29-31/08/2025

To Dublin

Another early start. And a day full of food.
Breakfast at the hotel.
Cakes and coffee at Istanbul airport lounge.
Brunch on the plane
Coffee and cake at the shopping centre whilst we waited for Delia to finish work.
Dinner out at an Italian.
No wonder all my clothes are tight.

A Day in Dublin

We had a hire car so we left the still working Delia and Liam in bed. We went to Avoca handicrafts looking for gifts, but pretty useless. Then to the James Joyce Martello Tower in Dun Laoghaire.  Fabulous little gem with informed delightful staff.

The whole purpose of this trip was to celebrate J’s sister Amelia’s 80th birthday. Two brothers had flown in from Chicago. Sadly Amelia is in a nursing home and didn’t feel she could cope with a meal out. All the sibling’s visited her at the home.

From Dublin

Hire car dropped. Dublin business lounge was not up to much … no tonic water to go with my gin!!! Understandably closing today for refurbishment. We perched on a radiator at the gate for an hour and a half as the plane was delayed. Seems to be a thing that there are insufficient seats at gates.

Flight didn’t land until 2130. Istanbul international airport is huge. We walked for miles to passport control and then even further to the metro. We had 2 long train rides to our hotel, arriving gone 11 pm. Hoped the wine night cap would help us sleep but …

Back to Ankara

01/09/2025

Goodness first day of a new month! Hotel breakfast not up to much. Near the hotel we managed to buy new Turkcel sims as the Vodafone do not have a good signal away from towns. And get some cash out … PTT and Halkbank do not charge a withdrawal fee. We have paid £16 before we sussed which banks to use. 😮

All the work has been done on the motorhome, bar the motor for lifting the bed and the replacement step. The latter is in cargo. So we’ve booked a night in another cheap hotel and booked Corrie in for another night at the kennels.

We then had best part of an hour train to the train station for our high speed train to Ankara, arriving at 1520. A taxi to our 4th hotel. J napped and I washed out our smalls.

A lot of effort for such a short time with the family. And I was very sad not to see Amelia.