Day trip to Dublin

As I knew a few weeks in advance that I would be off work on Tuesday April 22nd '09, I decided to take advantage of one of Ryanair's special 2p return flights ( that end up costing 25 quid ) and head off to Dublin for a day. I'd been before and knew I would mostly see Ryanair and Aer Lingus but discovered that between them these two seem to dominate there even more than in the past.

It would also be my first chance to see the Terminal 2 development and I caught first sight of it from the plane as we came in to land.



There are a few good spotting/photography locations around the airport but they are on the side opposite the terminal so prepare for a bit of a walk. I've used a taxi to get there in the past but as the drivers can no longer jump the queue on return from a very short fare they are reluctant to take you nowadays.

So allow yourself 40 minutes to get to the first spot. ( Probably not that long to be honest, but I got disorientated by the new Terminal 2 building site ). Basically when you come out of the Terminal turn right and keep the airport on your right. Eventually you will find that your are following the perimeter fence. Simples!

You will eventually reach a junction after walking under the flight path and turn right following the fence. The first spot is a couple of hundred yards away. Look for a red crash gate on your right and cross the road where you will find some concrete blocks to stand on. Nice line-up shots from here can be had but be aware that they will probably be subject to heat haze in the summer. I was lucky on my visit - no sun.



About 100 yards further along the road is the main place where all the spotters go as there is a lay-by to park in. This place used to be tremendous for photography but not so good now that they have put up a new fence. It's still possible with care to get decent shots but this place is really for the binocular and notebook brigade. Here's some shots I took from there last year.



Let's move on to my favourite place at Dublin. Just another 15-20 minute walk along the fence to what used to be the blue long stay car park. ( I discovered this was closed last year when I tried to cadge a lift on the car park bus only to discover it was no longer there - I felt such a fool. ) Here there is a raised mound about 200 yards long that runs along the side of the road allowing you to shoot over the road.. From here you can get rotation shots and taxy shots - and if the runway changes there is no need to move to get line-up and landing shots.



Here's some examples of the kind of shots you expect from here if the runway changes. I'm sure Martin won't mind that I've borrowed a couple of his.