THURSDAY 1/21
LEAVING:
AM Denver - Chicago...uneventful. Josh dropped us off at Market Street Station and we took the RTD Skyride to DIA. Arrived at O'Hare where Randy's sister Amy & her husband Al were waiting in an airport bar to catch us up on things and share some pizza and drinks during our layover. It was great to see them, and I wish we had taken a photo.
PM Chicago - Dublin: Not much to report.
FRIDAY 22/01 (Yep, now I'm doing dates that way)...
ARRIVING IN DUBLIN...
we took a 10 minute walk to ALSAA, a pool and athletic club near the airport--nothing fancy but a place to take a shower. They let me shower for free and Randy got a €7 day pass so he could work out as well as shower. Note: Bring your own towel! The day was spent taking turns napping in the very comfortable food hall before an afternoon flight to London Heathrow.
FYI: Sleepinginairports.com rates Dublin not-so-great for sleeping, but that's only at nighttime. During the day, if you have a retractable cable lock for your luggage, you can sleep off that jetlag very nicely in the food hall. I recommend the green padded bench.
After arriving in London, we took the tube to the Farringdon stop where our old bassist and current friend Phil and his wife Sarah were waiting to take us to a late dinner at a pub called the Fox & Anchor, a traditional pub where I had fish & chips, of course. We hadn't met Sarah before, but quickly decided that we like her very much!
The next morning, Phil & Sarah sent us off after an excellent pancake breakfast. On the way to the train, they showed us the cafe that they started at their church, and the first place that the Who ever played...
Pretty glamourous, huh?
We really got to know the London tube well since we rode it for nearly 1 1/2 hours to get to Heathrow where we picked up our teensy weensy rental car. After driving several circles around the airport on the left-hand side of the road, it was off to see the Birds:
On one of our previous trips, we stayed with the Birds on the recommendation of my brother Matt and his wife Kate. They are excellent hosts and have become friends. Recently, Richard retired and they have subsequently moved to the countryside in a place that, frankly, is pretty impossible to find! After showing up a few hours late, we could not make any good argument for not accepting their offer of a loan of a GPS for the remainder of our trip. Marriage saver! I will never drive in unfamiliar territory without one. It is high on our wish list.
Their new home is great, and the village is charming. They took us to a local pub for a before-dinner drink with an ancient floor (stone & dirt) and a coal-burning open fire. After that they, fed us an awesome meal, then dessert and coffee, then English Stilton (that's cheese) and port...we knew then that those vacation pounds were going to pile on and be totally worth it.
In catching up with them, we learned that their son has now landed a pretty sweet job flying helicopters for the royal family. That would explain the towels in our guest room:
And since I know you are way too polite to stare, I'll just tell you that says "BUCKINGHAM PALACE" in gold embroidery. How cool is that?
The next morning, we hooked up the GPS and went bravely into the new (to us) world of couchsurfing. Stay tuned...
1 comment:
Yay for trip blogs! I'm checking it daily, so keep going!
-melanie
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