10-22-2019, 07:13 PM
You asked.
Ireland: The Approach
Oh my god did we make good time on the the drive to the airport. Time enough to stop for lunch at the Casa De Fruta. And we still could have made a good thirty minute stop in Milbrae to chat with the Yeti if Victory fencing was still in Milbrae. There was no in the line at the check-in desk. TSA was a minor inconvenience at best. And the Queen because of her major travel skills got us a pass into the United Club despite the fact we weren’t flying United. We got to wait in the United Club lounge in the comfy chairs with free snacks and drinks for the three hours.
After the experiences on Aer Lingus, I wish we had flown with United.
Aer Lingus was always the gold standard to fly to Ireland. They always treated me well and the service was great. It doesn’t hurt that my first flight to Ireland 40 years ago was in Business Class. Yes, I did the math (It was really tricky math using a function called ‘subtraction’) and figured out it was 40 years ago that I first went to Ireland.
So, I booked the flight on line. And the way things are now with airlines, it’s all about the add-ons. I added on the bags. I paid extra for a seat up front. There was even a section where I could pre-order meals. Which I did despite the fact they were horrendously expensive.
My first mistake was booking out seat right up against the bulkhead instead of one row back from the bulkhead so I could have some leg room. We started to watch our movies, of which where they were plenty I wanted to see. But there was something wrong with the headphones or the jack, they supplied us, because all I could hear was static. And I had to hear it at full volume or I wouldn’t be able to hear anything.
After a lot of fiddling with the plug, the sound got minimally better. But I had to press on the plug to actually get any sound. I found out that if I just the right ear plug and not the left ear plug, I would get less distortion. It was a crappy way to watch the musical ‘Yesterday’
They brought us our expensive dinners during the movie. They were marginal at best. The Queen was happy that wine came with the meal. But it came on china with real silverware. But while I was getting my overpriced meal, everybody else was getting their meal for free. Sure, there wasn’t china and silverware, but it was basically the same meal.
On the bulkhead in front of our seat was mounted a monitor to give the flight status. It showed the wind speed, distance traveled and where in the world the plane was at the moment. I like seeing that map because it gave me a sense of how much longer I would have to spend with my feet pressed up against the bulkhead.
I got about 3/4 quarters of the way through John Wick 3 before I started to fall asleep. I found another pair of ear buds that I didn’t have to push against to make work. I still had to use only side and at full volume to avoid the static.
I turned off my monitor and prepared to get a couple of hours of sleep.
Yeah, not so much. The status monitor in front of us constantly changed brightness levels every few seconds as it cycled through the information it was sharing. Even through my closed eyelids, I could see it flicker. When it showed the map, it was incredibly bright. It was like a torture device sitting right in front of my face.
I was able to move to an empty seat a few rows back but the flickering of the monitor was still visible.
One of the other reasons for the seat up front was to be near the toilet. The first thing the air crew did was to put a sign on the door informing us we had to go to the back of the plane and use the toile there since this toile was now the exclusive use of the first class passengers.
To sum up, Aer Lingus made me sad.
On the plus side, when the flight was over, we were in Dublin.
The Queen was in charge of renting the car. Yes, it’s a stick. Yes, the stick is on the left side. So, suck it to all the people who brag about their prowess driving a manual car. Come back and we’ll talk when you can do it with the opposite hand.
We got a nice Kia Sportage. The man at the desk said it didn’t have Apple Airplay but it did have built in navigation. Cool.
The first thing the dashboard screened informed us was that Sat/Nav was not available. Not Cool.
Our first stop for the night was going to to be the Rock of Cashel which is about a 2 hour drive south of Dublin. Unless you are going to be making stops. Guess what? We would be making stops. What could be better than a couple of sleep deprived people driving on the wrong side of the road for a couple of hours? It seems like a very sensible plan
About ninety minutes into the drive, I started to get panicky about whether we were on the right path to the Bronwshill Portal Tomb, our first stop. Which coincidentally, was one of our first stops when I brought the Queen to Ireland for the first time back in 2001.
I plugged in my phone to start charging it. I instantly got a message that asked if I would like to unlock Apple Airplay for this car. Yes. Yes, I would. Suddenly, I had maps and podcasts and the world was good.
