We spent most of Saturday in transit of one form or another. After getting up early, finishing packing and just making the Waterbus to the airport, we then searched for the Air Lingus checkin and boarding gate. On being bussed to the plane we were told we would be waiting on the ground until fog cleared from Dublin airport. Some half hour later we took off for the relatively short flight from Venice to Dublin.

On arrival, we noted the temperature drop, but found our luggage had joined us, lugged it down to the hire car place and safely ensconced it in the boot of a lovely red Mazda 3 sedan. Being really new, and 6 speed manual (well, 8 if you include neutral and reverse), there was lots of bling to master. We had to ask how we start it (lol).

With gears and other bling mastered, we motored fro the airport to a nearby Premier Inn for an evening stop before going further afield. We then went walking to purchase a SIM card for my phone, the designated satanic for this trip. We bought a 3Mobile all you can eat data plan which did not end up costing too much, then returned to the hotel for dinner and sleep as we were both tired.

Premier Inns motto is “A Great Nights Rest”, oddly they failed their brief as at 2 am the fire alarm went off. We blearily went down to reception along with most of the rest of the residents only to be told it was a false alarm. It went off again before someone worked out how to turn it off. Back to bed for a truly terrible rest of night sleep.

Packed and breakfasted, we motored West, leaving the built up parts of the city onto the motorways for a fairly zippy trip (gotta love 120km/hr limits) to Clonmacnoise – the centre of Celtic Christianity and resting place of Saint Ciaran. 

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