Random trip notes from Ireland
The wheelchair service at Boston’s airport is either bad or actively harmful depending on who you get. On the way back in, if we had listened to the person’s advice we would have wasted lots of our time and that of others, ended up in the wrong place and possibly missed our luggage.
The wheelchair service at Shannon’s airport was great. The folks were very helpful, got us through things quickly and made our lives much easier.
BMWs are nice cars. I’m glad I upgraded us to one, even if it wasn’t cheap.
I wish there was some setting on Google Maps for “keep to the main road”. There are times it takes us on detours through very small roads that it thinks save us time. It is wrong.
When I’m in areas I don’t know well, it’s hard to know which ones are unprofitable short cuts vs real routes. By the end of the trip I spent more time ignoring it than listening to it.
I’m surprised how big “Black Friday” was there. Over here it is very tightly linked with Thanksgiving, which is not a holiday there. So, it feels strange to only see half of what I think of as a pair.
Ireland is over the top for Christmas things. Every store, hotel, restaurant, or place had some sort of Christmas decoration up and Christmas music going.
If it wasn’t Christmas music playing it was 80’s music. When my wife and I first went to Ireland in 1996, people saw we were American and put on “Irish” music. No worries of that this time. 80’s music or Christmas music.
The speed limits they have on the roads in Ireland seem high to me. 100kph on roads that to me are very narrow and twisty. I was doing about 70kph on them, and that was enough for me.
This led to a series of “mad Irishmen” behind me who I would pull over and let past.
I did worry a bit the first day when Uncle Rich chose to read the newspaper as we drove along, rather than look at the window at a country he’d never seen. But, once we got out of the city and to some very nice areas, he put the paper down. And, by the end of the trip, he didn’t even bring one with him in the car.
I really liked the hotel by the lake in Killarney. I’d happily stay there again. Not cheap, but very nice.
I miss that my wife and I didn’t get out and look at as many things as normal. Normally we climb up castles, walk through museums and such. But, both my wife’s aunt and uncle have foot problems and just can’t do that. For this trip, it was more important to have them with us than to do that climbing around. But, I still miss it a bit.