Day 39 - Monday 3rd September

The breakfast in the hotel restaurant was very elegant. It has a high-class decor in the original part of the castle overlooking the river. They offered a combination of buffet and a-la-carte dishes.

We needed to get to Dublin airport by mid-afternoon to fly back to London and so we checked out at 10am. The light showers we'd experienced since breakfast disappeared before we reached Galway.

The trip to Galway was on rural roads and highways but from Galway to Dublin we were travelling on 120km/h motorways. So the driving was much easier after Galway.

For lunch we stopped at a town near Dublin called at Maynooth. There we found a nice cafe next to the ruins of Maynooth Castle. After lunch, we looked at the castle and walked down to the canal near the railway line.

The rental car company's instructions proved to be easy to follow and we returned the car without any drama.

Thankfully we'd allowed plenty of time at the airport because there was a long queue at airport security. Then we walked from terminal 1 to terminal 2 to claim our VAT refund.

The CityJet flight left on time and arrived 10 minutes early at London City Airport. The driver we'd booked was waiting for us when we'd collected our bags. This driver took us on an amazing route of back streets to find our way to East Finchley. The trip took almost an hour.

When we arrived at about 8pm, Amelia and Alexis were already asleep.