August 6, 2017 – Tampa-Atlanta-Dublin

What an auspicious beginning to our birthday adventure!!  Ole picked us and he seems to be well on the way to recovery from his bout of shingles.  We arrived at TPA with loads of time to spare and went to the Delta counter to drop our bags.  There stood a red-haired, blue-eyed Irishman who teased and giggled and made the whole transaction a blast!  He told Connie her bag was over-weight and when he scanned her passport, he announced that now he could go to Ireland and she would be working behind the counter!  He also told us that Four Green Fields (an Irish eatery) was right next to our gate.

And he was right!  A glass of Altos LasHermigas malbec for me and La Marca prosecco for Connie before our Irish potato and leek soup and salads made an excellent Irish beginning!  And Irish soda bread!  Best of all was our waitress, Fran, who was born in Kerry!  After forty-three years she still has her “Bronx” accent!  She told us to look for the Penny and Dunn stores for good, cheap clothes.  She knew we wouldn’t need any of the knitwear.

So far it appears that our flight is on time, which is always a miracle on a summer afternoon in Florida!  Yay!!

So on our hour and a half Delta flight we got beverages and a choice of cookies or gluten-free pretzels!!  And we sort of arrived on time;  but that didn’t mean we weren’t freaked out about getting to the international terminal on time!  Turns out it wasn’t a problem and we even had time to visit the loo before settling in at our gate to wait our turn to board.  And it’s not raining, even though it is looking pretty dark out there!

We’re boarding this air bus that has two seats on each side and four in the middle when one of the flight attendants says, “Welcome aboard!  Make yourselves  at home;  but don’t put your feet up on the furniture!”  We lucked out and got two of the seats on the side!

The food came fast and furious.  First there were almonds and a drink to keep us happy until dinner arrived.  Then the actual food – Connie had chicken stuffed with broccoli and I had a shrimp salad.  Each came with fruit and a quinea salad and a roll with butter, cheese and crackers and a chocolate streusel bar.  And the wine was free!  When Marilyn asked what kind of white they had, the attendant told her, “airplane white”!

The movie selection was meager but I got to see “Going in Style” which was wonderful.  When I looked outside after the movie there was a full moon that followed us for hours!

Breakfast consisted of honey yogurt (the insde of my lid sais “I don’t share”!!  How did they know.  There was also a peach muffin, more cheese, orange juice and two little chocolate candies.

We landed pretty close to on time and deplaned.  We had to clear passport control first and then customs, sort of.  The passport agent didn’t ask us any questions except were we on vacation and let us both come to the window together!  The customs officer was standing in the stream of people leaving the arrivals hall and would occasionally stop somebody.  Pretty laissez-faire!

Once outside we looked for our chauffeur who was holding a sign with our names on it.  A couple of ladies from Branden Vacations saw us first and offered to help;  but we spotted him pretty quickly among the dozen or two others.  His name was David and he gave us a guided tour of the city as he drove us to the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel.  A lovely way to start our morning. 

Isn't this a grand name for a chain or coffee shops?  And they're cheaper than Starbucks!

Michael!

 It got better when the lady at the desk was able to change our room so we would have two beds!  And we were able to take our bags upstairs, even though it was only about ten-thiry in the morning!  Another win!

We set about getting organized and the lady downstairs said that our local host had arrived, so we went down to meet her.  She gave us more information about the city, told us how to dial a local phone number on our cells, and delivered our voucher for the train on Wednesday morning.  Best of all, she said we didn’t have to collect our tickets the day before, as we had been led to believe!  Whee!  The station’s not that close!  Connie made our dinner reservations, we gathered our gear and set out.

Today we are riding the Hop-On Hop-Off around Dublin.  We’ve got tickets for three places we want to see today before dinner and they’re all on the bus route.  But being us, we don’t quite do it that way.  We get off at Christchurch Cathedral and are awed and amazed by its vastness!  Huge, I say!!  

Then we walk down the street to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  It has started to rain and I’ve put on my old Rowdies poncho to keep the camera and my purse dry.  Connie has an umbrella . We’re a little early for our ticket time;  but no one seems to care.  It is a different kind of church;  it’s more like a series of war memorials and the gift shop is right in the middle of everything as you walk in!  When we walk out the rain has quit and I stuff my poncho in a plastic bag.

