2 posts tagged “travel”

So there we were waiting the hours that have to pass between the time when you check in for a international flight and when the plane actually takes off.

Now as nice as the departures section of OR Tambo is, doing it with two extremely tired children is not to be recommended. Charlotte was well behaved but Devon, as soon as his attention was captured by an item, be it a display of chocolates in duty free, an aeroplane or a truck traversing the runway he was fixed to the spot. Neither promises of greater treasures down the road or threats of finding a naughty chair. stair or spot in the airport would move the little fellow from his chosen spot. And if you were to threaten to leave him behind he quietly lay down on the floor. Not screaming hysterically, until I picked him up though.

Eventually we made it to the gate and we could relax a bit as a nice old Mancunian entertained both Charlotte and Devon while we waited for the plane.

Eventually we boarded and considering that this was their first time flying both were well behaved.

Schipol was great, as far as airports can be great and eventually we hit Dublin airport.

We sailed through customs and immigration and found Zoe. Leigh and the boys outside waiting for us.

A quick detour to McDonalds and we were soon on our way in 2 cars from the airport to Port Laoise.

Considering that I trashed the hotel in a earlier post, I thought I would post on what I liked about the hotel. The staff said hello every time you walked past them and in the lobby there were at least 6 people around on a constant basis.

The rooms are magnificent with the most comfortable bed I have slept in a long time, the view over Barcelona from the 19th floor is awesome and there is wired and wireless broadband in every room (at a reasonable cost as well).
The bathrooms are a sight to behold as well. With a separate shower and toilet cubicle and double basins you know that this is something special. Any hotel that has a separate shower is doing well in my book.

What I love about this shower is that they have mounted the shower head in the roof of the shower so that is cascades down in something resembling a tropical rainstorm. It also

has those funny auxiliary shower heads at waist and chest level with separate temperature controls. I tried this but I can't say that I would include this feature in a shower I was building. There was also a bench in the shower which is nice for sitting down and washing your feet.

The entertainment system was out of this world and with a flat panel Bang & Olufsen TV and a remote that felt more like something used for fending off unwanted nighttime visitors I was wondering how I could steal the TV without the hotel , or the airline, noticing.

I had supper in one of the restaurants on Tuesday night and although the burger was horrendously overpriced it was very nice and the service way out of the top drawer.
When I am rich and famous I might go back there, but I would rather stay in a four star hotel with ambition than a five star hotel that thinks it has reached the top of its game.