Pandemic Be Damned!

Three cancelled trips to Ireland over the past two years because of the pandemic. Now vaccinated, boostered, and re-boostered, we are back! Ireland is open. Masks optional. No entry requirements for vaccinations or tests. (We will still need a negative test to go back to the USA.)

The camera is just coming out of the bag, so no pictures today.

The trip was OK. Uneventful flight to Boston for a couple of nights to visit relatives went fine. We stayed at an AC Marriott in Medford of all places. The overnight Aer Lingus flight to Shannon went fine. I even managed to sleep a bit on the Business Class lie flat seat. We were through passport control in about two minutes and our bags were first onto the carousal.

Only Enterprise will rent you a car in Ireland without hassle if you are over 75, so we rented through them. Alas, they had not yet reopened their Shannon operation because of the pandemic induced reduction in flights into Shannon. So we had booked a car to take us into Limerick to the Enterprise office there. The flight arrived early at 5 AM and Enterprise in Limerick opens at 9 AM. We spent the time at the Absolut Hotel having a nice Irish fry-up breakfast.

We got our car at 9:15 AM and before noon we were in Dingle to see Gráinne, our delightful landlady, by noon. The house was still being cleaned. No problem. We stopped in to see Tom at the Dingle Pub and I had my first Guinness since 2019 – I don’t touch the stuff unless I am on hallowed Irish soil. Then it was lunch at John Benny’s Pub, one of our go-to lunch spots. We both had Mike’s Fish Pie. No clue who Mike is. Finally, we did some essentials shopping at Garvey’s SuperValu – wine, vodka, cheese, crackers, water, coke, tomorrow’s dinner, etc. And then we settled in at 23 Ard Na Mara for our four week stay. (Our final week in Ireland will be on the road.)

We unpacked, enjoyed cheese crackers and cocktails, and it was off to a much needed long night’s sleep. I just got up – it is Easter morning in Dingle. It rained heavily during the night but it is looking bright out so far today.

More later. Stay tuned.