Getting There is Half the Fun

Alex advised that we all arrive in Dublin at least one day before the tour started so we wouldn't be suffering from jet lag. So, our friends Al and Jan met us at the Newark Airport on Monday and we flew over together arriving in Dublin Tuesday am. Above is the plane we traveled to Dublin on. What was fantastic is that there were little screens on the back of the seats with 40 movies, music, games, TV shows etc all free. It sure helped when you couldn't sleep. The screens also had a map of where we were, how far we had come, how far we had to go etc. Fantastic little item!

Alex had arranged for us to be picked up by a car. The driver was waiting for us at the airport with the following sign. Pretty cool, huh?Our driver told us about the city as he was driving us to our hotel pointing out interesting sites in the city. We arrived at our hotel, the Dublin Hilton, about 11:00 Dublin time. Of course, we were exhausted. Our room was ready but Al and Jan's wasn't so they took their stuff to our room and we went down to the pub for some "pub grub" for lunch. Once their room was ready, we all crashed for the rest of the afternoon.

Our room looked rather like a Crate and Barrel designed room but it was comfy. Our view wasn't the greatest however. All we could see was a brick wall and the roof.After our nap, we headed down the street to The Barge for dinner. Even though it was the only real pub in the area, it was great! The Barge has tables and bars on all three levels. The bars, ceilings, wood etc. are all beautiful. The food was pretty darn good too. I had Fish and Chips. YUM!! And Jan had lamb. The picture doesn't include the chips however. And of course Mr. Snowbird had to have a Guinness. The Barge and our Hotel were on a canal. It is a beautiful canal and people love to just hang out there. Our table looked out over the canal.

Did I mention that people like to hang out by the canal. I'm not sure why these gals were hanging out but I can guess!

I did find other creatures hanging out there too and they were a lot more pleasant to look at--at least for me.

After dinner we headed across the street to a little store with an ATM where we could exchange dollars for Euros and get a bottle of adult beverage. A bottle in the room is sure a lot cheaper than hitting the pub in the hotel at 8 euros a glass!! That was it for our first day in Dublin. We left a wakeup call for 7 "thairty" (as Alex says) so we could have our first full Irish breakfast then hit the coach for our first day of the tour. More about that in my next post.