What is this bus up to? – Donuts in Dublin
In this fun day out
- Donuts in Dublin
- Off to BHX
- EI263 Birmingham to Dublin Airport
- Watching planes on the mound
- Back through the Irish Shopping Maze
- EI3276 Dublin to Birmingham
- What is this bus up to?
- Community is everything
With me off the aircraft, it was time for a bus tour of Birmingham airport. Normally, this is a loop around to the other side of the international terminal and dropping people off at the right door.
It seems that wasn’t going to happen, as the bus driver decided that heading for Europier would be a better idea instead.
We drove around the tarmac, to an employee entrance/exit – and parked up. From there, there was a considerable discussion of what to do with us, and how to clear us through Immigration.
Part of the issue is that UK Domestic/Irish arrivals need to be handled differently to international arrivals (with no need for checks of passports).
In the end, we were let off the bus and directed up a flight of stairs. Meanwhile, a tensa-barrier was put up to stop arriving passengers from Europier continuing to clear – to allow us to pass.
As such, boarding passes were requested to exit this immigration process.
I’ve done my fair share of flights between the Dublin and the UK to notice this was more than out of the ordinary. I dread to think where the luggage ended up too.
Thankfully, as I was on hand luggage only, I breezed through, and headed for the exit.
Almost out of the secure area
Back to reality.
With it only being 7 pm, there’s no need for an Ola or Uber to head home – it’s straight to the train station, crossing a much quieter Birmingham Airport. However, I needed a comfort break first. I may criticise Birmingham Airport for a lot of things, but their commitment to accessibility of all in the airport is to be welcomed… especially in the small room.
I can get behind a sign like this.
Shhh…
With a ride on the air-rail link, I was dumped at Birmingham International
It’s like train from The Adventure Game.No Dragons were hurt in the making of this cable car journey. A MagLev system however was horribly remove though.
Arrving into the train station, there’s the small matter of getting a train ticket. A tap of a contactless card later on ticket machine saw to that, and I had a £2.50 train ticket to central Birmingham.
And on top of that, a train was coming in.
Perfect timing.
Virgin Trains Birmingham International to Birmingham New Street
By some luck, I found a seat for the 10-minute ride to Birmingham. Which is always nice to to see.
With Virgin Trains soon to fade from an active presence in the UK market, it’s interesting to see how their trains have held up. The Pendolinos have been through a few refurbishments, and apart from needing the light replaced, they’ve done well (Even though the tilt profile makes for a much narrower cabin than the trains they replaced).
Meanwhile, the less said about the Voyagers… well – they’re an adequate train. Just too short in length – with the ones assigned to Virgin being five cars long, and the CrossCountry ones a mixture of four and five car units. And whoever thought of putting the waste tanks next to a hot exhaust needs to be shot.
With the train pulling to New Street station, there were priorities – get some dinner, and then head home.
And normally, I’d be on a bus home. Except it seems the bus company was playing silly… with services reduced to every 20 minutes in the evening on one of the main corridors in and out of Birmingham.
Well. As much as I like being in the sun and walking, I jumped a cab for the short ride home.
It had been a long day after all.
Finally: Community is everything
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