Paul & Juanita Go To Ireland
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We went to Ireland in August 2011. Here are links to our plans which turned out to be pretty close to the experience:
Day 1 & 2
Day 3 & 4
Day 5 & 6
Day 7 Onward
Appendices to Plan
Eventually I'll get around to writing up the experience.
In the meantime there are lots of pictures in the photo albums linked below and a gradually accumulating narrative.
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Edmonton - Chicago - Dublin
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We stayed overnight at the Nisku Inn near the Edmonton International Airport. We also booked a night's stay for our return. The free parking combined for two night's stay meant we got accommodation for not much more than the cost of airport parking alone. That may sound frugal.
Maybe.
A truly frugal person would stay with a relative and impose on the relative to drive us to the airport all the way from Fort Saskatchewan in the predawn hours and pick us up in the middle of the night arriving early enough to be there when we arrived if the airplane was on schedule, but waiting around for us if it wasn't. A considerate person would think that would be too great an imposition even if said relative was willing. A comfort seeking person would say staying near the airport would mean a few hours more sleep on departure and a warm bed only minutes after arrival. Comfort trumps frugality and can be cloaked in consideration.
Three emotions, two travelers it's more complex than stated. Both cheap - one slightly more so. Both considerate - one a lot more so. Both comfort seeking - about the same but for different comforts. Where's Nash when you need him? Comfort won with a nod to frugality - stay near the airport but keep the cost down.
Airport security and US customs and immigration were no worse than normal. Aer Lingus used United as a connector from Edmonton for their Chicago to Dublin flight. The airport experience and flight were okay. One is not disappointed if one doesn't expect much. Perhaps people are so upset with airports and air travel because they think back to the good old days and how it once was. Well say what you will about the old days and faulty memories what is certain is that the old days are old. What works now is to expect the least and endure what is and it is not so bad. Yesterday when I was adding pictures to albums Juanita said "we sure have good memories of that Ireland trip, don't we?" One has to look at airports as just a small part of travel and like an overflowing toilet in a public restroom. Carefully step around it and put it out of your mind. No point in dwelling on brief, unpleasant experiences that are not part of the main event. That said, it wasn't particularly bad.
As said, the flight wasn't bad. I occupied some of the time by working on electrical drawing for our "shop/studio". That was definitely a looking back from the plow moment. By the time we got to Chicago I put the residential guide and the drawings away and looked forward to the travel tasks at hand. Haven't returned to working on the drawings since. Some months later in mid October I have started wiring the place and used the guide to check code, but purchased the supplies from a guesstimate done on a day off without looking at the drawings. I might have to finish them to do some of the more complex circuits but they are definitely in the "maybe tomorrow" category.
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The Plan was to stow our carry on luggage in a locker at the Chicago airport and go downtown to sight see during the lay over between flights. Somebody once said that plans are the first casualty of war. Speaking of casualties. One of the casualties of the war on terror was airport lockers. Since 9/11 lockers have become extinct at least at O'hare. There "might" be lockers at the bus depot downtown, but that is not particularly close to where we wanted to go and by then we would be downtown anyway. Downtown with all the carry on luggage you might be carrying if you wanted to be prepared if they lost your check-in luggage and you still wanted to be equipped for ten days in Ireland with rain and temperatures around 60 degrees F. / 15 degrees C. Being in Chicago on a sunny day in August means you can't wear many of the clothes you feel you have to have with you just-in-case. That's a "would do differently", but not a big one.
We bought some transit passes and headed downtown.
It was wonderful. Saw the Picasso statue at Daley Plaza. I think it's feminine. Saw the "Bean". Gawked a lot. Had enough time downtown to please us. Made it back to the airport with lots of time to follow the ambiguous signage to our terminal. Went through security into the foreign flights gate area.
Security was a zoo.
Almost no services past security. Announcements for various foreign airlines in their native languages including Russian and Polish. This added the right flavor to the experience. The place couldn't have been designed better by a Soviet bureaucrat.
Juanita made the error of leaving the secure area to get some food. To get back she got into the shortest of several long lines. The line never got shorter. Everybody with a pass went to the front of that line. She was gone a long time. I was getting somewhat concerned, but had to guard our luggage so was forced to sit and read and admire the red headed Aer Lingus flight attendants in their green dresses. Also enjoyed watching the antics of a red headed moppet that could have been my sister when she was that age. I was headed "home" :)
The flight was wonderful. Service was as good as CP Air used to be before it became Canadian and then was absorbed in to Aeroflot Canada. Managed to watch a movie and sleep a bit and then we were in Dublin.
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Jet lagged
Driving on the left. Punctured left front tire. Weeds in the passenger side mirror.
Rock of Cashell.
Kilflynn church. Dead Alton's.
Here is a list of inscriptions of Alton Headstones at Kilflynn Churchyard: In Loving Memory of LEONARD ALTON who fell asleep 21st January 1892 aged 59 years. In Loving Memory of JOHN LARRY ALTON died 26th April 1925. SUSAN ALTON died 10th September 1951. And their children ANN ALTON died 11th April 1967, DAVID ALTON died 10th October 1973. Erected by MARGARET ALTON of Glenosheen. JANE ALTON died 12th November 1894, aged 50 years and her son WILLIAM ALTON who died in Shanghai 1st January 1911, aged 34 years. Erected by their children in loving memory of their beloved father JAMES ALTON died May 1898 aged 80 years. and their beloved mother MARY died November 1904. Also ELIZABETH CHILDS ALTON died 9th September 1938 aged 70 years. And her niece SARAH STEEPE died 25th July 1965, aged 83 years. Also SAMUEL STEEPE died 22nd August 1970 aged 60 years.
Alton homes in Glenosheen. Olive Castle.
Blarney Castle.
Cork in rush hour.
Kinsale.
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Charles Fort
Ferry to Cobh
"The Cóbh Heritage Centre is a museum located in Cóbh, east of Cork, Republic of Ireland. It is attached to Cóbh's railway halt. The "Queenstown Experience", located at the centre, has mostly permanent exhibitions of Irish history. It provides information on life in Ireland through the 18th and 19th centuries, the mass emigration, the Great Famine, and on how criminals were transported to Australia for"
Buying a tire in Cork
Macroom Castle
Killarney
Killarney Park
Muckross House
Kenmare
book into bed and breakfast
supper in Kenmare
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Waterford to Dublin & Home
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