Saturday May 7th: Flight back from Dublin over Chicago to Washington
Bob: Lois was all set to take a bus over to Dublin airport that morning, but as it turned out we had awakened early and decided to just drive her over and then drop off our rental car afterwards. Traffic was light that early in the morning, so it all worked out well. We were sad to say "Good Bye" to Lois after three weeks, but we see her regularly back in the U.S., so that made it easier. Turning in the rental car, on the other hand, was like lifting a weight from my breast. Driving on the left-side in Ireland had not been that bad this time, but it had not been all that easy either. All together we had put something like 3,000 kilometers on the car and that is just a lot of driving in three weeks. The nice folks at the car rental shuttled us promptly back to the airport where we turned in our luggage. As American Airlines wanted to charge us a good bit for more than one piece of luggage each, we immediately retrenched and kept our extra backpack as carry-on luggage instead of checking it with the rollies. Monika: Ah the intricacies of airline scheduling. Lois, having to get to Chicago had a 9:00 AM flight on USAIR that stopped over on Newark and got into Chicago around 5 PM. We, on the other hand, had to get to Washington, so our flight on American Airlines left at 10 AM and got into Chicago around 2:30 PM and we left for Washington around 5PM. I know there was some logic there somewhere. We were going to let Lois take the shuttle from the hotel since we did not have to be at the airport as early, but, of course, we woke up early enough to take her. Bob was anxious to get rid of the rental car, and we could wait in the airport as easily as in the hotel room. We said good buy to Lois, dropped off the car (no new scratches!) and went to the AA counter to check in. I was going to check the larger of the two backpacks together with and only keep the small one with Baby instead. But we found out that a second piece of luggage would cost 30 Euros so we decided, we might as well lug it around.
Bob: Unfortunately, when we arrived back in the U.S. I found out that they had used bolt cutters to cut apart our TSA-approved locks on our luggage! I was particularly incensed because the locks were "boomerang" registered locks that have an ID number that can be tracked back to us, and all that of made them more difficult and expensive to replace. So beware, Gentle Reader, that having TSA-approved locks does NOT mean they are safe from being destroyed by the luggage screeners and handlers. No wonder Europeans are turning to shrink-wrapping their suitcases! We flew on a two-hop flight first all the way to Chicago (where were fed) and then a flight back to Washington (where we were not). All that time aloft plus time spent waiting between flights gave me time to think about just what we had learned from our trip to Ireland. So for the benefit of the Gentle Reader, I will try to summarize in the epilog the advice we would give to anyone considering a driving tour of Ireland nowadays. |
Monika: The flights were uneventful but tiring. We did get a nice lunch and even another snack on our transatlantic flight - with wine, thanks. The flight from Chicago to Washington, however, was foodless, but we really weren't that hungry. We took a taxi back and I am always ridiculously happy to see the house standing in all its glory. We had missed the azaleas and the tulips. It was no longer spring in Washington, but it was good to be back home. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Map of Drive in Ireland | Epilog |
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