We're here!

The sun is shining in Dublin, which we are told is a rare event. The tour manager says we must have brought the sun from Texas (she lives in New Mexico, when not traveling) because the forecast was for rain.

I love to travel, but I DO NOT love spending 11 hours on various aircraft and 6 hrs waiting in airports. Connections were fine, customs went smoothly we couldn’t have asked for better “travel mercies”, but……
For the 7 and a half hour leg of the trip I got to sit next to a hummer. I don’t even think he was aware of it but about every 10-15 seconds he made humming noises. Yes, I finally became accustomed to the noise, but for the first 30 min or so I heard every HUM. N. sat right behind a man in a broken seat. And when the man squirmed, he was practically sitting in N’s lap. We didn’t sleep much, but when you close your eyes at 9 pm and open them again with the flight crew telling you it is 4 am- you figure out you slept one hour. I originally was told that the time difference was 8 hours from Texas time. It is 6 hours different and that only happened last night. They changed to “spring time”- our daylight savings time. So when it is 6 pm here it is 12 noon there, if my calculations are correct.
The airplane food was interesting. We were offered the usual pretzels and drink on the DFW to Chicago leg. When we got settled on the Chicago to Heathrow flight, we were served a choice of roast beef or pasta. There were veggies and a roll and cake. Not bad, not great, but not bad. A (very) few hours later, breakfast came around and we were handed a box. In the box were a napkin, a spork, a little bowl of fruit and a tiny banana bread loaf.

On arriving in London we had to transfer to another terminal and we walked and walked and walked and went up escalators and down escalators and up them again. We got on a tram and then were taken to the other terminal where we walked and went up and down and finally got to gate 82 to Dublin. The flights were all full and this was no exception. The exception was that there were no pretzels and juice—unless you wanted to buy them.

The group from Brownwood numbers 20 and the entire tour group is small at only 28. We haven’t met the others yet, but we must be sure not to overwhelm them with all things Texan.

Driving along the highway to get to the Dublin hotel, we saw beautiful yellow daffodils all along the roadway. Several trees are in bloom and I must get a picture of them to attach

Of course, N was keeping his eye out for any SmartCars he might see on the road and he saw one. I’m surprised; I really thought they’d be all over the place.

I’m writing this off line because of the internet charges here. I’ll download it tonight after supper. In some places where we’ve traveled, wireless internet is free, but not here. There is a keyboard that is connected to the TV that we tinkered with to see how it works, but we gave up, as they were getting ready to charge us in addition to our wireless card.
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From Nick,
The “row houses” are everywhere. I will get some pictures to attach in the morning. They all seem to be the same size and architecture. The price for everything is high. This is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in. When you factor in that the American dollar is worth half of what the Euro is worth that really makes it bad. An example is a 12 ounce diet Coke in a “Quickie Mart” is 4 Euro so that’s $8 each. If you are planning on some exotic gift from Ireland you can forget it. Then as the poet once said “money is just paper with some paint on it.”
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That’s all for today—we saw a superior show tonite—more about that later. We’re pooped!