Having had a great weekend exploring in and around Cork, it was time to head home. Unlike my last trip to Cork where I took a circuitous route home via Dublin with Iarnród Éireann and Aer Lingus Regional, this time we’d be taking a more direct route with Aer Lingus from Cork to London Heathrow. This flight would be the other ‘half’ of the roundtrip that we flew to Cork on, with the early evening departure from Cork forming the late evening return flight from England.

Back in July we decided to have a weekend away somewhere, however with work on both the Friday and Monday, it couldn’t be somewhere too far, and we needed to make the most of our time away. With a flight time of around an hour from the London airports and late flights able to get us there the Friday night, Cork seemed like the perfect destination. Of course, to start an Irish adventure it seemed only right to fly with Aer Lingus and so Friday 11th July saw us arriving at Heathrow’s Terminal 2 ready for the short hop across the Irish Sea.

After just over 24 hours in the German city of Bremen, it was time to head home and that of course meant a Ryanair flight back to Stansted. I was hoping for another short uneventful flight, partly as I had work at 0600 the following day and had chosen Bremen for this trip because the return flight was balanced perfectly between allowing time to explore and getting back at a reasonable time. Whilst the flight itself was short and uneventful, the lead up to it was not, so keep reading if you want to join me when things don’t quite go to plan.

After seemingly working every Bank Holiday weekend in 2024, I was pleased to have ended up only being rostered to work on the Bank Holiday Monday itself for the 2025 Late May Bank Holiday and so I decided to make use of the weekend and head out of the UK for a trip somewhere. Bremen is a destination that I have planned a trip to previously, but for one reason or another didn’t actually make, and so with some cheap Ryanair flights available, it seemed like the time to visit the German city. And so, early on a Bank Holiday Saturday, I was at Harlow Town station waiting for a delayed Stansted Express to the airport.

My trip to Eindhoven and The Netherlands had unfortunately only been partially successful and, having ran out of things to do in a closed Eindhoven, I was back at Eindhoven Airport a few hours ahead of my flight home. I’d once again be flying with Ryanair to London’s Stansted airport, the low-cost carrier’s largest base and an airport I’m not a fan of arriving into as its quite often chaotic. Would it be any different on this occasion?

Back at the end of March, with a few days off work and a yearning to explore, I had booked myself some cheap Ryanair flights for a daytrip to Europe. Just across the North Sea from the UK, The Netherlands is one of our closest neighbours, meaning it was just a short flight from Stansted that would take me to the Dutch city of Eindhoven. Whilst I’ve visited The Netherlands a couple of times before, this would be my first visit to Eindhoven, and I was looking forward to exploring. However, first I had to get there!