My World … and welcome to it!

Wow. That’s it in a nutshell. Just. Wow.

I can’t believe the trip is done and we’re back home (3 days already). I had the BEST time even though I’m completely tuckered out.

The trip over was delightful. Not. 6 airports and 5 plane changes and one stop in Heathrow security for a “feel up.” We left Billings at 7:16 A.M. on Wednesday the 8th. Had a nice flight on a 727 to DIA and sat next to a very nice woman who was headed, with family, to Hawaii. I swear to god she looked like she was about mid-20’s and when I told her that she blushed, said thanks, she was 40-ish. Ish being a fine old gaelic word, or so I learned on the trip.

ANYhoo. Her hubby is an emergency room doc and they have 3 kids and were meeting her parents in Denver. They were flying in from Minnesota and it was going to be close. Hope they all made it and had as grand a time as we did.

DIA. It’s big. We all wandered around and finally settled on a small bar/cafe for a bite. Even though I had wanted to go UPstairs where there was a bakery. We finally boarded a 737 to Dulles after learning our 45 minute layover wasn’t going to be a problem because the gate we were leaving from for London was … wait for it … right next door to the gate we were arriving in from Denver.

OK we’re grand.

Oh wait, no we’re not. After arriving 10 minutes early we sat on the tarmac for an HOUR waiting for the big butt plane ahead of us to leave the gate. Good thing we didn’t have to walk far.

All righty then. Boarded the 777 overwater for Heathrow. Jammed into our seats like sardines. Well, it’s a nice plane with tiny screens in the back of every seat and a selection of movies and tv shows playing the entire flight. Am I glad I brought my iPod earbuds ’cause the ones the airlines provide suck. Big time.

Anyway, I watched most of Transporter 3 on the way over. Wasn’t really in to any of the other selections. Had a meal, tried to nap. Actually did sleep a little bit. I have to say the “No Jet Lag” stuff I bought from Magellan’s actually lives up to it’s name. We both took it as directed on the package and arrived tired but feeling pretty darn good. Landing in Heathrow was uneventful. We arrived THURSDAY the 9th at 1P.M. Remember, we LEFT Wednesday 7:16 A.M. from Billings. I’m just sayin’ …

Had to go out and come back in through customs & security and that’s when I set off the security alarm. forgot to take off my watch. I pretended I was in the doctor’s office as the female security guard felt me up in front of everyone. Afterwards I heard the damned alarm going off every few seconds so I wasn’t alone.

We managed to find our way through the maze to the Aer Lingus gate where we had a short wait. The flight over to Dublin on an Aerbus 320 was not much longer than the one from Billings to Denver. BUT …

They dumped us out on the tarmac in front of a small terminal. I ran for the bathroom and when I got back out discovered everyone had headed up the stairs WITHOUT ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS. We had about 45 minutes to get to the next gate for the flight to Shannon. We had to go out through customs and back in through security and THEN we found the REAL Dublin airport which is at least as large as DIA. Our gate was D69 which is about as far out as you can get.

So I was sent ahead to hold the plane and boy am I thankful for all those moving walkways. I’m sure they all thought I was having a heart attack but they sent someone to look for the stragglers and I collapsed on the plane (an Aerbus 330 which was headed to Boston after a quick stop in Shannon).

Well it turns out that one of our number opened his big yap and made some comment about “we should have just bombed the terrorists in the first place.” OH GREAT. One of the words that should never come out of your mouth at an airport and he has to say it in Dublin. I didn’t know it at the time but they are having problems again in the North. Just sweet.

So part of the holdup was he was hauled off to a little room by security. Well DUH. But everyone made it and off we went to Shannon. We deplaned and went to collect our luggage.

Yup. You guessed it. MY bag (along with 4 others including the big mouth) stayed behind in Dublin. Well bother.

We met up with our Tour Director, Maura who, it turned out, is an absolute peach. A real wild Irish rose, she is. She’s a teacher who only needs to defend her dissertation to obtain her Ph.D. from, I believe, Toronto University (or it might be a university IN Toronto). She does a couple of these tours a year and I’m sure she won’t want to be messin’ with the likes of us any time again soon.

After a bite to eat we hopped on the coach (which was lovely!) and Tommy drove us up to Galway where we were booked in to the Clybaun Hotel. We were supposed to join with a group from D.C. but they got stuck in New Jersey and didn’t arrive until late afternoon on Friday. So on Friday instead of starting the tour we went out on a short jaunt to Spiddle and then over to Connemara (which was closed as it was Good Friday and Ireland being mostly Catholic was closed pretty much everywhere). We went back to Galway city center and did some window shopping and had a bite.

On the way up to Galway I kept nodding off and when the coach geared down I’d wake up just a bit and think we were landing again. NEVER, and I mean NEVER, do 5 flights in 24 hours if you can help it.

OK, where was I? So the group from DC showed up minus some luggage (do I detect a trend here?) while my luggage finally showed. Boy it was good to put on some clean clothes!

Saturday was a BIG day since we were combining the Friday and Saturday itineraries. We headed off to the Burren (means rocky place, if I recall correctly), appropriate since it appears that the SECOND largest crop Ireland has (next to the taters) is rocks.

We made a brief stop at Dunguaire Castle:

Where Maura had to restrain on of the “D’s” as the road is little more than a cow path (literally!) and the sharp curves makes it difficult to see oncoming traffic PLUS they drive on the left side of the road so most of us were very confused.

From there we headed to the Aillwee Caves and the Cliffs of Moher. Then on to Bunratty Castle where we were delightfully entertained AND enlightened by the Castle Guide. A dapper little man who thoroughly enjoyed playing to his captive audience. There was also a folk park to visit which showed the town as it had been through the years. I had a lovely pint of Guiness at the pub and the barmaid artfully drew a shamrock in the foam. Way cool!

We stayed in Killarney (Kill meaning “church” in Gaelic, btw) at the Lime Court B&B which looks MUCH nicer on the website than in reality. I will say that the rooms were quite clean but I can’t say much about the “dinner” we were fed at the B&B next door. It was little more than a snack and I think everyone was hungry a few hours later. I know one of the Dads took his girls out for pizza after. Good thing I had a snack bar with me.

Next day we visited Muckross House where I could have stayed a week just contemplating the beauty of the grounds. I swear to you it is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I’ll put up a couple of pictures tomorrow.

From there we stopped for a demonstration by a gentleman farmer who trains sheep dogs using a series of whistles. Very informative and delightful and well worth the admission price of €5. We then drove the Ring of Kerry and back to Killarney for the night.

I’ll be adding more to this post later but I need to have a cup of tea right now. I’ll be doing a slideshow of the pictures I took and will add a link when they’re done.