As is usual with our trips there was a great flurry trying to get everything ready. After a breakfast of bacon omelets and some leftover sausage balls we spent the better part of the rainy and muggy morning packing our clothes. It was a reasonably tight fit but we were able to fit everything, including even Michelle’s hiking boots. Lunch was Chanticleer for some sandwiches and (for me) pasta salad. Key here is easy on the stomach, making travel easier. Man, I got old.
After lunch we packed the tech stuff — phone chargers, point-and-shoot and chargers, Surface laptop, etc. Offloaded some pictures taken on both the phone and point-and-shoot as well. With a new laptop comes a need to figure out the blog workflow of off-loading pictures, resizing them, etc. Fun!
After another gully washer we got a nice break in the rain right as Addison drove us to the airport in the Outback around 4:30pm. While the flight wasn’t until 8:30pm you never know — additionally we wanted to get a meal before the flight. Got checked-in and through TSA by 5:30pm or so so had a little over two hours before boarding. I tried not to use too much of my phone’s battery so I’d have plenty for any pictures the next day. I walked Terminal Two (concourses C & D) a couple of times before settling on BurgerFi for us. Man, they were not on their “A” game — ended up with three burgers (I had removed one from the automated order machine but apparently it didn’t take) and somehow ended up with onion rings with the fries. Regardless, it hit the spot. Michelle and I both then bought some snacks (Chex Mix, Lifesavers, Skittles, some dark chocolate covered bananas) and awaited boarding.
After the fancy people boarded they did row range boarding from the back. The plane was nice enough, with screens in the back of the seat in front. Until underway Iceland ads were played — Blue Lagoon, some art exhibition, and a funny one for Iceland Wool with an old guy just slowly petting a sheep. Announcements were in Icelandic then English, Icelandic sounds very Germanic (which makes sense since it has Germanic and Danish roots) and isn’t the prettiest language I’ve ever heard. Then again, neither is English. The safety video was neat, it followed a lady doing outdoor activities in Iceland but superimposed were the safety bits — so like when they describe the tucked position she’s stretching in a similar position, when talking about the slides in case of water landing she’s jumping off a waterfall and the slide is suggested by superimposing it onto the waterfall, etc. The pilot was funny — “This is your Captain speaking, not that my name is Speaking.”
We got super lucky and despite having the middle and aisle nobody ended up in our window seat. So Michelle was able to sidle over to the window and get some sleep against the bulkhead while I was able to sit in the middle and stretch my legs into the aisle seat’s space. Wasn’t super comfortable, and I didn’t get much sleep, but better than nothing. An hour or so in we got the hot ham and cheese baguettes we had pre-ordered. They were quite good and gentle on the stomach. The guy in front of me was watching a movie called “Nobody Make a Move” or something and I amused myself reading the captions from the row behind while trying to sleep.
Finally, around five hours into the flight, the eastern horizon started to lighten. We saw the first glimpses of Iceland out the window — the Snæfellsnes peninsula, a long sixty mile finger pointing east to west north of Reykjavik. Additionally the sunrise was really blossoming into one of the reddest I had seen. As dawn fully settled in we saw the island materialize below. It very much reminded me of the terrain on the big island of Hawai’i — treeless with patches of moss and grass.
As soon as we landed a jerk grabbed his bag and muscled his way in front of us. While the rest of us waited patiently for the front to deplane we were alerted to deplaning from the rear as well. I started that way (as we were now the first row for that direction) and that jerk muscled his way past Michelle then me. I called him out on it but he’s like “I’m sorry, I have a connection.” Joke’s on him — we all have a connection and since the airport is almost 100% Icelandair (with a tiny bit of KLM since Iceland used to be in the Kingdom of Denmark until a century ago) they ensure that people don’t miss their flights. They know who is coming and going since it is one airline. Anyhow, this jerk deplaned down the staircase — and man going from 85 and muggy to 40 was something else! — and then sheepishly boarded a bus that waited for everybody before departing for the terminal. Ha!
As soon as we got in the terminal we stood in another line at the adjacent gate (D32). It wasn’t unpleasant, though, as we were entertained by a young couple ahead of us from Minnesota (the husband was Irish and had the accent) talking with an older (than us) couple ahead of them discussing travel stories — including accidentally leaving a sleeping son (they had five children) on a double decker bus whilst touring London. The restrooms were so nice — a private room with a solid door and a private sink.
We boarded around 7:30 in a most interesting way — line order. No accommodation for first — excuse me, Saga — class, row order, etc. Just pile on! We went up some stairs and down a long jetway and onto the Icelandair painted up like Iceland’s flag and named after the Þingvellir, the world’s oldest parliament (from the 900s).
