Shortly after I finished blogging last night the connecting door between my room and the next room opened. I heard a man’s voice and the door quickly shut. I went out to the hallway and poked my head out. One of the couples from the tour are in the room next door and the husband had opened the door. He was looking for a closet. I think he was a bit embarrassed. He stuck his head out in the hallway too and apologized for opening the door.
I went downstairs to find some food and stopped at the front desk and asked them to come up and lock the door. I ate dinner and then went back up to my room. The door was still unlocked. I flagged down a housekeeping staff member that was in the hallway. They said they would text someone to bring a key.
About 15 minutes later a man comes into my room without knocking. He had a key to lock the door. He was startled to see me in the room when he turned around. Needless to say, I was startled he had just come into my room without knocking. He apologized about five times and left.
That is the second time on this trip someone from the hotel staff has entered my room without knocking. What is up with that?
I stayed in my room last night and didn’t go to the dinner. We had to be down in the lobby by 5:45 this morning and I didn’t want to eat after 7:00 which is when the dinner was to start. I went to bed around 8:30.
I was up and ready by 5:30 so I went to the lobby. Not long after I got there a couple and her sister came down. We were visiting for a few minutes and a taxi driver comes in and calls all our names. No one else had shown up yet. We all four got in the taxi and headed to the airport. It was about an hour and one half drive to the airport.
Traffic was fairly light this morning and the trip to the airport was smooth. We didn’t fly out of Heathrow airport this time. There was not a lot of signage at the airport to point us in the right direction. We asked a worker where to go and he kinda gave us directions. We asked another one further into the airport and found our way to the bag drop area the worker told us we needed to go to. We stood in line for the longest time and then got to the front of the line and discovered we were at the wrong place.
We found the right place and stood in line again. Once we got to the counter we got checked in easily as all of us had gone on-line and checked in last night. They don’t tell you the gate number until about 15 minutes before you board the plane. We found a spot to sit and wait for our boarding time. We had over an hour to wait. I got a sandwich and drink and had a late breakfast.
The bathroom was at the back of the area we were in and then we had to walk down a long hallway. I turned the corner and there was another long hallway. I turned another corner and finally found the bathroom. Surprisingly there was a long line for the men’s room but none for the ladies room. When I came out I mentioned that to another lady that was waiting for her partner to come out of the men’s room. She said she was thinking of taking a picture of it as she had never seen that happen before. I laughed and agreed with her.
The flight to Dublin was only an hour of air time but we taxied for 20 minutes both before and after the flight. We didn’t have a gate when we landed so had to use the stairs and then a bus. It was quite a hike through the airport to baggage claim. My bag arrived and I headed to immigrations which was a no-line process. They stamped my passport and I headed to the exit.
A Gate One person directed us to our bus driver. We had another long hike with the bus driver to get to the bus. 16 of us came as a group from London. He filled the back of his smaller bus with luggage and ran out of room so I carried mine onto the bus with me. We had about an hour drive on the bus to get to the hotel.
Our new tour guide Liam, met us at the entrance of the hotel. We got checked in with him and then into the hotel. We had a short meeting with the tour guide and then were allowed to go to our rooms. Luckily, the rooms were ready and we could get into them early.
I got to my room and then went down and found some lunch. I came back to the room and plan to take a short nap when I get done blogging. We have a meet and greet with the whole tour group tonight at 5:30 followed by a dinner. Unfortunately we found out that there will be 42 people on this tour. The tour in London and Scotland only had 22. 42 seems like a lot of people.
I haven’t been given the time table for tomorrow’s trip. I know we are starting the day with a bus tour of Dublin and then are going to Galway where we will spend two nights at the same hotel.
It feels nice when we get to spend two nights at the same place. I can kinda get my bearings when we do that. I struggle to remember my room number when we change hotels every night.
It was lightly raining when we arrived. The forecast is calling for rain most of the days we are here. The guide told us we will see the sun sometime while we are here if only for ten minutes at a time. Rain is very common and expected and life goes on when it rains. Wish I could figure out a way to bring the rain home with me.
Feels good to be in Ireland. I’m anxious to get out and into the countryside tomorrow. Everything is spring green colored here. It is a bit cool and forecasted to stay that way all week. I may have to buy myself a warmer jacket.
Grateful for another day of safe travels grateful to be in Ireland, and grateful I was able to get in my room early today.