Toward Shannon

Tuesday we have short ramble across the Liffey to catch an 11 AM train. Rain was predicted for the morning and it followed through obediently in the earlier morning, but by 10:15 it has ceased. We already have our train tickets in hand and we know that they open the gate to the platform about a half hour before departure. Check-out proceeds apace, and we cross the river just at 10:30. A homeless person with a sleeping bag and a proffered donation cup is camped on the bridge’s sidewalk. The trams cross the river here, and it being a narrow bridge, pedestrian progress is delayed as a tram passes, leaving no room between the oncoming tram and the camper.

Walking into the station we stop to read the electronic signs that announce the departure platform, and as we pause the sign changes to designate platform 5. Humanity surges toward the turnstiles, where you insert your ticket, collect it, and pass through. The turnstile rejects our tickets. An attendant waves us over to another turnstile, the tickets are accepted, and we follow the crowd down the platform. Ours are reserved seats, so there is no need to race, although a couple of older, toddling passengers slow even our leisurely pace.

Once aboard the assigned train car C, our reserved window seats have our names above in electronic readouts, so they are easy to find and claim. The seats have a table between them, and on the table an flyer reassures us that the snack trolley will come by shortly. What a relief after our large Irish breakfast!

One of the four seats around the table is similarly reserved, and our companion is a woman of slightly later vintage than we, toting a large, stuffed shopping bag. Being seated, she promptly falls asleep. We settle in as the train pulls out.

The snack trolley appears as promised before Portaloise, the first stop, and purveys snacks, fizzy drinks, tea and coffee, but nothing alcoholic. For that you have to walk back to car D. As I am busy blogging, Paula goes back to investigate and returns with a miniature of wine and a can of cider.

Our companion wakes up around Templemore, and we have a nice chat all the way to Limerick Junction. She has been to the States. She seems impressed that we know about Ireland’s history and we don’t sound like Americans.

At Limerick Junction we have to change to a shuttle train waiting for us. The train from Dublin will continue south to Cork, and the shuttle will take us a little further west to Limerick Colbert station downtown.

My brother Bill is a fan of the McCourt brothers (Angela’s Ashes, A Monk Swimming) and asked if we would be visiting the sites in Limerick. We are only in town for the transfer, and we understand that the locals are heartily tired of the infamy wrought by McCourt’s writings and tourist expectations. Limerick has had large infusions of EU money to upgrade infrastructure and community improvement. We’ll stop another time, and there will be other times.

We have done this before, and we know that very soon after the train arrives, the bus departs for Shannon Airport. We are prepared to exit the train, proceed to the bus ticket machine at 1:10, buy the tickets, and walk out to the bus departure bays, but we still ask to make sure we get on the right bus, one that doesn’t stop at every other real estate development on the way. The bus is waiting and we stow our luggage underneath. When the driver opens the entry door, we ask again just to make sure the other guy wasn’t “having us on.”

Departure is at 1:31. Ensconced on the bus, we look for the familiar roundabouts, landmarks, and industrial estates. As we pass Bunratty Castle, Shannon airport is not far and it’s time to start putting coats on. The bus pulls into the airport campus at 1:56 and stops between the departure and arrival doors, we retrieve our luggage, and the bus pulls away, headed for Ennis and Galway.

And across the parking lot is our destination hotel for two nights, the Park Inn Hotel by Radisson. We grab a luggage trolley, and push across the “car park” to check in, have a pint, and settle in.