April 12 – Dublin to Waterford, Ireland

Got to Dublin in good shape. Good food, attentive Aer Lingus flight attendants, free entertainment the whole way, much better than we could have hoped for, but…. our flight into Dublin was supposed to land about 5:15 am (yes, A.M.!). It actually landed at 4:40 am, over half an hour early! We had expected to be able to sleep at least a brief period on the plane. No such luck! With the time difference of seven hours, we arrived in Dublin at 10:15 pm Denver time. We’re usually watching the news then, and watching TV up to an hour after, so it wasn’t even close to our normal bedtime. We planned on catching up later, not knowing how hard it would be until we could.

First stop, the car rental counter. We had a small car with manual transmission reserved, but ended up upgrading to a BRAND NEW Dacia Duster SUV. I think it’s made by Hyundai for the European market. More about cars and my driving as we go along – lots of interesting bits there!

We got directions how to bypass Dublin, since we’re going to be spending a few days there after we circle Ireland, and headed down the Eastern Coast alongside the Irish Sea. First stop was Ferns, Ireland, where we visited an old Gothic church and graveyard, the first of many we will see while we’re here.

Continuing South, we arrived in Wexford, a large port city at the bottom Southeast corner of Ireland. Deciding we were hungry for something to eat at 10:30 am, we started wandering around the town. We found a local heritage center with a square tower and a round tower, but ended up returning to them after we ate.

Our grandson has trained us well, and we ate our first official meal in Ireland at, wait for it….. McDonald’s! Let me just say this now about McDonald’s in Ireland vs. America – they look similar on the outside, but they don’t have Play Places ™, don’t have the wide ranging menu we have, and don’t have dollar coffee and soft drinks. What they do have is automatic doors upon entering and leaving, oversize trash receptacle with automatic lids, and lots and lots of seating, along with male/female/family restrooms, although they call them “Toilets” here.

Finally nourished, not realizing yet how tired we were, we returned to the two towers we had seen earlier and wandered around the only one accessible, the square tower. The round tower was on a high hill with no access.

Our next stop was New Ross, where the Irish Famine of the 1840’s hit very hard. It was during this time my ancestors, named McMahon, left Ireland for what they hoped would be a much brighter future. They initially settled in Maryland and moved around from there. The ship Dunroby, pictured below, was a “coffin” or “famine” ship, which was taken out of normal transport service and began transporting Irish Emigrants to Canada and the U.S. Thousands and thousands of Irish came this way in the largest single emigration in the nation’s history.

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Our first B&B reservation was in Waterford, so we headed that way, now just barely after lunch. Waterford, if you know anything, 😉 is the home of Waterford Crystal, some of the most expensive glass items in the world. We didn’t intend to take a tour of the factory, but to give you an idea of its exclusivity, they charge admission to their store!

We drove along the River Lee docks in Waterford with the usual range of shops that attract tourists, but didn’t stop to shop. Continuing to drive around, we found our second McDonald’s since arriving in Ireland, but we didn’t stop there, either.

We were now beginning to feel the effects of the flight, and decided to take a chance the B&B would allow us to check in at 1:30 pm instead of 2:00 pm. I’m sure Susan, the owner of the house, probably thought we were slugs, but once we got to the room with our luggage, we both crashed and slept the next three hours. The next morning, before we left, we had a nice breakfast and chat with Susan and another couple from England. Susan is 4^th Generation in a home built around 1850. Her 2G-Grandfather was in cattle and brought some of the first oil into Waterford, until he couldn’t bring it in on the river anymore.

April 11 – Denver to Chicago to Dublin, Ireland

This is being written five days late, but I will try to be as complete as possible with events as they occurred. Part of the day’s activities can be said to really start two days previously. The night of April 9 and then again April 10 were relatively sleepless. We had been packing, sorting, re-sorting, arranging, re-arranging and, in general, being frustrated by the whole process.

As it would turn out, we also ended up without a reliable Internet connection two nights, slept rather than work online, and generally tried to get a start when possible. It is now the 15^th of April, five days into our trip, and the bugs have been worked out, I think, as long as we get a reliable connection most of the time.

Airlines now have weight restrictions on the baggage they carry. This amounted to 50 lbs. for our large suitcases and 22 lbs. for our smaller carryons. Size was not a factor because we had already studied dimensions before we went from store to store to find suitable luggage.

So, once you know size and weight, you collect everything you want to take with you on the trip and then start filling up the cases. When the case is full, you weigh it. Then you take stuff out (usually) to cut the weight. Through the stages of this process, you might do this several times. The more you do it, the better your chances of having to leave something home you could use on the trip or, worse yet, forgetting something you will find you need but don’t have.

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We began planning for this trip back in December, 2016, so we were getting to crunch time. Cyndie had not had the same problems with packing I had. The first packing of the large case was almost 10 lbs. heavy, and the smaller case came in at a whopping 27 lbs. I took things out, consolidated where possible, determined necessary vs. nice to have, and “worked” at packing and re-packing each night to the detriment of my sleep.

As it ultimately turned out, we saw all manner and types of luggage at the airport, got a cursory glance on the weighing scale from the gate agent, and will probably not have to be too concerned about weight until we begin to fly within the UK. Supposedly, things are checked a little more strictly than in America, probably because they can then force you to check the bag and pay the fee.

No problem getting our luggage in Chicago, but we did break a small caster on one carryon, making it difficult to pull along. We’ll try to fix that somehow before we come home. Other than that, the only problem has been weight (airplanes carry 50 lbs. very easily, but humans don’t, especially up stairs. We are already thinking of ways to “lighten the load” a bit on our return, even if we need to check a third bag.

TSA Pre-Check is great, but I still got X-rayed because I was wearing my knee braces. In Chicago, we had to transfer to the International Terminal, meaning a whole new TSA inspection, this time without pre-check. Shoes off, electronics out, one quart plastic bag and bottles visible, the whole nine yards. X-rays again because of the braces.

Photos and more journal coming…..I PROMISE!