Homeward Bound
Our tour of the Old Jameson Distillery was our final sightseeing activity in Ireland. Our flight was not scheduled to leave until the next day. We planned to stay at an airport hotel for our final night. We caught the Airlink 747 bus from the Academy Plaza Hotel to the airport. We had reserved a room at the Hilton Dublin Airport. We took their complimentary shuttle to get there from the airport. Unfortunately, we arrived at the pick-up point (Zone 14) just after the 6:40 shuttle left. We had to wait under a glass enclosure on this chilly, rainy evening until the 7:20 shuttle arrived.
We had a nice room at the Hilton; however, it felt like we had a low-quality mattress. For dinner, we had a very good meal in the hotel's restaurant. The service was on the slow side and like the pub we went to in Dublin, we had to flag down or go looking for a waitress when we needed something.
We put in for a 7 AM wake-up call but we never received it. Fortunately, Traci used her phone as a backup alarm clock. At the airport, we had to go through Ireland's security (shoes on) and then through U.S. security (shoes off). This was annoying but at least we would not have to go through customs when we returned to the U.S..
Traci had enough air miles to allow us to fly Premier status on the flight to Ireland; however, this was not the case on our flight home. I joked that we had fallen from grace. On this flight, we did not even have seats together. Traci was sitting in the last row. At dinner time, she told me they had run out of chicken by the time they got to her. She ended up picking at a salad.
As for me, I was seated near the middle of the plane between two young ladies. One was a PHD student who had been vacationing in Ireland with her girlfriends. She was quite a traveler. I enjoyed listening to her stories. The other was a French woman who has been living in Ireland for the past couple of years. She was on her way to the U.S. for a 3-week vacation. In between naps, the three of us had good conversations during the 7.5-hour flight. The French lady even sprinkled in a little French occasionally when she realized I could understand the language.
We landed at Dulles Airport to 62°F weather. There was definitely no need for the winter jackets we had been wearing for the last 10 days. Traci's soror, Kim, picked us up from the airport. So ended our wonderful Irish vacation. Main Page...
Magnet Purchased on this Trip: (click to enlarge)
Entire fridge magnet collection...
