Travelling to Dublin
So, I've made it to Dublin. An interesting trip, not without a few difficulties.
I decided to travel by train and ferry, which is how I travelled to the Dublin Eurocon back in 2014. This involved trains from Guildford to Reading, Reading to Birmingham New Street, and Birmingham to Holyhead, thence the Stena Line ferry to Dublin.
Everything went well up to Birmingham (although finding space for my suitcase on the Birmingham train proved difficult with lots of re-arranging of other people's luggage). But shortly after leaving Birmingham, the guard came through the train to announce that it was terminating at Shrewsbury where we'd have to catch another train on an adjacent platform.
What seemed to be the case was that the train from Birmingham came in on one platform, the train from Holyhead on the next platform, and everyone swapped over. No reason was given for this. And at least one person on the train I then boarded was so engrossed in her headphones that she had no idea she had to change trains and it took three of us and the guy with the catering trolley to convince her the train was no longer going to Wolverhampton. (Interestingly, the catering staff and guard also changed to the new train.)
They'd also programmed the automatic announcements about stops with the wrong itinerary. For most of the journey it was giving the correct station, but there were a few extra stops in north Wales, leading to the announcement that we'd arrived in Holyhead long before we got to Bangor.
There was no appreciable delay in getting to Holyhead and the check-in queue for the ferry moved fairly quickly. From the terminal, we were put on buses to board the ferry. Just as the bus got on board, it started to rain.
The crossing was uneventful and on time. I had a meal and then found the quiet lounge where I could sit and read. (Not so quiet. One guy had fallen asleep and was snoring loudly.) I was about the last off in Dublin and as I walked past the baggage carousel, my case was the only one on it, and even then I totally failed to see it. Well, it was midnight by then.
There is no taxi rank at the terminal, but the office there gave out lists of taxi numbers, but I was unable to find one that worked and had taxis that were willing to come out to the terminal. I was just about resigned to walk to the centre and see if I could get a taxi there when a number of taxis turned up. I got to my hotel by 00:45.
Buswells is an old-style hotel where they lock the front door after eleven p.m. and you have to leave your key with reception when you go out. Furthermore, the lift was out of action. The guy on the desk actually carried my case up to the second floor for me. But I'd arrived.
Also posted to Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.
I decided to travel by train and ferry, which is how I travelled to the Dublin Eurocon back in 2014. This involved trains from Guildford to Reading, Reading to Birmingham New Street, and Birmingham to Holyhead, thence the Stena Line ferry to Dublin.
Everything went well up to Birmingham (although finding space for my suitcase on the Birmingham train proved difficult with lots of re-arranging of other people's luggage). But shortly after leaving Birmingham, the guard came through the train to announce that it was terminating at Shrewsbury where we'd have to catch another train on an adjacent platform.
What seemed to be the case was that the train from Birmingham came in on one platform, the train from Holyhead on the next platform, and everyone swapped over. No reason was given for this. And at least one person on the train I then boarded was so engrossed in her headphones that she had no idea she had to change trains and it took three of us and the guy with the catering trolley to convince her the train was no longer going to Wolverhampton. (Interestingly, the catering staff and guard also changed to the new train.)
They'd also programmed the automatic announcements about stops with the wrong itinerary. For most of the journey it was giving the correct station, but there were a few extra stops in north Wales, leading to the announcement that we'd arrived in Holyhead long before we got to Bangor.
There was no appreciable delay in getting to Holyhead and the check-in queue for the ferry moved fairly quickly. From the terminal, we were put on buses to board the ferry. Just as the bus got on board, it started to rain.
The crossing was uneventful and on time. I had a meal and then found the quiet lounge where I could sit and read. (Not so quiet. One guy had fallen asleep and was snoring loudly.) I was about the last off in Dublin and as I walked past the baggage carousel, my case was the only one on it, and even then I totally failed to see it. Well, it was midnight by then.
There is no taxi rank at the terminal, but the office there gave out lists of taxi numbers, but I was unable to find one that worked and had taxis that were willing to come out to the terminal. I was just about resigned to walk to the centre and see if I could get a taxi there when a number of taxis turned up. I got to my hotel by 00:45.
Buswells is an old-style hotel where they lock the front door after eleven p.m. and you have to leave your key with reception when you go out. Furthermore, the lift was out of action. The guy on the desk actually carried my case up to the second floor for me. But I'd arrived.
Also posted to Dreamwidth. There are
comments there so far.