Back at the end of February, I was fortunate to spend a weekend in Dublin catching up with friends and exploring in and around the Irish capital. On a previous visit to the Emerald Isle I had done a walking tour and seen some of the capital’s top sights and so on this trip I was hoping to see some more of the city as well as some of the nearby towns.
Towards the end of February, I was lucky enough to become rather familiar with Birmingham airport, flying from it two weekends in a row for international trips. The first of these trips was a short hop across the Irish Sea to the capital of the emerald isle, Dublin, flying with Ireland’s national carrier Aer Lingus.
We’ve been lucky enough to visit Athens on two occasions, first in April 2014 and most recently in May 2017. Both visits were excellent, and we discovered some amazing places as well as finding some hidden gems throughout the city. Personally, if we were to visit again, I would visit in April or September, as by the time of our visit in mid-May the temperature was rising and many of the sights offer limited shade from the scorching sun.
The early evening of Friday 17th January saw me back at Brunel’s railway cathedral, London Paddington, having finished work for the week and ready to head to Bristol for a weekend with friends. Due to the timing of my trip, I was unfortunately not able to travel first-class, however I was able to try one of GWR’s new ‘Superfast’ services in standard class.
After a couple of days in Bristol visiting friends and exploring the city, I was back at the wonderful Bristol Temple Meads station for my journey back to London. Temple Meads was originally opened in 1840 as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway from London Paddington. As with the rest of the railway, Temple Meads was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, although his original station is no longer part of the current operational station.
The last planned trip of my busy August and September was a couple of days in Bristol, travelling to Bristol Temple Meads (TM) station and back with Great Western Railway (GWR). GWR run four trains an hour to Bristol, with two an hour heading to Bristol TM via Bath and two calling at Bristol Parkway en route to South Wales.
Flights & Times 