Vacation 2011, Day 1-2 Seattle to Dublin
Howdy LJ, It’s been a while since I last posted. Life is good! Our daughter is 10 months old, healthy and happy, I’m actually happy with my job after a couple of years of not really enjoying it, and we’re at the start of a 2 week journey to Dublin, Ireland and Edinburgh, Scotland with my daughter Eris, my lovely wife and my mother in law Jean.
Please allow me to begin by apologizing for the lack of pictures. Apparently both of my camera’s battery packs were dead, so I haven’t had a camera until this morning.
I guess by west coast time, it’s 2:22 AM on Wednesday, which means we actually left the house about 41 hours ago. Our route was Seattle to Newark, then Newark to Dublin. Not a lot to write about so far. The flight was just fine, with no major hassles. Continental didn’t really impress me as an airline - they charge for in-flight entertainment on domestic flights which is something that other airlines I frequently fly with give away. Our international flight was only an hour longer, but came with 2 free meals and free on-demand movies, music, shows and games. Newark wasn’t as bad as I was expecting as far as airports go, though on final approach we did pass over a coal plant, a refinery, and a sewage plant. We ate at a nice little diner in the airport. The food was good, but they were out of ice cream. Kind of strange for a place with milkshake makers as part of their décor.
Arrival at Dublin was pretty straightforward. Clearing passport control was no problem. The airport is pretty nice looking, but we didn’t really get to explore much of it. They have a taxi stand out front, and there was no line. Our driver turned out to be a very nice gentleman, and provided a welcome introduction to the city. Unfortunately, our arrival at the hotel was not smooth. We’d been up for around 20 hours at that point with very little sleep on the plane (Eris was not cooperative with taking naps on board). Our hotel is above a pub, and nobody was answering the buzzer. We went to a neighboring business and had them call up. We were told that we arrived too early to check in, but they let us leave our bags. Groggily, we decided to go wander around and see what there was to see nearby.
First, we tried to eat at a neighboring hotel called Trinity Capital Hotel, but their restaurant was closed until noon. Just around the corner, we found a little deli and stopped there for… well I’m not sure what meal that was actually. I had an excellent breakfast roll and coffee. It was a little hole in the wall with a lot of character. Since we were just around the corner from Trinity College, we decided to go wander there for a bit. The architecture, much of it being 18th century stonework, is absolutely gorgeous. Ironically, the ugliest building at the place was the arts building which was decidedly 1970s architecture.
After a quick stop at the tourism office to pick up various pub crawl brochures, we returned to the hotel and they had a room ready for us! We went upstairs and everyone (especially Eris) promptly passed out. A few hours later, we woke up for a bit. Eris was still sleepy, as was Jean so the wife and I went for a walk to find dinner and provisions for the baby. We had dinner at Dublin’s only brewpub. I had fish and chips and their wonderful stout. The wife had a baked aubergine dish that looked delicious. On the way back, we found a grocery, and picked up a few things for the baby. We came back to the hotel and settled in for a night of fitful sleep (due again to an uncooperative Eris). As to our hotel, it’s not as bad as the reviews made it out to be. The train is directly outside our window, and it’s still not all that loud. I guess we’re just sound sleepers.
Today, we woke up and had an Irish breakfast at the hotel. It’s naptime for Eris, so I came down to the guest are to write this post. Not sure what the plan for today is, but we’ll probably just use the time to get our bearings.