DAY-23: Let's Meet In Dublin
Day – 23: Thursday, September 14, 2017
Starting Location: Heathrow Airport, London, England, UK
Ending Location: Dublin, Ireland
Following an early breakfast we were met at 8 AM by our driver for transport to the airport terminal for our flight to Dublin. We filled the fan with our baggage, hopefully in Ireland we have a larger van.
Our drive to the terminal took about 20 minutes but soon we were off loaded and had moved to the check-in lines. The check-in process was relatively simple and moved along quite quickly. As mentioned yesterday the charge for the excess baggage (greater than one) imposed by BA is excessive, far above the incremental cost of flying such a weight for the short distance to Ireland. Once through the check-in we passed quickly through security and were in the departure waiting area.
Our Flight BA #834 departed at about 10:40 and by noon we had landed in Dublin.
The Dublin airport immigration process was unbelievably long. We of course were non-EU arrivals thus had to pass through some form of screening but what I couldn't understand was why the EU arriving passengers also had to pass through a similar screening. What happened to the barrier free transportation throughout Europe? For those of us in the non-EU line the process lasted for a least an hour but seemed much longer.
Finally we caught up with our baggage that had long been waiting while we passed immigration. Once into the arrival area we found our driver, Freeman and after a brisk walk to his van and loading the gear we were on our way to the hotel for the meet-up with Chris, Pat & Jack who had arrived yesterday.
We checked in to the Cliff Townhouse and soon realized that there was no bellman service and the elevator only served the first floor. In the end we hauled some of our bags and finally hotel staff assisted with the others.
Part way through the baggage lift Pat, Jack and Chris appeared on the steps. We checked out each others rooms and were happy to note that the four new arrivals had secured the lower level rooms. Chris, Pat & Jack were still another series of stairs above our level.
In addition to the one floor elevator there were about two floors of stairs to climb with hundreds of pounds of baggage. Woe is us! Hopefully we won't have to repeat this in other hotels during the tour. To be exact it was 56 steps one-way to the DeMai and Maxwell rooms and an additional 22 steps to the Jones and Price rooms.
No matter, we were soon on the street and bound for a quick walking tour of Dublin. Our first stop was at anything O'Connell, in this case a street, a bridge, a statue and a Starbucks on O'Connell Street.
There was an amazing number of people on the street, young and old alike.
Part of the group headed for a book store while the others of us headed for a pub. A real Irish pub, The Oval Bar, not some touristy place. That said they did have American baseball (LA Dodgers vs SF Giants) on TV and Aretha Franklin was belting out the tunes in the background.
We lifted seven glasses in a toast to Denny, still with us in spirit and memories.
We had our share of beer and other products before moving back toward the hotel.
After a short respite we met in the Urchin Bar in the hotel's lower floor. This was not a traditional pub by any means; the two bartenders were entertaining and quickly sated our thirst with drinks all around. There was a mix of assorted drinks amongst us, Kir Royales, beer, G&Ts, single malt whiskey and wine.
For dinner Chris had made a selection and recommendation, The Pig's Ear. Yes you read that right, The Pig's Ear.
Turns out it was a well reviewed eatery and the food withstood the test that most of us use in that our plates were pretty much emptied. Amongst us we had pork belly, beef short ribs, salmon, Shepard's pie to name a few. As a side we even had potatoes fried in duck fat with Jack insisting that the fat wasn't just duck fat, it was Indiana duck fat. It did make for a tasty bowl of potatoes. There were no desserts tonight, we done good. Nice choice Chris!
By ten or so we had returned to the hotel, made plans for our get-away tomorrow and all said goodnight.
Following an early breakfast we were met at 8 AM by our driver for transport to the airport terminal for our flight to Dublin. We filled the fan with our baggage, hopefully in Ireland we have a larger van.
Our drive to the terminal took about 20 minutes but soon we were off loaded and had moved to the check-in lines. The check-in process was relatively simple and moved along quite quickly. As mentioned yesterday the charge for the excess baggage (greater than one) imposed by BA is excessive, far above the incremental cost of flying such a weight for the short distance to Ireland. Once through the check-in we passed quickly through security and were in the departure waiting area.
The Dublin airport immigration process was unbelievably long. We of course were non-EU arrivals thus had to pass through some form of screening but what I couldn't understand was why the EU arriving passengers also had to pass through a similar screening. What happened to the barrier free transportation throughout Europe? For those of us in the non-EU line the process lasted for a least an hour but seemed much longer.
Finally we caught up with our baggage that had long been waiting while we passed immigration. Once into the arrival area we found our driver, Freeman and after a brisk walk to his van and loading the gear we were on our way to the hotel for the meet-up with Chris, Pat & Jack who had arrived yesterday.
We checked in to the Cliff Townhouse and soon realized that there was no bellman service and the elevator only served the first floor. In the end we hauled some of our bags and finally hotel staff assisted with the others. 
Part way through the baggage lift Pat, Jack and Chris appeared on the steps. We checked out each others rooms and were happy to note that the four new arrivals had secured the lower level rooms. Chris, Pat & Jack were still another series of stairs above our level.
In addition to the one floor elevator there were about two floors of stairs to climb with hundreds of pounds of baggage. Woe is us! Hopefully we won't have to repeat this in other hotels during the tour. To be exact it was 56 steps one-way to the DeMai and Maxwell rooms and an additional 22 steps to the Jones and Price rooms.
No matter, we were soon on the street and bound for a quick walking tour of Dublin. Our first stop was at anything O'Connell, in this case a street, a bridge, a statue and a Starbucks on O'Connell Street.
There was an amazing number of people on the street, young and old alike.
We lifted seven glasses in a toast to Denny, still with us in spirit and memories.
After a short respite we met in the Urchin Bar in the hotel's lower floor. This was not a traditional pub by any means; the two bartenders were entertaining and quickly sated our thirst with drinks all around. There was a mix of assorted drinks amongst us, Kir Royales, beer, G&Ts, single malt whiskey and wine.
By ten or so we had returned to the hotel, made plans for our get-away tomorrow and all said goodnight.
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