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Celebrating 14 years in Ireland! Part twelve

We spent Saturday driving from Sligo to Dublin, eventually stopping in Mullingar for lunch.  As luck would have it, the weather happened to be beautiful on Saturday.  It would have been a great day to explore Sligo and the surrounding areas.  Ah well.  Now we have an excuse to go back to western Ireland.

We stumbled across the Newbury Hotel in Mullingar after a quick search.  The hotel was old fashioned and kind of cute.  I wished we could stay there a night instead of in Dublin.  It was a nice place to have lunch, though.  It appeared to be very popular with the locals, who were sitting around two televisions.  One was tuned to a rugby game and the other, which was closest to where Bill and I were sitting, was set to a steeplechase.

Oops!

Obligatory shot of Bill.

I grew up around horses, so I’m always attracted to equestrian sports.  I don’t remember seeing a lot of steeplechase in the United States, but it appeared to be a very popular sport in Ireland.  There were several guys watching the races.  Bill noticed that some of the horses had full body clips, which I had to explain to him.  Sometimes, horses involved in serious competitive sports have all of their body hair clipped off.  It makes for easier grooming as well as allows them to keep cool if they grow a heavy winter coat.

Steeplechase!

Anyway, the steeplechase kept us occupied while we waited for lunch.  A handsome but somewhat inept young fellow brought us a couple of overflowing Guinnesses.  I had a bacon panini and Bill had a chicken and cheese “whoppie”, which was basically like a panini made with tomato bread.  The sandwiches were served with excellent chips (french fries).

Nice hotel!

Mullingar looked like a pleasant town.

After lunch, we finished our drive to Dublin.  I had booked us a room at the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport.  We had a real problem getting to the hotel because it was located in a strange area.  Bill made several wrong turns before he finally managed to get there… just in time to run into a huge influx of people.  It turned out someone was having their wedding reception at the hotel and we happened to arrive just as they did.  The lobby was teeming with people in their Sunday best, swilling Budweiser and obstructing things.

I was pretty tired from the drive and really just wanted to go take a nap.  After a speedy check in, we went to our eighth floor “suite”, which was really just a big room.  I took a shower and climbed into bed.  We spent the evening watching TV over a meal provided by room service.  I’m happy to report that the food quality at the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport was much better than at the Clayton Hotel in downtown Dublin.

Unfortunately, the wedding party then proceeded to have a very loud reception, complete with blasting music that we could hear in our room.  The noise made me very grumpy because I just wanted to rest up for yesterday’s journey back to Germany.  Advil PM came to the rescue once again!

Yesterday morning, we got up and went to breakfast, which I had pre-booked.  Unfortunately, the guy running breakfast couldn’t seem to find where I had pre-booked.  It took a couple of minutes for him to tell us to just go eat and he’d sort it out with the reception.  The breakfast at the hotel wasn’t all that good in terms of food quality.  Fortunately, there were plenty of things to choose from, from fresh fruits to cereals, that couldn’t be screwed up by someone cooking.

This was the meal we had on our Dublin to Zurich flight.  They also had lasagne.  I might have had that, but I was too worried about fungus.

After breakfast, we checked out, paying the nine euros to park our rental car in the hotel’s enormous garage.  Then we made our way to the airport, where we dropped off the car and checked in at Swiss Air.  This was my first time flying Swiss Air.  It was great to try it for the first time in business class.  In fact, I’d say I liked Swiss Air better than Lufthansa.  The food was better and the service was impeccable.  Aside from that, the business class lounge at the Zurich Airport is fabulous.

My only complaint was that Bill ended up sitting behind me instead of next to me.  The lady sitting next to me had a daughter who sat across the aisle from her, so we weren’t the only ones a little put out by the seating arrangement.  But the flight was only one hour and forty minutes, so it was no big deal.  I noticed the flight attendants made a point of being nice to the lady’s little girl and even invited her to go see the cockpit.

We had a long layover in Zurich, which we spent in the Swiss Air Business lounge after we got through passport control.  Once again, I had to explain SOFA to the lady who looked at my passport.  I guess next time, I’ll give her my military ID, too.

Our flight to Stuttgart was super short– maybe 30 minutes in all.  In fact, the pilot turned off the seatbelt sign, only to turn it right back on seconds later.  Even though it was a short flight, we were still given a snack and a drink in business class and it was actually edible.  Our Stuttgart flight was on Austrian Airlines.  It was a turbo prop aircraft.  Everyone in business class got an empty seat next to them, so Bill sat behind me again.

Edible snack on Austrian/Swiss Air.

Once we picked up our bags in Stuttgart, we were in a hurry to get to Dog Holiday to pick up Zane and Arran.  I had been fretting about Zane all week, worried because he had a mast cell tumor removed.  As it turned out, Zane was a little out of sorts while we were gone.  I’m taking him to the vet on Wednesday, so I’ll have her take a look at him.  I did have him on Benadryl, though, so that could have been why he was so listless.  Despite that, both dogs were very happy to see us.  Arran kept his head on my shoulder the whole way home.  Both dogs gave us kisses and were very excited about getting back to their people.

I’m glad to be back, too… although now the heat seems to be off in the house.  It’s always something, isn’t it?

