Ireland Day 0 - Travel Day

 

A happy ending to a long night and day. 

We are off on another adventure...... 

Our trip to Ireland started out much like our Alberta Canada trip ended.  Canceled flight and a mad scramble to find new flights.


About 4pm Sunday we were notified our Aer Lingus flight direct to Dublin had been canceled for "Operational Reasons".  Not sure what that means other than no plane as we had scheduled.  They booked us on a flight the next night (Monday), but that would have caused us to miss a day of planned and paid for touring. Randy spent lots of time on hold and on calls, and lots more time surfing to check other options. His hard work led us to a flight through Heathrow to Dublin that still left Sunday night. The Heathrow flight went off without a hitch, however our connection to Dublin was delayed for over 3 hours, related to the cyber issues Europe has been experiencing the last couple of days. These affected flight systems, so people were checked in manually, then a  checked bag had to be found for a passenger that had to be deplaned, and finally a 10 minute wait after landing because a crew was needed to connect the jet bridge to the plane. Oh well...travel can teach patience…or not. We made it finally, checked into our hotel, met up with Rebecca who had successfully flown by herself from Coloumbus, and headed out to a local pub for a delicious dinner, and of course, a pint of Guinness. The only missed activity was a walking tour we would have enjoyed. 

We did lots of this…

…and this…

First glimpse of Ireland!

Then more waiting. By the way, Randy is REALLY at driving on the opposite side of the road with a manual transmission!

Guinness Beef Stew

Coddle


Tomorrow we visit Trinity College where we will see The Book of Kells, tour a famine ship, and sit in on an Eventide Service. Now to sleep. 

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