The Dolmen was completely unfamiliar except for the sign in the car park. But it was still an awesome chunk of rock. It is supposed to have the largest capstone of any Dolmen in Ireland. We met two nice people, both of whom were characters. We met a man coming in who wanted to know where we were going. When he asked us about Trump, I said we were Canadian. He laughed.
We met a woman coming out of the park who had a Queen magnet in the form of a dog named Rupert. She gave us Ruperts’ full history from being a rescue dog until the time we met.
We went to a restaurant called Toughers for lunch. The place was called Toughers. We had to go there. The food was really good and I knew I was back in Ireland when they gave me potatoes with my potatoes. I had mashed potatoes and chips with my chicken.
Our next stop was the Dunmore Cave. Legend has it the Vikings massacred a 1000 people in the cave. They found a lot of remains but not quite that many. We were the last tour and it was just the queen and I. We saw a bunch of softies complaining about the 700 stairs coming up as we headed down.
Our guide through in local folklore along with the geological history. We were told to look for fairies and the ghost of a witch from Kilkenny. The cave was small but just the right size for a quick tour for the sleep deprived.
On the way to Cashel, we got to drive through some very narrow lanes due to the fact that there was a town on the route that had blocked all access through the town. No one could go to Freshford. There were road blocks all around us. We drove into many hedgerows to allow cars to navigate passed us.
We probably could have stopped a million times to take pictures of odd places. I regret tremendously not getting a picture of the sign for Prumplestown. All the local communities advertised lotteries to raise money for their GAA sports clubs. Every town had their flags for the upcoming matches.
Cloud cover and exhaustion made our stop in Cashel a non-starter. The Rock of Cashel looked great as we drove by but it was too dark to take photos.
At this point, the satellite gave up and wouldn’t give us the map to our B&B for the night, Tir Na Nog B&B in Dualla. But I remembered just enough of it’s location to find it.
We are the only guests for the night. Our host Timothy would have sat and chatted with me about Irish sports all night but we needed to get food in me and the Queen before she passed out.
We dined back in Cashel at Bailey’s Cellar Restaurant. We only had to wander around a little bit before we found it. We ate there at the recommendation of Timothy.
And then we want back to Tir Na Nog and fell asleep. Only to awake at 1:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.
Tomorrow, we drive to Cork.
Ireland: The Approach
Oh my god did we make good time on the the drive to the airport. Time enough to stop for lunch at the Casa De Fruta. And we still could have made a good thirty minute stop in Milbrae to chat with the Yeti if Victory fencing was still in Milbrae. There was no in the line at the check-in desk. TSA was a minor inconvenience at best. And the Queen because of her major travel skills got us a pass into the United Club despite the fact we weren’t flying United. We got to wait in the United Club lounge in the comfy chairs with free snacks and drinks for the three hours.
After the experiences on Aer Lingus, I wish we had flown with United.
Aer Lingus was always the gold standard to fly to Ireland. They always treated me well and the service was great. It doesn’t hurt that my first flight to Ireland 40 years ago was in Business Class. Yes, I did the math (It was really tricky math using a function called ‘subtraction’) and figured out it was 40 years ago that I first went to Ireland.
So, I booked the flight on line. And the way things are now with airlines, it’s all about the add-ons. I added on the bags. I paid extra for a seat up front. There was even a section where I could pre-order meals. Which I did despite the fact they were horrendously expensive.
My first mistake was booking out seat right up against the bulkhead instead of one row back from the bulkhead so I could have some leg room. We started to watch our movies, of which where they were plenty I wanted to see. But there was something wrong with the headphones or the jack, they supplied us, because all I could hear was static. And I had to hear it at full volume or I wouldn’t be able to hear anything.
After a lot of fiddling with the plug, the sound got minimally better. But I had to press on the plug to actually get any sound. I found out that if I just the right ear plug and not the left ear plug, I would get less distortion. It was a crappy way to watch the musical ‘Yesterday’
They brought us our expensive dinners during the movie. They were marginal at best. The Queen was happy that wine came with the meal. But it came on china with real silverware. But while I was getting my overpriced meal, everybody else was getting their meal for free. Sure, there wasn’t china and silverware, but it was basically the same meal.
On the bulkhead in front of our seat was mounted a monitor to give the flight status. It showed the wind speed, distance traveled and where in the world the plane was at the moment. I like seeing that map because it gave me a sense of how much longer I would have to spend with my feet pressed up against the bulkhead.