Unfortunately we didn’t get so lucky seat-wise and someone was in the window seat. Luckily it was only a two hour flight but it was a looong two hour flight. The guy in the row ahead and to the right was watching Shawshank Redemption (without captions, like I’d need them!) so that was at least entertaining. There was a young couple with a screaming baby on our row across the aisle. Not awesome, but what can you do.
After flying down the west coast of Scotland and over Belfast, Northern Ireland, we landed from the east at Dublin airport. We deplaned, again, via stairs — unusual — and walked down a fairly dingy breezeway brightened solely by some interesting Skodi (car) ads that evoked Celtic mythology like Queen Maeve. Passport control was quite fast (literally five minutes) but baggage claim was quite slow. My bag came out very quickly but Michelle’s not so much. A quick trip to the restroom and yeah, the bathroom wasn’t nearly as nice as in Iceland! Exited out to the taxi stand and waited in a very long queue which was thankfully covered as a steady drizzle was falling.
Our taxi driver was quite entertaining. We started talking about weather and where we were going — Limerick and Dublin — and things to see. He recommended the jail in Dublin (Kilmainham Gaol) where the Easter Rising heroes were held and eventually executed. I mentioned our difficulty in finding a hotel room due to the Garth Brooks concert this weekend. That led to the rest of the ride being about music. He recounted growing up and making fun of lads from his neighborhood on the bus with their guitars and him taunting them to play a tune. Down the street from him they practiced, a terrible racket. They were U2. Additionally, in the late 70s he’d often see Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and taunt him to sing a bar and Phil would say “Fuck off you damn wanker!” and so the ribbing would continue back and forth.
I have no idea how much of his stories are true but he definitely had quite the gift of Irish gab. It was hard to understand at times (he talked very fast with a thick Irish accent) but I was able to follow him pretty well. Having arrived at Heuston station we paid him (in cash — despite all taxis supposedly taking credit cards, grrr…) and turned towards getting lunch and waiting for our 3:30pm train. As it was only 1pm or so we had plenty of time.
We ate lunch at The Galway Hooker (a type of ship). Michelle had a chicken and mushroom pie (with puff pastry top) and I had lasagna and fries. Fries come with everything! We each had a ginger ale that came in the tiniest bottle imaginable. As the place was filling up we didn’t linger long after finishing our food and headed out to the waiting area of the station. We each had a glazed donut from Offbeat Donut Co. It was pretty tasty. Also picked up some water and sat on benches waiting out the little bit of an hour remaining prior to our train leaving. We could scarcely stay awake at this point, it being a full day since our last decent sleep. A Ukrainian woman looked for help on which platform to go to and I assisted to the best of my ability with hand signals. Basically the platform isn’t displayed until minutes before boarding.
Finally out time to board came — platform 6b. Turns out it was quite a walk to the platform but we boarded carriage B with no issues and were on our way. I’d like to say that Michelle and I enjoyed watching the lush green (and wild) countryside dotted with cows and sheep roll by but… nope. We slept most of it. I hope I didn’t snore! Finally, just shy of 6pm we arrived at Limerick’s Colbert Street Station. The station was beautiful stone and lush flower arrangements were arrayed in front of it. The wind was brisk and the air cool but both were welcome as we walked the fifteen minutes to our hotel, The George Hotel in Limerick.
The hotel itself was very nice with a large bed and plenty of plugs (which thankfully I had adapters for). We relaxed a bit and decided where to go for dinner, finally settling around 8p on the restaurant adjacent to the hotel, the Da Vincenzo’s Grill House. It overlooked O’Connell Street (torn up to install a fancy sidewalk) and was fairly busy. Michelle and I both had a ginger ale (and yes, it was tiny again!). She had honey mustard braised pork loin and portobello mushroom and I had a burger with smoked bacon and the most amazingly flavored macaroni and cheese (and some strange sweet relish) with onion rings (decent but I only ate one) and a side of champ — an Irish invention of mashed potatoes with butter and scallions. It was fair — just a bit too firm. For dessert Michelle had apple pie with vanilla ice cream — though the pie was really more of a strudel. I had coffee Americano, which was excellent.
We finally returned to our room around 10p where she slept while I blogged this entry while watching RTE ONE, an Irish channel. The first program dealt with a very familiar problem that youth are facing in the US — impossibly high rents, not enough jobs, etc. The second was a program all about the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II, which was kind of surprising given the relationship between the two countries. Headed to bed around midnight.