1 July: Belfast - Dublin. End of Insight "Country Roads of Ireland" tour.
Our day began at 4.30 with a glorious blood red sunrise. About 30 of the 40 group members (all of whom had Peter's bug by now) had chosen to fly out from Dublin. This was a 2 hour run on the motorway.
We were lucky enough to hitch a ride to the city centre as the coach was taking that route anyway. The congestion in the centre was horrendous because of the tangle of road works halving the width of the streets. We had to jump off our coach at a back entrance of Trinity simply because the grand front entrance was impassable.
Miraculously we stumbled into the accommodation office where we were greeted enthusiastically by a young man who picked up our bags, deposited them and us into a campus van and drove us through a maze of pathways to our apartment block. I hope you can access the photos on FB. We have a ground level 2 bedroomed, 2 bathroomed suite of enormous proportions. It is hard to believe we are right in the heart of Dublin. All such a contrast to the bedlam of Belfast last night.
We soon found the Buttery and enjoyed a real Irish morning coffee and huge slabs of seed cake (like Mother used to make) there at student rates. This will certainly afford Peter the peace and quiet he needs to regain his health and allow him to start enjoying his dream tour of Ireland. It has stopped raining and the temperature has risen 10 degrees to 23.