 Our next stop is the Guinness Storehouse.  On our map, which doesn’t actually have all the streets, it looks like a quick and simple walk.  You know where this is going, of course.  We wind up on a series of little lanes that aren’t on the map and which curve every which way.  We finally are stopped by an older gentleman who give us directions.  We follow them for a while, then lose confidence in him and ask a store clerk.  She sends us on, and it turns out the old guy was right on the money!  We are ever so grateful to finally see the sign, and the seven-story building peeking over the top of its neighbors.  

There are many beautiful doors in Dublin - in fact they're famous - but not many with a watcher!

We’re pretty early for our ticket time, even with the whole “where the heck are we” debacle.  The man out front isn’t sure it will be okay to let us in because we purchased off-peak tickets.  He thinks they may charge us an extra couple of euros;  but we’ve walked a long way to get here and by George we’re going in!

They don’t charge us anything extra and give us carte blanch to enter.  We haven’t eaten since the yogurt and muffin on the plane, so our first stop is up on the fifth floor for Guinness stew with mashed potatoes.  It’s an enormous serving as we decide we don’t really need two of those!  We’re going to have dinner at 6:30, after all, and it’s already paid for!

Your ticket entitles you to a pint of Guinness and I opt for a half pint to start with.  Connie tastes it and goes up to get one of her own!  After we’ve all but licked the bowl clean we go back to start the tour.  The entire process is explained in words and pictures and realia.  More than you ever thought you needed to know.  There are many stairs.  And the elevators are pretty small and, therefore, crowded.  The entire adventure culminates in the Gravity Bar on the seventh floor.  It is all glass with a large bar in the center and lots of satisfied customers enjoying the products.  Unfortunately that makes it pretty difficult to actually get to the glass to take any pictures.  We head back down to the ground floor and the gift shop, which is also pretty crowded.  We beat a hasty retreat and think about how to get to dinner at the Winding Stair.

Aren't they adorable!

Another Locks of Love bridge

 As an aside, we have felt very smug all day, as we by-pass the lines of people who don’t have tickets for the attractions we want to visit.  And on the bus we hear a group discussing how they would like to see Kilmainham Gaol, but can’t get tickets.  Snicker!!

Our thought is get back on our bus and get off at the closest stop, which should be right across the River Liffey which divides the city in half.  We’ve got lots of time and it feels so fantastic to just sit and watch and listen.  As we’re looking out the window, Connie spots the restaurant!  We didn’t think the bus passed it!  We push the button and get off at the next stop.

There’s still a little time so we stop into a little tourist shop and do a little shopping, as you do.  Then we go to take pictures of the Ha’Penny bridge before climbing the “winding stairs” to our restaurant on the third floor.  We’ve got a thirtuy euro voucher and are trying not to go too far over that;  but it’s a little pricey.  So what, we’re still saving money!  We order two different dinners and split them.  I order potato dumplings with assorted vegetables and pickled green tomatoes and Connie gets smoked haddock on top of mashed potatoes.  The fish had been soaked in milk and came in a kind of cream sauce with onions.  Divine! 

While we’re deciding what to order, we chat with the couple next to us, who recommend the food they had.  Then I tell the waiter that I’d like to try the only Irish wine on their specials board.  It’s supposed to be strawberry something;  but he tells me I don’t want it!!  He brings a small sample and Connie, and the other couple, all agree with me and the waiter.  No body would want this!  Too funny!

Then the check comes with a happy surprise!  The voucher was for thirty euros each!!  We only owe another seven euros!

We walk down all those stairs and contemplate walking home when Connie has the brilliant idea to take our bus back!  The only problem is that they seem to have stopped running.  So we set off with our sketchy map and after some creative navigating I finally ask a bus driver how to get to Suffox  Street.  I just know e have to be close and, in fact, we’ve just turned onto it!  From there it’s a piece of cake to get home, if you don’t count the drizzle and the fact that we’ve walked four miles today, lots of it up stairs!

Ta da!  There’s our hotel.  Yay! Time to get ready for bed and for tomorrow.  Our Hop-On tickets are good for forty-eight hours, so we’re going to make the most of them!