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Celebrating 14 years in Ireland! Part seven

We were literally lodged next to Europe’s Facebook Headquarters!

After our Guinness Storehouse experience, we found a cab right outside.  The driver had “Bullet In The Blue Sky” playing on the stereo.

“U2!” I said.  “How appropriate!”

“What is this song called?” Bill asked.

“Bullet In The Blue Sky.” I said.  “I think it came out around 1987.”

“It’s not from 1984?” Bill asked.

“No, U2’s 1984 album was The Unforgettable Fire.  I feel pretty certain this song wasn’t on that album.” I answered.

“The song was recorded in 1986.” the cab driver said.  “And it was released in 1987.”

“Ha!  I was right!” I cheered.  “I can’t ever forget The Joshua Tree because I was 15 years old and taking a journalism class when it was released.  One of the girls in my class was a big U2 fan and went to Hampton, Virginia to see them perform while they were on tour that year.  She ended up meeting Bono and he signed her white turtleneck.  And she also ‘locked’ her class ring.  She wrote a big article about the experience in our school newspaper.”

“I was in Germany the first time.” Bill said.  “23 years old.”

“Holy shit, you’re old, mate!” the cab driver said.  It turned out he was 46 years old and hailed from Liverpool, England.  He’d come to Ireland to golf and fell in love with a local.  They are now married and have several kids, the youngest of which is six years old.  The driver then told us a story about how the six year old had woken him up that morning by climbing on his face.

The driver went on to tell us about how much Dublin has changed since Bill first visited, back in 1984.  He pointed out an old bar that used to be full of guys who worked in the Docklands area of the city.  He took an old friend to the area, trying to find the bar.  They walked into it and asked where the bar was located.  No one confirmed that they had reached the right place.  I seem to remember there was some talk of the IRA, too.

We left the cabbie and then decided to look for dinner.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a great selection of restaurants near The Marker Hotel.  We ended up going into the restaurant at the nearby Clayton Hotel– it was called Vertigo.  From the very start, that was an annoying experience.  They were playing horrible generic dance music in the dining room.  Also, we weren’t aware that in order to be served, you had to go up to the bar.  There was no sign alerting us to that fact.  So we sat for awhile before another customer clued us in to what we needed to do.  Bill was starting to have flashbacks to our very bad experience at the Esquire Bar in San Antonio.

Carlsberg is a thirst quencher, but not that inspiring.

Bill ordered a chicken and avocado burger.  I had a cheeseburger.  It took a very long time for the sandwiches to get to us, plus we were drinking Carlsberg beers, which aren’t all that interesting.  Add in the terrible music and the fact that all we really wanted to do was eat and hit the sack, and you have a couple of crotchety middle aged folks.  First world problems, right?

Disappointing burger…

 

Mr. Bill’s chicken sandwich.  It could have been better.

Neither of the burgers were particularly good, either.  Bill said his was okay, although it had little avocado on it.  My burger was overcooked and not very hot.  I finished less than half before we decided to cash in our chips for the evening.  We have a reservation at a Clayton Hotel the night before we fly back to Germany.  Hopefully, it will leave a better impression than the one in downtown Dublin.

On the way back to the hotel, I noticed the European Facebook headquarters, located directly next to our hotel.  I had to take a few photos.  It looks like an interesting place to work, based on the big posters with provocative slogans on them in the foyer.

Several of the signs I noticed from outside Facebook’s headquarters in Ireland.

Monday morning, we got up and had our breakfast.  After that, we checked out of the hotel and got a cab to the car rental office where Bill had arranged to pick up a vehicle for our three hour trip to Sligo.  After a few tense early moments, Bill got the hang of driving on the left again, having done it for the first time back in March of this year when we were in Scotland and England.  Aside from drifting too far off the side of the narrow roads and some momentary confusion, he’s done a great job driving.

I tried to snag a couple more Dublin shots from the car.

We stopped at a grocery store in Ballysadare and picked up some essentials for our five nights at the beach cottage.  We were going to have lunch, but it looked like everything in the little village, except for the cafe in the grocery store, was boarded up tight.  Lots of young folks who obviously attend the local Catholic school were walking around the town in their uniforms.  I actually found myself admiring the uniforms.  As a youngster, I didn’t like the idea of being forced to wear the same thing as everyone else did.  However, as a middle aged woman, I don’t think school uniforms are a bad idea.  And I even liked the classic look the kids were sporting.

In Ballysadare, apparently being versatile is the key to economic success.

The construction stoplights in Ireland have timers on them, letting you know how long you have to wait.  Bill and I both like that.  There is a lot of construction going on here, which is a good thing.  The roads are narrow and very well used.

After we shopped, we finished our drive to Aughris Head, which is where our beach cottage rental is located.  When we arrived in the mid afternoon, Bill found the keys to the house.  The ads didn’t lie.  It’s literally right next to the Atlantic Ocean.  As I type this, I hear waves crashing dramatically on the rocky coastline.  It’s very peaceful.  Adding to the appeal is the fact that there is a bar located within walking distance of our little house.

More on Aughris in part eight!

First impressions…  I picked another winner.

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