Legends of the Sun Pig

After our time in London during, we left for Dublin on the morning of Thursday 9th July. We left our hotel in Barking early enough to absorb any delays because of the Tube strike, but it all went smoothly. We were flying out of City Airport, so it was DLR most of the way there. It was my first time at City, and it was cute, apart from the toilets, which were in a bit of a state.

We stayed at the Castle Hotel in Dublin, a classic sprawling Georgian maze of a building. Our room was much bigger and more comfortable than the Travelodge in London, and we sank into it gratefully when we arrived. We had dinner in the restaurant downstairs, and then Fiona, Abi, and I went out on a ghost tour walk starting at City Hall South of the river. (Alex was tired; he stayed in the room.) It was more of a historical walk rather than a ghost tour, but our guide did emphasise the most grisly parts of Dublin’s history and its most unsavoury characters. We had a fine time.

Still hiring!

Wednesday after MineCon we met up with Jules & Becca for a (slightly rainy) picnic in St. James’s Park. Then we wandered around the Mall a bit, passed by Buckingham Palace, and finished up the afternoon over on the South Bank.

We split up early because of the tube strike. We walked over the (other) Golden Jubilee Bridge, and caught a very busy District Line train back to Barking before the whole system shut down.

In the evening, Alex, Fiona, and I walked to the Cineworld in Ilford to see Minions, which was fun.

This looked amazing on the enormous screens in the main hall.

Tuesday after MineCon we wandered around London a bit on our own. We visited the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street, which I found notable for a) being expensive (£50 for the four of us, for a tiny exhibit you breeze through in about half an hour) and b) unintentionally creepy wax figures. The house/museum seems to have two overlapping goals: it is furnished in late 1800s style, to give you an impression of what 221b Baker Street would have been like back then; and you are surrounded by waxwork characters posed in scenes from of Shelock Holmes’ adventures, to give you an impression of…being in the stories? I don’t know. It was a curious shrine, and it seemed to delight in blurring the lines between history and fiction.

We had a late lunch at Pizza Express (is a gluten-free pizza better than no pizza at all? I’m starting to doubt), and wandered to Regent’s Park where we saw some black swans.

Alex and I went back to the hotel, while Abi and Fiona went bra shopping at M&S.