I got about 3/4 quarters of the way through John Wick 3 before I started to fall asleep. I found another pair of ear buds that I didn’t have to push against to make work. I still had to use only side and at full volume to avoid the static.
I turned off my monitor and prepared to get a couple of hours of sleep.
Yeah, not so much. The status monitor in front of us constantly changed brightness levels every few seconds as it cycled through the information it was sharing. Even through my closed eyelids, I could see it flicker. When it showed the map, it was incredibly bright. It was like a torture device sitting right in front of my face.
I was able to move to an empty seat a few rows back but the flickering of the monitor was still visible.
One of the other reasons for the seat up front was to be near the toilet. The first thing the air crew did was to put a sign on the door informing us we had to go to the back of the plane and use the toile there since this toile was now the exclusive use of the first class passengers.
To sum up, Aer Lingus made me sad.
On the plus side, when the flight was over, we were in Dublin.
The Queen was in charge of renting the car. Yes, it’s a stick. Yes, the stick is on the left side. So, suck it to all the people who brag about their prowess driving a manual car. Come back and we’ll talk when you can do it with the opposite hand.
We got a nice Kia Sportage. The man at the desk said it didn’t have Apple Airplay but it did have built in navigation. Cool.
The first thing the dashboard screened informed us was that Sat/Nav was not available. Not Cool.
Our first stop for the night was going to to be the Rock of Cashel which is about a 2 hour drive south of Dublin. Unless you are going to be making stops. Guess what? We would be making stops. What could be better than a couple of sleep deprived people driving on the wrong side of the road for a couple of hours? It seems like a very sensible plan
About ninety minutes into the drive, I started to get panicky about whether we were on the right path to the Bronwshill Portal Tomb, our first stop. Which coincidentally, was one of our first stops when I brought the Queen to Ireland for the first time back in 2001.
I plugged in my phone to start charging it. I instantly got a message that asked if I would like to unlock Apple Airplay for this car. Yes. Yes, I would. Suddenly, I had maps and podcasts and the world was good.
The Dolmen was completely unfamiliar except for the sign in the car park. But it was still an awesome chunk of rock. It is supposed to have the largest capstone of any Dolmen in Ireland. We met two nice people, both of whom were characters. We met a man coming in who wanted to know where we were going. When he asked us about Trump, I said we were Canadian. He laughed.
We met a woman coming out of the park who had a Queen magnet in the form of a dog named Rupert. She gave us Ruperts’ full history from being a rescue dog until the time we met.
We went to a restaurant called Toughers for lunch. The place was called Toughers. We had to go there. The food was really good and I knew I was back in Ireland when they gave me potatoes with my potatoes. I had mashed potatoes and chips with my chicken.
Our next stop was the Dunmore Cave. Legend has it the Vikings massacred a 1000 people in the cave. They found a lot of remains but not quite that many. We were the last tour and it was just the queen and I. We saw a bunch of softies complaining about the 700 stairs coming up as we headed down.
Our guide through in local folklore along with the geological history. We were told to look for fairies and the ghost of a witch from Kilkenny. The cave was small but just the right size for a quick tour for the sleep deprived.
On the way to Cashel, we got to drive through some very narrow lanes due to the fact that there was a town on the route that had blocked all access through the town. No one could go to Freshford. There were road blocks all around us. We drove into many hedgerows to allow cars to navigate passed us.
We probably could have stopped a million times to take pictures of odd places. I regret tremendously not getting a picture of the sign for Prumplestown. All the local communities advertised lotteries to raise money for their GAA sports clubs. Every town had their flags for the upcoming matches.
Cloud cover and exhaustion made our stop in Cashel a non-starter. The Rock of Cashel looked great as we drove by but it was too dark to take photos.
At this point, the satellite gave up and wouldn’t give us the map to our B&B for the night, Tir Na Nog B&B in Dualla. But I remembered just enough of it’s location to find it.
We are the only guests for the night. Our host Timothy would have sat and chatted with me about Irish sports all night but we needed to get food in me and the Queen before she passed out.
We dined back in Cashel at Bailey’s Cellar Restaurant. We only had to wander around a little bit before we found it. We ate there at the recommendation of Timothy.
And then we want back to Tir Na Nog and fell asleep. Only to awake at 1:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.
Tomorrow, we drive to Cork.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm