoys me, it would be much more honest to just add it to the ticket price.
I’ll stop going around the houses, and mention buyer beware with Flixbus…. Anyway, I’ve digressed once again.
I don’t often do much transiting at Heathrow, but today I was going from Terminal 2 where my Aer Lingus flight landed to Terminal 3 where my American Airlines flight was departing. I had four hours or so deliberately in the schedule when planning this (so that I could enjoy the lounges), and despite the potential delays from the Queen’s funeral, that schedule worked out.
Here’s the transfer bus stop within T2 with a sign saying that there are regular buses every ten minutes. Anyway, 24 minutes later the bus arrived. Another couple were getting edgy as their flight was quite close in terms of time, whereas I was losing lounge time. Obviously mine was the most important situation that needed resolving, but I didn’t say anything.
Wooo, here comes the bus. The process was all quick from there, with another security check required because that’s what UK airports do, but there was a minimal delay with that and I was through and into the lounges within fifteen minutes of that bus setting off.
I do take decadent photos to surprise and delight readers…. This is one of the bathroom units at Cathay Pacific, which also has shower facilities. Note all the complimentary stuff in the little boxes, but I decided to just take the toothpaste as I’ve decided to keep my bag as light as possible during this trip. Fully refreshed, it was time for food.
I’ve written about the T3 lounges many times before on this blog, so a search will help any readers wanting to read my previous missives. In short, Oneworld status passengers can use the BA, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Qantas lounges regardless of which Oneworld airline they are travelling with, although the American Airlines one is currently closed. This is the menu from the Cathay Pacific lounge, where food is cooked to order, although there’s a self-service British section as well.
I went for the BBQ fried pork rice although with my regular order of the Mix Dimsum basket. As ever, it was delicious, as was the Guinness which is the first time I’ve seen that in this lounge.
I then rushed off (there’s no time to waste on days such as this) to the Qantas lounge as I’m just a little obsessed with their salt and pepper squid, but here’s the rest of the menu options. I’m not travelling next year so will lose my silver Oneworld status, but I’ll likely be getting it back soon enough in 2024 as I can’t miss out on the delights of menus like this. Yes, there’s more to life than this, but this is a bloody useful contribution to it.
Beautiful, melt in the mouth stuff…..
I remained in the Qantas lounge until it was time for my flight and I was slightly surprised to see that the majority of everyone there was watching the build-up to the Queen’s funeral on the lounge’s TVs. By nature of the lounge, most of the people there seemed to be Australian and some people had built themselves almost like little nests packed with food and drink where they could watch proceedings from. It was a reminder to me of the level of interest that people around the world have in the life and work of Queen Elizabeth II.
It was a lovely few hours, but I had a plane to New York to catch…..
Suitably refreshed after visits to the Qantas and Cathay Pacific lounges, it was time to board the American Airlines flight from Heathrow T3 to JFK T8. See, I did tell readers that this trip would eventually get to the US! There was strict adherence to boarding by groups, despite the best efforts of some passengers to try and get on earlier than the group number on their ticket. The staff member said “group 3 now and anyone from groups 1 and 2 yet to board” and a passenger said to her “does that include group 8?” to which she replied that no it didn’t. Boarding was sluggish though, the flight departed 45 minutes late given the slow boarding and stowing of bags.
I had a bulkhead seat which gave me plenty of space and legroom. The aircraft was a Boeing 777-300, registration N722AN, which has been operated by American Airlines since they acquired it new in 2013. I was happy with this seat which I had been able to book for free before the flight, it felt comfortable on what was an entirely full flight. Apparently there was just one empty seat on the flight and that was someone at the airport who had cleared security but gone missing. I could hear the crew member say that he was likely asleep in a lounge and that it was too late to get anyone on stand-by onto the aircraft to replace him. With American Airlines, you can see how many people are on stand-by for each class and they got nearly everyone on board.
Legroom on the other seats looked manageable, but not entirely comfortable, especially if someone reclined into that space. I didn’t have to worry about that issue fortunately and I think the person behind with child was likely relieved that I didn’t recline either.
I didn’t use the in-flight entertainment as not much seemed particularly interesting, despite their claims of hundreds of hours of content with something for every taste. I did though watch an episode of the US version of The Office before getting bored and reverting back to podcasts.
The main meal service, I went for the chicken, green beans and starch option, although I was puzzled as to what that starch was. There was also a salad with dressing, a roll, crackers with cheese and then a carrot cake. I thought it was entirely satisfactory, nothing exceptional and the starch didn’t sound overly appetising, but it all tasted OK and it kept me amused for fifteen minutes or so.
I went for American Airlines over British Airways as they offer Dr. Pepper and have air vents. Simple things and simple minds….
In between naps, I went for Sprite as I managed to run them out of Dr. Pepper. I had quite a lot of little naps during my flight. Fortunately, there were power points on board so I had everything fully charged, and still had chance to lend the charger to my neighbour (on the plane, not in Norwich) as they couldn’t get theirs to work.
The personable crew member came to offer everyone an ice cream, mentioning to give it twenty minutes as it was so hard. He took a long time getting through the cabin as he kept talking to passengers, I got the impression that he rather liked his job, or he certainly looked like he did judging by his interactions. Indeed, all of the American Airlines crew were friendly, informal and they seemed to work well as a team, it give a positive ambience to the arrangements.
The breakfast options were beef or vegetarian pockets. Everyone else seemed to be going for the vegetarian one, but I was brave and went for beef and the crew member commented on my bravery. Not the most encouraging thing to say after ordering a meal, but the food was fine, although it was mostly pocket and not much beef.
A little girl came to talk to me as she wanted to look at my phone and see photos of my children. After checking her parents were content with this plan, which they were as they were trying to deal with a crying young baby, I checked she would be satisfied just with photos of a friend’s children. She was and we then went through hundreds of photos of Liam’s children who she decided that she liked. She thought Liam’s girl was her favourite as she looked the naughtiest.
The problem with airbridges is that it makes it hard to take photos, as opposed to when passengers are allowed to walk down steps. Anyway, the aircraft is in the photo to the left and that’ll have to do. There were a ridiculous 45 minute wait on the ground to get a stand, before another ninety minute wait at border control. They didn’t try any interrogation on this occasion, the officer just checked if I was in the US for tourism or business. I remember when a border control agent asked me a few years ago if I believed in the JFK rumours that he was killed by the secret service, which is quite a tricky question to know how to answer when arriving tired into a new country.
Anyway, the flight had made good time and there were no delays to the services I had taken during the time because of the Queen’s funeral which was potentially going to impact operations at Heathrow. It had been a good day.
This is terminal 8 where American Airlines and British Airways are combining operations, after many years for BA at Terminal 7. There’s a fair chunk of construction work going on at the moment and there’s going to be one large Oneworld lounge, albeit separated into three sections depending on class (of the flight, not of the individual) and loyalty scheme status. This model is likely to become more common I suspect, it feels odd that there are four Oneworld lounges at Heathrow T3, much as I like that situation.
The sun shines through the terminal windows at T5 lighting up the delights of Gate A9, which was fortunately not the bus gate (which is A10). The boarding process was all orderly and no-one stood in front of the queueing area, which made things much easier for the staff. Although the flight is to Dublin, this is effectively a domestic flight for purposes of border security, the staff don’t need to check passports at the gate, it’s just a photo image they take and that’s an automated process.
I boarded early, but the flight transpired to be relatively busy. It’s aircraft G-EUOF, an Airbus A319 which British Airways have had since October 2001. They really get their money’s worth from these aircraft, it’s doing six flights today, from Geneva to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Dublin, from Dublin to Heathrow, from Heathrow to Madrid, from Madrid to Heathrow and from Heathrow to Amsterdam.
My exit row seat, with the middle seat not being filled on the flight. I fell asleep soon after boarding, fortunately waking just as they handed out the water and cereal bar (which are still in my bag) before having another little sleep. Very restful. This is the big advantage in British Airways over Ryanair or WizzAir, who bang and clank down the aisle trying to sell things. It’s not the fault of the hard-working crew at these airlines, just the model in which they have to work. It was the usual professionally operated flight, the pilots were reassuring and gave useful announcements, whilst the crew were endlessly polite and efficient.
Safely in Dublin, arriving around five minutes early.
There are only six Play aircraft, the relatively new budget airline which operates from Iceland.
The border control process at Dublin is easy for UK passport holders. They do no checks on the passport on their computers, they just check that it’s a UK passport and that the image looks like the passenger in front of them. I think I was at the desk for around three seconds, it was almost as good as being in Schengen, not that that’s looking likely for the UK in the next few decades.
I think I got a bit over-excited on the last post and published it early, that’s just my slight sleepiness….
Liam and I tried to visit this pub when we were in Dublin a few months ago, but it was just too busy. These were the days when Dublin was still enforcing table service only and despite the cavernous size of the building, its popularity was just too high for the number of seats available. I won’t get political, but it seems strange that the biggest investments that JD Wetherspoon are currently making are in the European Union. Indeed this pub is the most expensive they’ve ever done in their history, it cost them €27.4 million for the renovation and €6 on buying the building.
This is the history of the pub which JD Wetherspoon provide:
“The pub, named Keavan’s Port, has an adjoining 89-bedroom hotel. The pub takes its name from the history of the local area, where Camden Street Upper and Camden Street Lower form part of an ancient highway into the city of Dublin. The two streets were previously known as St Kevin’s Port. In a series of old maps and records, the name is listed as Keavans Port (1673), St Kevan’s Port (1714), Keavan’s Port (1728), St Kevan’s Port (1756) and then St Kevin’s Port (1778) – renamed after the first Earl of Camden.
The name Keavan’s Port/St Kevin’s Port was derived from the church of St Kevin, in nearby Camden Row, said to have been founded by a follower of the sixth-century hermit. St Kevin also features in the poem ‘St Kevin and the Blackbird’ (1996) by the Nobel prize-winner Seamus Heaney, in which he describes how the Irish saint held out a ‘turned-up palm’ for a blackbird to nest. Until the 1940s, the property had been the convent of the Little Sisters of the Assumption, established in the 1890s. The sisters nursed the ‘sick poor’ in their own homes, and their former chapel has been preserved and forms part of the new pub and hotel.”
It is a stunning conversation, there’s a glass walkway above the bar and this whole area is filled with light. Actually, I think it makes the bar area too hot, but there are plenty of other areas which are much cooler for customers.
Looking back the other way, all rather modern.
The entrance to the former chapel which is located within the pub.
A modern artwork within the historic former chapel.
I perched myself in the side aisle of the former chapel.
I can’t quite imagine that the builders of this chapel quite imagined that it would be repurposed into a pub.
Down to another large seating area and a separate bar, with what I assume (but don’t know) are reclaimed windows from the site. The bulk of the former site is taken up with the 89 room hotel, converted from a row of eight Georgian properties, which must be a profitable exercise as it seems to often be full.
The selection of real ales, priced much lower than other bars in the city, which is proving to be a big selling point for the chain just as it is in the UK. The staff here seemed friendly and helpful, the service was efficient and welcoming.
I went for the Rampart from Conwy Brewery, a very acceptable English brown ale (that’s in terms of the beer style, it’s actually brewed in Wales and being sold in the Republic of Ireland, so it’s not overly English) which was well kept. Real ale isn’t a huge thing in Dublin, but they seem to be shifting a fair amount of it here.
The pub is generally well reviewed and it was relatively busy for a Sunday afternoon. I liked the plentiful power points and wi-fi, all rather handy, and it’s got a relaxed vibe to it which is really quite calm. That feels most appropriate given the building’s history, of which this is a delightful conversion that the chain should be proud of. Well, other than for the leak downstairs which they were mopping up from a dripping ceiling.
So I went to Dublin and went to two JD Wetherspoon outlets? Well, yes, although there’s another non JDW one to come, but I’d better add here that I’ve been to Dublin many times and visited all of what I consider to be the traditional, interesting and craft beer venues. I’m intrigued to see how JD Wetherspoon are developing and this is an outlet which wasn’t open when Liam and I visited the city a few months ago.
South Strand is another huge investment by JD Wetherspoon in the European Union, I’m impressed, a big vote of confidence from Tim Martin. Although I’m getting political, so I must stop. The pub is located at Hanover Quay and they give the history as:
“The south dock was once a large area of ‘marshland sprinkled with an occasional apple tree’. On one of the earliest maps (1673) of the city of Dublin, by Bernard de Gomme, there are no buildings marked on the south side of the River Liffey. This marshy riverside area is named on Gomme’s map as ‘South Strand’. He noted that it was ‘overflowed by the high tide, with up to five feet of water at neap tide, dry at half tide and dry enough at low tide to walk across the sand’.”
Unlike their conversion of Keavan’s Port, this building was already in use as a restaurant, having been known as the HQ Bar and Restaurant.
There’s my Beamish resting on the counter, a drink I consider to be better than Guinness. But, best not start a dispute about that, they’re both lovely drinks. It’s a large building, with plenty of external seating and another large seating area downstairs, with a map and compass being recommended to find the toilets.
I got a seat near the bar and was I felt very productive despite feeling slightly sleepy. There were plenty of power points dotted around and two kids storming about the place that the staff did well not to trip over. I’ve been a slight idiot (again) as I forgot that Ireland has the same power point holes (or whatever the technical term is) as the UK, and so I’ll be traipsing around with an EU adapter for a month now. Incidentally, someone came over to me and left his phone charging saying that he wanted to go drinking outside and needed it charged. So, not for the first time, I became a guardian of someone else’s phone.
Anyway, I liked this pub, although a few people in reviews have complained that there’s no music. All I can note is thank goodness for that, a little bastion of peace and quiet. It is of course also cheap and whether or not that’s what is attracting the locals, it was very busy.
Nice pub name at Tara Street railway station.
The railway station opened in 1891 and it’s served by Dublin Area Rapid Transit, or DART, which is the service that I was getting to Howth. I was travelling on a Sunday and there seemed to be trains to Howth around every thirty minutes.
