Tuesday 7th April

In the morning we went on another drive, this time to the north. We saw a nature reserve with lots of lovely old oak trees just coming into leaf - see photo. The wool and craft shop in Glengarriff was closed. Probably just as well going on what I saw through the window – I did not need any more temptation. We set off after lunch to drive to Cork – a different more direct route than we had taken on Sunday. The plane was more than an hour late which meant that we missed our connection in Dublin. The RyanAir staff made it clear that they are a point to point ( their words) airline and are in no way responsible if you miss your connecting flight. They had not checked our bags through from Cork to London – they told me at Cork that they don’t do that – in retrospect, obviously if they are a point-to-point airline. Anyway, there was another flight to London that night which we could get on for 100 euros each. We checked out all the other options and could find no cheaper way. RyanAir have many signs up that they have one of the best reliability records – 90% of their planes arrive on time. Pity if you are in the 10%. The positive side of this was that the plane went to Stanstead – so I got to go to another airport. Because we were later than expected we caught a cab back to J’s home – a nice spacious flat in a restored warehouse complex just SE of Tower Bridge. This was another plus – I had not had a ride in a London cab – an institution – but ₤10 divided by 2 was worth it.