Left home at 7.30 this morning to catch Ryanair flight to Dublin to wait a very tedious 4 hours or more in a grossly overcrowded Airport. It seems incredible that there is no seating anywhere in the check-in area of the Departure area, except upstairs at one of the so called restaurants. Dublin Airport advertises their Anna Livia Lounge for €20 for up to three hours (and I would have been happy to have done that), but you can only get to if after you have your Boarding Pass and gone through security. My onwards flight to Leeds Bradford check in gate wasn't opened until 1315hrs and the boarding time was 1445 hrs, so I had to eek out a cup of Cafe Latte from 10.00 to 13.15hrs; my laptop battery (and the story about that is to follow) ran out after a couple of hours, and I also had to pay €3.00 for 30 minutes WiFi access……Pity the poor business traveller wanting to plug his laptop in and comunicate with the world!
Anyway, Leeds Bradford Airport came and went quite quickly as a bus was leaving for Harrogate shortly after getting out of the airport; Very friendy people up here and the bus stopped at the end of St Georges Road where I had booked into Applewood House, which, so far, I can highly recommend; Barry and Lesley Knight were most welcoming and Barry himself drove me out to the Yorkshire Event Centre where the Harrogate Specialty & Fine Food Fair begins tomorrow,Sunday – thus my visit to Harrogate.