It’s not the most modern and sleek design for a train that I’ve seen, but it’s functional and that’ll do me. The majority of the fleet was built between 1983 and 1984, although they have a few more recent engines, although nothing later than 2004. It’s cheap though, but more later on the public transport card that I had.
This is a very good idea and I didn’t notice anyone on the train put their feet on the seats. It’s a very British problem though, it happens frequently on British trains and very rarely in Poland, where I’ve only seen it happen once. And when it did, the elderly Polish ladies nearby looked as angry as a Brit when someone has barged into a queue. I remember once on a service hearing the announcement say something along the lines of ‘if you see anyone with their feet on the seats, please call British Transport Police’ which seemed a bit excessive. I suspect it was said by an angry guard trying to scare some of the unruly passengers that he had.
It’s also not the most stylish inside the carriages either, but for a rapid transit system, I’ve seen worse. It was a relatively busy service until near Howth, which is the end of the line.
Wooo, safely into the delights of Howth, where I’ve been meaning to go for some years. Howth is a former village which has now become effectively a suburb of Dublin, but it retains that rural feel to it. However, more on that in the next post…..
Apologies to the blog readers (or reader, I don’t want to set my ambitions too high) but these posts aren’t going to be epics, more just reminders of what I’ve done on this trip. I’ll make them as interesting as possible, but I might set the bar quite low. Anyway, this is Howth, something of a local tourist destination. It’s known for its fish restaurants and there’s plenty of good walking in the area. I got there just before it was getting dark, so I limited myself to a walk of around two miles (we’re not all Dave Morgan who would have likely been excited by the big hill visible and gone running up it).
Howth is around seven miles from the centre of Dublin and I think it’s now one of the more upmarket suburbs. The train journey takes around thirty minutes and Howth is literally the end of the line. In the background is Howth Harbour Lighthouse, built in 1817 and in use until 1982, with lighthouse keepers here until 1955 when they put electricity in to control the lights.
I had to scrabble up some rocks to get this photo. Very brave.
There were some people fishing there, that’s not my fishing rod in the photo. It did mar the photo a little, but I didn’t feel it appropriate to tell the fisherman to move it.
As a fun fact (or sort of fun, I’m not sure invasions are ever really pretty), the Normans took control of this area in 1177. It’s an interesting part of history the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, but I’ll let Wikipedia pick up that story at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman_invasion_of_Ireland.
It’s still a busy commercial fishing area.
I took this photo as I was impressed at the group on the right merrily eating their fish and chips, whilst a herd of seagulls sat behind them. I wouldn’t have been that brave.
I had hoped to see something of the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey, but unfortunately they’re firmly closed off in the evening. This is the external wall and it was the Vikings who first built a church here in around 1042, although much of the current building is from the fourteenth century.
The external walls didn’t disappoint though and there’s a seating area installed here.
I had a little meander down to the sea as that felt appropriate.
Very peaceful and I can see why this is a popular walking area. It was still quite warm as well which was pleasant, although I accept that my “quite warm” is ‘freezing cold’ to some people.
You can walk all the way to the lighthouse, but it was getting dark and I thought I’d better not traipse off along here in case I fell in or something. The phone is also being generous to the amount of light available here, it felt much darker.
Evening setting over the fishing village. So what more was there to do here before I went back to Dublin? I thought I’d go to a pub, but more on that in the next post. Sorry for those who subscribe to this blog and get every post, you might get a fair few notifications this month unless you change the frequency to a daily or weekly summary.
As is just about visible for anyone zooming into the image to look at the screen, I arrived at the gate at 05:29 for my 06:30 flight. I left the lounge at 05:28 thinking it might take twenty minutes to get to the gate. It didn’t. I refuse to ever be realistic in case the one time that I’m not, I’ll be delayed somehow en route and miss my flight.
Here’s the Aer Lingus flight having landed into Heathrow T2, as I couldn’t get a photo in Dublin. The aircraft was at capacity and I boarded towards the end (no status with Aer Lingus) which didn’t much matter as I had an aisle seat. Nothing is provided free of charge on Aer Lingus in terms of refreshments, but there is a trolley going around selling food and drink. I can’t add much detail to the flight since I was asleep for the entirety of it, but I’m sure it was lovely.
For reference (more mine than anyone else), this was an A320, registration EI-DVE, which Aer Lingus have operated since they acquired in new in 2007.
It felt appropriate to land at Heathrow T2 on the day of the Queen’s funeral, as this is the Queen’s Terminal. Despite dire warnings from Aer Lingus about delays on the day of the funeral, including trying to get me to change my flight, everything went to clockwork in terms of the flights. Although to be fair to Aer Lingus, they did have to cancel some of their flights later on during the day, so the situation probably felt quite fluid last week.
